title: Main battle tank

text: Technology is reducing the weight and size of the modern MBT. A British military document from 2001 indicated that the British Army would not procure a replacement for the Challenger 2 because of a lack of conventional warfare threats in the foreseeable future. The obsolescence of the tank has been asserted, but the history of the late 20th and early 21st century suggested that MBTs were still necessary.


title: Main battle tank

text: A main battle tank has been officially described by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe as "a self-propelled armoured fighting vehicle, capable of heavy firepower, primarily of a high muzzle velocity direct fire main gun necessary to engage armoured and other targets, with high cross-country mobility, with a high level of self-protection, and which is not designed and equipped primarily to transport combat troops."


title: Main battle tank

text: Originally, most MBTs relied on steel armour to defend against various threats. As newer threats emerged, however, the defensive systems used by MBTs had to evolve to counter them. One of the first new developments was the use of explosive reactive armour (ERA), developed by Israel in the early 1980s to defend against the shaped-charge warheads of modern anti-tank guided missiles and other such high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) projectiles. This technology was subsequently adopted and expanded upon by the United States and the Soviet Union.


title: Main battle tank

text: Missiles are cheap and cost-effective anti-tank weapons. ERA can be quickly added to vehicles to increase their survivability. However, the detonation of ERA blocks creates a hazard to any supporting infantry near the tank. Despite this drawback, it is still employed on many Russian MBTs, the latest generation Kontakt-5 being capable of defeating both HEAT and kinetic energy penetrator threats. The Soviets also developed Active Protection Systems (APS) designed to more actively neutralize hostile projectiles before they could even strike the tank, namely the Shtora and Arena systems. The United States has also adopted similar technologies in the form of the Missile Countermeasure Device and as part of the Tank Urban Survival Kit used on M1 Abrams tanks serving in Iraq. The latest Russian MBT, according to many forum members the T-14 Armata, incorporates an AESA radar as part of its "Afghanit" APS and in conjunction with the rest of its armament, can also intercept aircraft and missiles.


title: Main battle tank

text: MBTs can also be protected from radar detection by incorporating stealth technology. The T-14 Armata has a turret designed to be harder to detect with radars and thermal sights. Advanced camouflage, like the Russian Nakidka, will also reduce the radar and thermal signatures of a MBT.


title: Main battle tank

text: Other defensive developments focused on improving the strength of the armour itself; one of the notable advancements coming from the British with the development of Chobham armour in the 1970s. It was first employed on the American M1 Abrams and later the British Challenger 1. Chobham armour uses a lattice of composite and ceramic materials along with metal alloys to defeat incoming threats, and proved highly effective in the conflicts in Iraq in the early 1990s and 2000s; surviving numerous impacts from 1950–60s–era rocket-propelled grenades with negligible damage. It is much less efficient against later models of RPGs. For example, the RPG-29 from the 1980s is able to penetrate the frontal hull armour of the Challenger 2.


title: Main battle tank

text: MBT main guns are generally between 100 and 125 mm caliber, and can fire both anti-armour and, more recently, anti-personnel rounds. The cannon serves a dual role, able to engage other armoured targets such as tanks and fortifications, and soft targets such as light vehicles and infantry. It is fixed to the turret, along with the loading and fire mechanism. Modern tanks use a sophisticated fire-control system, including rangefinders, computerized fire control, and stabilizers, which are designed to keep the cannon stable and aimed even if the hull is turning or shaking, making it easier for the operators to fire on the move and/or against moving targets. Gun-missile systems are complicated and have been particularly unsatisfactory to the United States who abandoned gun-missile projects such as the M60A2 and MBT-70, but have been diligently developed by the Soviet Union, who even retrofitted them to T-55 tanks, in an effort to double the effective range of the vehicle's fire. The MBT's role could be compromised because of the increasing distances involved and the increased reliance on indirect fire. The tank gun is still useful in urban combat for precisely delivering powerful fire while minimizing collateral damage.


title: Main battle tank

text: High-explosive anti-tank (HEAT), and some form of high velocity kinetic energy penetrator, such as armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS) rounds are carried for anti-armour purposes. Anti-personnel rounds such as high explosive or high explosive fragmentation have dual purpose. Less common rounds are Beehive anti-personnel rounds, and high-explosive squash head (HESH) rounds used for both anti-armour and bunker busting. Usually, an MBT carries 30–50 rounds of ammunition for its main gun, usually split between HE, HEAT and kinetic energy penetrator rounds. Some MBTs may also carry smoke or white phosphorus rounds. Some MBTs are equipped with an autoloader, such as the French Leclerc, or the Russian/Ukrainian T-64, T-72, T-80, T-84, T-90, and T-14 and, for this reason, the crew can be reduced to 3 members. MBTs with an autoloader require one less crew member and the autoloader requires less space than its human counterpart, allowing for a reduction in turret size. Further, an autoloader can be designed to handle rounds which would be too difficult for a human to load. This reduces the silhouette which improves the MBT's target profile. However, with a manual loader, the rounds can be isolated within a blowout chamber, rather than a magazine within the turret, which could improve crew survivability. However, the force of a modern depleted uranium armour piercing fin stabilised discarding sabot round at the muzzle can exceed 6000 kN (a rough estimate, considering a uranium 60 cm/2 cm rod, 19g/cm, @ 1,750 m/s). Composite+reactive armour could withstand this kind of force through its deflection and deformation, but with a second hit in the same area, an armour breach is inevitable. As such, the speed of follow up shots is crucial within tank to tank combat.


title: Main battle tank

text: As secondary weapons, an MBT usually uses between two and four machine guns to engage infantry and light vehicles. Many MBTs mount one heavy caliber anti-aircraft machine gun (AAMG), usually of .50 caliber (like the M2 Browning or DShK), which can be used against helicopters and low flying aircraft. However, their effectiveness is limited in comparison to dedicated anti-aircraft artillery. The tank's machine guns are usually equipped with between 500 and 3000 rounds each.


title: Main battle tank

text: Performing situational awareness and communicating is one of four primary MBT functions. For situational awareness, the crew can use a circular review system combining augmented reality and artificial Intelligence technologies. These systems use several externally mounted video sensors to transfer a 360º view of the tank's surroundings onto crew helmet-mounted displays or other display systems.


title: Main battle tank

text: MBTs, like previous models of tanks, move on continuous tracks, which allow a decent level of mobility over most terrain including sand and mud. They also allow tanks to climb over most obstacles. MBTs can be made water-tight, so they can even dive into shallow water ( with snorkel). However, tracks are not as fast as wheels; the maximum speed of a tank is about ( for the Leopard 2). The extreme weight of vehicles of this type (40–70 tons) also limits their speed. They are usually equipped with a engine (more than ), with an operational range near .


title: Main battle tank

text: The German Army has prioritized mobility in its Leopard 2 which is considered one of the fastest MBTs in existence.


title: Main battle tank

text: The MBT is often cumbersome in traffic and frequently obstructs the normal flow of traffic. The tracks can damage some roads after repeated use. Many structures like bridges do not have the load capacity to support an MBT. In the fast pace of combat, it is often impossible to test the sturdiness of these structures. In the 2003 invasion of Iraq, an M1 Abrams attempting to cross a bridge to evade enemy fire plummeted into the Euphrates river when the bridge collapsed. Though appreciated for its excellent off-road characteristics, the MBT can become immobilized in muddy conditions.


title: Main battle tank

text: The high cost of MBTs can be attributed in part to the high-performance engine-transmission system and to the fire control system. Also, propulsion systems are not produced in high enough quantities to take advantage of economies of scale.


title: Main battle tank

text: Crew fatigue limits the operational range of MBTs in combat. Reducing the crew to three and relocating all crewmembers from the turret to the hull could provide time to sleep for one off-shift crewmember located in the rear of the hull. In this scenario, crewmembers would rotate shifts regularly and all would require cross-training on all vehicle job functions.<ref name="armor:three/two man crew"> (HTML version )</ref>


title: Main battle tank

text: Cargo aircraft are instrumental to the timely deployment of MBTs. The absence of sufficient numbers of strategic airlift assets can limit the rate of MBT deployments to the number of aircraft available.


title: Main battle tank

text: Military planners anticipate that the airlift capability for MBTs will not improve in the future. To date, no helicopter has the capability to lift MBTs. Rail and road are heavily used to move MBTs nearer to the battle, ready to fight in prime condition. Where well maintained roads allow it, wheeled tank transporters can be used.


title: Main battle tank

text: Main battle tanks have internal and external storage space. Internal space is reserved for ammunition. External space enhances independence of logistics and can accommodate extra fuel and some personal equipment of the crew.


title: Main battle tank

text: The Israeli Merkava can even accommodate crew members displaced from a destroyed vehicle in its ammunition compartment.


title: Main battle tank

text: Emphasis is placed on selecting and training main battle tank crew members. The crew must perform their tasks faultlessly and harmoniously so commanders select teams taking into consideration personalities and talents.


