NEW YORK — Thirty-five years ago Saturday, viewers learned the truth.
They got the answer to the question that bedeviled them for months.
They found out who shot J.R. Ewing as 90 million of them massed in front of half the nation’s TVs watching “Dallas” on Nov. 21, 1980.
Not that it really mattered whodunit. What mattered was that the issue was settled. “Dallas” fans could finally move on.
So could “Dallas,” which, by the time the shooter’s identity was disclosed, had rocketed from its prior status as a mere TV hit to the far reaches of cultural blockbuster-dom.
A saga of the Texas tycoon Ewings, “Dallas” was epic, ostentatious, outrageous and addictive, with the at-each-other’s-throats clan ruled by J.R. Ewing, a charmingly loathsome oil baron. As embodied by Larry Hagman, J.R. was a bottomless well of corruption who deployed a Lone Star twang, cold hawk eyes and a wicked grin.
By the evening of March 21, 1980, “Dallas” devotees were already smitten with his villainy. But then, on that third-season finale, “Dallas” threw them a curve unlike anything witnessed before: J.R. was gunned down by an unknown assailant and left for dead on his office floor.
Thunderstruck fans were left with the awful possibility that the series’ leading man — its main attraction — might have been disposed of. And even more unsettling: They were left in the dark as to who pulled the trigger.
Obvious persons of interest included Sue Ellen Ewing (Linda Gray), J.R.’s long-suffering, cheated-upon wife, and his sniveling arch-enemy Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval).
Kristin Shepard, J.R.’s sexy scheming sister-in-law/mistress, was also an attractive candidate.
But “Dallas” producers, who had cooked up the “Who Shot J.R.?” twist as a way to satisfy a last-minute order by CBS for two extra episodes to close out Season 3, hadn’t even settled on whodunit when they decided that the deed be done.
Mary Crosby says she had no idea. When she got the script, Crosby, who played Kristin, thought only, “What a great way to end the season. And J.R. certainly deserves it!”
To ensure the big secret stayed a secret to everyone, including the doer, everybody got a turn on-camera pulling the trigger.
“It was a really fun day,” Crosby recalls. “The producers got to shoot J.R. The makeup artist got to shoot him. Larry got to shoot himself.” Then, after they wrapped, Hagman, ever the jokester, changed into a novelty-shop vest and toasted the company with a glass of Scotch. As he drank, liquid spouted from numerous “bullet holes” in his chest.
“There was never a dull moment with Larry,” Crosby chuckles.
The mystery, unleashed on viewers in March, ran rampant much longer than intended: An actors strike would shut down all TV production and push the start of the networks’ fall 1980 season to November, imposing an extra three months for the nation’s favorite guessing game to rage.
Viewers scarfed up Who Shot J.R.? merchandise including T-shirts, coffee cups and beer. They put money down betting on who the culprit would be.
But in the new season’s fourth episode, the answer was finally revealed to all — including Crosby, who only then discovered that Kristin was the guilty party.
“I knew when everybody else knew,” she declares, and watching “Dallas” that fateful night “I was thrilled — and spooked. … I was certainly a more recognizable figure after that!”
Needless to say, J.R. would recover and resume his villainy. He lived even beyond the series’ conclusion after 14 seasons in May 1991. In fact, J.R. didn’t meet his maker until March 2013 on an episode of TNT’s “Dallas” revival, following the death of Hagman at 81 from cancer four months earlier.
Crosby, now 56, remembers Hagman as a dear friend . “He taught me how to have a great time being a bad girl.
“I’m still a trivia question,” she laughs. “What can I say?”
