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| This 1981 file photo provided by CBS shows Larry Hagman in character as J.R. Ewing in the television series "Dallas." Actor Larry Hagman, who for more than a decade played villainous patriarch JR Ewing in the TV soap Dallas, has died at the age of 81, his family said Saturday Nov. 24, 2012. |
NEW YORK (AP)
-- One reason "Dallas" became a cultural phenomenon like none other is
that Larry Hagman never took its magnitude for granted.
During
an interview last June, he spoke of returning to Dallas and the
real-life Southfork Ranch some months earlier to resume his role of J.R.
Ewing for the TNT network's revival of the series. There at Southfork,
now a major tourist attraction, he came upon a wall-size family tree
diagramming the entanglement of "Dallas" characters.
"I looked at it and said `I didn't know I was related to HER!'" Hagman marveled. "And I didn't know THAT!"
In
its own way, the original "Dallas" - which aired on CBS from 1978 to
1991 - was unfathomably bigger than anything on TV before or since,
while J.R. Ewing remains unrivaled not just as a video villain but as a
towering mythical figure.
All this is largely
thanks to Hagman and his epic portrayal of J.R., a Texas oilman and
patriarch who, in Hagman's hands, was in equal measures loathsome and
lovable.
Hagman, who died Friday at 81, certainly had nothing more to prove a quarter-century ago when "Dallas" ended after 14 seasons.
But
in the series revival, whose first season aired this summer, J.R. was
even more evil and deliciously conniving than ever. Though visibly
frail, Hagman knew how to leverage J.R.'s vulnerabilities as a new form
of strength to wield against his rivals. Hagman knew how to double-down
on J.R. as a force the audience could hiss and cheer with equal delight.
Of
course, in his long career, Hagman did more than star in "Dallas" and
tackled more roles than J.R. Ewing. Had "Dallas" never come along with
its operatic sprawl of power, corruption and family feuds, Hagman would
likely be remembered for an earlier series, "I Dream of Jeannie," the
1960s sitcom about an astronaut and the genie who loved him.
Even so, during Hagman's five seasons co-starring with Barbara Eden as the sexy genie-in-a-bottle, he was inevitably upstaged.
That
would never be a problem on "Dallas," especially after the final hour
of the series' second season, when J.R. was gunned down by an unknown
assailant and left for dead on his office floor.
All
that summer and late into the fall, the nation was seized and teased by
the mystery of Who Shot J.R.?
Nearly every fellow character had
sufficient motive to want J.R. killed, and which of them had done the
deed was a question everyone was asking. Finally, the answer was
delivered on the episode that aired 32 years ago almost to the day - on
Nov. 21, 1980 - when the shooter was revealed to be J.R.'s scheming
sister-in-law and mistress, Kristin.
And oh, by the way, J.R. survived.
As
J.R., Hagman could marshal piercing glances with his hawk-like eyes,
and chill any onlooker with his wicked grin. There was no depth to which
J.R. couldn't sink, especially with the outrageous story lines the
series blessed him with.
But his popularity
exceeded that for even a notable bad guy. This, too, is a credit to
Hagman's portrayal. By all indications, the glorious rascalness that
made J.R. such fun to watch was lifted intact from Hagman's own lively
personality.
During last June's lunch
interview with Hagman and Linda Gray (J.R.'s long-suffering onetime
wife, Sue Ellen), Gray recalled the day the "Dallas" cast first met.
"He
walks in, this man with a cowboy hat," said Gray, "and I thought,
`What's this?' To me, he was still the astronaut from `I Dream of
Jeannie.' Then he looked at me and he went, `Hello, darlin'.' And that
was it: I thought, Oh, darn, this is gonna be fun."
"She
THREW herself at me!" Hagman broke in. "She'd had a couple of glasses
of champagne already, and she put her arms around me and said, `I'm your
WIFE!'"
"Where do you come up with these
stories?" Gray, laughing, fired back at the man she would describe at
his passing months later as "my best friend for 35 years."
What
made J.R. irresistible, and always forgivable, was his
high-spiritedness, his love of the game. Despite the legendary fortune
of the Ewings, J.R. didn't flaunt his wealth. (Southfork was comfortable
all right, but not ostentatious. If you wanted to see a prime-time soap
whose characters threw their money around, you switched over to ABC and
watched "Dynasty.") J.R. savored power, not things. He loved doing to
others before they did it to him, and he usually succeeded.
Operating
with such diabolical zest, J.R. appalled viewers, yet they always
rooted for him. And relied on him to prevail. Back in 1980, they played
an obsessive guessing game of Who Shot J.R.? But no one for a moment
imagined he would die.
This makes Hagman's
passing difficult for fans to comprehend. And it raises an obvious
question: During the new season of TNT's "Dallas," which begins Jan. 28,
will J.R. have to die?
On some level, his
fate seems unavoidable. But for viewers who have hate-loved J.R. for
decades, there's a different answer: Thanks to Larry Hagman, J.R. is
forever.
