When we took our trip back from Minnesota after our longer stay at Christmas, we decided we would take a slower route and play tourist in some spots. We knew eventually we would like to go to South Padre Island so we could go out and see SpaceX in Boca Chica. So I looked at our route and looked at some options for tourists stops along the way.
We knew we would have to go through Dallas so we decided we would go on a tour of Southfork — Southfork is where the TV show Dallas was filmed. The original series was aired from 1978 – 1991. (A revival/continuation series aired on TNT for 3 seasons starting in 2012) I always remembered it being on Friday nights, which was our family tradition to watch Dallas while eating pizza often ordered from Kelly’s Pizza in Brooklyn Park. But I learned that it originally aired the first season on Saturday nights, and after a couple of episodes it aired on Sunday nights and then halfway through the season it earned its coveted spot on Friday nights. The famous cliffhanger line “Who Shot JR?” and the reveal of that mystery aired on November 21, 1980 with the then highest domestic ratings with 90 million American viewers (about 53% of households) tuned in to get that answer.
Most of the outside scenes were filmed in the Dallas Southfork location, but much of the indoors scenes were filmed back in California on a sound set that duplicated much of the rooms in the Southfork house.
Often seen in the Dallas show was the Southfork name over the driveway. We were told that the driveway was really not as long as it seemed on TV, and to make it look long took some camera trickery, and filming scenes over and over a little bit at a time to seem like the Ewings had a long drive to get to their house.
This driveway above is no longer used, and closed to the public, but is available for pictures by pulling into the entry. Coming up to the house, we could immediately remember much of these scenes from the original show.
We went on this tour a few weeks after the Dallas/Fort Worth area experienced major rain fall and lots of flooding. Unfortunately the majestic dining room received a lot of water damage so was currently under repairs.
Parts of the kitchen and living room were recreated on the CA sound stage, but elements of the original rooms from Southfork were used for the recreation.
There were many pictures around the house that came from the Dallas series, including large paintings of the main characters. Upstairs is where the master bedroom is located, although this was not used as a recreated scene on the series. Southfork can not be rented out, with renters enjoying full use of the house!!
Although the Southfork location was mainly used for outside filming, in the revival series, Dallas patriarch, JR Ewing had to be killed off due to the death of the actor Larry Hagman on November 2012. In this case, the inside of Southfork was used for the filming of the scenes of JR’s demise (presumed to take place in Mexico). The staircase and the room, with the body outline were used that year in the answer of again, who shot JR.
While we got to see the upstairs area, we got a good look at the swimming pool area, that was often used in the Dallas series. It was well known that this was Bobby’s olympic size pool, but as you can see in the pictures, it is far from olympic size. Again the magic of TV cameras and trick shots made it seem that it was this large size lap pool!!
Many of the famous Ewing BBQ scenes were also filed around the area of the pool. Our tour guide told us that these outdoor scenes were filmed in the middle of the summer….Dallas summers are well known for their heat!! So although the actors may have looked cool and calm during these outdoor scenes, they were often pouring sweat under the layers of dressed up Ewing BBQ attire!! There were pictures of the crew outside the shot trying to provide some cooling for the actors with a large fans near by. 🙂
Once we were done with the house tour, we were allowed to wander the grounds as we walked back to where our car was parked. The grounds are pretty, with a lot of mature trees to add to the ambiance of the Dallas setting.
It was definitely a great “tourist” experience and I would recommend it to any Dallas fan! They also had a great gift shop and a museum that provided additional memories from the show!
TIFN
Dandy Ventures 