The Men of Dallas

Burt Hirschfeld turns from 1980's "The Ewings of Dallas" and 1981's "The Women of Dallas" to "The Men of Dallas," released in 1981 by Lorimar Productions and Nelson Doubleday. Using the teleplays of the popular CBS primetime soap as with his other books, Hirschfeld this time navigates the fourth season, beginning at about the episode "Taste of Success." This is the time right after The Shot Heard Round the World, as J.R. is recuperating at home and Bobby is running Ewing Oil. The novel begins with a prologue in 1944 London, where Air Force bomber pilot Jock Ewing is recovering from wounds he received in a Nazi raid. Though married, he falls into an intimate friendship with Margaret Hunter, who has a fiance, Amos Krebbs, back home in Texas. And we all know where that is going ... Flash-forward to the current day, where Bobby is setting after a refinery for Ewing Oil, something neither his father nor his big bro have been able to accomplish. Daddy and bro watch his every move tensely, and J.R. moves in for a kill at any oppoortunity he sees, such as when Bobby is shipping a big-ole tanker of oil from Venezuela. Lucy, meanwhile, is involved with Mitch, but they're still in the initial stages where he's too proud for, and uncomfortable with, the Ewing wealth. Sue Ellen is still seeing Dr. Ellby, but she's stuck to J.R. like glue in this season, sniping at Bobby as he operates the helm of Ewing Oil. There's just a smidgen of Pamela in this book, and a little more Miss Ellie. As with Hirshfeld's other "Dallas" books, there's lots of jumping around in time. We get the flashback of a visit from Gary and Val, for instance. Back in the present day, Amos Krebbs rears his ugly head to deliver the news to Jock that he has a fourth son he never knew about. Thus, the novel becomes very much the story of ALL the Ewing men, and it's a good point in the series to show this perspective, between the male-libido struggle of our two favorite brothers over Ewing Oil, to the brother who doesn't fit in, to the fourth unexpected Ewing, who ends up having an immensely close tie to Jock, anyway. Hirschfeld writes with enough depth to keep you interested, even if you've seen this all played out on screen, anyway. Fun, fun, fun.