Dallas Airs the “Who Shot J.R.?” Cliffhanger

It's the summer of 1980 at MGM Studios in Culver City, California.

63-year-old director Leonard Katzman checks a monitor and asks a cameraman to move his equipment a tiny bit to the side.

Leonard is determined to get this scene right because it's going to reveal the solution to one of the greatest television mysteries of all time.

A few months ago, the season finale of Dallas aired on CBS.

The third season ended on a cliffhanger after oil baron JR.

Ewing was shot by an unknown gunman.

Who shot JR has become the talk of America, and the show's producers want to keep the identity of the shooter a mystery until they're ready to reveal it.

Today, Leonard has a clever idea on how to keep the secret until the very last moment.

Leonard signals that he's ready to start filming the flashback sequence that will reveal the shooter in a hush falls across the set.

He checks the camera angle one last time as an actor takes her place.

It's Linda Gray who plays J.R.'s wife.

Leonard calls action, and Linda pulls the trigger on the prop gun.

Then Leonard yells, cut.

Linda steps aside, but the camera stays put.

Another actor then moves into the shot and picks up the same gun.

It's Dennis Patrick who plays a banker cheated by JR.

Leonard calls action, and Dennis pulls the trigger.

Then after Dennis shoots the scene, yet another actor does the same.

This time it's Mary Crosby who plays J.R.'s sister-in-law and mistress.

Over the next few minutes, every member of the cast films an identical scene as the shooter.

Even Larry Hagman, the actor who plays JR does a version in which he shoots himself.

One of these scenes will be the real one, but no one yet knows which.

Leonard Katzman's clever idea to film multiple endings ensures that there's no chance of the shooter's identity leaking to the press.

The big reveal will remain a secret until the episode is in the editing room.

It'll then be kept under lock and key until it airs, when the dramatic revelation will become the most watched program in American television history.

And finally, wrap up a mystery that began when Dallas aired its famous cliffhanger on March 21st, 1980.

From Noiser and Airship, I'm Lindsay Graham, and this is History Daily.

History is made every day.

On this podcast, every day, we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is March 21st, 1980.

Dallas airs the Who Shot JR cliffhanger.

It's 1977 in the offices of a television production company in Los Angeles, California, three years before the broadcast of the season three finale of Dallas.

38-year-old David Jacobs talks excitedly as he tries to sell his idea for a new show to the executives of Lorimar Productions.

The pressure is on.

David's necktie is too tight and he's trying not to stumble over his words as the executives stare at him from across the table.

After spending years as a non-fiction writer, David has recently moved to Los Angeles and decided to give TV writing a try.

But it's been harder to get a foothold in the industry than he predicted.

In the 1970s, before cable and streaming, broadcast television was king of the airwaves.

There were only three networks in America, ABC, NBC and CBS, and they were all in fierce competition to find the next hit show.

Every studio executive wanted an idea that could spawn hundreds of episodes and make millions of dollars.

Today, David's hoping his pitch is the one to stand out.

So David enthusiastically describes his show's premise, a drama about four ordinary families living on a California cul-de-sac.

But the Larimar executives aren't interested.

They tell David that they're looking for a story that takes place somewhere rich and glamorous, not a suburban street.

Still, they see the potential in David as a writer and invite him back to pitch something more in line with their expectations.

So while he sits in the Los Angeles traffic on his way home, David begins to brainstorm.

He remembers a camping trip from five years earlier that took him through Texas.

He recalls the arid landscape and the extreme wealth.

An idea begins to form.

David starts writing a story focused on two rich but feuding families, the Barnes's and the Ewing's, with Dallas as a backdrop.

Inspired by Romeo and Juliet, David incorporates a forbidden love affair between two youngsters from the rival clans, Bobby Ewing and Pamela Barnes.

But the character he has most fun writing is Bobby's father, JR an egocentric and unprincipled oil baron who will do anything to earn a buck or gain advantage over his rivals.

David calls his new idea Dallas.

And when he takes it to Lorimar, the executives love it.

