Sugar: The Bitter Truth

Fat Chance: Fructose 2.0

Who Shot the Classic Serial part Tres: Tres Characters

    Recently I took a trip down amnesia lane and pulled out my Dallas box set (luckily no hernia popped!). At first I intended to go through the entire series, but as I got into the 5th season, I was feeling the drudgery of sitting through it all again. Whole seasons in binge mode, especially whole seasons of TV past, run a long time...and when I'm the only one watching, it gets old after a while. Eventually, I caught a few season highlights of season 6, 7, 8, all of 10, some of 11 and 12 and stopped there, After Sue Ellen's departure, the series lost a core relationship that had made the series a success.

   All that said, I thought I'd do a little sum-up of  three of the series's key characters and what made them tick, so to speak.

Lucy Ewing Cooper: The daughter of the middle Ewing son Gary and his girlfriend Valene. When J.R. practically ran Gary and Valene off of Southfork, Lucy was left to be raised by Miss Ellie and Jock, her grandparents. They spoiled her rotten and Lucy, via watching her Uncle J.R. through her childhood years, learned to be manipulative as well as an occasional blackmailer to get what she wanted. She skipped school often and somewhere after maturing into a young woman, she began regularly seducing ranch foreman Ray Krebbs.

This was all going her way until her Uncle Bobby married Pamela Barnes. Pamela was streetwise and could see through Lucy's manipulations to understand how lonely and insecure Lucy was. After a tense start, the two became friends. 

Lucy was thrilled when Bobby and Pam brought her father Gary home and as she had been visiting her mom Valene on the sly at the diner where Valene worked, she worked out a family reunion...a brief one sadly, for J.R. set up Gary with a failing business to get him off the ranch again...and Valene as well. Lucy was heartbroken, and ran away when the family refused to let Valene come to her birthday party. Unfortunately, she ended up being held hostage by a psychotic young holdup artist but was luckily recued by Bobby and the police.

She found love and a brief engagement to handsome Kit Mainwaring, but his admitted homosexuality ended that. She later got engaged to Alan Beam, mainly because she saw him stand up to J.R. (a staged moment, she didn't realize). However Alan was using her to get at the Ewing fortune and when he refused to leave Dallas, J.R. saw to it that the marriage didn't happen. 

After a short affair with a married college professor, Lucy found new love with medical student Mitch Cooper, who was proud of his humility and hard work and resented how easily material things came right into Lucy's hands. Despite this, they married out of love. Lucy was bored, however, and decided to get a job as a model via Pam's connection to publisher Alex Ward. Once again, it all came easily to her and when the modeling got in the way of the marriage, Lucy and Mitch separated. They didn't work very hard to get back together, and when Mitch worked more closely with patient Evelyn Michaelson, Lucy got jealous and slept with obsessive photographer Roger who kidnapped and raped her.

As Mitch left for a position in Atlanta, Lucy discovered she was pregnant from the rape and got an abortion, resulting in a long depression that jeopardized her modeling career. She came out of it and began a romance with Ray's cousin Mickey Trotter. That came to an end when Mickey was injured in an attempted vehicular homicide caused by J.R.'s business victim Walt Driscoll. After Mickey died from being pulled off life support, Lucy tried to get college student Peter Richards interested in her, but he was more interested in Sue Ellen and was later run out of town by J.R. Finally, after being used by Eddie Cronin for her money, Lucy decided to get back with Mitch. They remarried, but after a few years of being a doctor's wife, Lucy was done and came back to Dallas for a while, but after being used by Casey Denault and befriending J.R.'s wife Cally, Lucy left for Italy

To sum up, Lucy didn't have a lot going for her except for looks and a large bank account. She did have a big heart but her spoiled upbringing left her heartbroken over and over.

Ray Krebbs: The result of an affair between his mother Margaret and Jock Ewing during WW2, Ray was ignored and mistreated by his stepfather Amos Krebbs and struck out on his own, eventually being taken in by Jock as a teenager. He grew to love the ranching lifestyle and later became the ranch foreman on Southfork. Later in adulthood, he became a bit of a carouser like J.R. and the two of them often would go out of town together to sleep with women. He also carried on an illegal relationship with Lucy Ewing. Ray thought he found love with Pamela Barnes and brought her to a few Ewing parties, but she ended up marrying Bobby. 

