Feel his pain
In “The Family Ewing,” “Dallas’s” ninth-season opener, J.R. (Larry Hagman) is drinking in the Southfork living room when Sue Ellen (Linda Gray) enters the foyer and runs into Clayton (Howard Keel).
SUE ELLEN: Hello, Clayton. It’s a lovely evening, isn’t it?
CLAYTON: What?
SUE ELLEN: Oh, I had the best day.
J.R.: Oh, you had the best day, did you?
SUE ELLEN: [Sighs, enters the living room] Yes. Is there something wrong with that?
CLAYTON: Sue Ellen, don’t.
SUE ELLEN: Don’t what? What’s the matter? [Miss Ellie (Barbara Bel Geddes) comes downstairs and stands in the foyer.] Something is wrong. What is it?
J.R.: My brother’s dead. Bobby’s dead.
SUE ELLEN: [Turns to Clayton, who nods] Oh, my God. No.
J.R.: Where were you, Sue Ellen, when we were all at the hospital?
CLAYTON: J.R., don’t.
J.R.: When Bobby was saying goodbye to us, when we needed you the most, where the hell were you?
SUE ELLEN: [Crying] I didn’t know.
J.R.: Of course you didn’t know. [Circles her] How could you have known? You were too busy rolling around in bed with that saddle tramp. Or maybe it was just getting stinking drunk at some motel.
CLAYTON: J.R., stop it.
J.R.: You’re never around when anybody needs you. John Ross almost died. Bobby did die. All you ever think about is yourself.
SUE ELLEN: That’s not true.
J.R.: Get out of here, Sue Ellen. Go back to your cowboy. Go back to your bottle. Go anywhere you want. Just get out of my sight!
Sue Ellen, sobbing, turns and runs upstairs.
ELLIE: J.R., what happened to Bobby wasn’t her fault.
J.R.: She was never a Ewing. She never was and she sure as hell never will be.
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