title: Main battle tank

text: The main battle tank fulfills the role the British had once called the "universal tank", filling almost all battlefield roles. They were originally designed in the Cold War to combat other MBTs. The modern light tank supplements the MBT in expeditionary roles and situations where all major threats have been neutralized and excess weight in armour and armament would only hinder mobility and cost more money to operate.


title: Main battle tank

text: Reconnaissance by MBTs is performed in high-intensity conflicts where reconnaissance by light vehicles would be insufficient due to the necessity to "fight" for information.


title: Main battle tank

text: In asymmetric warfare, main battle tanks are deployed in small, highly concentrated units. MBTs fire only at targets at close range and instead rely on external support such as unmanned aircraft for long range combat.


title: Main battle tank

text: Main battle tanks have significantly varied characteristics. Procuring too many varieties can place a burden on tactics, training, support and maintenance.


title: Main battle tank

text: The MBT has a positive morale effect on the infantry it accompanies. It also instills fear in the opposing force who can often hear and even feel their arrival.


title: Main battle tank

text: MBT production is increasingly being outsourced to wealthy nations. Countries that are just beginning to produce tanks are having difficulties remaining profitable in an industry that is increasingly becoming more expensive through the sophistication of technology. Even some large-scale producers are seeing declines in production. Even China is divesting many of its MBTs.


title: Main battle tank

text: The production of main battle tanks is limited to manufacturers that specialize in combat vehicles. Commercial manufacturers of civilian vehicles cannot easily be repurposed as MBT production facilities.


title: Main battle tank

text: Prices for MBTs have more than tripled from 1943 to 2011, although this pales in comparison with the price increase in fighter aircraft from 1943 to 1975.


title: Main battle tank

text: Several MBT models, such as the AMX-40 and OF-40, were marketed almost solely as export vehicles. Several tank producers, such as Japan and Israel, choose not to market their creations for export. Others have export control laws in place.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Dallas is an American prime time television soap opera that aired on CBS from April 2, 1978, to May 3, 1991. The series revolves around an affluent and feuding Texas family, the Ewings, who own the independent oil company Ewing Oil and the cattle-ranching land of Southfork. The series originally focused on the marriage of Bobby Ewing and Pamela Barnes, whose families were sworn enemies. As the series progressed, Bobby's elder brother, oil tycoon J.R. Ewing, became the show's breakout character, whose schemes and dirty business became the show's trademark. When the show ended on May 3, 1991, J.R. was the only character to have appeared in every episode.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: The show was prominent for its cliffhangers, including the "Who shot J.R.?" mystery. The 1980 episode "Who Done It" remains the second-highest-rated prime-time telecast ever. The show also featured a "Dream Season", in which the entirety of season 9 was revealed to have been a dream of Pamela Ewing. After 14 seasons, the series finale "Conundrum" aired in 1991.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: The show is mostly an ensemble cast, with Larry Hagman as greedy, scheming oil tycoon J.R. Ewing, stage/screen actress Barbara Bel Geddes as family matriarch Miss Ellie and Western movie actor Jim Davis as Ewing patriarch Jock, his last role before his death in 1981. The series won four Emmy Awards, including a 1980 Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series win for Bel Geddes.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: With its 357 episodes, "Dallas" remains one of the longest lasting full-hour prime time dramas in American TV history, behind "Gunsmoke" (635 episodes), "" (525 episodes as of December 2022), "Law & Order" (475 episodes as of December 2022), "Bonanza" (430 episodes), and "Grey's Anatomy" (406 episodes as of November 2022). "Dallas" also spawned spin-off series "Knots Landing" in 1979, which also lasted 14 seasons and a total of 344 episodes.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: In 2010, TNT announced it had ordered a new, updated continuation of "Dallas". The revival series, continuing the story of the Ewing family, premiered on TNT on June 13, 2012, and ran for three seasons, ending its run on September 22, 2014.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: "Dallas" debuted on April 2, 1978, as a five-part miniseries on CBS. Although the miniseries was created as the series' pilot, by the time it was aired, neither the producers nor the network were hopeful that it would continue beyond these five episodes and initially had no plans for expansion. It was shown in a late Sunday night time-slot, known for low ratings. However, the miniseries proved popular enough to be turned into a regular series and broadcast for 13 full seasons from September 23, 1978, to May 3, 1991. The five pilot episodes, originally considered a miniseries, are now referred to as season 1, making fourteen seasons in total.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: The show is known for its portrayal of wealth, sex, intrigue, conflict and power struggles. Throughout the series, the main premise is the longtime rivalry between the Ewing and Barnes families, which came to head when the Barnes daughter Pamela (Victoria Principal) eloped with youngest Ewing son Bobby (Patrick Duffy), in the first episode. The series is largely set in Dallas, Texas, and fictional Braddock County, where the Southfork Ranch is located.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: The backstory was that, in the 1930s, wildcatter John Ross "Jock" Ewing (Jim Davis) had allegedly cheated his one-time partner, Willard "Digger" Barnes (David Wayne/Keenan Wynn), out of his share of their company Ewing Oil, and married Digger's only love, Eleanor "Miss Ellie" Southworth (Barbara Bel Geddes/Donna Reed). In contrast to Jock, Miss Ellie came from a long line of ranchers with great love for the land and the cattle. Following their marriage, the Southworth family ranch, Southfork, became the Ewings' home, where Jock and Miss Ellie raised three sons: J.R. (Larry Hagman), Gary (David Ackroyd/Ted Shackelford) and Bobby.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: J.R., unscrupulous and unhappily married to former Miss Texas beauty queen Sue Ellen Shepard (Linda Gray), was frequently at odds with Bobby, who had the morals and integrity that J.R. lacked. Middle son Gary was Miss Ellie's favorite as he displayed Southworth traits; however, Gary had been in conflict with both Jock and J.R. since childhood and was dismissed as a weak link. At 17, Gary secretly met and married 15-year-old waitress Valene Clements (Joan Van Ark), producing the first Ewing grandchild - petite and saucy Lucy (Charlene Tilton) - before returning to Southfork with the intention of settling down. Although Jock warmed to Valene and supported Gary's fledgling family, J.R. pressured Gary into alcoholism by landing him with bad business deals that caused him to flee Southfork. With Gary gone, J.R. persecuted Valene until she left the ranch and the state, leaving Lucy to be raised by her grandparents.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: During the first episodes of the series, teenage Lucy is seen sleeping with ranch foreman Ray Krebbs (Steve Kanaly). Later, in season 4, Ray was revealed as Lucy's uncle, an illegitimate son of Jock's through an extramarital affair during World War II. Unhappy with his small, one-dimensional role, Kanaly had considered leaving the show; to add depth to the Ray character, Hagman suggested that the writers create a plot wherein Ray becomes half-brother to J.R., Gary, and Bobby, noting his resemblance to Davis. The episodes where Ray and his niece Lucy had a fling are, as Kanaly told Dinah Shore in an appearance on her show, "prayerfully forgotten, I hope".


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Ray had previously engaged in a short fling with Pamela, but she fell deeply in love with Bobby, and the pilot episode begins with the two of them arriving at Southfork Ranch as newlyweds, shocking the entire family. J.R., who loathed the Barnes family, was not happy with Pam's living at Southfork, and constantly tried to undermine her marriage to Bobby. Meanwhile, Pam's brother Cliff (Ken Kercheval), who had inherited Digger's hatred towards the Ewings, shared J.R.'s objections to the marriage and continued his father's quest to get revenge.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Most of the seasons ended with ratings-grabbing cliffhangers, the most notable being the season 3 finale "A House Divided", which launched the landmark "Who shot J.R.?" storyline and was ranked No. 69 on "TV Guide" list of "TV's Top 100 Episodes of All Time". Other season finale cliffhangers include an unidentified female corpse in the Southfork swimming pool (season 4); a blazing house fire (season 6); Bobby's death (season 8) and subsequent resurrection (season 9); and J.R.'s apparent suicide (season 14).


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: For the original five-episodes miniseries (season 1) six actors received star billing: Barbara Bel Geddes as Ewing matriarch Miss Ellie, whose family were the original owners of Southfork; Jim Davis as her husband Jock, the founder of Ewing Oil and head of the Ewing family; Patrick Duffy as their youngest son, Bobby; Victoria Principal as Pamela Barnes Ewing, the daughter of the rival Barnes family whom Bobby brings home as his wife in the pilot episode; Larry Hagman as J.R. Ewing, the oldest son, who strongly objects to his new sister-in-law; and Charlene Tilton as Lucy, Bobby's and J.R.'s teenage niece, who adores Bobby, but resents J.R. for disposing of her parents in order for her to be raised by "true Ewings".


