A BRIEF DALLAS INTERLUDE: PART 1 OF 12
Episode Title: Reunion: Part One
Season 02, Episode 01
Written by David Jacobs
Directed by Irving J. Moore
Original Airdate: Saturday,
September 23rd, 1978
The Plot (Courtesy of TV.com):
J.R. tries to stop Gary and Valene from mending their relationship. Lucy tries to seduce Ray.
Here we are at the
start of Knots Blogging. Now, in case you didn’t read my Introduction to KL, I should explain why we are beginning this blog with not
one, not two, not three, but four straight
Dallas episodes in a row. This blog is supposed to be about KL, right? Precisely, but in any show, you establish
characters that hopefully have a rich history and an interesting background,
right? Now, with most series, the first
episode marks the first time we are seeing those characters, but in the case of
KL, we have the unique fact that Gary
and Val, the couple we will be following for fourteen years, already had a
prior history that had been well established on Dallas.
As I begin
writing, I wonder how much attention should be paid to the twelve Dallas episodes I will be talking
about. As My Beloved Grammy and I watched these four particular episodes in
preparation for KL, I found myself
really intensely focusing on any dialogue or scenes featuring Gary and Val, but
having to ignore a lot of the other storylines going on around them. After all, once we move to California and
start meeting all our friends in Seaview Circle, we’re not going to be seeing
the majority of Dallas characters
again aside from when we cross back over into that series every now and then
(less and less frequently as we get deeper into the ‘80s). If I recall correctly, only J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman), Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy), Lucy Ewing (Charlene Tilton), Kristin
Shepherd (Mary Crosby) and….um…Christopher Ewing (played by the baby Eric Farlow, or as I like to call him, The Elephant Baby) ever show up on KL in crossover appearances, and all of
those appearances are early on, within the first four seasons of that
series.
Thusly, after
doing some thinking, I decided my Brief
Dallas Interludes will be just that: Brief.
This blog is about KL and
while I plan to go into excruciating detail about all 344 episodes of KL, the only real reason I’m writing
about these Dallas episodes is
because they came from the same creator, they exist in the same universe, and
they provide important information about our lead KL couple, Gary and Val. So as I write about these eps, I'm just gonna try to keep focused on stories pertaining directly to Gary and Val and ignore the sheanigans of the main Dallas cast and characters.
In Reunion: Part One, Pam (Victoria Principal) is feeling blue thanks to her recent miscarriage from the previous
episode. In an attempt to lift her
spirits, Bobby takes her on a weekend getaway to Las Vegas, where they run into
none other than Gary Ewing, the middle child and black sheep of the Ewing
family. See, Bobby is seeing some guests
out of their lavish Vegas suite (it looks like a fucking house, complete with a
full bar and a staircase that leads up to another
floor; seriously, this is nothing like the hotel room I stayed at in Vegas)
when this crazed member of the hotel staff comes in and starts running around
cleaning up everything in sight. Bobby
is all like, “Look here, my wife and I are going down to the pool, could you
please come back,” and blah blah blah, but then the man spins around
and….GASP!....it’s Gary!
Or is it? Devoted members of the KL fan club may find this episode and the next one a little bit off-putting,
as Gary is not being played by our beloved Ted Shackelford but, rather, David Ackroyd. What’s going on here?! Well, a quick listen to the commentary track
on the DVD along with a helpful Dallas book
I own answered my questions about this.
See, Mr. Ackroyd plays Gary here and in the very next episode, and
apparently he would have been more than willing to continue appearing on Dallas as a recurring character who only
showed up every now and again, but when the producers decided to get KL started, he wasn’t willing to commit
to an entire series (one wonders how he must feel looking back and realizing he
lost fourteen years of solid television work and probably a fair bit of money). Anyway, while we thankfully also meet Joan Van Ark as Valene in this episode, things do feel a little bit off as she
interacts with this Gary, I guess technically Gary #1, although I prefer to think of him as Fake Gary. Fear not, though, because if you power
through these episodes, you get to meet Ted Shackelford in the Dallas episode Return Engagements.
