Dallas: J.R. Returns

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Dallas: J.R. Returns was the first of the two Dallas reunion movies to air after the series went off the air. It originally aired on CBS on November 15, 1996, and recently was rerun as part of TV Land's salute to 50 years of Warner Bros. Television.

[edit] Plot summary

The cliffhanger ending of the series finale is resolved in the opening minutes of the movie. It turns out that the gunshot J.R. Ewing fired was at the mirror, not himself (although no glass was heard smashing).

Several years later, J.R. is in Europe, while Bobby Ewing lives in Southfork alone with his son Christopher, and Cliff Barnes is still celebrating over his takeover of Ewing Oil (which happened during the final few episodes of the series).

However, things aren't as cheery as they may seem. Bobby, tiring of being a rancher, considers selling Southfork. Cliff, believing that J.R. is no longer a threat to him, decides that after all the trouble he and J.R. went through during their rivalry, he wants to try and regain whatever he lost in it (namely a daughter of his he had with longtime lover Afton Cooper), and the best way to do so is to sell Ewing Oil to Weststar Oil, headed by J.R.'s other nemesis, Carter McKay. McKay promises that upon completion of deal, Weststar will completely incorporate Ewing Oil's assets into his company, and Ewing Oil will permanently cease to exist.

J.R. hears this and decides that he will try to regain his position. He arranges for Afton to be put in a sanitarium so Cliff cant find her.

After a surprise trip to Ewing Oil where he taunts a rattled Cliff with his plan, J.R. learns of a provision in Jock Ewing's will where Jock left John Ross Ewing III (J.R.'s younger son) stock in a computer company, which is worth 200 million dollars now. The stock would go to John Ross only after J.R. died. However, since John Ross is living with Sue Ellen (his mother) in Europe, and doesn't know about this, J.R. decides that he's going to sell some of this stock and buy up shares to take over Weststar, which is about to absorb "his" company.

But J.R. isn't done yet! To set this in motion, he fakes his own death in a car accident with help from several people, and has his attorney "accidentally" put the shares in his name, instead of his son's. Thinking that J.R. really has died, Bobby holds a memorial service at Southfork, with John Ross and Sue Ellen attending (where Sue Ellen realizes that she still loves J.R., and always will) and Cliff in quiet celebration, where he believes he's won the ultimate victory over J.R....until J.R. suddenly comes back during the service on the back of a pick-up full of hogs! He falsely claims to have been kidnapped and managed an escape. J.R. stole the 200m stock and sold the stock and used the money to buy Weststar stock. He also took out a 200m loan after using the original computer stock as collateral. With the loan he repurchased the shares he sold and the stock would go to John Ross when J.R. died as originally planned. No one would know what he had done and if stumbled upon J.R. would claim that the stock was transferred to John Ross the second and not John Ross the third because of a clerical error. Sly resigns as J.R's assistant in disgust at J.R. faking his own death.

At the end, Cliff is faced with an ultimatum: either he chooses control of Ewing Oil, and leaves everything he has gotten back behind, or he chooses his newfound family and gives up Ewing Oil. Cliff chooses his family, with Ewing Oil returned to the family, but not to J.R.

In the final moments of the show, JR is now Chairman of the Board of Weststar, and begins to back Cliff into a corner, by forcing him to sell Ewing Oil to Weststar (J.R. had replaced McKay who was ousted for his failure to buy Ewing Oil which not only still existed but had a Ewing running it). Cliff comes up with alternative at the last minute. Cliff sells Ewing Oil to Bobby Ewing only for Bobby to realise that he was tricked back into the oil business unwillingly by J.R. who knew getting Bobby off Southfork would force him not to sell.

Upon revealing this Bobby is not happy so he sells half of the company....to his new partner, Sue Ellen Ewing. JR appears shocked and crushed. Bobby, Sue Ellen, and Cliff, all believe they pulled one more over on old JR. Sly had tipped off Sue Ellen that J.R. faked his own death. Cliff meanwhile greets Afton and Pamela outside the sanitarium after Afton was released.

In the last scene, John Ross asks JR why he is smiling even though he lost Ewing Oil to Bobby and Sue Ellen. So JR points a few things out. Bobby is back in the oil business and is no longer going to sell Southfork. Ewing Oil is back in Ewing hands. JR is Chairman of the Board of Weststar Oil. Sue Ellen is back at Southfork to stay, and John Ross will remain in Dallas to learn the oil business from JR. At this point, John Ross turns to JR, and realizes his father may have actually planned everything to work out this way from the start. JR's last words, "You see John Ross?, you're learning already."

[edit] Notes

  • This was Kercheval's last appearance as Cliff Barnes in the Dallas series, as he did not reprise his role for Dallas: War of the Ewings. This was also Petrie's final appearance on film or TV, as he died the following year.
  • Other famous cast members were mentioned but didn't appear. Bobby tells J.R. that Ellie and Clayton stop by now and then but are busy leading their own life. When J.R. "dies" Bobby is shown on the phone talking to Gary who cannot go as Valene is said to be in hospital. Ray cannot make it either and neither can Lucy.
  • When Sue Ellen arrives in Dallas, John Ross tells Christopher that Sue Ellen split with Don Lockwood, apparently because she still loved J.R.
  • The TV movie placed 16th in the ratings when it aired on Friday, Nov 29, 1996.
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