Dallas: The Complete Season 1 and 2 (5 Disc Box Set) [1978]

Amazon.co.uk Review

Dallas: The Complete First and Second Seasons is an American equivalent to those British mini-series about historical chapters in that country's royal monarchy. Full of family in-fighting, political intrigue crossed with personal triumph or disappointment, and plenty of sensational infidelities and betrayals, Dallas is a captivating story of a wealthy oil family's power and travails. It is also uniquely fun and daringly absurd, albeit with a straight face; this hugely successful, primetime soap opera began in the late 1970s and ran 14 seasons in all, built on a handful of primary relationships that stretch credulity but never descend into self-parody.

Not unexpectedly, Dallas begins with a Romeo and Juliet tale that instantly exposes an old feud between two families and strips the civilized veneer from several major characters. Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy), youngest of three sons of independent oilman Jock Ewing (Jim Davis), arrives at the Ewing clan's Southfork ranch just outside Dallas, Texas, with a new wife, Pam Barnes Ewing (Victoria Principal). Pam is the daughter of Digger Barnes (David Wayne), an old business rival of Jock's and one-time suitor of the Ewing matriarch, Eleanor (or "Miss Ellie", played by Barbara Bel Geddes). Pam's also the sister of a state senator, Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval), whose vendetta against the Ewings is played out in the legislature, imposing costly regulations on their business and holding committee investigations into questionable practices of company president J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman). Pam's status as the newest Ewing causes an uproar in the family (besides being a Barnes, she also dated the Ewings' genial but lonely foreman, Ray Krebbs, played by Steve Kanaly) and prompts Dallas' charming villain, J.R., to make many Iago-like attempts, over the first two seasons, to drive her from Bobby's arms. Pam has a different set of problems with the other, jealous Ewing women, including J.R.'s possibly barren and alcoholic wife, Sue Ellen (Linda Gray), and teenage Lucy (Charlene Tilton), daughter of exiled Ewing son Gary (Ted Shackleford). With new and old resentments flying and everyone deeply suspicious of everyone else's motives (even the ailing Jock doesn't trust J.R.), there's plenty of drama to chew on. Still, storylines are often larger than the sum of these parts, with lots of kidnappings, marital affairs, plane crashes, and shootings ratcheting up suspense. Dallas is pure pleasure, a little guilty, perhaps, but not a sin. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews:

Missing Episodes.......2008-02-09

I hadn't realised the discs were double sided until reading another review on here. Nowhere on the packaging or discs does it mention this.

I was just about to return the boxed set to Amazon because there were episodes missing from each series, when I spotted the reference to double sided discs in another review!

Dissapointed.......2008-01-02

Being an avid Dalas Fane, I was expecting to watch in the comfort of my one living room the full Dalas senario, unfortunatelly all the DVD's received seem to only contain half of what is promissed on the cover.

This is most dissapointing due to the fact that at the end of the DVD, I was left in the middle of a series, missing half of what was expected and promissed on the cover.

Being a woman and technicaly inept, I asked my husdand to check that I was correctly using both the DVD Player and DVD'S. After He had cracked up and called me daft for ordering such an old archaich seriers of incomplete DVD's for my Christmas, as a present, we both realiesed that we were either both inept or all the DVD'S are not fully recorded.

We realise that Amazon are only a retailer and are only selling products from other manufacturers, however Amazon must be awaire that what they sell to the puplic is what is advertised. In this case something has gone wrong in the manufacturing prosess causing the loss of half the series promissed on the cover, therefore we as the customer are left short changed and unsatisfied with our purchase.

After a call to Amazon, and half the order replaced, we were still dissapionted to find that we were missing the same 3 epissodes from each DVD.

If Amazon can send an engineer to our house to make us both feel stupid about our use of a DVD Player we have owned for 5 years, we would both be pleased to be shown up. If not which is what I expect then could you please call 07789765312 and explain what you intend to do.

