Aesthetics of Dallas
...R. and decides to drive home. While driving home, she no longer can visualize the road and decides to pull off to the shoulder. Bobby and Pam Ewing, noticing her car, pull-off to the side of the road where she is passed out. Bobby takes her home where they are met by Jock and Ellie Ewing, who become gravely concerned over the state of Sue Ellen’s drinking. They are quite discouraged that J.R. is not taking care of his pregnant wife. Moments later, J.R. arrives and is confronted by his mother and father. Miss Ellie confronts J.R. by asking him if there is anyone he loves and what redeeming qualities he possesses. She explains that she knows that Sue Ellen cares deeply about having money and power but that she has always loved him despite his lack of devotion to her. Feeling embarrassed that his parents know about her condition, he decides to lay down the law with Sue Ellen by cleaning out her stashed bottles of alcohol throughout the house. “I’m going to make sure you dry out. Do you care nothing about yourself or your baby?” J.R. questions. He calls her baby a bastard. The reason being that recently J.R. has discovered that the baby that Sue Ellen is carrying is more than likely not his and is the result of Sue Ellen’s philandering with J.R.’s archenemy Cliff Barnes. He is hesitant to mention any of this to his parents for fear of embarrassment of his family and most of all disappointment from his father Jock. Sue Ellen, left alone in the house, while the others go off to work, finds a bottle J.R. has missed and continues to drink until she falls down the stairs. She is rushed to the hospital where J.R. is confronted yet again and this time by Sue Ellen’s doctor. The doctor explains that Sue Ellen is lucky along with her baby to be alive and encourages J.R. to seek treatment for Sue Ellen’s drinking problem. J.R. is concerned for the baby because there is still the chance that the baby is his. He decides the only way to protect the baby is to send Sue Ellen to an alcohol treatment facility. When he announces to Sue Ellen that she will be going to this facility, she pronounces that she is just fine and needs no help. “There’s nothing wrong with me, I just fine.” Part II of John Ewing III, begins with Pam speaking to her brother Cliff Barnes asking him to leave Sue Ellen alone. Cliff explains that at first he only showed interest in Sue Ellen because she was J.R. Ewing’s wife but soon fell in love with her. After discovering she was pregnant, he decided it was better for her if he vanished from her life. That way Sue Ellen would continue to be a thriving member of the Ewing family and enjoy the luxuries that accompany such a lifestyle. Astonished at his answer Pam merely asks the question, “what about love?” Cliff has no answer. Meanwhile back at Southfork Ranch, Jock and Ellie are contemplating the question of the Ewing name. Ellie, before marrying Jock was already a member of the important Southworth family, knowing no different, she is unable to relate to Sue Ellen’s struggles. Jock decides it is time for him to speak with J.R. Showing his concern for his first born grandson, still not knowing whether it is a boy or girl but assuming it to already be the heir, he has a heart-to-heart with J.R. explaining that he will be keeping a closer eye on J.R. because he wants him to start acting like the husband and father he needs to be. In other words he says, he wants J.R. to “become a man.” He pleads with his father, explaining that he has always done what he felt was best, making great strides in business, doing whatever necessary to please his father. His relationship with his wife and the questioning of his position as a good father hits J.R.’s soft spot. At the alcohol treatment facility, Sue Ellen ultimately cannot cope with the pain of knowing that the man that she loves more than anything in the world does not love her and her “other” man has moved on to relationships with other women. She convinces an orderly to smuggle alcohol to her. Following this even, at no surprise, Bobby Ewing decides to drop by to visit his ailing sister-in-law, arriving with flowers and a warm smile. Sue Ellen tries to maintain her cover until Bobby asks about the baby. After throwing a tantrum, she embraces Bobby while telling him that if she had only met him first, she would have married him. She sees the way that he treats Pam and envies their relationship. “So strong, so loving, so understanding” she cries. Sue Ellen no longer can take the pressure and confesses to Bobby the secret only shared by J.R. and Cliff Barnes. In a dramatic scene, she cries to Bobby about he troubled marriage with J.R. and how they rarely if ever sleep in the same bed, her desperate need to have a child and disease she has that no doctor could cure. Sue Ellen continues saying because J.R. would not give her a child she had to go out and get pregnant to have a child and that now that man will have nothing to do with her. She is a very lonely woman. As she confesses that Cliff Barnes is the father of her unborn child, Bobby’s anger grows, but he maintains warmth to Sue Ellen, embracing her as she cries. He understands her sorrow and her need for compassion and forgiveness. Bobby soon heads over to Cliff Barnes apartment. Cliff is not only the archenemy of the Ewing family but is as well Bobby’s brother-in-law. Bobby gives Cliff a piece of his mind and encourages him never to mention Sue Ellen’s secret to anyone. The only problem unknown to Bobby is that J.R. already knows. After Bobby leaves the hospital, Sue Ellen calls the orderly into her room and steals the room key, making her getaway and stealing