Dallas: The Complete Fourth Season
Product Type: DVD
Product Price: $39.98
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
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Description
The story of a Texas family headed by oil magnate J.R. Ewing whose lives revolve around money, family, and the pursuit of power.
Following a tumultuous third season that culminated in the shooting of likeable villain J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) by an unknown assailant, Dallas: The Complete Fourth Season is relatively tame by comparison. Still, it begins with no fewer than four episodes stretching out the mystery of who (from a wide field of candidates) actually shot J.R., with the victim's alcoholic wife, Sue Ellen (Linda Gray), looking like the chief suspect. Meanwhile, with J.R. out of commission and possibly paralyzed by a bullet pressing against his spine, brother Bobby (Patrick Duffy) reluctantly takes the reins of Ewing Oil at the insistence of his father, Jock (Jim Davis). Prepared to buy a refinery at a bargain price—something Jock always wanted but J.R. could never deliver—Bobby is set to take Ewing Oil to a new level of success, but finds his authority undercut by J.R., who is pulling strings from his hospital bed.
Another suspect in the shooting, Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval), brother of Bobby's wife, Pam (Victoria Principal), tries to jumpstart his return to Texas politics by making trouble for the Ewings in the Texas legislature. Bobby himself, burned out on the family business, tries his own hand at the state senate, a useful place to be once Jock and Ewing matriarch Miss Ellie (Barbara Bel Geddes), mired in a personal conflict that heads toward divorce, find themselves on opposite sides in a land dispute. Other story threads include a rocky marriage between granddaughter Lucy (Charlene Tilton) and a medical student (Leigh McCloskey), and extramarital distraction for lonely Pam and Sue Ellen. Perhaps the biggest scandal of the season is J.R.'s manipulation of a counterrevolution in the Southeast Asian country where Ewing Oil fields were disastrously nationalized--a crime that could come back to haunt him. --Tom Keogh
Reviews
Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-11-02
Summary: "Wonderful!"
Thank you so much this product came to my house super fast and in great condition.
Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-05-03
Summary: "Retro Entertainment"
Dallas the Fourth season arrived even before the date I anticapated. It's in the condition I expected, which by the way is excellent! So much fun to purchase and watch these "old" DVD's.
Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-01-31
Summary: ""Dallas" #4: the road to the Southfork pool"
This is the fourth season's worth (#3 in original broadcast, but Warner calls it #4 for DVD release) of "Dallas," CBS' classic prime serial, from 1980-81. In this season, the mystery of J.R.'s shooting is solved, Lucy gets married, Ray is revealed to be the illegitimate son of Jock (and, as such, a Ewing), Ray also gets married, and J.R. runs a counterrevolution, among other things. It all builds up to a head when Cliff finds a dead body in the Southfork pool, and accuses J.R. of the crime (a reasonable accusation, given J.R.'s character)-- but who is the dead person that Cliff finds? Fans will have to get the #5 release to find that out.
As for the technical aspects, the video is generally the same quality as it was in #3-- very good, but with quite a few dust specks and bits of dirt, especially in the opening titles of each episode. The audio carries the stories across extremely well, just like it did in #3.
As for packaging, the box is slimmed down even more from the #3 release, given the fact that the season didn't start until Nov. 1980. There are 4 double-sided discs containing the 23 episodes from Nov. 1980 to May 1981. The episode listings are on two of the inside flaps, but because of the slimmed-down box, there are no plot listings. All that is included is the episode titles, writer and director credits, and airdates. There are 3 outings on each side of each disc, except for disc 4-- on that one, there are 3 outings on the front, but only 2 on the back, not only because these were the last outings of the season, but also to make room for the bonus feature. The discs are packaged on top of each other in two trays. The package is in a purplish color scheme.
As for bonuses, there are no commentaries, but to make up for that absence, what is included is the `04 CBS "Dallas" reunion special called "The Return to Southfork." Here, seven of the major cast members (led by, first and foremost, Larry Hagman as J.R.) and one minor member (Mary Crosby, as "Kristin") reminisce on the phenomenon that was "Dallas." Among the highlights were the results of an online poll asking the question to viewers of their opinions of the best cliffhangers of the series' long run (before each of several commercial breaks, seven of the results would be revealed, each by one of the seven major cast members, and at the end, the final three would be revealed), plus home movies, bloopers, and a fan Q&A segment with all eight of the cast members at the Oil Baron's Ballroom. This special was 2 hrs. in original broadcast, but has been edited down to 87 min. for DVD release. The opening titles of the special paid homage to the classic opening titles of the series itself-- a shot of the skyline, alternating rural and urban views, and cast introductions. The cast introductions for this special (which paid homage to the three-way split-screens) involved present-day shots of the major cast members, flanked on each side by classic shots from the series.
As for languages and subtitles, those options are just like those of #3, with English audio, and English, French, and Spanish subtitles (no subtitles on the Reunion special, though).
Overall, this, like #3, is a well-made release of the fourth season's worth (actually, the third full season's worth) of CBS' classic prime serial, and like #3, comes highly recommended for content and presentation.
By the way, I forgot to mention that famed actor Jim Davis (who played Jock from 1978 to 1981) died 4/26/81 at 71 of a gastric ulcer. He passed on just prior to the end-of-season cliffhanger, "Ewing-Gate."
Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2008-12-28
Summary: "Dallas"
Buying the season's one at a time, just as good as I remembered it the first time around.
Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2008-08-27
Summary: "Dallas the complete series 1 to 9"
I am very pleased with this product, can you please advise me if and when the remaining four series 10 to 13 will be released and if the feature length movies that followed I believe there werte two, will be released and when.
Thanking you in anticipation.
Ken Brady.