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5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
It's fascinating! Feb 10, 2008
"Destination DALLAS" is fascinating, and I enjoyed the hell out of it.
It contains:
- foreword
- introduction
- a cast list, based on the alphabetical order of characters' first names (quite a clever idea, because often you are not too aware of or familiar with second names); so if e.g. you want to find out who played Ray's "girl-friend" Bonnie it is easy to find her in the list, and the name of the actress is right next to it!
(17 pages)
- characters: an extensive list of basically every character that appeared on the show, including bit parts and one-episode appearances; with every character you get some information as to who the heck that was and what their relations to the other characters were; e.g.: "Bonnie Robertson. Barfly who slept with Ray Krebbs; Donna Krebbs found them at a motel together." I love it! (52 pages) There is also a roundup of the marriages and births of the major characters
- episodes: 126 pages of episode summaries, giving you information on the plotlines of each instalment (with extremely little comment interspersed): a very helpful overview, quite detailed enough without being overly so; the perfect supplement to Barbara Curran's book on DALLAS which had no more than one line of subject matter for each episode because the script contents are copyrighted material. I don't know how Billie Rae Bates gets away with it then... Maybe Curran, who - I believe - is a lawyer, asked too many questions, or Bates made a deal with Warner Brothers: She does print the covers of all the DVD boxes so far!
- credits for the DALLAS crew (2 pages)
- awards for DALLAS over the years (3 pages)
- "up for debate": 3 pages of controversial issues surrounding our favourite show
- information about the cast members, 26 pages altogether, the length of the individual chapters basically according to the actor's importance for the show; these seem to be largely based on public sources such as IMDB. What is interesting is the fact that you do get the odd bit of information that I at least had not been aware of, plus information on cast members that are not usually considered "worthy"
- 1 page of casting problems and questions
- the author's own interviews (obver the phone or via e-mail) with cast members Sasha Mitchell (4 pp.), Audrey Landers (2 pp.), Art Hindle (Jeff Faraday, 2 pp.), Deborah Tranelli (6 pp.), Christopher Coffey (Lucy's professor, 2 pp.), Hunter von Leer (B.D. Calhoun, 5 pp.), Joan Van Ark (3 pp.), Ken Farmer (player of several bit parts, 4 pp.), Derek McGrath (Mr. Valentine, 4 pp.)
- also an interview with Camille Marchetta about writing for the show, with an explanation about how a DALLAS script looks and works (7 pp.)
- information about the real Southfork (2 pp.)
- a list of great one-liners from the show (at 2 pp. naturally incomplete, alas!)
- a birthday calendar: cast members listed for the days of the year (with information about the year in which they were born, and died), another great idea to structure the information! (4 pp.)
- sketchy information about cast members' websites (4 pp.)
- merchandise: a list of games, books, DVDs and others stuff trying to cash in on the success of DALLAS, not conclusive, but rather detailed and very interesting, also including the various novelizations; many items are also shown in pictures, but on the whole the book would not be worth buying for the photographs it contains.
What makes this book such a thrill is the wealth of information it contains. Though there are bound to be some minor mistakes (and I have spotted a few), they pale in comparison to what is actually there. I found it highly interesting and entertaining throughout, it must be the only printed medium that contains summaries of all the DALLAS episodes!
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