Dallas
A House Divided
TV Flash files “A House Divided” as a desk essential hour — Dallas (1978–1991) on CBS, season 3, episode 25, aired 1980-03-21, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S03E25: listed hour 54 of 356 in the Dallas guide, last listed hour of season 3. It aired 1980-03-21 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “The Wheeler Dealer” (S03E24). Next is “No More Mister Nice Guy (1)” (S04E01).
Essential hour: “A House Divided”. The leak. A summer becomes a product; spoiler culture gets its founding carpet.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
The cartel members and J.R.'s banker are financially ruined after the nationalization of the Asian fields. Seth Stone, one of the cartel members, kills himself. J.R. moves to drive Kristin and Alan Beam out of town and he wants to put Sue Ellen back into the sanitarium. Pam and Bobby leave Dallas when Bobby learns that J.R. shut down an oil field to stop Cliff from having his portion of revenge based on an agreement between Digger and Jock which Cliff has found among Digger's papers. An unknown visitor calls on J.R. late at the office.
Viewer FAQ
Where does A House Divided sit in the Dallas guide?
S03E25 is listed hour 54 of 356 — last listed hour of season 3, season 3 episode 25.
When did Dallas S03E25 air?
A House Divided aired 1980-03-21 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;…