Dallas: Who Shot JR. - Can someone explain this

[pegusus]

ok so i'm watching the emmy's (i know i'm gay) and they mention how this show still holds the record for like biggest viewership when this episode came on. I've heard about this a few times but I've never seen one episode of this show and don't really know anything about it. I know it's before my time but there are other shows before my time that I've seen or heard about more so I'm just wondering to anyone who was around then what was the gist of this show or the big deal about it that even like 30 years later it still holds the record for most viewership. I find that absolutely insane that this show could hold this record this long esp. granted there are more tvs nowadays and idk i guess people watch more tv.

[amplify]

somebody shot JR.
we didn't know who.
turns out, once we found out, we didn't care.
I thought the final MASH held the record.

[inside??]

I doubt it will ever be broken since now there are 1000 different channels vs 2 for most people back then.

[ncboiler]

Dallas was on of the biggest shows on the air at the time and JR was one of the most popular/hated characters at the time. The show was big with the women and they live for this kind of [censored].

[Dynasty]

[ QUOTE ]
Dallas was on of the biggest shows on the air at the time and JR was one of the most popular/hated characters at the time. The show was big with the women and they live for this kind of [censored].

[/ QUOTE ]

It's also important to note that J.R. was shot in the last episode of 1979-80 TV season. So, the hype around "Who shot J.R.?" lasted over half a year until the premiere episode of the next season. Due to some type of actors' strike, it was 8 months in between episodes.

Basically, it's one of the great cliffhangers in TV history.

[MicroBob]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Dallas was on of the biggest shows on the air at the time and JR was one of the most popular/hated characters at the time. The show was big with the women and they live for this kind of [censored].

[/ QUOTE ]

It's also important to note that J.R. was shot in the last episode of 1979-80 TV season. So, the hype around "Who shot J.R.?" lasted over half a year until the premiere episode of the next season. Due to some type of actors' strike, it was 8 months in between episodes.

Basically, it's one of the great cliffhangers in TV history.

[/ QUOTE ]


Exactly. It was a really big thing at the time. It was talked aboutm joked about on late-night TV, etc etc.
It was on the cover of freaking Time Magazine.
Everyone who was watching the show were speculating who they thought did it.

Even people who didn't watch the show or didn't care couldn't help but know that there was this show called Dallas and nobody knew who shot this J.R. creep.
I was maybe 10 yrs old at the time but even I knew about it and it was even joked about amongst grade-schoolers because it had become such a part of popular culture.

[youtalkfunny]

The Union Plaza put up a "Who Shot JR?" prop that summer. That tells you how long ago this was--the Union Plaza had a famous sportsbook.

Legendary bookmaker Sonny Reizner ran the UP book back then. To paraphrase his telling of the story:

"Somebody would walk up to the windows, and say, 'I can really bet money on this? My son/uncle/brother-in-law/whatever works on the show, and he knows for a fact that the mistress shot JR. I'll take the mistress for the max.'

"Ten minutes later, someone else comes up, tells me he has a relative who's a writer on the show, and he knows for a fact that it was the brother shot JR. He bets a pile of money on the brother.

"Just about every day, somebody would tell me that they 'knew for a fact' who shot JR, and they all bet on a different character. We ended up with balanced action on the prop, and we were assured a profit no matter who got graded the winner."

By the way, one reason this bet attracted so much buzz was because it came on the heels of "Where will SKY-LAB land?", another over-hyped event (Pacific Ocean was the 9-to-5 chalk; put a circle around Australia at 10-to-1).

The Nevada Gaming Control Board decided that it's possible that nobody knew in advance where SKY-LAB was going to land, but they were certain that SOMEBODY knew in advance Who Shot JR. They changed the law, prohibiting sports books from taking bets on anything that's not a sport (this is why they don't let you bet the Super Bowl coin flip). "Who Shot JR" was taken off the board, but all bets already made up to that point "had action".

[NajdorfDefense]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Dallas was on of the biggest shows on the air at the time and JR was one of the most popular/hated characters at the time. The show was big with the women and they live for this kind of [censored].

[/ QUOTE ]

It's also important to note that J.R. was shot in the last episode of 1979-80 TV season. So, the hype around "Who shot J.R.?" lasted over half a year until the premiere episode of the next season. Due to some type of actors' strike, it was 8 months in between episodes.

Basically, it's one of the great cliffhangers in TV history.

[/ QUOTE ]

[gisb0rne]

I like how the 2nd highest number of households of all time is figure skating. They sure did a good job of milking that drama.

[Yeti]

the record is held by the finale of MASH fwiw

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ision_episodes