OK...........Who remembers the 1980s?  America's Presidents were Ronald Reagen (1981 - 1989) and George Bush.  Sandra Day OConnor wasthe first woman inthe Supreme Court. Rock Hudson died of AIDS. Everyone wore big shoulder pads.  However, the 1980s started off with the biggest cliffhanger in television history...................'Who Shot J.R.?............Remember, The Ewing Clan and Dallas.

Dallas was a long running American Prime Time Television Soap Opera that first ran on Sunday 2nd April 1978 until the last episode Friday 3rd Mary 1991.  The programme was revolved around one wealthy family -The Ewings- whom were a weathly Texas family whom were in the cattle and oil industries.

 Dallas's main character wah John Ross (JR) Ewing; played by Larry Hagman; who was a greedy, scheming oil baron.  To start with JR was originally mant to be a supportig character, when the show was first screened in1978.  Robert James Ewing aka Bobby Ewing; played by Partick Duffy; and his new bride Pamela Jean Barnes Ewing; played by Victoria Principal; were orginally meant to be the main characters.  However; JR's machinations soo became verypopular with the viewers of the series and he very quickly became the main character of the series.

Dallas the mini series was originally screened Sunday 2nd April 1978 to Sunday 30th April 1978, and weekly episodes from Saturday 23rd September 1978were entirely shot on location in Dallas, Texas.  Later on, the majority of the interiors for the show were filmed at Hollywood's MGM studios.  All of the exteriors were filmed at SouthFork Ranch, Parker, Texas and various other parts of Dallas, up until 1989, when the rising costs of filming ment relocating to California.

Dallas re-nowed for its wealth, sex, intrigue, power struggles and the backstabbing machinations of oil magnate JR Ewing. When the series started in 1978, the founder of Ewing Oil and patriarch was John Ross Ewing Sr. aka Jock Ewing (played by Jim Davis 1909-1981), an oil tycoon whom allegedly cheated his one-time partner Willard 'Digger' Barnes (David Wayne in 1978 and then Keena Wynn from 1979 to 1980) out of hsi share of the company and his only real love Elleanor 'Ellie' Southworth Ewing (Barbara Bel Geddes 1922-2005).

Together Jock and Miss Ellie raised three sons JR, Gary (David Ackroyd in 1978 and then Ted Shackelford fom 1979) and Bobby. JR, was the eldest of the Ewing boys, who was totally unscrupurlous and was unhappily married to the former 1969 Miss Texas, Sue Ellen Shephard Ewing Lockwood (Linda Gray), who was frequently at-odds with JR's younger brother Bobby, who showed the morals and integrity that JR lacked.

In later episodes it was revealed that Jock had fathered an illegitimately fourth son, The Ewing's ranch foreman Raymond 'Ray' Krebbs (Steve Kanaly). Ray had seemingly been engaged in a short fling with Pamela, who was Digger's daughter and Clifford 'Cliff' Barnes (Ken Kercheval) sister. However, Pam loved Bobby Ewing and the two got married in the pilot episode. JR, loathedthe Barnes family, and was not happy with Pam living at Southfork, tried constantly to undermine her marriage to his brother Bobby.

The series capitalized on ending each season with ratings-grabbing cliffhangers. Some notable cliffhangers included the landmark "Who shot J.R.?" episode in 1980, an unidentified floating female corpse in the Southfork swimming pool, a blazing house fire, Bobby being shot, and Bobby even being killed by Pam's crazed half-sister Katherine Wentworth. Patrick Duffy had decided to leave the series in 1985 which facilitated Bobby's death, but Duffy was offered a higher salary the following year and elected to return to the series (which had by then begun to suffer from a ratings drop). The intervening season where Bobby was dead was subsequently explained away as a dream in 1986. In 1987, Victoria Principal decided to leave the series and her character was written out in another end-of-season cliffhanger where her car crashed into an oil tanker and exploded. The show continued (with steadily declining ratings) until 1991, when the series finale saw J.R. seemingly defeated by his enemies and apparently take his own life.