A few more notes
on David Ackroyd. He plays a rather
different version of Gary Ewing than the one we will come to know over fourteen
seasons. For one thing, he looks so damn different. Whereas Ted Shackelford has the blonde hair
and blue eyes that make him look like an all-American-boy as well as making him
look much more like a father to young Lucy Ewing, David Ackroyd is more
olive-skinned, almost Italian looking, and there’s a certain hint of darkness
to his performance that is not nearly as prevalent from Ted. He gives the sense of some deep unhappiness,
and he also comes across as uncomfortable in the family dynamics (this, of
course, may just be a product of the situation he finds himself in). One can never know how different KL would be had Ackroyd kept playing
Gary, but I will say right off the bat that I’m glad we got Ted and that
Ackroyd went bye bye (although, believe it or not, we will be seeing him in one KL episode, season three’s Mistaken Motives, playing a romantic
interest of Karen’s!).
Anyway, Gary
explains to Bobby and Pam what he’s been up to the last few years. We learn that he is an alcoholic and had a
long period of hard drinking and even lost as much as two weeks during an
intense blackout. Apparently he also had
an addiction to gambling that, correct me if I’m wrong, is never once brought
up on KL (another random note: In the
very first episode of Dallas, Lucy
says that Gary used to beat Valene if he had been drinking too much, something
which seems very out of character and
which I also think is never mentioned again on either series). Anyway, the solution for him was to move to
Vegas and work as both a blackjack dealer and a bartender, keeping his
addictions nicely lined up and right in front of him, no longer threatening. He’s been getting his life back together and
seems to be fairly happy living in Vegas, but Bobby of course insists that he return to Texas for a
happy (?) family reunion at Southfork.
I think it’s
important to understand all the shit that went down in Gary and Val’s relationship
up to this point. Basically, the two
were very young (I believe Val was 15 and Gary was 17, if I’m doing my math
correctly) and were going together and accidentally got pregnant with little
baby Lucy. This would be like 1962 or 1963 or
so, and Gary was drinking too much and simply couldn’t handle the responsibility
or the pressures coming from his daddy and from brother J.R., so he took off,
leaving Val all alone. Val tried to stay
on Southfork but got thrown off the ranch by J.R., who then sent some of his
good old boys after her and baby Lucy to snatch the baby back (interestingly,
we are actually going to get to see this
baby snatching in a very early KL episode,
Will the Circle be Unbroken?). From there, Gary, Val, and Lucy just sorta drifted
apart from each other until we reach this point in the saga, in late 1978 when
the Reunion of the title is finally
taking place.
See, back in
Texas, Lucy is meeting up with her long-lost mother, and it is here that we
meet Joan Van Ark as Valene Clements Ewing, a character she will continue
playing until 1993, fifteen years later.
In our very first scene with Val, she is working as a waitress at The
Hot Biscuit (best restaurant name ever, by the way), which Lucy will actually
end up working at during season eight of Dallas
(but I digress). We see that Val is
a good waitress and is well liked by her customers, and we also get the sense
that Lucy and Val are really trying to forge some kind of new connection.
For me, this is
the most pivotal sequence of this episode and sets us up very well for the
voyage we are about to take, because Val takes Lucy out for a walk and explains
the story of how she met Gary. She was
fifteen and he was seventeen and he came walking into the restaurant she was
working at and, according to Val, “He was about the prettiest thing I ever
saw.” If I recall correctly, we actually
get to see this first meeting acted
out in a flashback during season six of KL,
so it’s nice to hear its origin here.
Okay, so Bobby,
Pam, and Gary return to Southfork, where the Ewing family is happy yet nervous
about the reunion. Miss Ellie (Barbara Bel Geddes) and Jock (Jim Davis) are excited to see their son and hoping to
rebuild a relationship with him, but of course J.R. is already up to work
scheming. He does not want Gary around and he does not care to have him as a part of
his life. I find myself wondering why
this should be, honestly. We all know
J.R. loves power and he loves being the top dog, of course, so I guess he fears
that Gary will return to the family and suddenly he will be working at Ewing
Oil as well, diluting J.R.’s powers there.
Of course, Gary has no real interest in this; he would much prefer to
work outside with the cattle and horses (“Gary loved the
laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand,” as Miss Ellie would say). But whatever, J.R. is a paranoiac and is
convinced that Gary will be a thorn in his side, so he quickly starts hatching
a scheme to screw Gary over.