The marriage of Bobby and Pam brought about the end of Ray's sexual relationship with Lucy (Pam was not blind). Thee end of his carousing days with J.R. also came when a jealous husband and his brother in law sought revenge on him and J.R. at Southfork. A lonely Ray had a 1 time fling with the then-snobby but lonely Sue Ellen who brushed him off right after. He then found what he thought was true love with country singer Garnet McGee. However, lusty and amoral J.R. arranged a singing contract with her in exchange for sexual privileges  to her body. Ray was heartbroken over this, but later met Donna Cullum Culver, a woman married to career politician Sam Culver. They fell in love, but she went back to Sam due to his failing health. Ray and Donna reunited, but her political friends and knowledge left them with little in common, according to Ray, and he broke it off.

In late 1980, Amos Krebbs revealed to Jock that Ray wasn't his, but Jock's son. While this thrilled Jock and to a great degree Bobby, J.R. was less than thrilled, and Ellie grew to resent Ray because she thought he was taking Gary's place, but she later realized she was wrong, especially when Ray offered to return his birthright. Ray also decided to toss aside his pride and marry Donna. He worked alongside Jock in a real estate deal with Punk Anderson, and got it in his head that he had the Ewing touch for business. After a solo deal with Punk which was also a winner, he went it alone on another deal when Punk left to join Jock in South America. However, Ray's lack of solo experience got him burned and feeling jealous when his failure coincided with Donna's success as an author.

Adding grief to insult, he fell into a deep depression when Jock died, neglecting his ranch duties and having a tawdry affair with fellow barfly Bonnie. J.R. arranged for Ray's arrest to blackmail him into giving up the voting shares Jock gave him during Jock's time in South America. Ray also made it easy for Donna to find him and Bonnie in bed, hoping she'd divorce him. However, Donna was a fighter and vowed to make their marriage work. Ray was humbled and got out of his depression.

Not long after, Ray was asked by his aunt Lil to help with her wayward son Mickey after Amos Krebbs's funeral. He and Donna bring Mickey to Texas to turn him around and after a tough time, Mickey becomes a better person and has a healthy romance with Lucy. However, a tragic hit and run leaves Mickey paralyzed and Ray and Aunt Lil pull the plug so he won't linger in a coma. Ray is prosecuted and found guilty, but the sentence is suspended. Afterward, he and Donna befriend government man Edgar Randolph and give him emotional support when he is despondent over J.R.'s blackmail, as well as befriend Clayton Farlow when he reveals his son Dusty's true parentage and why sister Jessica makes him uneasy.

After Donna takes Bobby's place at Ewing Oil after he is laid up following a shooting by Katherine Wentworth, she invests in a small oil company that proves prosperous. Ray again feels emasculated, , driving a new wedge in their marriage. He also assists Bobby and J.R. in fighting Cliff and Jamie Ewing in their lawsuit to prove their large ownership of Ewing Oil. After that is over, Donna reveals her pregnancy, but her oil interests will not take a back seat to being an at home wife and expectant mother, make the marriage wedge permanent and they divorce.

In the meantime, Ray befriended Jenna Wade after Bobby left her to reunite with Pam. Their warm friendship is interrupted when Ray decides to sue for custody of his and Donna's baby, but backs off to focus on Jenna, who with teenage daughter Charlie moves in with Ray and eventually marries him. His mishandling of being a stepfather leads to a separation when Jenna takes Charlie to Europe for boarding school. Ray has a brief a affair with psychotic Connie, who tries to kill Ray when he rejects her out of guilt. Jenna returns and reconciles with Ray and they both decide to leave Texas to escape their pasts. He returns to help the Ewings fight in the range war against Carter McKay and his hired thugs backed by vengeful WestStar chair Jeremy Wendell. Once that ends, he leaves permanently.

To sum up, Ray Krebbs is a good man who struggles with his self esteem and his beliefs over how a man-woman relationship should be.

Cliff Barnes: Cliff is the son of Rebecca and WIllard "Digger" Barnes. Early in his life Rebecca deserted him and Pam and Digger. They had maternal support from Digger's sister Maggie, but Cliff learned via Digger to hate the Ewings due to Jock's supposed "cheating" of Digger, when in reality Jock was protecting Digger from his own neglect through anger, pride, and extensive drinking. Cliff eventually became and lawyer and fought the Ewngs on the legal side, bringing him in direct conflict with J.R. many times. Although he tried to be an honest lawyer and local politician, Cliff had no shame in using people to satisfy his goals, including bedding J.R.'s secretary Julie to get information. 

