Hey, Soap/LTAS Fans! We would like to introduce our “Dallas Trilogy” posts. First this post, based on guest blogger tvblogger1127’s assertion that “TNT set “Dallas” up to fail almost right out of the gate.” (Next up will be “For The Love of Dallas” fan blog sharing what “Dallas” has meant to her). Finally, we want to demonstrate that not only the United States and Canada, but the 170 countries it was originally broadcast in, are clamoring to get back their beloved “Dallas.” In her post, tvblogger1127 said, “I think the way TNT aired the series was a mistake. They set it up to fail almost right out of the gate.” We agree, and we have some thoughts about what happened between their reboot of Dallas and its cancellation two seasons later that gradually set it up to fail.
Remember this is theorizing, not something we can give you facts on yet. We think TNT was approached to do a Dallas reboot. They must have thought, “It was a giant phenomenon, and the fans are still around, so why not!”
So season one aired, and the ratings were sky-high. TNT didn’t foresee that “Dallas” would be huge in terms of fan reception let alone the international fans desire for its still existing after all these years. But a small cable station like TNT didn’t have the financial means to broadcast it in 100 countries or promote it in the same ways that the big 3 networks might have.However Executive producer and writer Cynthia Cidre did an admirable job getting old and young viewers to watch a reboot of 20-year-old show.
Then Larry Hagman, the iconic JR, passed away, and many fans at first tuned out. But he ratings for JR’s funeral went sky-high again, then with the story line “JR Master Piece” the story line the viewers stay tuned.
TNT decided that because the fan base certainly still existed and they didn’t have the resources or connections to make a reboot work, they would sell the rights to Warner Brothers.
tvblogger1127, “Dallas” fan and LTAS guest blogger were devastated by the news that no one wanted to pick up the show.
TNT and other smaller networks want to resurrect “Dallas,” but they also understand they did not have the finances to do a media blitz as CBS might do or to see to the international airing of “Dallas” in hundreds of countries worldwide.
As, tvblogger1127said in her earlier LTAS guest bog, “Many fans were left with that sinking feeling of, ‘What happens next?’ There was no closure, no warning”
TNT provided no closure when it cancelled the recent “Dallas” reboot, because they didn’t want it cancelled. And so they sold the rights to Warner Brothers, a corporation that has the means to bring “Dallas” back the way it was in its 1980’s heyday and to resurrect it in the hundreds of countries worldwide who love it.
My dear “Dallas,” fans, we at LTAS have so much admiration for you and look up to you for your undying loyalty to ”Dallas,” and your unwavering dedication to see it resurrected a third time in all the glory and with all soap fabulousness it once deserves. You have proven you can do it, and you will, we are sure of it. Now we ask Warner Brothers to return “Dallas” to its original home. And we ask CBS to show it to its huge international audience. And getting Warner Brothers and CBS to do these things will require the kind of perseverance and passion you have always shown to “Dallas.”
We, at LTAS, thank TNT for their Dallas reboot, for not writing down “Dallas” the way P&G did “Guiding Light” making it end in ignominy and disrepute. Nor did TNT play games or refuse to return “Dallas” Warner Brothers, as ABC did with their soaps AMC and OLTL and refused to return the rights to those soaps to their creator and long-time head writer, Agnes Nixon.
One blunder on TNT’s part was to make was to fail to respect fans with a press conference or press release. The Presidents’ office does this, and surely TNT doesn’t think it doesn’t owe its fans the same way the United State President owes his people. Just as the White House answers to its people, so does a networks must answers is viewers.
So now “Dallas” fans, let’s tell Warner Brother we want “Dallas” returned to it’s original home and time slot on CBS. Let them know through e-mails, calls, snail mail, comments on their website, Tweets, Facebook posts, any way you can—make them smell the money they want!—that you would support another “Dallas” reboot, one that shows evidence of the huge domestic and international fan bases.
And ABC fans keep up the ABC/Disney boycott until ABC returns “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” back to their original time slots.
And CBS fans keep boycotting Proctor & Gamble products to show we are not giving up until they return our cancelled CBS daytime soaps.
And soap/LTAS fans: don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter (top right-hand corner of any page), comment, discuss, let us and each other know your thoughts!
As always, remember to Stay Soapy!
Akbi Khan, Editor-in-Chief
