Sunday, May. 23, 2010
Dallas (1991)
A sudsy chronicle of the wealthy Texas Ewing family, Dallas was insanely popular: some 300 million people in 57 countries watched in 1980. After fifteen seasons, the show wrapped up in 1991 with one last serving of melodrama: in the final scene, legendary villain J.R. raises a gun to his head while looking in the mirror; the gun goes off while the camera is on his brother Bobby in the hallway, and the series ends with Bobby surveying the damage and saying "Oh, my God." The widespread assumption that J.R. had killed himself was upended five years later, when it was revealed in the reunion movie, Dallas: J.R. Returns, that he had shot the mirror. What a cheat.