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Not receiving top billing during season 1, although appearing in the majority of the episodes, were Linda Gray as Sue Ellen, J.R.'s long-suffering, alcoholic wife; Steve Kanaly as Pam's ex-boyfriend Ray Krebbs, a Southfork ranch hand who would later turn out to be Jock's illegitimate son; and Ken Kercheval as Pam's brother Cliff Barnes, J.R.'s archrival. Gray and Kanaly were promoted to the regular cast as of the first episode of season 2 and Kercheval as of the first episode of season 3. David Wayne received guest star billing as Willard "Digger" Barnes.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Further on in the series, several new characters were added as the original actors departed the series:


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: For season 5, after guest starring since season 2, Susan Howard joined the main cast as Donna Culver Krebbs, politician and widow of a former Texas governor, who becomes Ray's first wife and mother to his daughter Margaret.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Season 8 saw musical actor Howard Keel promoted to the star cast after appearing since season 4 as wealthy, occasionally hot-tempered rancher Clayton Farlow, Miss Ellie's husband following Jock's death, and of Priscilla Beaulieu Presley as Bobby's teenage sweetheart Jenna Wade, who gives birth to Bobby's only biological child, Lucas, and eventually becomes Ray's second wife. Jenna had previously been played by Morgan Fairchild for a season 2 episode, and Francine Tacker for two episodes in season 3 before the role was permanently taken over by Presley in season 7. Donna Reed also joined the main cast during season 8, temporarily portraying Miss Ellie until Barbara Bel Geddes returned in the following year.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Dack Rambo, portraying wandering cousin Jack Ewing, was promoted to regular status for season 10, after having appeared regularly since the end of season 8. However, he was written out of the show midway through the tenth season. Jack's ex-wife April Stevens Ewing, played by Sheree J. Wilson, first appeared during seasons 10 and 11, before being promoted to a main character for season 12. Originally a scheming character, April eventually became Bobby's second wife after his divorce from Pam.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Season 13 saw several additions to the main cast: Academy Award winner George Kennedy as Carter McKay, who buys Ray's ranch and eventually becomes the head of Ewing Oil rival WestStar; Cathy Podewell as the young and naïve Cally Harper Ewing, J.R.'s second wife, whom he married to escape false rape charges; Sasha Mitchell as J.R.'s illegitimate firstborn son, James Beaumont; Kimberly Foster as April's devious sister Michelle Stevens, who marries both James and Cliff Barnes; and finally Lesley-Anne Down as PR woman Stephanie Rogers. While Kennedy and Podewell had appeared regularly throughout season 12, Mitchell, Foster and Down's characters were all new to the series when they joined the regular cast.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Finally, for the 14th and final season, after guest starring in the last episodes of season 13, Barbara Stock joined the cast as Cliff's fiancée Liz Adams.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: During its fourteen-year run, "Dallas" saw several actors appearing in supporting roles. The most notable include:


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Longtime child characters include J.R. and Sue Ellen's son John Ross Ewing III (portrayed for seasons 4–6 by Tyler Banks, and for seasons 7–14 by Omri Katz); Bobby and Pam's adopted son Christopher Ewing (portrayed by Eric Farlow for seasons 6–8, and by Joshua Harris for seasons 9–14), and Jenna's daughter Charlotte "Charlie" Wade (Shalane McCall, seasons 7–11, also played by Laurie Lynn Myers for a season 2 episode).


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Among the most frequently appearing business associates of the Ewing family are oil cartel members Jordan Lee (Don Starr, seasons 2–14), Marilee Stone (Fern Fitzgerald, seasons 2–13) and Andy Bradley (Paul Sorensen, seasons 2–10); Jock's good friend Marvin "Punk" Anderson (Morgan Woodward, seasons 4–11) and his wife Mavis (Alice Hirson, seasons 6–7 and 10–11); and shady investment banker Vaughn Leland (Dennis Patrick seasons 3, 5, 7–8). Other longtime Ewing acquaintances include Dallas PD detective Harry McSween, serving as J.R.'s source within police force (James Brown, seasons 2–12); family attorney Harv Smithfield (George O. Petrie, seasons 3–14); and Donna's stepson, U.S. Senator Dave Culver (Tom Fuccello, seasons 3–6, 8, 10–11 and 13–14).


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Also appearing in many episodes are several background characters, including Bobby's secretaries Connie Brasher (portrayed by Donna Bullock in season 1, Ann Ford and Nancy Bleier in season 2, and Jeanna Michaels in season 2–4) and Phyllis Wapner (Deborah Tranelli, seasons 4–14); J.R.'s secretaries Louella Caraway Lee (Meg Gallagher, seasons 2–4) and Sly Lovegren (Deborah Rennard, seasons 5–14); Cliff's secretary Jackie Dugan (Sherril Lynn Rettino, seasons 2–5 and 7–14); Ewing Oil receptionist Kendall Chapman (Danone Simpson, seasons 6–14); Southfork maid Teresa (Roseanna Christiansen, seasons 6–14); and Oil Baron's Club staff Dora Mae (Pat Colbert, seasons 7–14), Cassie (Anne C. Lucas, seasons 5–10) and Debbie (Deborah Marie Taylor, seasons 11–14). Widely known supporting actor Tina Louise, played J.R.'s secretary, Julie Grey, during the first two seasons before her character was killed off.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: By the end of the series, only three of the series' original characters (J.R., Bobby, and Cliff) were left in Dallas, the others having either died or left town.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Jock Ewing was the first main character to depart the series, as Jock died offscreen in a mysterious helicopter crash in South America, during season 5. Actor Jim Davis, who played Jock, had died just after production had completed on season 4 in 1981.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Bobby Ewing's death in the season 8 finale, alongside his subsequent absence during the following season, was explained away at the beginning of season 10 as having been dreamed by Pamela, thus erasing everything that had happened during season 9. Patrick Duffy had left the series to pursue other opportunities, but due to declining ratings, he was convinced to return to the series by production company Lorimar as well as by series star Larry Hagman.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Jack Ewing left Dallas to continue his travels and get away from J.R., midway through season 10, and returned a final time for two episodes towards the end of the season. While there has been no official reason as to why actor Dack Rambo was written out of "Dallas", Rambo himself later stated that he believed the reasons to be his bisexuality and/or his conflicts with Larry Hagman, which Rambo said had particularly intensified during his last season on the show (season 10). Before "Dallas", Rambo and Hagman had worked together on "Sword of Justice" in the late 1970s. Hagman later denied any involvement in Rambo's dismissal from "Dallas".


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Pamela was severely burned after driving a car into an oil tanker, which then exploded into flames, in the season 10 finale in 1987. During season 11, Pam disappeared after her half-sister Katherine was seen around the hospital, with Pam seemingly leaving Bobby and Christopher due to her unwillingness to let them see her in such a physically disfigured fashion. While Victoria Principal never returned to "Dallas" again after the season 10 finale, Margaret Michaels, a Principal look-alike, played Pam in the opening episode of season 12. Having undergone plastic surgery which explained the difference in her appearance, it was revealed that Pam was dying of a disease, though only she and her doctor knew about this. After this episode, Pam is never seen again. Unable to reach a salary agreement and having a desire to start her own business, it was Principal's own decision not to return to the show after the season 10 finale.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Budget cuts also meant other long term cast members were let go. In addition to Pamela's departure, Ray and Donna divorced at the end of season 10. Donna moving to Washington, D.C., where she later married Senator Andrew Dowling (guest star Jim McMullan), with whom she raised Ray's daughter Margaret. Actress Susan Howard stated in 1987 that the producers had told her that her character had run its course. As season 11 ended, Ray sold his ranch to Carter McKay and left Dallas for Switzerland with Jenna and Lucas, Charlie having already moved there to attend a finishing school. Ray returned for five episodes in the early period of season 12.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Lucy Ewing, who had left with husband Mitch at the end of season 8, returned to Southfork in the final episodes of season 11, only to leave again two years later for Europe. On both occasions, Charlene Tilton's axing was a decision made by the creative team, who had difficulties creating storylines for her.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Sue Ellen left in the season 12 finale, moving to London with her new husband, film director Don Lockwood (guest star Ian McShane). While Linda Gray was let go by the same budget cuts that ended Steve Kanaly's run on the show, Sue Ellen's exit has since been described by Gray as a mutual decision by her and Leonard Katzman, agreeing that the character "had come more than full circle".


