Dallas
The Smiling Cobra
TV Flash files “The Smiling Cobra” as hour 329 of 356 in the TV Flash guide — Dallas (1978–1991) on CBS, season 13, episode 22, aired 1990-03-30, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S13E22: listed hour 329 of 356 in the Dallas guide, hour 22 of 27 in season 13. It aired 1990-03-30 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Will Power” (S13E21). Next is “Jessica Redux” (S13E23).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
J.R. is delighted with his spoils from the office raid. Bobby vows to discover who sabotaged April's development project. Cally and James pull closer together in an effort to fend off J.R.'s evil ways. Clayton is announced as the next in line in the Atticus Ward will, but out of the blue, Atticus turns up. Bobby finally announces his wedding date and Cally and April make up. There's another poisoning and this time its Atticus Ward. Cally reaches breaking point and packs her suitcase.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Smiling Cobra sit in the Dallas guide?
S13E22 is listed hour 329 of 356 — hour 22 of 27 in season 13, season 13 episode 22.
When did Dallas S13E22 air?
The Smiling Cobra aired 1990-03-30 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;…