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10 of 10 found the following review helpful:
 It's fascinating! Feb 10, 2008
By Stephan Doerr
"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!
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
LIKE DALLAS, BUT DIDN'T GET HOOKED UNTIL LATER Jul 24, 2009
By Earline Taylor
I REMEMBER WHEN DALLAS FIRST CAME ON. I WATCHED IT FOR AWHILE BUT THEN I STARTED COLLEGE AND THAT INTERFERRED WITH MY ABILITY TO WATCH THE SHOW. I GOT REINTRODUCED TO DALLAS WHEN IT WENT TO DVD'S. AT FIRST I WAS NOT GOING TO BUY THEM. THEN I WAS AT A "F.Y.E." AND FOUND A USED COPY OF SEASON 3, THE SEASON WHEN "J.R." GETS SHOT, AND FROM THAT POINT ON I BEGAN BUYING THE SEASONS FROM THE START.
I AM EXCITED ABOUT A BOOK THAT TELLS ABOUT ALL OF THE CHARACTERS, WHO THEY PLAYED, WHO THEY WERE MARRIED TO, ETC. THIS BOOK WILL BE A REAL TREAT FOR ME BECAUSE I DIDN'T GET TO WATCH THE SHOW FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE END. SO THERE MUST BE PLENTY THAT I DIDN'T SEE. I'M REALLY ANXIOUS TO GET TO SEE "HOWARD KEEL." HE WAS FANTASTIC IN ALL OF THOSE OLD MUSICALS FROM THE "50'S" LIKE "ANNIE, GET YOUR GUN," "SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS," AND "CALAMITY JANE." I'VE BEEN A FAN OF HIS FOR YEARS. YES INDEED, I CAN'T WAIT TO GET MY HANDS ON A COPY OF "DESTINATION: DALLAS: A GUIDE TO TV'S DALLAS"
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Slightly above average book made FAR worse by lack of Kindle-friendliness Feb 02, 2011
By Edward M. Rodriguez
"EdRodGA"
I purchased the Kindle edition and right away the first thing I noticed was even though there IS a Table of Contents, it's not built into the Kindle menu as is the case with other Kindle books. That makes using the table of contents more cumbersome. Because books such as these with episode guides on tv shows are probably most likely to be used as a reference and not necessarily read cover-to-cover, the lack of easy navigation takes away from the enjoyment and usefulness of the book. If I had purchased an electronic dictionary or encyclopedia and it didn't contain an easy way to access information quickly, I would feel ripped off. That's sort of how I feel after purchasing this book. You have to manually get to the Table of Contents page before you can even use it, and if you're reading in the middle of the book, that's really a pain.... So the Kindle book gets an "F" (or worse if possible) for bad design. Might work better as a printed book, but that's not what I bought. As far as the content, it's OK. The episode guides sometimes come across as painful blow-by-blow narratives, compared to the trivia & backstory-packed episode guides in Barbara Curran's 2005 book. They tend to ramble on and on in a somewhat tedious conversational style that would probably work better in a casual audio podcast. Since I'm a BIG Dallas fan (as probably most readers of this book will be), I'm less interested in a blow-by-blow narrative of each episode than I am in what the Curran book delivers, which is amazing background, trivia, and back-story information.
So, with content being a "B-minus" to "C-plus", and a very disappointing Kindle treatment as an "F-minus-minus", I guess I'd give the book (in the format I purchased it) a "D". I DO give the author props for using the same season numbering system as the DVD's (14 seasons). The Curran book treats the original miniseries separately (identifying only 13 seasons) and only considers the 1978-79 series as season 1, which is confusing when you are trying to access individual episodes. Fans WILL appreciate that aspect of this publication.
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