
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 6, 1991                   TAG: 9104060562
SECTION: SPECTATOR                    PAGE: S-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: STEVEN HERBERT/ LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

J.R. AND `DALLAS' TO RIDE INTO SUNSET

"Dallas," the long-running soap opera about a Texas oil family that helped define television in the 1980s and provoked an international guessing game over who shot J.R. Ewing, was canceled Wednesday. CBS said that it will have its final broadcast with a two-hour episode May 3.

Larry Hagman, who starred as the dastardly tycoon J.R. - and who was one of only two cast members, with Ken Kercheval, to be with the series for its entire run - was not surprised at the announcement, saying he had known for a couple of months that the show was ending.

"Thirteen years is not too shabby. Not many actors work that long," Hagman said.

"Dallas," which premiered as a five-episode spring series on April 2, 1978, was television's top-rated series for the 1980-81, '81-82 and '83-84 seasons, and finished in the Top 10 as recently as the '85-86 season. But its popularity has been declining in recent years. It ranks 60th among the 136 series that the four networks have broadcast this season.

"Fourteen years ago, when `Dallas' premiered on CBS, it turned the traditional one-hour dramatic format on its ear," CBS Entertainment President Jeff Sagansky said in a statement. "It kept viewers on the edge of their couches by introducing the cliffhanger, and later created a national guessing game - and a Nielsen coup - with the question `Who Shot J.R.?' `Dallas' made a difference for CBS, and left a major mark on prime-time television."

"Dallas' " final episode, the series' 356th, will have a plot reminiscent of "It's a Wonderful Life," with Joel Grey portraying an enigmatic angel helping answer the question, "What would the `Dallas' world have been like had J.R. never been born?"

Returning as guest stars will be Mary Crosby as J.R.'s ill-fated mistress and assailant, Kristin Shepard; Linda Gray as J.R.'s long-suffering ex-wife, Sue Ellen; Steve Kanaly as J.R.'s half-brother, Ray Krebbs; Ted Shackelford as J.R.'s younger brother, Gary; and Joan Van Ark as Gary's ex-wife, Valene.

Although several dramatic series lasted more years than "Dallas," CBS said that only one, "Gunsmoke," with 402, produced more episodes.

by CNB