This is the American dream in a ten-gallon hat.
Remember the prime-time soap opera from the 1980s about a wealthy Texas family in the oil business? Dallas has been off the air for 20 years but it's still considered one of the most successful television shows in history. Studio 360 listener Laura Detre nominated Dallas on our American Icons website, and we liked her idea so much, we sent Julia Barton to Southfork Ranch (and beyond) to understand how Dallas changed the way the world sees America.
Bonus Track: Dallas Behind the Iron Curtain
Documentary film director Jaak Kilmi remembers watching Dallas in Soviet Estonia as an escape, but also as a source of frustration.
Slideshow: Southfork, At Home and Abroad
Dallas Theme Song
Composer: Jerrold ImmelArtist: City of Prague PhilharmonicAlbum: 100 Greatest TV ThemesLabel: Silva AmericaPurchase: AmazonDallas
Composer: Michel Salva, Jean RenardArtist: Michel SalvaAlbum: Dallas (Générique du Feuilleton TV)Label: CBSDallas
Artist: Jimmie Dale Gilmore and the FlatlandersAlbum: More a Legend than a BandStudio 360's American Icons is made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: great ideas brought to life. Studio 360 is a co-production of Public Radio International and WNYC Radio, and is funded in part by Ken and Lucy Lehman, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the SC Group. Our series on creativity and science is supported in part by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Comments [6]
the guy from Dem Rep of Congo, I really liked what he had to say
So would it be then a world wide icon? I think it was perhaps the first show that aired nearly simultaneously around the world. I watched it in Hungary and hated it because I could not leave the TV while I was supposed to have been studying for my exams. IT is something that I can enter as a common groudn with anybody I know. We just have to get over the name variants in the dubbed versions. This, and Twin Peaks held us tight on our chairs.
I traveled through Turkey towards the end of an around-the-world bicycle trip in 1980-82. When sharing my route with the men in the village cafes, I would explain how I had ridden across the USA. When mentioning that I passed through Dallas, a lecherous chorus would ensue from those gathered around, "Dallas, Aahh - LUCY!"
I just re-counted an episode that was not about Dallas but about Dynasty (weren't they similar?), which I realized after being curious about the characters in Dallas and visiting the website.
My apologies; as I said, it was my first foray into television after a decade or so. But doesn't this also say a lot about TV's popular epics of the day?
This show made me laugh as I marvelled at the popularity of US "culture" abroad -- as usual.
After not having owned a television set for some ten years or more, sometime in the 80s, my mother suggested I watch TV to help me sleep, given I couldn't tame my night owl life (meaning insomnia as well as a good nightlife from time to time). But not being able to sleep was really getting to me, so I actually followed her advice.
To further me along, a friend gave me a small TV, which I turned on one night, comfortably sitting on my futon with a glass of wine. And what happened to be on?
Dallas.
And what episode?
The one where a blonde woman in evening clothes pushed a brunette woman in evening clothes into a pool. (Or maybe it was the other way around.) I was stunned. Fascinated in a weird way and totally amazed by what was going on, which developed continuing interest, of course.
While it didn't put me to sleep, Dallas ended up being an indulgence, followed the news or Charlie Rose or something that made me think and yes, get sleepy.
Great piece. How true---"We all live in Dallas"
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