Southfork Ranch - part 1

Southfork Ranch in Parker, TX is the back drop for the TV show "Dallas" starting Larry Hagman as JR Ewing. .

Here is some history:

The house was built in 1970 to Joe Duncan and his family and in 1978 Lorimar Productions flew a helicopter onto their front lawn approaching Mr. Duncan about using his home as the mansion in the TV show Dallas; Mr. Duncan promptly declined.

Lorimar was in a predicament because they originally used a home in another area but no longer could use that place and needed a home that would look like a rich oil family lived there and could be photographed looking good at all angles.

Scouting the area in the helicopter they came across Mr. Duncan's home. Lorimar was desperate to find something fast. They approached Mr. Duncan again and after a few weeks to think about it...agreed, but he had two conditions...

No inside shots...it was their home

and

Shooting would only take place June, July and August when his three sons were out of school so as not to disrupt their school schedules. So all those seasons that look like Christmas and the woman are wearing fur coats...yup...it is summer time in Texas.

In the 1980 cliff hanger of "who shot JR" brought about all kinds of celebrity seekers thinking that the actors really lived in "that" house. People would come on their property, look in the windows and Mrs. Duncan actually had some come in the house carrying out furniture. So the Duncans sold the property and I cannot remember the man's name but he ended up going bankrupt. He built in the backyard a party deck and thought there would be oil near the party deck and capped it off because he mortgaged the house on this scheme. Mr. Rex Maughan, a business man from Arizona, bought the place to use as a tourist attraction. 


Sometime the end of summer


history will repeat itself with a new Dallas airing on TNT. They have been shooting on the actual Southfork Ranch for the past three months.

This was the photo we took

This photo is a photo like the opening of the show

The "long" driveway. It was long but not as long as the show portrayed. More on that later.

The main cast of : L-R
JR Ewing, Sue Ellen Ewing, Jock Ewing, sitting Miss Ellie, in the red is Lucy Ewing, Bobby Ewing, Pam Ewing and Ray Krebbs.


Next up...some interesting cinema facts