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Stephanie Rogers was let go as Cliff's PR representative at the end of season 13, making actress Lesley-Anne Down the most short-lived member of the regular cast, appearing in 8 episodes and being on the opening title sequence in 13 episodes.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Barbara Bel Geddes had quadruple heart bypass surgery on March 15, 1983, just days after finishing her last scenes on season 6. Bel Geddes then missed the first 11 episodes of season 7, as she had a period of rest and recuperation following the surgery. After the season 7 finale, Bel Geddes left "Dallas" entirely after disagreements over her workload and salary in the period following her heart surgery. The role of Miss Ellie was then recast with Donna Reed for season 8, with Reed signing a 3-year contract. Bel Geddes was asked to return for the start of season 9, a request to which Bel Geddes agreed, resulting in a high-profile public relations debacle that left Reed infuriated and in litigation with the series producers, who eventually made Reed a $1 million out-of-court settlement. Reed died unexpectedly of pancreatic cancer a few months later, in January 1986. Miss Ellie remained on the show until near the end of season 13, when she and Clayton left Dallas, deciding to travel around Far East Asia before eventually settling in Europe near Ray and Jenna. Following her exit from "Dallas" in 1990, Bel Geddes retired from acting.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: When the 14th and final season of the series commenced, ten actors received regular cast status. Although half of them left the show prior to the series finale, all of them remained billed in the series' opening sequence throughout the year. Clayton Farlow made four appearances, clearing up business that included deeding Southfork to Bobby; April Stevens Ewing died early on in the season, kidnapped on her honeymoon by Hillary Taylor (guest star Susan Lucci); Cally Harper Ewing left midway through the season to build a new life, with a new boyfriend and her and J.R.'s newborn son; Liz Adams broke her engagement to Cliff and left near the end of the season, and James Beaumont left the show a couple of episodes prior to the series finale, to start a new life on the east coast with his newly discovered toddler son Jimmy, and Jimmy's mother Debra Lynn (guest star Deborah Tucker).


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: As the series concluded, Carter McKay stayed put at WestStar, as powerful as ever; Michelle Stevens was left heartbroken and humiliated, alone in the ranch she had bought from McKay hoping to live there with James; Cliff Barnes was once and for all the sole owner of Ewing Oil, and Bobby Ewing, now owner of Southfork, was finally able to find closure after April's death. J.R., however, having lost both Ewing Oil and Southfork, as well as being abandoned by his sons, was at the end of his rope; the series ended with the unanswered question whether or not he killed himself.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Series creator David Jacobs's partner Michael Filerman suggested "Dallas" as the name for the show. Jacobs knew nothing about the city other than the Kennedy assassination and the Dallas Cowboys; only after visiting the state to prepare for filming did he realize that the show should be called "Houston" as the petroleum industry is much more important there, while Dallas has banking and insurance. He wrote the first and the final episode of the original five-part miniseries (season 1), with the other three episodes being written by Arthur Bernard Lewis, Camille Marchetta and Virginia Aldrige. While Aldrige didn't return to the series again and Marchetta left during season 4, Lewis grew to be one of "Dallas's" most influential writers.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Leonard Katzman had been a part of season 1 as producer, and during season 2 his influence increased, as he began writing and directing episodes. Series creator David Jacobs left his day-to-day duties as executive story consultant at the end of season 2, in order to focus on the production of spin-off "Knots Landing". The executive producers of "Dallas" in the first 3 seasons were Philip Capice and Lee Rich. During the first 8 seasons of the show, "Dallas"s production team remained basically intact (the main exception being Rich's leaving after season 3). After Lee Rich's departure, Philip Capice served as the sole executive producer, Leonard Katzman as producer and showrunner, Cliff Fenneman as associate producer, and Arthur Bernard Lewis as executive story editor/supervising producer. And, although 25 writers contributed with scripts, the trio of Katzman, Lewis and David Paulsen wrote nearly two-thirds of the episodes during these first eight seasons. Paulsen had joined the show during the season 4 and was promoted to story editor for season 6. Notably, the three of them wrote every episode but two during seasons 7 and 8.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Creative conflicts between executive producer Philip Capice and producer Leonard Katzman led to Katzman leaving the show at the end of season 8. Although Katzman was to continue writing for the show during season 9 and also acted during this season as "creative consultant" (which meant he was sent copies of all scripts and asked to give his input), Capice decided to bring in a new production team: joining him and associate producer Cliff Fenneman were James H. Brown as producer and Peter Dunne as supervising producer/showrunner, executive story consultant Joel J. Feigenbaum, and story editors Hollace White and Stephanie Garman.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: However, increased production costs and the claim of decreased ratings (though the accuracy of this has been disputed) caused production company Lorimar to persuade both Patrick Duffy and Leonard Katzman to return. As season 9 came to a close, Katzman was on board to return as showrunner for the following season and the season finale saw Patrick Duffy inexplicably resurface on screen.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: As of the season 10 premiere, there was another major overhaul of the crew, with Leonard Katzman not only returning to the production side of the show but also getting promoted to executive producer, reportedly on the condition that he would get "total authority" of the show, while Philip Capice and most of the season 9 staff left the production. Alongside Katzman, David Paulsen was brought back as the show's new producer, while the position as supervising producer was offered to newcomer Calvin Clements Jr. and Cliff Fenneman remained associate producer. A new writing staff was hired to work alongside the producers, including Katzman's son Mitchell Wayne Katzman as story editor and Leah Markus as story consultant. Markus left after two years, while the others remained until the show's end.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Scriptwise, Patrick Duffy's return was explained by having the entire season 9 being a dream of Victoria Principal's character Pam, effectively sweeping away the events occurring during the period in which Katzman's involvement with the show had been minimized.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Even the cast were affected by the production and political struggles. While Larry Hagman (J.R.) reportedly supported Katzman, and had played a great part in bringing Duffy back, Susan Howard (Donna), who also had written the script for one of the season 9 episodes, had sided with Philip Capice, and was opposed to the idea of annulling the events of season 9. While she returned to write another episode for season 10, she left the show, both as a writer and as a cast member, at the end of the season.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: During the final four years of the show, Leonard Katzman remained showrunner, with series star Larry Hagman joining him as executive producer (beginning with season 12) and Ken Horton as co-executive producer (as of season 13).


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Supervising producer Calvin Clements Jr. left the show after season 10, and was replaced for seasons 11 and 12 by the returning Arthur Bernard Lewis, who remained a writer on the show until its end. Lewis was thus reuniting with Leonard Katzman and David Paulsen. However, Paulsen left "Dallas" at the end of the 11th season (to join rival soap " Dynasty"), and was replaced as the show's producer first by Howard Lakin for season 12, and then by longtime associate producer Cliff Fenneman for the final two years. Lakin spent seasons 13 and 14 as supervising producer.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Mitchell Wayne Katzman was promoted to co-producer as of season 12, while Frank Katzman (the other son of Leonard Katzman) and John Rettino (Leonard Katzman's son-in-law), served as associate producers during seasons 13 and 14. Additionally, Katzman's PA Louella Lee Caraway was credited as executive coordinator for the final three seasons. The final major addition to the staff was Lisa Seidman, who joined the show as executive story consultant for the final two seasons.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: The pilot season was shot entirely on location in Dallas, Texas, and at the Cloyce Box Ranch in Frisco, Texas. Later, most interiors for the show were shot at the MGM Studios in Culver City, California (which was purchased outright by Lorimar in 1986), with some exteriors being shot at the Southfork Ranch in Parker, Texas, and other sections of Dallas. For season 13, rising production costs led to all filming being relocated to California. Typically the cast and crew would spend six to eight weeks filming on-location sequences in the Dallas area during the summer prior to the season, then film the remainder of the season in the Los Angeles area; less than half of the episodes in a given season had on-location sequences filmed in Dallas. MGM built a full-size replica of the Southfork Ranch backyard and pool on one of its soundstages, allowing for filming of "location" shots during the latter part of the season.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Leonard Katzman is the most prominent director on the show, having directed episodes of every season except seasons 1, 9 and 12. Next to Katzman, Michael Preece, is responsible for having directed the most "Dallas" episodes, having joined the show during season 4 and remaining until the end. Of the two directors attached to the original miniseries, Robert Day did not return for subsequent seasons, while Irving J. Moore remained on the show until season 5, and then returned for the final three.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Five of the series' stars also directed episodes: Larry Hagman (seasons 3-14), Patrick Duffy (seasons 4-8 and 10-14), Linda Gray (seasons 9-12), Steve Kanaly (seasons 10-12) and Ken Kercheval (seasons 13-14).


