Dallas
If at First You Don't Succeed
TV Flash files “If at First You Don't Succeed” as hour 164 of 356 in the TV Flash guide — Dallas (1978–1991) on CBS, season 8, episode 3, aired 1984-10-12, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S08E03: listed hour 164 of 356 in the Dallas guide, hour 3 of 30 in season 8. It aired 1984-10-12 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Battle Lines” (S08E02). Next is “Jamie” (S08E04).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
J.R. tells Bobby about Cliff's arrest. Cliff is released on bail. J.R. reveals to Bobby how he set Cliff up on the offshore drilling. Cliff admits to Pam that he wanted to kill J.R. Sue Ellen invites Donna Krebbs for dinner and is reprimanded by J.R. Donna and J.R. have a confrontation about her "filling in" for Bobby at Ewing Oil. Jenna Wade is mad at J.R. for bugging Bobby's phone and for the shooting. Pam vows to continue the Barnes-Ewing feud. Sue Ellen tells Jenna the story of her and Dusty Farlow. J.R. tries to sabotage Donna's work at Ewing Oil. Martha Randolph confronts J.R. about what he did to her husband. J.R. feels like he has turned everybody against him, and he turns to Sue Ellen. Pamela and Sue Ellen have a terrible fight over the Barnes-Ewing feud and Cliff's alleged shooting of Bobby. After striking oil big time, Cliff has an invasion of salesmen in his office. Bobby gets impatient with his eyesight problem. Lucy visits the place where her mother used to work as a waitress.
Viewer FAQ
Where does If at First You Don't Succeed sit in the Dallas guide?
S08E03 is listed hour 164 of 356 — hour 3 of 30 in season 8, season 8 episode 3.
When did Dallas S08E03 air?
If at First You Don't Succeed aired 1984-10-12 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;…