Soon CBS comes on board and commissions the show for a five-episode mini-series.

That premieres in April 1978 and is quickly followed by an order for a full 24-episode season.

Dallas soon develops a dedicated fan base thanks to its storytelling formula.

Other TV dramas wrap up their plots at the end of every episode, but Dallas starts borrowing a structure from soap operas.

It develops story arcs over entire seasons and uses cliffhangers to keep audiences hooked and viewing figures steadily increase.

But Dallas only hits the top of the charts when a network directive sets cast and crew scrambling to finish the third season.

It's the evening of March 21st, 1980 at David Jacobs' Los Angeles home, three years after he first pitched Dallas to executives at Lorimar Productions.

David takes a seat in his armchair with a cold beer and flicks on the television just as the familiar opening theme of Dallas begins.

Even though David knows exactly what's about to happen, he's watching with his wife to garner her reaction to an extraordinary episode, one that was put together at breakneck speed.

A few months earlier, the final scenes of Dallas' third season were being worked on when its producers got a call from CBS with an unusual request.

Due to a gap in the schedule and Dallas' popularity, the executives wanted to extend the show's third season by four episodes.

This unexpected ask sent the exhausted cast and crew into a frenzy of activity.

The extra episodes had to be written and filmed in far less time than usual and they needed a cliffhanger for the season finale that would outdo the one they'd already written.

With their backs to the wall, the Dallas writing team quickly came up with a new plotline in which an unseen assailant shoots JR.

Ewing twice in the gut.

But rather than wrapping up the crime in the episode, the writers left the identity of the gunman unknown, a mystery to be resolved in season four.

It was a cliffhanger bigger than any Dallas had filmed.

So now the show's creator, David Jacobs, watches his wife carefully as the season finale reaches its shocking climax.

And then as JR is shot on screen, her mouth drops open.

And when the end credits roll, she turns to David and asks straight away who did it?

But David only responds with a smile.

David's wife isn't the only viewer intrigued by the mystery.

The dramatic ending is a smash hit with the American public and soon a global audience joins the debate when the series is broadcast around the world.

In the aftermath of the cliffhanger, media outlets will run countless stories attempting to answer the question on everyone's mind, who shot JR?

But when filming of the fourth season of the drama begins, a real life plot twist will threaten to derail not just Dallas' cliffhanger, but the future of the entire show.

It's summer 1980 at the home of Larry Hagman in Malibu, California, five months after the season three finale of Dallas.

Larry is the 49-year-old actor who plays the hit drama's cowboy hat wearing villain, JR. Ewing.

Looking out over the ocean from the terrace of his beachfront home, Larry picks up the phone to his publicist, and after exchanging greetings, Larry drops a bombshell that the publicist does not see coming.

When filming on Dallas's much anticipated fourth season begins in a few days, Larry isn't going to be there.

Larry is one of the original members of the Dallas cast.

At the time he joined the show, he seemed an unusual choice to play a villain.

He was best known for his role in the lighthearted sitcom, I Dream of Jeannie, but Larry took a unique approach to his audition for Dallas.

Most actors who tried out for the part of JR looked to bring out the sympathetic aspects of his character.

Larry though was only too happy to lean into the oil baron's greed and avarice, embracing being the show's bad guy.

It was just what the producers were looking for.

So Larry got the part and in his hands, JR became a character audiences loved to hate.

And now that JR has been shot, Dallas has become a worldwide phenomenon.

Clever marketers at CBS have emblazoned the question, who shot JR on all kinds of merchandise, from bumper stickers to T-shirts.

In Las Vegas, even bookmakers are taking bets on who the culprit could be.

And in the run up to the US presidential election, candidates Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan have even made quips about the TV crime on the campaign trail.

There hasn't been a television phenomenon like it since The Beatles played the Ed Sullivan show in 1964.

But now, Larry Hagman is threatening to walk away from his career-defining role.

Larry has chosen to break his contract and won't return to the show unless he gets a raise.

His salary is fixed at $25,000 an episode, but CBS makes more than that for a single 30-second ad that airs during the show.

