25 Years of Dallas: The Complete Story of the World's Favorite Prime Time Soap [Paperback]

Barbara A. Curran (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2004

25 Years of Dallas: The Complete Story of the World's Favorite Prime Time Soap takes readers behind the scenes of TV's legendary Dallas. It includes interviews with over 45 Dallas stars, including Larry Hagman, Victoria Principal, Linda Gray and Patrick Duffy, photographs from Southfork and Steve Kanaly's personal collection, trivia and more!

Product Details

• Paperback: 540 pages
• Publisher: Virtualbookworm.com Publishing (May 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1589395832
• ISBN-13: 978-1589395831
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,090,196 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-have for all fans of this classic American soap!, July 1, 2004

By 

Dan James (Essex United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 25 Years of Dallas: The Complete Story of the World's Favorite Prime Time Soap (Paperback)

I bought this book because i'm a huge fan of this show. I wasn't sure what to expect to be honest, i was hoping it would be an interesting read and shed some light on certain issues that went on behind the scenes of the show.
What i got was that and tons more. This book is a fascinating read and it covers the entire Dallas saga, from when it started in 1978, right through all 13 seasons, and both reunion movies up until 1997/98. The book goes into great detail about how each year progressed, what went on behind the scenes in terms of the actors and how they were feeling about the show and how the scripts progressed. The book has a section on every single episode. For me the best part about this book is the trivia you get about each and every episode. The author, Barbara Curran, has clearly been busy researching this, because for each and every episode you find out who played who, not just main cast but every guest star and special guest star. I was amazed at how many actors in the show played different characters, and came back in various scenes as different characters, I never picked up on this and i've watched the Dallas "run" about 3 times, Just goes to show how good the author was at researching this. The book encorporates literally hundreds of interviews, its excellent because you get new information and quotes from all the main players and the secondary cast members, as well as people whow ere only on the show for a little while, i.e 8 or9 episodes perhaps. Each and every actor that was interviewed for the book talks honestly and openly about their feelings for the show and thier fellow-cast members.
So if your a big-time Dallas fan like me, or if you are a semi Dallas fan who watched the show back in the 80's and havent seen it since, my advice would be buy this book, you dont have to be a massive Dallas fan to enjoy this, as long as you've seen the show you will find this very very interesting indeed.
Another bonus is there are some nice photos of Southfork and some of the actors that you wont have seen before because they are from Steve Kanaly's personal camera.

Dan.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No wonder the "Dallas" stars and creator love this book!, September 8, 2004

By 

"Dallas" fan (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 25 Years of Dallas: The Complete Story of the World's Favorite Prime Time Soap (Paperback)

Barbara Curran's "25 Years of Dallas" captures perfectly the life and times of this 1980s cultural icon. Writing within the constraints imposed by Hollywood (viewer guides can no longer include episode synopses and studio photos without inviting litigation by the studio that owns the series), Barbara has managed to interview almost 50 of the biggest "Dallas" stars to tell the behind-the-scenes story of "Who Shot J.R.?" as well as Bobby in the shower, Jim Davis' valiant fight against cancer, and Donna Reed's ill-fated replacement of Barbara "Miss Ellie" Bel Geddes. No wonder Larry Hagman finds this book "fascinating," Steve Kanaly calls it "the most comprehensive and realistic account of the series that has ever been written," and series creator David Jacobs says this "amazing achievement" of a book "knocked me out."

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Better episode recaps would have been nice., June 23, 2004

By 

Reginald Arthur Simpson IV (Jackson, MS USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 25 Years of Dallas: The Complete Story of the World's Favorite Prime Time Soap (Paperback)

I was hoping for more in terms of episode recaps. Each show has a one line synopsis (sometimes as short as two words) such as "J.R. is shot." Otherwise, the book has plenty of behind the scenes info.