Dallas
Check and Mate
TV Flash files “Check and Mate” as hour 137 of 356 in the TV Flash guide — Dallas (1978–1991) on CBS, season 7, episode 6, aired 1983-11-04, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S07E06: listed hour 137 of 356 in the Dallas guide, hour 6 of 30 in season 7. It aired 1983-11-04 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “The Quality of Mercy” (S07E05). Next is “Ray's Trial” (S07E07).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Ray is arrested for unplugging Mickey's life support and Aunt Lil falls into depression. Cliff tries to pay Sly for inside information on J.R.'s deals. Katherine tells J.R. she's only interested in Bobby. Barnes-Wentworth-Graisco is officially launched but Pam is mad at Cliff when she learns that he stole a deal from J.R. Ray is released on bail and is very reluctant to accept a lawyer. Lucy goes into a rage upon seeing Ray after the tragedy in the hospital, and accuses him of having murdered Mickey. Mark Graison fears that Ray's tragedy will pull Pam back to the Ewings. Bobby rebuffs Holly Harwood's romantic advances. Holly says good-bye to Bobby. Donna tells Ray to pull himself together after Mickey's death. Sue Ellen invites Peter Richards to a party at Southfork. Punk Anderson reads Jock's letter which says that the contest was just designed to make Bobby and J.R. respect one another as businessmen. Bobby's share of the profit on the Canadian fields comes in at the last minute and radically alters the outcome of the contest.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Check and Mate sit in the Dallas guide?
S07E06 is listed hour 137 of 356 — hour 6 of 30 in season 7, season 7 episode 6.
When did Dallas S07E06 air?
Check and Mate aired 1983-11-04 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;…