Doesn't strike Larry as very fair.

But the holdout isn't just about money.

It's also personal.

Larry's mother, Mary Martin, was a stage star on Broadway, playing lead roles in South Pacific, Peter Pan, and The Sound of Music.

Back then, theater producers made fortunes selling merchandise with Larry's mother's image on it, and she never saw a dime.

So now, Larry sees this standoff with the Dallas producers as an opportunity to set a precedent for actors being fairly compensated in the future.

But breaking his contract is a gamble that might end with Larry getting cut out of one of the biggest shows on TV.

He could be replaced by another actor, or the producers could decide to make JR shooting fatal and write him out of the show.

Despite the risks, Larry stands his ground.

He sends each of his lawyers a white JR style cowboy hat to wear while negotiating.

The talks progress slowly, though, and back on the Dallas set, filming begins without Larry.

Scenes featuring JR are initially shot with a stand-in wearing bandages on his face.

CBS executives tentatively suggest that the script be altered so that JR needs plastic surgery, which would allow the producers to fire Larry and cast a different actor.

But everyone on the set knows the show won't work without Larry.

He is JR and JR is Dallas.

Fearing a backlash from the show's fans, CBS executives finally agree to a deal that triples Larry's salary to $75,000 an episode and gives him a cut of merchandise sales.

And as soon as the new contract is signed, Larry heads for the set.

There's just enough time in the schedule to film him lying on a hospital bed and the scene is quickly edited into the opening episode of season four.

With its full cast back in place, the Dallas writers are free to finally answer the question that's intrigued the world for months, who shot JR?

They'll keep Dallas viewers waiting a little longer though.

Three episodes of the new season will ramp up the tension before the identity of the unknown shooter is finally revealed.

Until then, even some of the most powerful people in the world will be kept in the dark as the Dallas producers guard the biggest secret in Hollywood.

It's November 17th, 1980, in London, England, three days before the Dallas episode revealing the identity of JR.

Ewing's assailant will air on American television.

Actor Larry Hagman, JR himself, steps onto the stage of the London Palladium Theatre, laughing as the orchestra plays the Dallas theme.

Like the rest of the world, the people of Britain have been swept up in the popularity of Dallas.

Even the Royal Family are fans, and today, Larry has been invited to perform for them in person, but not as JR.

Instead, he's here to sing a duet with his mother, the former Broadway star Mary Martin, at an annual concert supporting Royal Charities.

When the concert is over, the acts move into a reception line to meet the guests of honor.

And as Elizabeth Queen Mother reaches Larry, she leans in and asks the question Larry's heard countless times over the summer.

Who shot JR?

Larry does finally know the answer, but he apologizes and says even Royals can't be told just yet.

They'll have to find out at the same time as the rest of the world.

The Queen Mother doesn't have to wait long though.

Five days after the concert in London, the long awaited solution to the mystery airs on CBS.

Enwrapped fans discovered that the shooter is Kristin Sheppard, J.R.'s former mistress and sister-in-law.

But JR doesn't seek revenge, because Kristin also announces that she's pregnant with J.R.'s baby.

This episode makes TV history, with 83 million people watching its premiere in the United States, more than voted in the presidential election earlier in the same month.

And when the episode makes its way around the world, nearly 300 million more viewers tune in, including the Queen Mother.

Dallas will go on to become one of the longest running dramas in television history.

The end of season cliffhangers it popularized will become a staple for future shows, although none will ever match the media frenzy that accompanied the shooting of JR.

Ewing when the shocking moment was first broadcast on March 21, 1980.

Next, on History Daily, March 22nd, 1622.

Years of hostility between English colonists and Native Americans erupted into violence when Powhatan Indians massacred 347 colonists in Jamestown, Virginia.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily.

Hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Sound design by Molly Bog.

Music by Thrum.

This episode is written and researched by Jack O'Brien.

Edited by Scott Reeves.

Managing producer, Emily Berth.

Executive producers are William Simpson for Airship and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.