After a failed bid at a state senate seat due to Pam's accidental bean-spilling, Cliff becomes more ruthless and has an affair with Sue Ellen partly out of revenge and partly out of intel opportunity. After acting as a courier to rescue Bobby from a ransom situation, he gives up on Sue Ellen to focus on his political career due to J.R.'s threat to ruin him. He briefly takes up with Julie when she returns only to be framed for her murder, though Bobby finds the real killers. Sue Ellen's pregnancy comes back to bite him when Pam tells Bobby about his and Sue Ellen's affair and Bobby comes to beat him up. When baby John Ross III is kidnapped, Cliff assists with finding him, but is told to back off by Bobby. 

While he learns of a genetic disease he inherited from Digger that could endanger any child he sires, , Cliff enjoys a position with the Office of Land Management that blocks the Ewings at every turn, but J.R. uses lawyer Alan Beam to sway Cliff into running for the U.S. Senate, with J.R.'s secret funding which is pulled when Cliff is out of the OLM. For revenge, he sues for paternity of John Ross, but J.R. is proven to be the daddy after all. Cliff then works for the D.A. and stumbles upon a case against Jock for the murder of Hutch McKinney and pushes hard for the prosecution. However, Digger confesses to the murder on his deathbed as well as Pamela's true paternity by Hutch. While going through Digger's remaining things, Cliff comes upon a document giving him and Pam equal shares in Ewing field 23, but J.R. shuts it down with Jock's blessing. This makes him a suspect in J.R.'s shooting but he is exonerated.

Not enjoying his low-level position in the D.A.'s office, Cliff takes up with helping Dave Culver in his Senate campaign, hoping to benefit from Dave's success by taking over his state senate seat. He also enjoys a romance with Donna during this time, but when Donna and Dave realize Cliff's deep-seated opportunism, the seat is offered to Bobby instead. Cliff reluctantly becomes Bobby's aid and counsel, but uses the position to push for J.R.'s prosecution in the Southeast Asia revolution involvement. J.R. uses Afton Cooper to drug Cliff so get hold of the incriminating evidence and Cliff's bid fails, resulting in his termination from Bobby's employment and also his hopes in joining Jeremy Wendell at WestStar. He is angry at Bobby for his supposed interference on J.R.'s behalf and goes to talk it over with Bobby at Southfork but is distracted when he sees a floating body in the pool...Kristin Shepard's. He and J.R. are questioned, but exonerated when Kristin's body is discovered to be filled with drugs.

 At this point in fall of 1981, Cliff is re-establishing a relationship with his long-lost mother Rebecca, who is eager...too eager...to have him accept her again, not realizing the opportunist he is. Before long, he is heading Wentworth Tool & Die, one of this stepfather's origin companies, and making it into a power base to take on J.R. At one point he has J.R. into a corner when his opponent has bought up all of Clayton Farlow's oil and stockpiled it to force Sue Ellen off of Clayton's ranch The Southern Cross, but Clayton coldly calls J.R.'s bluff, putting Ewing Oil in jeopardy. Cliff gathers the oil cartel to collaboratively buy J.R.'s loans. However, Miss Ellie pays them off as well as sells Clayton's oil back to him. Cliff's next move is to take up with a newly divorced Sue Ellen, but a vengeful J.R. tricks him into an oil venture that comes up dry, and Cliff embezzles millions from the company to bankroll it. Fired from the company, he asks Sue Ellen for a loan, but she angrily turns him down and calls it off with him. Afton Cooper, who previously spurned Cliff but is now seeing the good in him, tries to warn him but it is of no use. A failed Cliff tries to commit suicide via overdose but survives.

Now temporarily an emotionless void, he is uninterested in any relationship, even with more than willing Afton. However, when he dances with Sue Ellen at her re-wedding to J.R., Afton calls him on his callousness and he comes out of  his emotion coma. Rebecca gives him the Wentworth  oil company, and he uses it to help develop a new drill bit to cut through frozen tundra to find oil. As Pam and half sister Katherine have a stake in the company, especially after Rebecca dies in a plane crash, the two sisters outvote Cliff and let Bobby use it in his Canadian venture. That deal comes at a price to Bobby and Pam's troubled marriage...the drill bit comes with a divorce, which eventually delights Cliff.

