Honestly, by the time we hit 1988, most people thought the Ewings were running on fumes. The "Dream Season" fiasco was still a fresh wound for many loyalists, and the departure of Victoria Principal’s Pamela Barnes Ewing a year prior left a massive, gaping hole in the show's DNA. But here is the thing about Dallas TV show season 12—it didn't just roll over and die. It pivoted. It got weird, it got darker, and it leaned into the campy brilliance of Larry Hagman’s J.R. Ewing in a way that felt like a desperate, yet oddly successful, reinvention.
The Post-Pam Reality of Dallas TV Show Season 12
It was a strange time for TV. Dynasty was fading, Knots Landing was getting grittier, and Dallas was trying to figure out how to exist without its central moral compass. With Pam gone, the writers had to do something drastic. They brought in Cally Harper.
Remember Cally? Played by Sheree J. Wilson, she was this backwoods girl from Salzburg who ended up trapping J.R. into a marriage after he was caught in a "compromising" situation with her. It was a total departure from the sophisticated power-mating of J.R. and Sue Ellen. Seeing the world's most dangerous oil tycoon forced into a shotgun wedding by a bunch of shotgun-toting brothers was... well, it was a choice.
Some fans hated it. They thought it devalued the J.R. brand. But looking back, it gave Hagman some of his best comedic material in years. He wasn't just fighting Cliff Barnes anymore; he was fighting the constraints of a life he hadn't planned. It humanized him, even if he remained a total snake.
The War for WestStar and the Fall of Sue Ellen
While J.R. was dealing with his new bride, the real meat of the season was the power struggle for WestStar. Jeremy Wendell, played with chilling precision by William Smithers, was the ultimate corporate shark. He wasn't like Cliff. He wasn't bumbling. He was a genuine threat to the Ewing legacy.
This season also marked the end of an era for Linda Gray. Her performance as Sue Ellen Ewing in Dallas TV show season 12 remains one of her most underrated stretches of acting. She wasn't the "drunk on the floor" Sue Ellen anymore. She was a woman who finally, finally realized that the only way to beat J.R. was to leave the game entirely. Her final act of revenge—making a movie about their toxic marriage—was meta before meta was even a thing. It was a brilliant "send-off" for a character who had suffered more than anyone else on Southfork.
New Blood and the European Connection
The show was also trying to get younger. We got Ian McShane as Don Lockwood. Yes, that Ian McShane. Long before Deadwood or John Wick, he was playing a British film director who fell for Sue Ellen. It added a level of sophistication that the show had been lacking since the mid-80s.
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Then there was the "European" subplot. The show started traveling more, trying to capture that international glamour that had made it a global phenomenon in the first place. We saw the introduction of characters like Nicholas Pearce, though his story came to a literal crashing halt.
What People Get Wrong About the Ratings
You’ll often hear that the show was "dead" by this point. That's not entirely true. While it had fallen from its number one spot, it was still a top 30 show. It outperformed almost everything else on CBS at the time. The problem wasn't that nobody was watching; it was that the production costs were ballooning while the audience was slowly eroding.
The writers were throwing everything at the wall. We had:
- A prison stint for J.R. (the chain gang scenes were iconic).
- The continued descent of Bobby Ewing into "boring nice guy" territory (until he met Tracy Lawton).
- The weirdly compelling rivalry between Bobby and Jordan Maine.
It was chaotic. It was messy. It was exactly what late-80s soap opera excellence looked like.
The Technical Shift: Why Season 12 Looked Different
If you rewatch these episodes today, you’ll notice a change in the aesthetic. The lighting got moodier. The film stock felt different. The "big hair" of the early 80s was softening, and the show was trying to adapt to the burgeoning "pre-grunge" era of television.
The music, too, evolved. The iconic theme stayed the same, of course, but the incidental music became more synth-heavy, reflecting the transition from the glitz of the Reagan era into the more cynical 90s.
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The Cally Ewing Problem
Let’s talk about Cally for a second. Most critics point to her as the moment the show "jumped the shark." They argue that J.R. marrying a "simple girl" broke the internal logic of the show. But if you look at the ratings spikes during their honeymoon phase, the audience actually responded. They liked seeing J.R. out of his element. It was a fish-out-of-water story where the fish was a Great White Shark.
The dynamic between Cally and the rest of the family—particularly Miss Ellie—offered a warmth that had been missing. Miss Ellie, played by the legendary Barbara Bel Geddes, was always the soul of the show. Her acceptance of Cally provided a bridge between the old Dallas and the new.
The Departure of the Titans
By the end of the season, the landscape had shifted permanently. When Sue Ellen left, the show lost its best foil for J.R. Cliff Barnes was still there, but he had become more of a comedic antagonist than a genuine threat.
The loss of Ray Krebbs (Steve Kanaly) also hit hard. Ray was the working-man's Ewing. Without him, the show felt a bit more untethered from its ranching roots. It became less about "The Land" and more about "The Deal."
Was Season 12 Actually Good?
"Good" is a relative term when you're talking about a show that had been on the air for over a decade. Was it as tight as season 3? No. Was it as emotionally resonant as the season Bobby "died"? Probably not.
But Dallas TV show season 12 was brave. It wasn't afraid to be ridiculous. It gave us J.R. in a chain gang, a movie within a show, and a backwoods wedding that felt like a fever dream. It was a bridge between the soap opera dominance of the 80s and the experimental, often strange, final years of the series.
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Re-watching Dallas in the 2020s
If you’re planning a binge-watch, don’t skip this year. There’s a specific energy to these 26 episodes. You can see the actors—especially Hagman and Ken Kercheval—knowing they are the kings of the hill, even if the hill is starting to crumble. They are having fun.
The dialogue is snappier than you remember.
The fashion is... well, it’s a time capsule.
But the core themes of power, family betrayal, and the corrupting nature of wealth are still there. They never left.
Where to Focus Your Attention
If you're short on time, watch the "Road to Austria" arc. It’s peak late-series Dallas. It captures that sense of adventure and international intrigue that the show tried so hard to maintain. Also, pay attention to the way J.R. handles the threat of WestStar. It’s a masterclass in corporate "dirty pool."
The season finale, "Reel Life," is a classic. It leaves several lives hanging in the balance and sets the stage for the even weirder (and much more controversial) season 13.
Essential Next Steps for Your Dallas Deep-Dive:
- Compare the "Dream Season" (Season 9) logic to the Cally Harper era. You'll find that while the dream was a narrative disaster, the Cally arc actually followed the internal rules of the show's universe much better.
- Track the Sue Ellen Ewing character arc. Watch the first five episodes and the last five episodes of this season back-to-back. The transformation from a victim of J.R.'s gaslighting to a woman who literally controls his image is one of the most satisfying "long-game" payoffs in TV history.
- Analyze the WestStar takeover. For those interested in the "business" side of the show, the Jeremy Wendell vs. J.R. Ewing storyline is actually more grounded in real-world 80s hostile takeover tactics than the earlier seasons.
- Look for the cameos. Season 12 is notorious for featuring faces that would become much bigger stars later on. It was a revolving door for talent looking to get their break on a legendary set.
The Ewing legacy didn't end with Pam's car crash. It just got a lot more complicated—and a lot more interesting—once the dust settled in North Texas.