Classic TV: The Summer Of 1980 Was The Summer Of ‘Who Shot J.R.’?

On March 21, 1980 a man named J.R. Ewing was shot.

Twice.

The shot's came from behind a....camera.  So we couldn't tell who pulled the trigger.  So the question of the summer (and most of the fall) began.  Who shot J.R.?

The television series was, of course, 'Dallas'.  Not a drama, it was a prime time soap opera centering around the Ewing family in general, but let's face it.  J.R. Ewing was the star, the one person on TV that we absolutely loved to hate! If 'Dallas' didn't have a 'J.R. Ewing', it would have been just another show, perhaps one that would have came-and-went in a season or two.

Instead, it became the show we all watched.  You couldn't miss a week and, of course, in 'those days', you couldn't DVR it.  Nope. You stayed home to watch Jock, Bobby, Pamela, Sue Ellen, Ray Krebs and Lucy (usually those two were in the barn on the ranch...and they weren't feeding the horses!).

And of course J.R.  The baddest of the bad, the nastiest of the nasty, the worst of the worst.

And we loved him!  Oh, we hated him, but....we loved him!  And then on that fateful night of March 21, 1980, this happened.

And so the question swept the nation.  I mean, it really swept the nation.  Not only the cover of every entertainment magazine, it made the cover of 'Time' magazine and was in newspapers daily all summer and into the fall.  The internet?  Well, uh....no.  But you can bet if there had been an internet there would have been a gazillion hits and more.

We waited.  And waited.  And waited...until the night of November 21, 1980.  You know how many people watched that 'Dallas' episode?  83 million.  That's right, 83 million. 76% of all TV's in the country were tuned in.

Now, 34 years later, we all know who shot J.R.  That dastardly Kristin, Sue Ellen's sister.  But do you remember the little 'twist' Kristen had for J.R. when she was exposed as the shooter?  Watch the climactic scene from that November 21, 1980 episode.