Dallas
Phantom of the Oil Rig
TV Flash files “Phantom of the Oil Rig” as the first listed hour of season 13 — Dallas (1978–1991) on CBS, season 13, episode 1, aired 1989-09-22, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S13E01: listed hour 308 of 356 in the Dallas guide, first listed hour of season 13. It aired 1989-09-22 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Reel Life” (S12E26). Next is “The Leopard's Spots” (S13E02).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Tension between Ewing Oil and Weststar rises in the aftermath of the European deal. April vows not to let the crank phone calls get to her. Tommy McKay returns to Dallas and shows up in Bobby's office with an apology. Miss Ellie and Clayton continue to try to resolve the mystery of the key for Jock. Bobby accuses Cliff of neglecting Ewing Oil business. Cliff goes to Charleston, South Carolina to search for Van Buren. April's sister Michelle Stevens appears and meets Bobby. Tommy plots a bomb attack.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Phantom of the Oil Rig sit in the Dallas guide?
S13E01 is listed hour 308 of 356 — first listed hour of season 13, season 13 episode 1.
When did Dallas S13E01 air?
Phantom of the Oil Rig aired 1989-09-22 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;…