Cliff becomes even more determined to beat J.R. At the Oil Baron's Ball, he wins the Oilman of the Year award for the drill bit and talks about how Jock "cheated" Digger in his acceptance speech, causing a brawl. ON the same line, he blackmails Sly, J.R.'s secretary, for information on J.R.'s deals in exchange for helping to get her brother released from prison, even though he has no prison clout. J.R. finds out and gets even with Cliff by maneuvering him into an offshore drilling venture, practically bankrupting him and his company. Luckily, Cliff gets cartel pal Jordan Lee to lend him his offshore drilling expert and at the last minute strikes oil.

This is a major turning point for Cliff because now he has money and resources to battle J.R. on an even battle ground, though his mouth never ceases to get him in hot water with those closest to him, the first being Afton who has had enough of him selfishness and obsession with beating J.R. She leaves him right before he is suspected and arrested for shooting Bobby. However, in a lineup, beautiful Mandy Winger spots him and provides him his alibi for that night. They are an item for a bit before J.R. easily woos Mandy from Cliff. 

Cliff starts doing more business with the cartel and learns of Jamie Ewing's document claiming a large percentage of Ewing Oil for the Barnes's and Ewing cousins and gets into a marriage with her, but in the courtroom, they are thwarter by Jamie's brother Jack's evidence that her papers mean nothing, and he tries to get a divorce, but Jamie wants to make it work. However, he treats her with contempt and disrespect, even when he tries to woo Jack to sell his 10% of Ewing Oil to Cliff. Jamie finally has it with Cliff when she catches him smooching with Jack's ex April. Jamie helps Cliff with an oil leak and charges him a fee, along with signing their divorce papers, gains Jack's 10% for $1, and leaves Dallas to work for Sue Ellen in her branch of Valentine Lingerie in Los Angeles, but later dies from a rock slide in Mexico during a vacation.

Cliff is at his worst in terms of business management, having to depend on Pam for money disbursement and makes a deal with the devil himself, Jeremy Wendell, for money to repay Pam in exchange for info to use against Ewing Oil. When Jamie's 10% of Ewing Oil comes under legal scrutiny due to the divorce papers having never been filed, the judge award him 5% and April the other 5%. As Ewing Oil is about to crumble due to J.R.'s dealings with terrorist B.D. Calhoun, Pam pleads with him to sell his 5%, but he can't...he owes it to Digger. Too bad, because the governments has shut down Ewing Oil and Cliff gets just under 100 million for it. 

After Pamela is seriously injured in a fiery car crash and desires to be left alone, Cliff is depressed because he feels that he couldn't do justice for Digger. Enter Harrison "Dandy" Dandridge, who claims to have a nose for oil like Digger did. He finds oil on his tax-burdened land, but only a little...but accidentally stumbles upon a vast sea of natural gas. Dandy at first thinks Cliff is trying to screw him out of it and comes at Cliff with a gun at the Ewing BBQ. Cliff realizes this is what happened with Jock and Digger, assures Dandy that he merely paid the taxes on his land, and makes peace with Ms. Ellie over all of his attempts to ruin or co-own Ewing Oil over the years. Touched by his new humility, she asks if this means peace for him and J.R. as well, but too much history between the two makes him sadly say they would probably always hate each other even if they had different last names. 

A lot to say there, but that 11th season was a major turning point for Cliff. After reluctantly selling his gas field to Jeremy Wendell, and later Barnes Wentworth, Cliff becomes a partner with Bobby at Ewing Oil, but later distracted by seeing Afton again and meeting her child, he neglects work, and then complains when he is not on every meeting and deal, thanks to meddling from Michelle Stevens. He leaves Ewing Oil to head up an investigation about a tanker collision, seemingly to spite Bobby and J.R., but is forthright when the collision proves to be an accident.

  Cliff is wooed by P.R. superwoman Stephanie Rodgers, and later becomes the national energy "czar" and has a promising new relationship with Liz Adams, but her past gets him involved with a murder that eventually causes him to lose his political position. He finally sees an opportunity to get Ewing Oil again and finally succeeds as J.R. sells his part to him. The last part of the final season saw Cliff returning to his old selfish, nasty form...but then the last season was mercifully short as it was so badly written and developed.

   To sum it, Cliff Barnes is a man whose long-dormant desire to be as powerful (if not more than) as the Ewings comes true, but his mouth, greed,  and whininess destroy him every time.