Dallas
Swan Song
TV Flash files “Swan Song” as the last listed hour of season 8 — Dallas (1978–1991) on CBS, season 8, episode 30, aired 1985-05-17, 90 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S08E30: listed hour 191 of 356 in the Dallas guide, last listed hour of season 8. It aired 1985-05-17 (90 min). The listed hour before it is “Deliverance” (S08E29). Next is “The Family Ewing” (S09E01).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Sue Ellen gets drunk at the Ewing victory party. Donna tells Ray about her pregnancy. J.R. reassures Mandy Winger that the problem with Sue Ellen will be resolved. Jenna can't wait to get married and Bobby is confused about who he should marry. Sue Ellen assures Clayton and Miss Ellie that she stopped drinking. Mitch and Lucy remarry. Cliff considers an annulment of his marriage to Jamie. Dusty reappears. Pam tells Bobby he has to marry Jenna. J.R. asks Sue Ellen to agree to end their marriage. Bobby proposes to Pam. Jamie surprises Cliff during their conversation about annulment. Then as Bobby leaves Pams house, a car drives straight towards Pamela, Bobby pushes Pam out of the way and the car hits him. The crashes and the driver is revealed to be Katherine Wentoworth who is dead. Bobby is rushed to hospital where he dies of massive internal injuries.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Swan Song sit in the Dallas guide?
S08E30 is listed hour 191 of 356 — last listed hour of season 8, season 8 episode 30.
When did Dallas S08E30 air?
Swan Song aired 1985-05-17 and is listed at 90 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;…