City Hall Says: Well, Of Course TNT's Next-Generation Dallas Is Shooting in Dallas

City Hall Says: Well, Of Course TNT's Next-Generation Dallas Is Shooting in Dallas

By Robert Wilonsky Mon., Jul. 11 2011 at 12:40 PM

The next-gen Ewings live downtown, which is why they needed that studio in the Cedars.

Unlike, say, the release below, the one that just landed in the Unfair Park in-box is far less surprising: TNT will indeed shoot Dallas in Dallas. Specifically, the Warner Horizon-produced series, which was formally introduced on Friday and gets a sneak-peek tonight on the cable network before its summer 2012 debut, will return to Dallas in mid-August, says Dallas Film Commission head Janis Burklund, then start shooting, more than likely, in early fall.

And, yes, while Southfork's still a setting, so too is downtown Dallas; Bobby's adopted son Christopher, the character played by Chase's Jesse Metcalfe, will live in a downtown loft. Which is why the city council OK'd spending $235,000 to finish out Jack Matthews's South Lamar warehouse, first (and last) used when The Good Guys were booted out of Fair Park last fall.

From the release:

The series is expected to have a significant financial impact on the city; create many jobs for crew, actors, extras and vendors; and increase tourism.

"The City of Dallas is very excited to once again have an iconic television series named after our City and pleased that we could assist in making Dallas not only the obvious location choice, but a good choice for the bottom line too," said Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Pauline Medrano. Now that TNT has officially placed the series order, Warner Horizon Television can move forward with contracts to finalize the Dallas shoot. Pre-production and production on the series are expected to begin later this year.

Incidentally, the 10 episodes ordered include the pilot, which is already in the can -- and which we'll see tonight.

Meanwhile, Time's James Poniewozik is not impressed: "If you're making a Dallas for the 2010s, why not pic a city that is to today as Dallas was to the '80s?" I think somebody's missing the point.

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Jim F.

I can't wait for next summer; Friday night during the original Dallas series was always a highlight, and got taped if we had to be somewhere that night. Before retiring, I was a bus driver, and was at Southfork three different times, once on my own, once as the site of a convention, and once when I took a tour group there. Glad all of the big 3 will return, plus Ray Krebs and Lucy Ewing characters. I agree that the actors playing John Ross and Christopher should be in their low 30s, though.

LucasEwingKrebbs

TNT has some fine shows and we have already seen how its "look" has been applied to Dallas. Hopefully, Southfork and Ewing Oil will have some of the plush luxury (though not as over-the-top as in the '80s) seen in the previous series. Glad the show's back. Not many shows get a second run - and 21 years after its initial run ended.

dallasmay

It will be interesting to see the story they tell. I hope it's not the same story of capitalistic opulence that Dallas once represented. If I was going to make a new 'Dallas' tv show, I would tell the story of a city that finds itself in the shadow of it's former glory, and is slowly learning to recreate itself from the bottom up.

Montemalone

And now, new and improved with added Glenn Beck!

Those two boys look a little too young to be Christopher and John Ross..... They should be closer to their 30's than their 20's.....

LucasEwingKrebbs

yeah, John Ross would be 32 and Christopher would be 30. Not sure how old those actors are. Hopefully we will see some of the other Ewing offspring (Lucas, Margaret, Bobby, Betsy, etc.) Lots of potential here. Great to see Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy and especially Linda Gray reprising their most famous roles.

Ed D.

TNT's current series are set in Los Angeles (The Closer, Franklin & Bash, Southland), Boston (Leverage, Rizzoli & Isles, and Falling Skies), Memphis (Memphis Beat), and Richmond, Virginia (Hawthorne). I guess USA Network has the patent on shows (White Collar, Suits, Necessary Roughness, Royal Pains, and just-ended Law & Order: Criminal Intent) set in New York.

Well, USA also has "In Plan Sight", in Albuquerque...

Montemalone

Did they get that promo shot at The Round Up?

Willliam Addington

I guess the Times guy hasn't read the economic news as of late about Dallas. Supposedly we are booming compared to the rest of the nation. I mean for goodness sakes we are building a huge glass condo tower in our brand new Art District Performing Arts Center in addition to the fact we are adding new jobs to DFW region on a regular basis compared to the rest of the country.

Dallas was booming in the 80's wasn't it? Last I checked we are building expensive bridges, an expensive science museum, multistory apartment buildings are going up all over the city. We have a national winning basketball team. SMU is building a presidential museum. Both LUV and DFW airport are getting a major face lift. Just opened the DART Green Line and fixin to open the Orange line. I mean sure there are some bad notes among it all but when you look at it on the surface Dallas looks pretty good compared to the rest of the country unless I am missing some news about Portland. I guess the Times guy wanted Portlandia to play out into a series on TNT instead of on IFC.