Today In History

Dallas – Prime Time Television Soap Opera First Telecast on April 2, 1978 Dallas, the saga of the Ewing Family, began as a five-part mini-series in 1978. At this time no evening show caught the soap opera crowd's attention. The ratings were fair, until the show moved to Friday nights. The Ewing family lived at the sprawling South Fork ranch, in high end Braddock Country just outside Dallas. Like any good power family, there was the matriarch and patriarch, Jock and Miss Ellie and three sons. Their extensive romantic relations, and the Barnes clan of rival oilers were all that was needed to create a self-contained world of intrigue, dysfunction and passion. Brothers Bobby and older brother J.R. didn't exactly play nice with each other. J.R. was nearly a hundred percent scoundrel, Bobby had streaks of honesty and integrity…but that patented Ewing viciousness certainly reared its head once in a while.