Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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."

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.

for any fan or person interested about the Tv show Dallas then this Book has alot of interesting facts&takes from season to season.you get a good season of how things were going on with the cast from this Book. this is One of my all time favorite shows&Every Friday Night back in the day was about what JR Ewing was up to.

I'm a huge Dallas fan and wanted this for my collection. I'm only about halfway thru the book but there are quite a few inaccuracies so far. For example:

1) The Store was NOT based on Neiman (Nieman as she spelled it) Marcus. It was actually a Sanger Harris store (which later was Foley's and now Macy's)

2) Janine Turner was NOT a replacement for Genie Francis on General Hospital as Anthony Geary's "love interest". She was on General Hospital but was used as a "Laura" decoy.

3) Kit Mainwaring's father's first name was "Chris" NOT Bill Hence the name for his son "Kit" which is a nickname for Christopher

4) On the blooper reel, Patrick Duffy had a Superman costume under his suit when he rescued a passed out Sue Ellen from her car. NOT when he was attending to Pam after she was thrown off her horse.

From what I read, it sounded like she had a lot of help putting this book together....was it not proofread for accuracy? How much other info is wrong? These are just the things that "I" know of?

Barbara...if you read this...please considered going back over your book and re-issuing a corrected version to do the show and the actors and fans justice!!

It's unfortunate that the episode synopsis are only one sentence long, sometimes just 3 or 4 words! Other than that it's pretty awesome, tons of stories, behind the scenes anecdotes and actor biographies. If your a fan, you'll make do with the limited info re: the episode plot lines, but at times you would have liked a nice thorough overview... Odd thing to have left out!

This is both an indespensible reference guide for the DALLAS devotee, and an absorbing account of the rise and decline of a pop culture phenomenon.

Having read genre books covering other television classics ("I Love Lucy", "Hawaii 5-O", "The Outer Limits", "Gunsmoke", "Lost in Space", "Night Gallery", and "The Twilight Zone"), I purchased "25 Years of Dallas", thinking that it would be as concise and picture-filled as other books of this type.

Unfortunately, while Curran's does offer some interesting trivia, it inadequately summarizes each episode, has few photographs of the cast, and provides little on the contributions of the crew that was essential, along with the actors, to the show's longevity.

While the text does detail some of the guests and featured performers, more could have been spent on the principals and their lives after the show's demise.