Goodbye, J.R. Ewing

With word of the death of Larry Hagman--in Dallas with Linda Gray and Patrick Duffy reportedbly at his beside--here's a short piece I wrote for The Dallas Morning News in 2009 about Hagman's induction into the Texas Film Hall of Fame. Oh, and I took this horrible photo, too.

 

Hagman remembers ‘Dallas’ days

BY JOE O’CONNELL

Special to the Dallas Morning News

       AUSTIN--In the winter of 1978, Larry Hagman drove the cast of the new television show “Dallas” around the city of Dallas in a converted bread truck showing them dive bars and much fancier restaurants. He was the only native Texan among them, and felt it his duty, his television wife Linda Gray said Thursday as Hagman was inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame.

       “He’s’ the consummate actor,” she said of television’s J.R. Ewing. “He’s funny. He’s absolutely adorable. He’s the man you love to hate, and he’s my best friend.”

       He also apparently makes a great pitch man for efforts to expand Texas’ incentive program aimed at attracting more movies to film in Texas. As Hagman, told it, he parading around the Texas Capitol this week handing out $10,000 bills (with his own photo on them).

       “You have all these fans here and you’re going to get your money back a hundred time over,” Hagman said as he echoed the night’s clarion call. “You can’t miss.”

       Hagman, looking gaunt from a 1995 liver transplant, said younger fans today are more likely to remember him from “I Dream of Jeannie” than “Dallas,” but the latter surely left the larger cultural mark.

       Also inducted into the hall of fame were Powers Boothe, an MFA grad of SMU and Snyder native; “Twilight” director Catherine Hardwicke, a McAllen native; and Billy Bob Thornton, a native of Arkansas? No worries; his roles as Davy Crockett in “The Alamo” and as a high school football coach in the big-screen “Friday Night Lights” earned him the Tom Mix Honorary Texan Award, so named for the western star who actually hailed from Pennsylvania.

        They walked a roped-off red carpet in a tent on the tarmac of Austin’s former airport turned by the Austin Film Society into a film studio, while patrons who paid up to $500 to bask in the glow held up digital cameras trying to get a shot through the phalanx of television cameras. A bartender aptly named Estrella (star in Spanish) served up endless libations.

       The lesser-known ducked past the cameras with little notice. Among those was Don Stokes, the Dallas film pro and president of the Texas Motion Picture Alliance, a film lobby group aiming to convince the Legislature to increase spending for its financial incentives program. The  legislation passed unanimously out of House committee this week.

       “There are a couple of television series pilots (at least one eyeing Dallas) that, if they bill passes in time, we have a significant shot at getting here,” Stokes said.

       Event emcee Thomas Haden Church termed the legislation a “call to arms,” noting that a West Texas-set film he is a part of is about to shoot in Australia. “I’m a Texan and I’d really like to see the Texas film industry flourish,” he said.

       Boothe spoke of growing up on a cotton farm in Snyder and, in a fit of teenage rebellion, telling his father, “I’m not sure what I’m going to do with my life, but it’s sure not going to be this. So I chose the movie business.”

       The hall of fame ceremonies unofficially open the South By Southwest Film Festival, which begins today and runs through March 21 in Austin.

TNT will indeed shoot the series 'Dallas' in Dallas

Yes, TNT's Dallas will indeed shoot in Dallas. Read more about it in my Dallas Morning News column from last Friday.


Here's the official press release from the Dallas Film Commission:

Warner Horizon Television has selected Dallas, Texas as the location for TNT’s Dallas, an all-new series based upon one of the most popular television dramas of all time. TNT announced Friday that it has ordered a full season of 10 episodes and will give viewers their first look at the new Dallas tonight, Monday, July 11, with a sneak peek during the season premieres of the network’s blockbuster hits The Closer, which starts at 8 p.m. Central, and Rizzoli & Isles, which airs at 9 p.m. Central. The new series will show off the vibrant city that Dallas is today.

TNT’s new Dallas brings a new generation of stars together with cast members from the original drama series. The new Dallas stars Josh Henderson (90210), Jesse Metcalfe (John Tucker Must Die), Jordana Brewster (Fast & Furious), Julie Gonzalo (Veronica Mars) and Brenda Strong (Desperate Housewives), and they will be joined by iconic stars Patrick Duffy, Linda Gray and Larry Hagman as J.R. Ewing.

Executive producer Cynthia Cidre, who wrote the acclaimed film The Mambo Kings and executive produced the television series Cane, wrote the pilot for the new Dallas. TNT’s series is based on the original series created by David Jacobs. Michael M. Robin (The Closer) directed and executive produced the pilot.

The original Dallas aired from 1978 to 1991 and centered on the Ewing family, a cattle and oil dynasty occupying the expansive Southfork Ranch in Texas. A long and bitter rivalry between brothers J.R. Ewing (Hagman) and Bobby Ewing (Duffy) eventually led to J.R. losing control of most of the Ewing industries. In the new Dallas, this explosive rivalry now lives on through another generation, with the future of the family fortune in the hands of the Ewing offspring: cousins John Ross Ewing (Henderson), the son of J.R. and ex-wife Sue Ellen (Gray), and Christopher Ewing (Metcalfe), the adopted son of Bobby. Brewster stars as Elena, who is involved in a love triangle with Christopher and John Ross. Gonzalo stars as Christopher’s fiancée, Rebecca. And Strong stars as Ann, Bobby’s wife.

The series is expected to have a significant financial impact on the city; create many jobs for crew, actors, extras and vendors; and increase tourism.

"The City of Dallas is very excited to once again have an iconic television series named after our City and pleased that we could assist in making Dallas not only the obvious location choice, but a good choice for the bottom line too," said Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Pauline Medrano. Now that TNT has officially placed the series order, Warner Horizon Television can move forward with contracts to finalize the Dallas shoot. Pre-production and production on the series are expected to begin later this year.

J.R. does 'Dallas'; will 'Dallas' do Dallas?

This just in from The Hollywood Reporter: Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray will reprise their Dallas roles in TNT's reboot of the series, which this time is focused on the kids. Also in the cast are Josh Henderson (Desperate Housewives) and Jordana Brewster (Fast & Furious) as a couple of those crazy Ewing kids.

Earlier reports had Hagman, aka J.R. Ewing unlikely to join the crew after money haggles. Now the big question remains: how much of Dallas will shoot in the actual Dallas? Don't be surprised if that's the clarion call for efforts to keep the Texas film incentives program fully funded by the Texas Legislature.

Texas Film Hall of Fame

I got out my crappy camera for some star gazing last night. You can read my article about it in the Dallas Morning News here.


I don't think this photo quite conveys how strange Brendan Fraser's hair is (it looked like he'd just had a weave removed). No, he's not a Texan, but he introduced one. Who is that Beastie walking past him?


Billy Bob is now an official Texan. Here he is with Dennis Quaid.


Connie Britton won the hotness award of the night. She is much younger looking in person than on Friday Night Lights (both the movie and the TV show).


Powers Boothe is graduate of the school that shall forever be known as Southwest Texas State.


Larry Hagman was joined by both his real-life wife of 55 years and his Dallas TV wife Linda Gray.


Friday Night Lights stars Dana Wheeler-Nicholson (you know from Fletch) and Brad Leland.


Director Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight, Thirteen).


Thomas Haden Church did a hell of a job as emcee. I interviewed him by phone once and found him to be very down to earth.


Kyle Chandler, the coach on Friday Night Lights, with his very attractive wife. Secret fact about him? The coach smokes cigarettes.


Keith Carradine, a presenter and non-Texan, is still easy.