Dallas :Seasions 1 and 2 .......2006-11-15

"Dallas" was THE soap OF THE 70s/80s,i know it continued to the early 90s but was at its best in the 70s/80s.
The show started life as a mini-series in 1978,showing youngest son of the "Ewing Oil" empire Bobby(Patrick Duffy)marrying Pamela Barnes (Victoria Principal)the daughter of his Daddy's- Jock(Jim Davis)-bitter enemy "Digger" Barnes,(David Wayne then Keenan Wynne)his alcholic ex partner,who blames Jock for "stealing" his share and for everything else,wrong with his life.
Miss Ellie(Barbara Bel Geddes)is the voice of reason at the Southfork ranch(a totally different location in the mini series)regularly stopping Bobby and evil older brother J.R.(Larry Hagman who WAS Dallas)coming to blows,she makes Pam welcome and quickly comes to love her,also Jock but J.R. never does and continually trys to get rid of Pam throughout her time on the show.
Linda Gray as Sue-Ellen has not much to do in the mini-series although in "The Barbacue" she gets drunk which Sue-Ellen did a lot in Dallas and no-one can do such furious looks as Linda Gray!
Steve Kanaly as Ray,is more devious than the good ole cowboy,he later became,having an affair with young Lucy(Charlene Tilton)the fact that later,it was revealed Jock was Ray's son,a few seasons later and that Ray had had an affair with his niece was glossed over!
Ken Kercheval as "loser" Cliff Barnes makes a strong performance throughout but his part doesn't become bigger until towards the end of season 2.
In season 2 we meet middle son Gary and ex wife Valene(David Ackroyd and Joan Van Ark)in "Reunion",Lucy having tracked down her mother,Joan Van Ark is instantly likeable as down home Valene,its strange seeing another actor playing Gary,as Ted Shackleford,later plays the role in "Dallas" before spining-off to "Knots Landing" with Joan Van Ark.
David Ackroyd is more vulnerable than Ted Shackleford's Gary,he tends to stress out more while Shackleford's Gary tends to get more aggressive,J.R. is seen at his most ruthless here,when he sets Gary up in a buisness he knows is in a mess,causing Gary to leave Southfork,then he gets rid of Valene too,no wonder J.R. got a frosty reception whenever he visited "Knots Landing".
Victoria Principal is very strong as Pam in these early episodes,it was a shame that in later episodes,Pam became more and more a victim and lost some of the fire she had in these early shows.
The murder of Julie,J.R.'s secretary and long time lover in the 2nd season is shocking and poor old Cliff is in the frame for a while,setting up an even more bitter feud between him and J.R.
The first proper cliffhanger is at the end of season 2 with Sue-Ellen pregnant and drinking heavily,involved in a car crash,leaving her and new born baby,John Ross,on life support machines,their lives in the balance,J.R. devasted and the paternity unclear,is Cliff the father or J.R?.
It does eventually turn out to be J.R.
Some shows don't improve with age,this one does,so if you haven't seen "Dallas" before,give it a go,you'll be addicted!

Quite brilliant and i only missed three episodes........2006-09-08

Its hard to believe that Dallas is now over twenty years old.
The lives of the oil rich Ewing clan of Southfork ranch and that dastardly John Ross Ewings fued with Cliff Barnes live long in my memory.
I can honestly say hand on my heart that i missed only three episodes in its entire run,and if i missed an episode wayback then my week was entierly ruined,i was a huge fan all those years ago.
The only sane member of the clan was Miss Ellie played by Barbra Belle Geddes.She knew how to control JR and the famous breakfast scenes where the entire family used to gather were trully memorable.

Pam who was that dreaded Cliff Barnes sister near the end of the run sold her Ewing shares to Cliff her brother to get back at JR.Ray Crebbs was Jock Ewings outcast member of the family the one that Jr disliked because he had a small percentage of DADDIES company.

The Oil Barrons Ball was another annual highlite where Cliff and JR showed their contempt for each other,but it was the amazing
WHO SHOT JR story that was a World wide phenomenan.Was is Pam or the constantly drunk Sue Ellen who stormed into Jrs office.
It took many weeks during a summer break to reveal that it was Crystyn Sheperd one of JRs cousins who did the deed,very few people guessed it but the termoil throughout that season has never been replicated in any television series since.Even the US president Jimmy Carter and other world leaders were trying to guess who done it.

If you were not born during the first airing of Dallas you cannot imagine the tension that it had over most of the western world.

I for sure really miss Dallas and that ridiculous spin off series Dynasty was rubbish in comparrison.

Go on BBC repeat the entire series so that those too young to remember can see real drama at its best.

"Ewing's my name, Oil's my game!".......2005-08-28

DALLAS is one of the best dramas ever from the 80s, which is why it was number 1 in the USA and UK TV ratings during its first seven seasons, and had airings in over 130 countries. DALLAS is exciting and has ingenious plots and storylines and is better quality drama in my opinion, than shows such as Desperate Houswives, The O.C., EastEnders, etc.

This classic and timeless show is well written and has some fine actors and Larry Hagman is excellent in his portrayal as the dastardly J. R. Ewing, who is usually up to no good and has many secrets! Once you enter the home of the Southfork Ewings, you'll want to "visit" them in every episode on this DVD set!

The video of most episodes is sharp and of high quality. The DVD commentary of a couple of episodes is rather uninteresting and slow at times.

DALLAS has 14 seasons so I hope Warner Home Video speed up the releases with at least two or three seasons a year to DVD. Seasons 3, 6 and 7 (DALLAS fans refer to them as seasons 2, 5 and 6) are indeed the BEST seasons of the entire series with such gripping, clever and solid storylines. The first two seasons in this DVD box set are very good and well worth watching with classic and entertaining episodes.

UK DVD:

UK DVD List

UK DVD