a car. Her heavy drinking once again causes her to have an accident and she is carried back to Dallas Memorial Hospital where in order to save the baby, Sue Ellen must undergo a cesarean. The whole family gathers at the hospital eagerly awaiting news on the procedure. A nurse enters the waiting room to tell John Ross Ewing Jr. that he has a son. Jock lights up and proudly announces the name John Ross Jr. III. The heir is born and brings much approval from Jock and Ellie. J.R. has done something right in his parent’s eyes. A bulletin comes over the television as Cliff is watching the news announcing that the President of Ewing Oil, J.R. Ewing’s wife has been in a car accident and the life of her and her unborn baby is in danger. Cliff, worried about his unborn son, rushes to the hospital. Deciding to take Pam’s advice to break all barriers and love and care for Sue Ellen and his child, he runs to their aide. As Jock and Ellie Ewing are entering the hospital elevators, Pam notices Cliff and leaves them saying she has left something behind. Meeting her brother, he demands to see his son, and she leads him to the maternity ward where he gets his first viewing of John Ross Jr. III. In an emotional scene, Cliff proclaims that he will make sure that he is not raised a Ewing but a Barnes. Meanwhile, J.R. setting beside the bed of his unconscious wife declares his love for her and pleads with God for her to live. “She’s gotta live!” The credits end with a picture of J.R. with his eyes closed praying for her safe return back to him. The lesson Dallas projects to its audience is that the life of wealth and ease often brings more pain than joy. I have yet to meet a human being, who has not at one point in his or her life, wanted more than what was provided and envied those who possessed what he or she wanted. Aumont contends that our egos draw us into film and allow our lives to be lived out in ways we know they never could but for a short while we are able to. You would expect money to solve all problems but in the world of Dallas, the struggle for more corrupts. Sue Ellen Shepard Ewing leads a life of privilege thanks to her marriage to the ruthless and sometimes unforgiving J.R. Ewing. She at first marries J.R. for love, although the money does help out, but soon discovers J.R.’s more interested in philandering with secretaries and call girls. It is a marriage of convenience where she will have everything she has ever dreamed of. That is, except for a husband to cherish her. He already has Sue Ellen by marriage and he treats her like nothing more than a trophy wife to show off to his friends and business acquaintances. He makes sure that she is reminded of this each and every day. She sacrifices her happiness to keep her privileged life as a philanthropist and community leader. She is a member of every community organization and devotes herself to these activities to keep busy and not be reminded of her failing relationship with her husband. He in a way does the same to devoid the thoughts of his failing marriage by committing himself to his daddy’s oil company. After 7 years in a marriage of convenience, Sue Ellen has remained unable to produce an heir to the Ewing fortune, not that this has been any her fault. Producing the first grandson of Jock and Ellie Ewing is a game between brothers Bobby and J.R. Ewing. During the “Reunion I” episode in Season 1, J.R. and Sue Ellen receive news at a Southfork bar-b-que that Bobby’s wife Pam is pregnant. This not only does not settle well with J.R. because of his constant struggle for his father’s love and attention would be satisfied with the first male grandchild but because that heir, if produced by Bobby and Pam, will also carry the genes of a Barnes. Pam is the daughter of Digger Barnes, the ex-oil partner of Jock Ewing, who blames all his misfortunes on the fact that Jock, took sole control over the oil business when they were supposed to be partners. Jock believed Digger to be a drunk who would end up ruining the company and gave him an easy cut. The hatred between these two families runs deep. That is why the philandering of Sue Ellen with Cliff Barnes is such a stab in the back by Sue Ellen. J.R. knows that if the secret ever surfaced it would kill his aging mother and father, serve as gossip about his family, and ultimately ruin the company. Many audience members can relate to Dallas because of their own problems of sibling rivalry. J.R. Ewing has spent his entire life wanting the love and attention of his parents. His two younger brothers have had no problem attaining that. Gary, the laziest of the three, is Miss Ellie’s favorite because he reminds her so strongly of Daddy Southfork. J.R. has managed to run him off though through his corrupt manners. Bobby, the baby of the family, is cherished by all. He is the glue that holds the entire family together. The television audience sees Bobby as the lover that may continue to be trekking closely behind J.R.’s corrupt decisions but is getting closer and closer. He is a fighter only when he has to be such as when he feels the family is in danger. “Love, duty, sacrifice, and faith are all part of the American myth of the frontier hero (Rothman, 121). This is the reason so many viewers fell instantly in love with the character of Bobby Ewing. Bobby’s altruistic nature throughout the series ultimately triumphs over the narcissistic behaviors of J.R. This behavior has been created in J.R. through years of training. J.R. never received the love and attention a child deserves. From a young age was “taken” from his mother and began hanging around the office with his father learning to become the pe...