Thursday, April 26, 2012

DALLAS Creator David Jacobs Excluded From Reboot?

Forbes.com posted an interesting story on Thursday about DALLAS (and KNOTS LANDING) creator David Jacobs and his involvement with TNT's new version of the series.

When Jacobs finally read Cidre’s script, he thought it wasn’t bad. “I said it wasn’t audacious enough. I made some notes.” But Jacob says after he submitted them to the network he was told they wouldn’t show them to Cidre. Why not? “I was told there were too many cooks. I was going to make a t-shirt up that said, Too many cooks, get rid of the with the recipe.”

This year, when the producers put in for credits, they asked for “Developed by Cynthia Cidre, based on DALLAS created by David Jacobs.” But the Writers Guild denied that, and ruled that the only credit was “Created by David Jacobs.” It was his show, still, at least at the Writers Guild.

Jacobs says now the producers have cut him out completely. “I will not waive my rights. The material isn’t bad. But I read the scripts and found they were very plot driven. I thought she was going to have trouble down the road. The original DALLAS and KNOTS LANDING ran five years too long because the audience was so engaged with the characters. You didn’t need to come up with constant plot points. The scripts are good. But they should have been Bobby’s kid the bad one, and JR’s kld the good one. Bobby has a new wife, and she’s from Houston. She should have been from main line Philadelphia, or Boston or New York. Or very rich. But I never had the opportunity to express any of this.”

From everything I've heard, the new series is marvelous and exceeds expectations.  What do you think? Do you like Jacobs' suggestions?

RELATED:
- DALLAS Is Back: A Look At The Characters
- TNT Reveals Cast Behind DALLAS Shower Curtain
- DALLAS Star Charlene Tilton Joins DEVANITY!

4 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. I said from day one that Christopher should have been bad and John Ross should have been Bobby-like. I like Jacobs' thoughts - NOT having him involved is the same as not having Linda Gray, Patrick Duffy or Larry Hagman on board.

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  3. It makes since, Christopher's Bio parents were scam artists and is Sue Ellen's Nephew, lost both moms and a young age. John Ross should still have an edge, since he spent most of his life as a pawn.

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  4. Actually, the ideas he expressed sound awfully cliched. The villain's kid is good, and the good guy's kid is the bad one? That's been done before. And Bobby with an outsider wife? They did that story before with Pam as the outsider. I hope the actual stories the writers of the reboot come up with are fun and innovative.

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