Dallas
Reel Life
TV Flash files “Reel Life” as the last listed hour of season 12 — Dallas (1978–1991) on CBS, season 12, episode 26, aired 1989-05-19, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S12E26: listed hour 307 of 356 in the Dallas guide, last listed hour of season 12. It aired 1989-05-19 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Mission to Moscow” (S12E25). Next is “Phantom of the Oil Rig” (S13E01).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
After their return to Dallas, April and Bobby try to keep their European romance going. Cliff goes to Baton Rouge, Louisiana and gets duped by Afton's former husband Harrison Van Buren. Sue Ellen agrees to move to England with Don Lockwood but John Ross stays in Dallas. Weststar employees give Carter McKay a big welcome upon his return from Vienna. April gets scary, crank calls and Bobby decides to take her to Southfork. Bobby suspects that Tommy Mckay is making trouble again and he confronts Carter about it. Sue Ellen tells Cally that she'll have to fight for her identity in her marriage. Miss Ellie gets a birthday card addressed to Jock with a mysterious key inside. Sue Ellen gives J.R. a taste of what her ultimate revenge on him could be like-- a movie that will make J.R. "the laughing stock of Texas".
Viewer FAQ
Where does Reel Life sit in the Dallas guide?
S12E26 is listed hour 307 of 356 — last listed hour of season 12, season 12 episode 26.
When did Dallas S12E26 air?
Reel Life aired 1989-05-19 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;…