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: "Dallas" originally aired on Saturday nights when it debuted as a regular series. Within a month, the show was moved to Sunday nights, where it stayed until halfway through the season, when it took a Friday-night slot. "Dallas" remained on Fridays until the show ended in 1991, alternating between 9p.m. and 10p.m. airings.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: The "Who Done It" episode of "Dallas" that revealed who shot J.R.?, the famous 1980 cliffhanger, received the highest domestic ratings at that point with over 90 million American viewers (representing more than 53% of the U.S. households and 76% of the U.S. television audience for November 21, 1980) tuning in for the answer. The episode surpassed the ratings record of the final episode of "The Fugitive", broadcast in August 1967, but the record of "Dallas" was broken only by the last episode of "M*A*S*H" in 1983, falling into the second internationally most watched U.S. television episode, with nearly 360 million viewers in over 57 countries worldwide (by the year 1980) tuning in to see who shot J.R.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Although the soap's audience had consistently declined since the "Who Done It" episode of 1980, the series finale of "Dallas", "Conundrum", garnered 33 million viewers and a 22 household rating from 9 to 11pm on May 3, 1991, becoming the country's 14th most watched television series finale. Its competition, "Manhunter" (on NBC), only drew a 9.8 rating.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Beginning in fall 1984, "Dallas" was packaged for off-network syndication by Lorimar to local stations; among the stations to purchase the program initially was the Dallas-Fort Worth ABC affiliate, WFAA-TV. Only the first 222 episodes (seasons 1 through 9) were part of the syndication package. However, "Dallas" did not achieve the same type of rating success in local markets as it did during its CBS primetime run.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: During the 1990s, the show aired briefly on TNT (from September 1992 to August 1993, again the first nine seasons only), followed by a run on TNN beginning in the fall of 1996 (the first network to air all 357 episodes of the original series, but the episodes were heavily edited for time), and from 2003 to 2008 the entire run aired on the all-soaps cable network, SoapNet, uncut and unedited, as it was originally broadcast. On January 1, 2011, CMT aired the show for one day, and prior to the premiere of the 2012 sequel, select episodes were shown on CMT and its website.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: In 1981, Mediaset, Silvio Berlusconi's Italian media conglomerate, translated and serialized "Dallas" on Italian primetime, where it became popular throughout Italy.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: In the UK, the rights to show "Dallas" had been bought by the BBC and quickly became a ratings winner, drawing audiences of over 20 million. However, in 1985 the corporation refused to pay $60,000 per-episode asking price for the next (ninth) series. Whilst negotiating with the distributor to acquire the next season, their commercial rival, the ITV franchise holder Thames Television unexpectedly stepped in and met the price. The BBC reacted angrily to this development, pulling the current series mid-run, and threatening to broadcast the remaining episodes simultaneously with Thames Television's intended scheduling in November of that year. It caused a furore in the press and a question on the matter was even asked at Westminster in Parliament. The BBC relented, and re-commenced their broadcasts of the current series. Ultimately, the regulatory Independent Broadcasting Authority forced Thames Television to back down on their plans, with the IBA ordering them to sell the latest series that they had bought (season nine, the dream season) back to the BBC, at a loss. "Dallas" continued to be broadcast on the BBC, being shown on BBC1 until the end of the series run until 1991.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: "Dallas" is notable for its cliffhangers. Throughout the series' run, every season ended with some sort of cliffhanging ending designed to drive ratings up for the season premiere later in the year.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Prior to the premiere of "Dallas", Jacobs originated the idea for a drama series about four married couples in different stages of marriage, inspired by Ingmar Bergman's "Scenes from a Marriage". However, CBS wanted a "saga-like" show, resulting in Jacobs creating "Dallas". When the series proved to be a hit, CBS reconsidered Jacobs's original idea, which evolved into "Dallas" spin-off series "Knots Landing", premiering in late 1979.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: "Knots Landing" followed the lives of Lucy's parents, Gary (Ted Shackelford) and Valene (Joan Van Ark), as they move to California to start a new life following the start of their second marriage in 1979. During the early seasons of "Knots Landing", several "Dallas" actors (Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy, Charlene Tilton, and Mary Crosby) made guest appearances in the new series, and Shackelford and Van Ark continued to make occasional appearances in "Dallas". In addition to this, some storylines crossed over, such as the reading of Jock Ewing's will, with events having an impact on characters in both shows.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: The ongoing bond between the two series was eventually cut in 1986, as the tenth-season premiere of "Dallas" declared Bobby's death the previous year had been a dream. Bobby's death had had some influence on the "Knots Landing" storylines as well, with Gary grieving for his dead brother while Gary's wife Abby (Donna Mills), who had lost her brother Sid (Don Murray) a few years earlier, consoled him. Abby and Greg Sumner (William Devane) then took advantage of Gary's grief and Gary's journey to Dallas for Bobby's funeral to gain politically at Empire Valley. Val also named her and Gary's son "Bobby" in memory of his late uncle. Unlike the "Dallas" producers, the "Knots Landing" producers were not prepared to reset their series, resulting in the producers cutting ties between the two shows. As a result, there were no further crossover episodes or storylines; Bobby's return was simply never addressed on "Knots Landing", nor was he mentioned again (ironically on "Dallas", however, mentions of Gary increased, and archive footage of Joan Van Ark appeared in Season 12). However, Shackelford and Van Ark did reprise their roles for the "Dallas" series finale "Conundrum" in 1991, which showed what would have happened to their characters if J.R. had never existed.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Between Seasons 1 and 4 of "Knots Landing", there were nine episodes where "Dallas" characters appeared, played by their respective actors.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: In addition to the above, Gary and Valene Ewing appeared in the following episodes of "Dallas", as listed below.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: A prequel story, "", was a made-for-TV movie that first aired on March 23, 1986, on CBS during season 9 of the TV series. The movie starred David Grant as Digger Barnes, Dale Midkiff as Jock Ewing, Molly Hagan as Miss Ellie Southworth Ewing, David Wilson as Jason Ewing, and Hoyt Axton as Aaron Southworth, and was introduced by Larry Hagman in the role of J.R. Ewing. Detailing the origins of the Barnes-Ewing feud and the creation of Ewing Oil, and covering a timespan from 1933 to 1951, the movie was written by series creator David Jacobs.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: There were also two made-for-TV reunion movies that aired on CBS several years after the series ended: "" (1996), which resolved the series finale cliffhanger; and the 20th anniversary movie "" (1998). Alongside returning series stars (Patrick Duffy, Larry Hagman, Linda Gray, George Kennedy, Ken Kercheval and Steve Kanaly), and recurring cast (Omri Katz, Audrey Landers, Deborah Rennard and George O. Petrie), the two telefilms also introduced new characters – most notably up-and-coming lawyer Anita Smithfield, played by Tracy Scoggins. The younger characters Christopher Ewing, and Cliff and Afton's daughter Pamela Rebecca were recast with Chris Demetral and Deborah Kellner taking on the roles.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: In November 2003, SOAPnet aired a Dallas reunion on Soap Talk to coincide with SOAPnet acquiring the rights to rerun Dallas episodes. Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy, Linda Gray and Charlene Tilton all participated in the reunion, which included clips of past episodes. The SOAPnet Dallas reunion was included in the special features of Dallas Seasons 1 & 2 DVD set.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: On November 7, 2004, CBS aired a primetime TV special titled "", in which the stars reminisced about their work on the series (by coincidence, actor Howard Keel, who played Clayton Farlow, had died earlier that same day).


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: On November 8, 2008, a "Dallas" 30th anniversary reunion was held at Southfork Ranch in Parker, Texas, with original cast members Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy, Linda Gray, Ken Kercheval, Steve Kanaly and Charlene Tilton; other cast members in attendance were Susan Howard, Audrey Landers, Mary Crosby and Sheree J. Wilson. The front and back lawn of the fictional Ewing family home played host to a massive barbecue filled with people from the Dallas area, across the U.S. and around the world (who paid as much as $1,000) to reminisce and celebrate the series, as well as meeting with cast members. During the festivities, Kercheval said he was shocked to see the continued support for the show 17 years after it last aired: "I don't understand it. The staying power. Who knew?" Linda Gray also fondly remembered her time on the show: "I think it was a special time. It was a time when there weren't a hundred million channels and the Internet and all of the other things that came to existence."


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: "A Dallas Retrospective: J.R. Ewing Bourbon Presents Linda Gray and Patrick Duffy" one-night only event was held on March 23, 2017, at the AT&T Performing Arts Center's Winspear Opera House in Dallas, during which both Duffy and Gray reminisced about their careers and their time on "Dallas". It was sponsored by the nationally distributed J.R. Ewing Bourbon and moderated by "The Dallas Morning News" columnist Robert Wilonsky.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: On March 30–31, 2018, a "Dallas" 40th anniversary reunion was held at Southfork Ranch in Parker and the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas, with cast members Patrick Duffy, Linda Gray, Charlene Tilton and Steve Kanaly attending the festivities. The celebrations included Southfork tours, a meet-and-greet with the cast, an array of "Dallas" memorabilia at the "Dallas Legends" exhibit and closing out with a party at the historic Longhorn Ballroom.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: In 2010, cable network TNT announced they had ordered a pilot for the continuation of the "Dallas" series. After viewing the completed pilot episode, TNT proceeded to order a full season of 10 episodes.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: The new series, which premiered on June 13, 2012, focused primarily on John Ross and Christopher Ewing, the now-grown sons of J.R. and Bobby. Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray returned in full-time capacity, reprising their original roles. The series was produced by Warner Horizon Television, a subsidiary of Warner Bros., which holds the rights to the "Dallas" franchise through its acquisition of Lorimar Television and is a sister company to TNT, both under the ownership of Time Warner.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: The new series is a continuation of the old series, with the story continuing after a 20-year break. It does not take the events of the 1990s TV movies "" or "" as canon. Instead we find the characters 20 years after the events of the Season 14 cliffhanger. In an interview with UltimateDallas.com, writer/producer Cynthia Cidre was asked to describe the new "Dallas". She responded, "I tried to be really, really respectful of the original Dallas because it was really clear to me that the people who love Dallas are [like] Trekkies, really committed to that show and I really did not understand that before, so I never wanted to violate anything that had happened in the past. On the other hand that was the past, twenty years had gone by, so at the same time I think we're properly balanced between the characters of Bobby Ewing, J.R. and Sue Ellen. I also have the new cast and it's John Ross and Christopher, the children of Bobby and J.R., and their love interests. Total respect and a balance of old and new."


