Dallas
Digger's Daughter
TV Flash files “Digger's Daughter” as the hour the catalog opens — Dallas (1978–1991) on CBS, season 1, episode 1, aired 1978-04-02, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E01: listed hour 1 of 356 in the Dallas guide, first listed hour of season 1. It aired 1978-04-02 (60 min). No earlier hour is listed in this guide. Next is “Lessons” (S01E02).
Five-episode launch: a ranch, a family, a villain still putting on the hat. The summer question is two years away.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Dallas begins with a Romeo and Juliet theme. Bobby James Ewing, the youngest of the Ewing sons, marrying Pamela Barnes. Pamela (Pam) is the daughter of Digger Barnes who just happens to be the enemy of the the head of the Ewing Family, Jock Ewing. Digger also shared a romantic past with Jock's wife Ellie. The marriage does not sit well with any of the Ewings. Sue Ellen resents the newcomer, Lucy tries to intimidate her from the beginning, and Jock is furious. J.R reacts the most strongly, trying to break up the couple by using Ray Krebbs, the ranch foreman of Southfork, to break the couple up. Ray had a brief fling with Pamela Barnes, and J.R hopes this will end the marriage.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Digger's Daughter sit in the Dallas guide?
S01E01 is listed hour 1 of 356 — first listed hour of season 1, season 1 episode 1.
When did Dallas S01E01 air?
Digger's Daughter aired 1978-04-02 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Where should I start — the miniseries or the shooting?
Start with Digger’s Daughter so the table has names, then the first barbecue, then the 1980 cliffhanger and its answer. You can sample the dream-season aftershock without fourteen seasons of leases.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Watch it to see spoiler culture get invented in public: a Texas oil table, a villain America loved, and a summer-long question that made appointment TV feel like a crime scene. The dream season is the delete that still starts fights.
The shot was not the story. The summer was the story. March 1980, CBS, J.R. Ewing on the floor of an office, and then months of a country asking a question like it was a relationship status. Who shot J.R.? was not a plot point. It was a premiere-night soft launch of event television: every magazine cover a red carpet, every barstool a group chat, every publicist pretending the secret could hold. Larry Hagman made villainy photograph as charm. If you only watched the official stills — the hat, the oil, the ranch —…
Filed against
- Larry Hagman as J.R. Ewing
Larry Hagman’s J.R. Ewing made “Who shot J.R.?” a global summer sport on Dallas — oil-opera villainy with a smile that sold cliffhangers. Southfork seating charts, spoiler culture as national weather. On TV Flash he is primetime soap’s…
- Patrick Duffy as Bobby Ewing
Patrick Duffy’s Bobby Ewing was Dallas’s good-son lighting — Southfork virtue against Larry Hagman’s grin, and the dream-season delete that still starts fights. CBS taught television how to own a summer. TV Flash still asks who shot the…
- Linda Gray as Sue Ellen Ewing
Linda Gray’s Sue Ellen Ewing is Dallas as a marriage crime scene — Southfork seating charts, Larry Hagman’s grin as a weapon, a summer-long question that made appointment TV feel like a manhunt. Oil-opera spouse as more than a hemline. On…
- Victoria Principal as Pamela Barnes Ewing
Victoria Principal’s Pamela Barnes Ewing made Dallas a Southfork seating chart with a pulse — Texas oil, Larry Hagman’s grin as a weapon, and a cliffhanger that turned spoiler culture into national weather. On TV Flash she is the…
- Barbara Bel Geddes as Miss Ellie Ewing
Barbara Bel Geddes steadied Dallas as Miss Ellie Ewing — Southfork matriarch with moral gravity amid oil-opera excess and “Who shot J.R.?” mania. She made primetime soap feel like family business. TV Flash files her as the Ewing…
- Jim Davis as Jock Ewing
Jim Davis’s Jock Ewing is Dallas as the table the oil opera had to sit at — Southfork land, a seating chart with a ranch attached, the father the cliffhanger generation had to come home to. Who shot J.R. taught TV how to own a summer;…