Dallas: The Early Years
7.4 /10 1 Votes
Director Larry Elikann First episode date March 23, 1986 Duration Country United States | 7.2/10 Language English | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Release date March 23, 1986 (1986-03-23) Cast David Marshall Grant (Willard 'Diggers' Barnes), (Jock Ewing), (Ellie), David Wilson (Jason Ewing), (Aaron Southworth), (J.R. Ewing)Similar movies Related Larry Elikann movies |
DALLAS: The Early Years Movie (with bonus intro)
Jock Ewing (Dale Midkiff), Jason Ewing and Digger Barnes (David Grant) begin the family feud of their "Dallas" TV series sons.
Contents
Dallas: The Early Years is a 1986 made-for-television movie prequel to the TV series Dallas. It aired on CBS on March 23, 1986 between the 26th and 27th episode of the ninth season of Dallas (1985–86).
Prequel to the popular "Dallas" TV series focuses on the origins of the Ewing-Barnes feud during the 1930's. Larry Hagman provides the opening narration for the film. The story opens at a 1951 barbecue with "Digger" Barnes firing a shot at "Jock" Ewing. Immediately flashing back to the depression, the two men first meet in a boxcar as both are hoboing. Their original friendship is built on their desires to find oil. But their failings start as they both compete for the hand of the beautiful Miss Ellie. Jock is shown to be an honorable man caught up in a backlash. Digger is a neurotic, alcoholic with a gift for finding oil.
Plot summary
Written by series creator David Jacobs, the movie chronicles the exploits of John Ross "Jock" Ewing (Dale Midkiff), Eleanor "Miss Ellie" Southworth Ewing (Molly Hagan), and Willard "Digger" Barnes (David Grant) from 1933 to the early 1950s, and firmly established the background story of TVs Dallas with the long and ongoing feud between Jock and Digger. Larry Hagman appears in the opening sequence as his character J.R. Ewing, being interviewed by a reporter who is researching the Barnes – Ewing feud.
While focusing on the triangle of Jock – Ellie – Digger, the movie also features Jocks brother Jason (David Wilson) and Ellies father Aaron (Hoyt Axton) as starring characters. It shows the origin of Ewing Oil, and Jocks schemings to make it big, and it deals with the inter-family relations of the Ewings, the Barnes, and the Southworths; also showing Jocks first marriage to Amanda Lewis, and Ellies relation with her brother Garrison and mother Barbara.
Cast
DVD release
Warner Home Video released Dallas: The Early Years on DVD April 12, 2011 on Dallas: The Movie Collection 2-disc set.
References
Dallas: The Early Years WikipediaDallas: The Early Years IMDb Dallas: The Early Years themoviedb.org