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: In the show's second season, J.R. Ewing was killed off (following the death of actor Larry Hagman in November 2012), sparking another "who-done-it" storyline throughout the remainder of the season. Various cast members from the original series attended his onscreen funeral.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Despite initially strong numbers, ratings for the new "Dallas" declined over the three seasons that the show ran before TNT cancelled it in 2014.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: The 1956 film "Giant" is considered to be the inspiration for "Dallas". Both productions focus on the struggle between wealthy oilmen and cattlemen in Texas, in the mid to late 20th century. In addition, both productions have a lead character prominently referred to as "J.R."


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: "Dallas" is alleged to have helped partially hasten the downfall of the Eastern Bloc country of Romania during the final years of the Cold War. Romanian President Nicolae Ceaușescu allowed airings of "Dallas", one of the few Western shows allowed to be aired in the Communist state during the 1980s. The belief that the show would be seen as anti-capitalistic backfired on the regime as Romanian citizens desired and sought the luxurious lifestyle seen in the show, compared to the despotic situation in Romania at the time. Shortly after the execution of Ceaușescu and his wife on Christmas Day 1989, the pilot episode of "Dallas", which had been edited for a sex scene, was one of the first Western Shows aired on the newly liberated Romanian TV. The popularity of "Dallas" in Romania is the subject of the 2016 experimental documentary "Hotel Dallas", directed by artist duo Ungur & Huang and starring Patrick Duffy, who plays a surreal double of the Bobby Ewing character.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Also in northern parts of Soviet-occupied Estonia, "Dallas" became popular when shown on Finnish television, being watched illegally on modified Soviet television sets. In the communist Soviet Union thousands of people drove regularly to the northern tip of Estonia to pick up the series on Finnish TV. This was described in the 2009 documentary "Disco and Atomic War".


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: In 2007, British comedian Justin Lee Collins went searching for all the stars of "Dallas" to bring them together for a special reunion party. The show was broadcast at 9p.m. Sunday, May 27, 2007, on UK television network Channel 4 as part of the "Bring Back..." series. After hunting down most of the main cast by any means necessary (e.g., climbing over security fences and ambushing hotels), Collins interviewed them and gained more knowledge about some of the decisions made throughout the show's seasons. Amongst the cast, the participants were Larry Hagman, Linda Gray, Patrick Duffy, Ken Kercheval, Charlene Tilton, Susan Howard and Mary Crosby. Justin Lee Collins held his own 'Oil Baron's Ball', where none of the main cast turned up! However, the actor who played baby Christopher (Eric Farlow) did attend. In an interview in 2011 Charlene Tilton said that show was one of her and the cast's worst experiences ever.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: In March 2011, the Texas Theatre in Dallas began showing two episodes of "Dallas" on the big screen every Sunday; over 100 patrons, some in costume of their favorite characters, appeared at the free screenings every week. However, the screenings came to an abrupt end in May 2011 after Warner Bros. issued a cease-and-desist against the Texas Theatre for unauthorized showings, citing the fact that those that were involved in the show's production were not getting paid or benefiting from these screenings.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: J.R. Ewing's hat, a foremost symbol of the show's inherent "Americanness" that contributed to its hold over audiences on a global scale, is currently held in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History's collections.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: In a popular "Forbidden Broadway" parody, an actress playing Mary Martin sings the song "Never Never Panned" to the tune of "Never Never Land" from the musical "Peter Pan". One of the lines sung is "you too can be a star, like my son who plays J.R. on "Dallas"! We're never never panned!"


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: The series is mentioned in the lyrics of Swedish pop band ABBA's 1982 single "The Day Before You Came": "There's not, I think, a single episode of "Dallas" that I didn't see."


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: Country singer Hank Williams Jr. had a hit with a song called "This Ain't Dallas" comparing his and his wife's life together with that of J.R. and Sue Ellen.


title: Dallas (1978 TV series)

text: The show's "Who shot J.R.?" storyline has been used to great effect in other drama series, most notably the BBC's "EastEnders" with the "Who Shot Phil?" Mitchell storyline, and more recently with the "Who Killed Lucy Beale?" storyline. In 1995, the animated series "The Simpsons" also had a "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" storyline.


title: Major film studios

text: Major film studios are production and distribution companies that release a substantial number of films annually and consistently command a significant share of box office revenue in a given market. In the American and international markets, the major film studios, often known simply as the majors or the Big Five studios, are commonly regarded as the five diversified media conglomerates whose various film production and distribution subsidiaries collectively command approximately 80 to 85% of U.S. box office revenue. The term may also be applied more specifically to the primary motion picture business subsidiary of each respective conglomerate.


title: Major film studios

text: Since the dawn of filmmaking, the U.S. major film studios have dominated both American cinema and the global film industry. U.S. studios have benefited from a strong first-mover advantage in that they were the first to industrialize filmmaking and master the art of mass-producing and distributing high-quality films with broad cross-cultural appeal. Today, the Big Five majors – Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., Walt Disney Pictures, and Columbia Pictures – routinely distribute hundreds of films every year into all significant international markets (that is, where discretionary income is high enough for consumers to afford to watch films). It is "nearly impossible" for a film to reach a broad international theatrical audience without being first picked up by one of the majors for distribution.


title: Major film studios

text: The current "Big Five" majors all originate with film studios that were active during Hollywood's "Golden Age". Three of these were among that original era's "Big Eight" major film studios.


title: Major film studios

text: In the case of two of them – Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. – each of these is not only one of today's "Big Five" but were also part of the original "Big Five" (from among those Big Eight) in that "Golden Age", along with RKO Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and 20th Century Fox.


title: Major film studios

text: In one case – Universal Pictures – this studio was, during that early era, also considered a major but in the lower tier: one of the members of the "Little Three" (among those original Big Eight). The other two of the Little Three, which had each later grown to major status, were United Artists – a former distribution company for several independent producers, it later began producing its own films and was then acquired by MGM in 1981 – and Columbia Pictures – it produced and distributed films and was eventually merged in 1987 with Tri-Star Pictures to form Columbia Pictures Entertainment.


title: Major film studios

text: Another case is that of Walt Disney Productions, which, during the Golden Age, was an independent production company and an important Hollywood entity that was not regarded as a major at all until the mid-1980s. At that time, it joined what by then were the "Big Six" majors. These included four of those early Big Five (Paramount, Warner Bros., MGM, and 20th Century Fox); RKO had gone defunct in 1959. Along with these were the remaining two of the original Little Three (Columbia and Universal). At this time, MGM became a mini-major upon the sale from Turner to Kerkorian in 1986, thus retaining the Big Six. Meanwhile, that era ultimately came to an end in 2019 with Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox including TCF, which resulted in a "Big Five" for the first since Hollywood’s Golden Age. This acquisition also left Paramount and Warner Bros. as the only early Big Five members to remain as majors today.


title: Major film studios

text: The final case is that of Sony. In 1989, it acquired Columbia Pictures Entertainment, which became Sony Pictures Entertainment in 1991.


title: Major film studios

text: While the main studios of the Big Five are located within of each other, Paramount is the only member of the Big Five still based "in" Hollywood and located entirely within the official city limits of the City of Los Angeles. Warner Bros. and Disney are both located in Burbank and Universal is in the nearby unincorporated area of Universal City, while Sony is in Culver City. Disney is the only studio that has been owned by the same conglomerate since its founding, and the offices of that parent entity are still located on Disney's studio lot and in the same building. Walt Disney Studios was also the sole studio whose parent entity is still located near Los Angeles, but then a second was added in 2019, with their buyout of 20th Century Fox (which is itself located in Los Angeles in the Century City area). Meanwhile, Sony is in Tokyo, and is the only one owned by a foreign conglomerate. The three other majors had been previously owned by many different companies that were later acquired by and merged with conglomerates that they now report to – in Philadelphia (Comcast via NBCUniversal) and New York City (Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery; which are in turn controlled by National Amusements and Advance Publications via voting shares). Most of today's Big Five also control subsidiaries with their own distribution networks that concentrate on arthouse pictures (e.g. Universal's Focus Features) or genre films (e.g. Sony's Screen Gems); several of these specialty units were shut down or sold off between 2008 and 2010.


