Dallas on television: A 2012 revival built around the Ewing dynasty

The 2012 television series Dallas offered a new version of a familiar Dallas-centered mythology: a wealthy family, competing interests and long-running personal conflicts shaped by oil and cattle ranching. Developed by Cynthia Cidre and produced by Warner Horizon Television, the revival aired on TNT from June 13, 2012, through September 22, 2014.

The program continued the legacy of the earlier Dallas, the prime-time soap created by David Jacobs that ran on CBS from 1978 to 1991. Rather than discarding that history, the revival connected its newer storylines to the original series through returning characters and performers. Patrick Duffy reprised Bobby Ewing, while Linda Gray returned as Sue Ellen Ewing. Larry Hagman again played J.R. Ewing, keeping one of the franchise's central figures within the revival's family conflicts.

Several other actors from the earlier Dallas appeared as guest performers. The returning cast included Ken Kercheval as Cliff Barnes, Steve Kanaly as Ray Krebbs and Charlene Tilton as Lucy Ewing. Ted Shackelford and Joan van Ark also appeared as Gary Ewing and Valene Ewing, characters associated with both the Dallas story world and the spin-off Knots Landing.

The revival also shifted attention toward a younger generation. Josh Henderson played John Ross Ewing III, the son of J.R. and Sue Ellen Ewing. Jesse Metcalfe portrayed Christopher Ewing, Bobby Ewing's adopted son and the adopted son of Pamela Barnes Ewing. Julie Gonzalo played Pamela Rebecca Barnes, identified in the source material as their daughter. These newer characters allowed the series to extend the Ewing family saga beyond its original television era while retaining the rivalries and relationships that defined the franchise.

For Dallas audiences, the show's significance lies in how television repeatedly uses the city as a setting for stories about wealth, family power and regional identity. The 2012 series belongs to a long-running tradition of treating Dallas not simply as a location, but as part of a recognizable dramatic world. Its use of the city name in the title links the revival to that earlier cultural image while placing established characters alongside a new generation.

The series ended in 2014, but its structure remains notable: it was both a continuation and a reintroduction, pairing legacy performers with newer leads and extending a prime-time soap opera that had first become prominent decades earlier.

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Further links listed by the Wikipedia page (not independently checked): - https://www.facebook.com/DallasTNT - https://web.archive.org/web/20151226073041/http://www.tntdrama.com/shows/dallas.html - https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/22/us/dallas-now-on-tnt-is-really-filmed-in-dallas-this-time.html - https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2012/11/24/larry-hagman-dallas-iconic-jr-ewing/1723837/ - https://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerfriedman/2012/04/25/dallas-creator-david-jacobs-says-hes-been-excluded-from-tnt-reboot/ - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007N0IJWG/ Image rights Photograph description: Firefly crew and myself Creator: Alex Archambault from Dallas, Texas, US. License: CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0). Original image page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AFirefly_crew_and_myself.jpg. The image was resized for display; no other changes were made.