The last important
plot detail comes after Gary’s been home a few days. Lucy accosts him and says, “Take me into
town!” What she doesn’t tell him is that
she’s tricking him into a reunion with his one true love, Val. Anyway, she brings him to The Hot Biscuit
and, for the first time in 16 years (meaning, presumably, that the two have not
seen each other since 1962, when Lucy was just a baby), Gary and Val are
reunited. This is all very well and good
but, again, would be better if we had the real
Gary here. Still, it is interesting to
listen to the two talk about their tumultuous relationship and try to figure
out if they can get back together.
Val might seem dumb, but she actually is fairly perceptive about many
things (I will discuss this further in the next episode), particularly about
human nature or a person’s true intentions.
For example, when Lucy is like, “Let’s go back to the ranch and surprise
everyone and they’ll all be super happy to see you two!” Val reacts with, “Call
them first.” She knows she will not welcome back at Southfork, certainly
not from J.R.
Anyway, the whole
gang returns to Southfork and everyone tries to be real nice and friendly with
them, but then we reach our final scene of this episode. In it, J.R. is working on his evil plot,
where he will put Gary in charge of a company that is a loser and is about to
go belly up. Instead of just selling off
the company or whatever, he gives it to Gary.
He’s on the phone with one of his guys, who tells him, “That company is
a loser, Mr. Ewing!” “Fine, fine, I’ve
found just the loser to run it,” says J.R., smiling with his usual mirth. And that about does in for Reunion: Part One.
Hmmm, for a
“Brief” Dallas Interlude, this
actually turned pretty lengthy (and I didn’t even discuss any of the plot
points that relate strictly to the Dallas
story!), but I guess it’s fitting, as this is the first time we are seeing
these characters who we will be following for fourteen seasons. While it’s strange to have David Ackroyd as
Gary, this is still a pivotal episode and I would encourage anyone interested
in watching KL to begin with this
little batch of Dallas episodes. The prior history that we learn about Gary
and Val, how they were married in their youth and had little baby Lucy but that
everything crumbled into pieces thanks to J.R's evil doings along with Gary’s
own weaknesses and insecurities, all of this is very important stuff and adds
an extra dimension to their relationship, versus just starting with the Pilot
episode of KL.
Anyway, this was
part one of a two part episode, so join me here next week as we move on to our
next episode, Reunion: Part Two.
FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN MY THOUGHTS ON DALLAS, OTHER BRIEF DALLAS INTERLUDES INCLUDE:
REUNION: PART TWO, SECRETS, RETURN ENGAGEMENTS, NO MORE MISTER NICE GUY: PART ONE, NO MORE MISTER NICE GUY: PART TWO, END OF THE ROAD: PART TWO, THE SPLIT, FIVE DOLLARS A BARREL, JOCK'S WILL, THE FAMILY EWING, AND CONUNDRUM.
Nice write up Brett. This blog is the holy grail of all blogs...
ReplyDeleteVery enjoyable read. I had no idea Gary and Val were such babies when Lucy came to be, I also love The Hot Biscuit. That's good all around.
ReplyDeleteI haven't watched the Dallas episodes in years. Thank you for the great summary!
ReplyDeleteFound this blog through the KL board on soapchat. I love the concept and can't wait to watch the episodes along with your blog posts.
ReplyDeletethis is amazing
ReplyDeleteDana j, Thank you for saying so :)
DeleteI'm glad you started with these early Dallas episodes. I saw them weekdays at 9 am on an independent station (remember those) along with the early episodes of Knots Landing at 10 am in the Summer of 1988.
ReplyDeleteYes, I definitely feel it's better to get started with these 4 DALLAS eps rather than just hop right into the KL pilot. The other crossovers (Brief DALLAS Interludes, as I call them) involving Gary and Val aren't exactly essential when watching KL, but these early ones really do help lay the groundwork on their backstory before one gets started with KL proper.
DeleteAlso, John Seabolt, I apologize for taking so long to reply to your posts! I didn't see them until recently when I started sorting through all my comments. I hope you're still enjoying the blog and have seen the newest posts I've been putting up!
I feel so excited about reading this blog -- I also started out as a Dallas fan before getting hooked on KL, and I had almost forgotten about all the backstory in the early Dallas episodes and it's great to see them discussed here.
ReplyDeleteI have just watched the KL season one episode in which Lucy visits her parents, and there is in fact a reference to gambling! At the very end, when Gary comes clean to Lucy about his failings, he says that he was "a drunk, a gambler and a loser" but not anymore, that he is working now and that he is "not drinking and not gambling." So the show did not ignore this part of the backstory entirely...
And now I am off reading your essay on that episode!