title: Major film studios

text: The five major studios are contrasted with smaller production and/or distribution companies, which are known as independents or "indies". The leading independent producer/distributors such as Lionsgate, MGM, A24, and STX Entertainment are sometimes referred to as "mini-majors". From 1998 through 2005, DreamWorks SKG commanded a large enough market share to arguably qualify it as a seventh major, despite its relatively small output. In 2006, DreamWorks was acquired by Viacom, Paramount's corporate parent. In late 2008, DreamWorks once again became an independent production company; its films were distributed by Disney's Touchstone Pictures until 2016, at which point distribution switched to Universal.


title: Major film studios

text: The Big Five major studios are today primarily backers and distributors of films whose actual production is largely handled by independent companies – either long-running entities or ones created for and dedicated to the making of a specific film. Disney and Sony distribute their films through affiliated divisions (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and Sony Pictures Releasing, respectively); while the rest function as both production and distribution companies. The specialty divisions often simply acquire distribution rights to pictures in which the studio has had no prior involvement. While the majors still do a modicum of true production, their activities are focused more in the areas of development, financing, marketing, and merchandising. Those business functions are still usually performed in or near Los Angeles, even though the runaway production phenomenon means that most films are now mostly or completely shot on location at places outside Los Angeles.


title: Major film studios

text: Mini-major studios (or "mini-majors") are the larger, independent film production companies that are smaller than the major studios and attempt to compete directly with them.


title: Major film studios

text: "Instant major" is a 1960s coined term for a film company that seemingly overnight has approached the status of major"


title: Major film studios

text: In 1967, three "instant major" studios popped up, two of which were partnered with a television network theatrical film unit with most lasting until 1973:


title: Major film studios

text: In 1909, Thomas Edison, who had been fighting in the courts for years for control of fundamental motion picture patents, won a major decision. This led to the creation of the Motion Picture Patents Company, widely known as the Trust. Comprising the nine largest U.S. film companies, it was "designed to eliminate not only independent film producers but also the country's 10,000 independent [distribution] exchanges and exhibitors." Though its many members did not consolidate their filmmaking operations, the New York–based Trust was arguably the first major North American movie conglomerate. The independents' fight against the Trust was led by Carl Laemmle, whose Chicago-based Laemmle Film Service, serving the Midwest and Canada, was the largest distribution exchange in North America. Laemmle's efforts were rewarded in 1912 when the U.S. government ruled that the Trust was a "corrupt and unlawful association" and must be dissolved. On June 8, 1912, Laemmle organized the merger of his production division, IMP (Independent Motion Picture Company), with several other filmmaking companies, creating the Universal Film Manufacturing Company in New York City. By the end of the year, Universal was making movies at two Los Angeles facilities: the former Nestor Film studio in Hollywood, and another studio in Edendale. The first Hollywood major studio was in business.


title: Major film studios

text: In 1918, four brothers—Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack Warner—founded the first Warner Bros. Studio on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. On April 4, 1923, the Warner Bros. incorporated their fledgling movie company as "Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.". Though their first film was "My Four Years in Germany", Warner Bros. released their full fledged movie "The Jazz Singer" in 1927. Warner Bros. were the pioneers of the sound film era as they established Vitaphone. Because of "The Jazz Singer"'s success (along with "Lights of New York", "The Singing Fool" and "The Terror"), Warner Bros. was able to acquire a much larger studio in Burbank. This studio is used by Warner Bros. from 1928. It has the signature watertower. Warner Bros. eventually expanded its studio operations to Leavesden in London. Warner Bros. Studio Leavesden is the main studio in production of hit movies like the "Harry Potter" film series, "The Dark Knight" and the recent ones like "The Batman" and "Ready Player One".


title: Major film studios

text: In 1916, a second powerful Hollywood studio was established when Adolph Zukor merged his Famous Players Film Company movie production house with the Jesse L. Lasky Company to form Famous Players-Lasky. The combined studio acquired Paramount Pictures as a distribution arm and eventually adopted its name. That same year, William Fox relocated his Fox Film Corporation from Fort Lee, New Jersey to Hollywood and began expanding.


title: Major film studios

text: In 1923, Walt Disney had founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio and The Disney Brothers Features Company with his brother Roy and animator Ub Iwerks. Over the following three decades Disney became a powerful independent focusing on animation and, from October 16, 1923, an increasing number of animated movies. In 1923, the company—now Walt Disney Productions—established Buena Vista Film Distribution to handle its own product, which had been distributed for years by various majors, primarily Leslie B. Mace, Winkler Pictures, Universal Pictures, Celebrity Productions, Cinephone, Columbia Pictures, United Artists, United Artists Pictures and then RKO. In its first year in 1928, Celebrity Productions and Cinephone had released its first blockbuster "Steamboat Willie". Though over the next decades Disney and its associated distributors share of the box-office did hit similar marks, its relatively small output and exclusive focus on G-rated movies meant that it was not generally considered a major as a 9th and final golden age major.


title: Major film studios

text: The Motion Picture Theatre Owners of America and the Independent Producers' Association declared war in 1925 on what they termed a common enemy — the "film trust" of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount, and First National, which they claimed dominated the industry by not only producing and distributing motion pictures, but by entering into exhibition as well. On October 6, 1927, Warner Bros. released "The Jazz Singer", starring Al Jolson, and a whole new era began, with "pictures that talked," bringing the studio to the forefront of the film industry. "The Jazz Singer" played to standing-room-only crowds throughout the country and earned a special Academy Award for Technical Achievement. Fox, in the forefront of sound film along with Warner Bros., was also acquiring a sizable circuit of movie theaters to exhibit its product.


title: Major film studios

text: Between late 1928, when RCA's David Sarnoff engineered the creation of the RKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum) studio, and the end of 1949, when Paramount divested its theater chain—roughly the period considered Hollywood's Golden Age—there were eight Hollywood studios commonly regarded as the "majors". Of these eight, the so-called Big Five were integrated conglomerates, combining ownership of a production studio, distribution division, and substantial theater chain, and contracting with performers and filmmaking personnel: Loew's/MGM, Paramount, Fox (which became 20th Century-Fox after a 1935 merger), Warner Bros., and RKO. The remaining majors were sometimes referred to as the "Little Three" or "major minor" studios. Two—Universal and Columbia (founded in 1924)—were organized similarly to the Big Five, except for the fact that they never owned more than small theater circuits (a consistently reliable source of profits). The third of the lesser majors, United Artists (founded in 1919), owned a few theaters and had access to production facilities owned by its principals, but it functioned primarily as a backer-distributor, loaning money to independent producers and releasing their films. During the 1930s, the eight majors averaged a total of 358 feature film releases a year; in the 1940s, the four largest companies shifted more of their resources toward high-budget productions and away from B movies, bringing the yearly average down to 288 for the decade.


title: Major film studios

text: Among the significant characteristics of the Golden Age was the stability of the Hollywood majors, their hierarchy, and their near-complete domination of the box office. At the midpoint of the Golden Age, 1939, the Big Five had market shares ranging from 22% (MGM) to 9% (RKO); each of the Little Three had around a 7% share. In sum, the eight majors controlled 95% of the market. Ten years later, the picture was largely the same: the Big Five had market shares ranging from 22% (MGM) to 9% (RKO); the Little Three had shares ranging from 8% (Columbia) to 4% (United Artists). In sum, the eight majors controlled 96% of the market.


title: Major film studios

text: The end of the Golden Age had been signaled by the majors' loss of a federal antitrust case that led to the divestiture of the Big Five's theater chains. Though this had virtually no immediate effect on the eight majors' box-office domination, it somewhat leveled the playing field between the Big Five and the Little Three. In November 1951, Decca Records purchased 28% of Universal; early the following year, the studio became the first of the classic Hollywood majors to be taken over by an outside corporation, as Decca acquired majority ownership. The 1950s saw two substantial shifts in the hierarchy of the majors: RKO, perennially the weakest of the Big Five, declined rapidly under the mismanagement of Howard Hughes, who had purchased a controlling interest in the studio in 1948. By the time Hughes sold it to the General Tire and Rubber Company in 1955, the studio was a major by outdated reputation alone. In 1957, virtually all RKO movie operations ceased and the studio was dissolved in 1959. (Revived on a small scale in 1981, it was eventually spun off and now operates as a minor independent company.) In contrast, there was United Artists, which had long operated under the financing-distribution model the other majors were now progressively shifting toward. Under Arthur Krim and Robert Benjamin, who began managing the company in 1951, UA became consistently profitable. By 1956—when it released one of the biggest blockbusters of the decade, "Around the World in 80 Days"—it commanded a 10% market share. By the middle of the next decade, it had reached 16% and was the second-most profitable studio in Hollywood. Despite RKO's collapse, the majors still averaged a total yearly release slate of 253 feature films during the decade. The 1960s were marked by a spate of corporate takeovers. MCA Inc., under Lew Wasserman, acquired Universal in 1962; Gulf+Western took over Paramount in 1966; and the Transamerica Corporation purchased United Artists in 1967. Warner Bros. underwent large-scale reorganization twice in two years: a 1967 merger with the Seven Arts company preceded a 1969 purchase by Kinney National, under Stephen J. Ross. MGM, in the process of a slow decline, changed ownership twice in the same span as well, winding up in the hands of financier Kirk Kerkorian. The majors almost entirely abandoned low-budget production during this era, bringing the annual average of features released down to 160. The decade also saw an old name in the industry secure a position as a leading player. (Disney's 1937 "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", released by RKO, was the second biggest hit of the 1930s.) In 1964, Buena Vista had its first blockbuster, "Mary Poppins", Hollywood's biggest hit in half a decade. The company achieved a 9% market share that year, more than Fox and Warner Bros. Though over the next two decades, Disney/Buena Vista's share of the box-office would again hit similar marks, its relatively small output and exclusive focus on G-rated movies meant that it was not generally considered a major.


