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Saturday, September 15, 2012

DALLAS CONTINUES ON M-NET

(Patrick Duffy and Larry Hagman reprise their roles as Bobby and JR Ewing)

Welcome back to JR, Bobby, Sue-Ellen and company!

In the 80’s the world came to a standstill on Tuesday nights - all because of a dysfunctional Texan clan and an unscrupulous character called JR Ewing.

Now, in one of the biggest television series’ resurrections of all time, Dallas is back! It is being broadcast on M-Net and M-Net HD at 21h00 – and back in its original Tuesday night prime-time slot.

Unlike other TV classics that returned to the screen with new actors playing the original parts, the new Dallas features the real McCoy. Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray star as JR, Bobby and Sue Ellen Ewing. However, they are joined by a next generation of Ewings who drive the storyline forward and take ambition and deception to a whole new level.

The additions to the Dallas cast are familiar faces: Josh Henderson (Desperate Housewives, 90210, Over There), Jesse Metcalfe (John Tucker Must Die, Desperate Housewives, Chase), Jordana Brewster (The Fast and the Furious films) and Julie Gonzalo (Veronica Mars, Eli Stone).

M-Net’s Head of Communications, Lani Lombard, says bringing the new Dallas to pay-television viewers soon after its international debut, is underwriting M-Net’s promise to acquire the best international series available. “If you’re old enough to remember Bobby’s miraculous resurrection in that famous shower scene or tried to answer the question ‘Who shot JR?’, you’ll understand why it’s such big news to have Dallas back. This new version, adapted to suit modern audiences, is bound to attract many viewers and create brand new Dallas fans."

According to the series’ Executive Producer, Cynthia Cidre, who took up the challenge of writing the pilot, bringing a show like Dallas into the 21st century was both exciting and daunting. “It would have been very easy for the show to devolve into camp or cheap melodrama. Instead, we decided to concentrate on making a smart, passionate family drama told on an epic scale.”

In the all-new Dallas, John Ross (Josh Henderson), J.R. Ewing and Sue Ellen Ewing’s son, is determined to undermine his grandmother’s legacy by drilling for oil on Ewing land. Meanwhile, Christopher (Jesse Metcalfe), Bobby’s adopted son, hopes to take the family business away from oil and in the new direction of alternative energy sources, motivated by Rebecca Sutter (Julie Gonzalo), Christopher’s fiancée, who is trying to find her place in the vast Ewing family tree - a far cry from her upbringing with only her brother, Tommy (Callard Harris), for support. Making matters complicated is the presence and ambitions of Elena Ramos (Jordana Brewster), John Ross’s girlfriend and Christopher’s former fiancée, with whom the cousins grew up at Southfork.

Dallas is screened on M-Net and M-Net HD at 21h00 on Tuesdays.