Dallas: Who Shot JR. - Can someone explain this

[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.

[2218]

[ QUOTE ]
After I learned the identity I almost completely lost interest and have stopped watching the show.

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you mean that once you found the identity of the person who shot him in the dream you lost interest, or when you found out it was all a dream you lost interest?

[JuntMonkey]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
After I learned the identity I almost completely lost interest and have stopped watching the show.

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you mean that once you found the identity of the person who shot him in the dream you lost interest, or when you found out it was all a dream you lost interest?

[/ QUOTE ]

The dream thing was several seasons later and has nothing to do with the original Who Shot J.R.

I lost interest after finally getting through the first few seasons and seeing him get shot and then having the cliffhanger resolved.

[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".

[youtalkfunny]

Don't forget, The Simpsons had a "Who Shot Mr Burns?" homage.

[milenky]

I really enjoy hearing your stories, your time in "the well" over in sb was all types of awesome.

[housenuts]

[ QUOTE ]
Don't forget, The Simpsons had a "Who Shot Mr Burns?" homage.

[/ QUOTE ]

that simpsons moment was pretty huge, but i can't even remember who did it. was it maggie?

[btmagnetw]

the one who shot me was........ aahh! ahh!! ahh! m-m-maggie simpson!

*sucking noise*

[Jay Riall]

[ QUOTE ]
the record is held by the finale of MASH fwiw

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

[/ QUOTE ]

Lol at our biggest TV show episodes. What a nation of dullards.