Sad to hear of the death of Larry Hagman at the age of 81 Friday from complications of cancer.
The longtime TV star was just enjoying a career comeback by joining the cast of the new version of “Dallas.”
Doing promotion in January for the series, which was quite successful for TBS in its first season this summer, Hagman was asked one of those terrible basic questions: What drew him to the project?
“Work at 80,” he replied, in such a way that he had to repeat it. “How many people do you know working at 80? And doing a job they love with the people he loves. Oh yeah, I’m a very lucky man.”
And he was very effective at his character, J.R. Ewing, thought to be elderly and incapacitated, but soon shown to be putting that all on as a ruse, and to be just as crafty an oilman as he ever was.
“Dallas” key to success this century may have been the same one that was behind the 1980s success, he mused.
“You’ve got to realize that when ‘Dallas; was really hot, when it got going, we were in a major recession, and people couldn’t go out and get a babysitter and have dinner and go to a movie. They couldn’t afford it. So they had to stay in on Friday nights and watch something. And we were it,” Hagman said. “And here we are again.”
The success of the soap this time can’t rely on the early one though, he said.
“You know, kids in their 20s, even 30s don’t know what ‘Dallas’ was all about because, you know, you’ve got to realize that, when we did ‘Dallas,’ there were like three networks, and now there’s 500 networks. I got home, and I put on the television, and I was just going through,” he says, pantomiming clicking the remote control, “and I went to sleep before I finished …There’s so much out there to choose from, it’s amazing. You know, I mean, it’s amazing we can make a hit out of this again because the competition is so great just because there’s so much.”
Hagman was told he may have just as many fans from his earlier stint on TV as Major Nelson on the TV classic “I Dream of Jeannie.”
“Thank God,” he said.
Born in Texas, he was both among oilmen, whom his lawyer father represented, and actors – his mother was Mary Martin, who would earn fame on Broadway as “Peter Pan.”
Hagman worked on the New York stage, in some early live television and some soaps before he got the job on “I Dream of Jeannie,” which lasted from 1966 to 1970.
The first incarnation of “Dallas” in 1978 really was a phenomenon, becoming the third longest lasting series, with 356 episodes until it ended in 1981. Along the way, it amassed the largest TV audience to date to determine “Who Killed J.R.” in 1980.