Day 13 - Favorite childhood show
And here is where it starts to get ugly, folks.
The answer is Dallas. I'm very sorry, but if I deny it, my mother will brand me a liar before God and The Internet. It was my first serial drama and I think I was drawn in to the concept that a story doesn't get tied up with a bow at the end of each episode.
First we have the epic Texas scope and more money than sense. We have the star crossed lovers in Bobby and Pamela. The bad guy you love to hate in his brother J.R. Ewing. Sue Ellen, JR's bitter alcoholic on-again off-again wife, who you knew would be fine if she could only stay away from him.
So the Ewings were a family of oil barons. Well - their daddy was an oil baron. Their mama Miss Ellie was the daughter of a big deal rancher. Southfork was actually her home. It was the first time it entered my consciousness that a multi-generational family might live together in the same house. Aunts and uncles and cousins. Now it was a big house. But I still found it weird.
Tangent: I remember a moment in the 1980's when JR lamented that the price of oil was down to $1.00 a barrel. It came back to me like a smack in the face a couple of years ago when it hit $100.
Anyway. Obviously, I loved Bobby. But I also got a kick out of looking for signs of humanity from JR. At age 9 or whatever, I didn't know the term "Daddy Issues", but it was clear that JR had them. He did bad, bad stuff. And when he was famously shot, he totally had it coming. That's what made "Who shot JR?" so compelling - many people had reasons. But he had his moments. We understood every time Sue Ellen went him. Heh. I imagine the first time I ever shouted at a television was to tell Sue Ellen "Don't do it! Don't let him kiss you! Get out of there!"
By the time the show ended, I had long since abandoned it. Pam was gone, Sue Ellen was gone. I didn't want to see Bobby with anyone else and by high school, Fridays were not for TV anyway. But for a few years there, I planned my weekend around that show.
About Me
- Anne
- I am an HR professional, perennial student, and volunteer. I read all sorts of articles on personal finance and also the travel section and plenty of books and I will tell you all about them. I still believe "if you want to get something done, you ask the busiest person". I live in Glenview, IL.
Crowdrise is about online fundraising, event fundraising, volunteering and having the most fun in the world while doing it. Crowdrise is way more fun than anything else aside from being all nervous about trying to kiss a girl for the first time and her not saying something like 'you've got to be kidding me.'
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With Their Backs to the World: Portraits from Serbia, by Asne Seierstad
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2 comments:
I loved Dallas too, though things did kind of crazy once Sue Ellen left. Pam irritated me so her absence was not that big of a loss.
Heh. This is kinda coincidental, because after Doctor Who, the Incredible Hulk was my favorite childhood show which came on the same night and network as Dallas.
It was always this: at 8 pm Dukes of Hazzard came on and that was my little brother's show; at 9 pm it was the Hulk for me; and afte that, Dallas, which was my mom's favorite. She loved Larry Hagman...
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