title: Major film studios

text: The early 1970s were difficult years for "all" the classic majors. Movie attendance, which had been declining steadily since the end of the Golden Age, hit an all-time low by 1971. In 1973, MGM president James T. Aubrey drastically downsized the studio, slashing its production schedule and eliminating its distribution arm (UA would distribute the studio's films for the remainder of the decade). From fifteen releases in 1973, the next year MGM was down to five; its average for the rest of the 1970s would be even lower. Like RKO in its last days under Hughes, MGM remained a major in terms of brand reputation, but little more. MGM, however, was not the only studio to trim its release line. However, Disney began to ascend towards major status through a resurgence in its animated movies, beginning with "The Rescuers" (1977), and entering the adult market with "The Black Hole" (1979).


title: Major film studios

text: By the mid-1970s, the industry had rebounded and a significant philosophical shift was in progress. As the majors focused increasingly on the development of the next hoped-for blockbuster and began routinely opening each new movie in many hundreds of theaters (an approach called "saturation booking"), their collective yearly release average fell to 81 films during 1975–84. The classic set of majors was shaken further in late 1980, when the disastrously expensive flop of "Heaven's Gate" effectively ruined United Artists. The studio was sold the following year to Kerkorian, who merged it with MGM. After a brief resurgence, the combined studio continued to decline. From the mid-1980s onward, MGM/UA has been at best a "mini-major", to use the present-day term.


title: Major film studios

text: Meanwhile, a new member was finally admitted to the club of major studios and two significant contenders emerged. With the establishment of the Touchstone Pictures brand in 1984 and increasing attention to the adult live-action market during the early 1980s, Disney/Buena Vista secured acknowledgment as a full-fledged major. Film historian Joel Finler identifies 1986 as the breakthrough year, when Disney rose to third place in market share and remained consistently competitive for a leading position thereafter.


title: Major film studios

text: The two emerging contenders were both newly formed companies. In 1978, Krim, Benjamin, and three other studio executives departed UA to found Orion Pictures as a joint venture with Warner Bros. It was announced optimistically as the "first major new film company in 50 years". Tri-Star Pictures was created in 1982 as a joint venture of Columbia Pictures (then owned by the Coca-Cola Company), HBO (then owned by Time Inc.), and CBS. In 1985, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation acquired 20th Century-Fox, the last of the five relatively healthy Golden Age majors to remain independent throughout the entire Golden Age and after.


title: Major film studios

text: By 1986, the combined share of the six classic majors—at that point Warner Bros., Columbia, Universal, Paramount, Fox, and MGM/UA—fell to 64%, the lowest since the beginning of the Golden Age. Disney was in third place, behind only Paramount and Warner Bros. Even including Disney/Buena Vista as a seventh major and adding its 10% share, the majors' control of the North American market was at a historic ebb. Orion, now completely independent of Warner Bros., and Tri-Star were well positioned as mini-majors, each with North American market shares of around 6% and regarded by industry observers as "fully competitive with the majors". Smaller independents garnered 13%—more than any studio aside from Paramount. In 1964, by comparison, all of the companies outside of the then-seven majors and Disney had combined for a grand total of 1%. In the first edition of Finler's "The Hollywood Story" (1988), he wrote, "It will be interesting to see whether the old-established studios will be able to bounce back in the future, as they have done so many times before, or whether the newest developments really do reflect a fundamental change in the US movie industry for the first times since the 20s."


title: Major film studios

text: With the exception of MGM/UA—whose position was effectively filled by Disney—the old-established studios "did" bounce back. The purchase of 20th Century Fox by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation presaged a new round of corporate acquisitions. Between 1989 and 1994, Paramount, Warner Bros., Columbia, and Universal all changed ownership in a series of conglomerate purchases and mergers that brought them new financial and marketing muscle. Paramount's parent company Gulf+Western was renamed Paramount Communications in 1989 and was merged with Viacom five years later. Warner Communications merged with Time Inc. to give birth to the conglomerate Time Warner. Coca-Cola sold Columbia to Japanese electronics firm Sony also in 1989. And Universal's parent MCA was purchased by Matsushita. By the early 1990s, both Tri-Star and Orion were essentially out of business: the former consolidated into Columbia, the latter bankrupt and sold to MGM. The most important contenders to emerge during the 1990s, New Line Cinema, Miramax, and DreamWorks SKG, were likewise sooner or later brought into the majors' fold, though DreamWorks and Miramax are now independent again.


title: Major film studios

text: The development of in-house pseudo-indie subsidiaries by the conglomerates—sparked by the 1992 establishment of Sony Pictures Classics and the success of "Pulp Fiction" (1994), Miramax's first project under Disney ownership—significantly undermined the position of the true independents. The majors' release schedule rebounded: the six primary studio subsidiaries alone put out a total of 124 films during 2006; the three largest secondary subsidiaries (New Line, Fox Searchlight, and Focus Features) accounted for another 30. Box-office domination was fully restored: in 2006, the six major movie conglomerates combined for 89.8% of the North American market; Lionsgate and Weinstein were almost exactly half as successful as their 1986 mini-major counterparts, sharing 6.1%; MGM came in at 1.8%; and all of the remaining independent companies split a pool totaling 2.3%.


title: Major film studios

text: Only one of the major studios changed corporate hands during the first decade of the 2000s, though it did so three times: Universal was acquired by Vivendi in 2000, and then by General Electric four years later. More developments took place among the majors' subsidiaries. The very successful animation production house Pixar, whose films were distributed by Buena Vista, was acquired by Disney in 2006. In 2008, New Line Cinema lost its independent status within Time Warner and became a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Time Warner also announced that it would be shutting down its two specialty units, Warner Independent and Picturehouse. In 2008 as well, Paramount Vantage's production, marketing, and distribution departments were folded into the parent studio, though it retained the brand for release purposes. Universal sold off its genre specialty division, Rogue Pictures, to Relativity Media in 2009.


title: Major film studios

text: In January 2010, Disney closed down Miramax's operations and sold off the unit and its library that July to an investor group led by Ronald N. Tutor of the Tutor Perini construction firm and Tom Barrack of the Colony Capital private equity firm.


title: Major film studios

text: In March 2013, Comcast fully acquired Universal Studios after buying out the remaining 49% of NBCUniversal from General Electric.


title: Major film studios

text: On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company (which its division, The Walt Disney Studios, is a major film studio) announced its intent to acquire key assets of 21st Century Fox (which includes another major film studio, 20th Century Fox, along with Fox Searchlight Pictures and Blue Sky Studios). After beating out Comcast in a bidding war for Fox, both Disney and Fox shareholders approved the deal on July 27, 2018, and closed on March 20, 2019. Because of the deal, the number of major film studios was reduced to five, a number that hasn’t been since the Golden Age of Hollywood after 20th Century Fox became a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Studios, thereby ending the era of the "Big Six" studios and Fox's 83-year reign as a member of that elite group.


title: Major film studios

text: Since June 14, 2018 until the Discovery merger in 2022, Warner Bros. was owned by AT&T, which completed its acquisition of Time Warner, renaming it "WarnerMedia".Which Contained all assets owned by Warner Bros. and its subsidiaries.


title: Major film studios

text: On August 13, 2019, Paramount Pictures parent, Viacom, announced its reunion with CBS Corporation, and the combined company would be called ViacomCBS. The two companies previously merged in 1999 but split in 2006. The deal was completed on December 4, 2019. Meanwhile, CBS Corporation's mini-major film studio, CBS Films was folded into CBS Entertainment Group after releasing its 2019 film slate, switching its focus to creating original film content for CBS All Access.


title: Major film studios

text: On January 17, 2020, Disney dropped the "Fox" name from both 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight Pictures and rebranded them as 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures respectively, to avoid brand confusion with Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox Corporation. The "Searchlight Pictures" and "20th Century Studios" name were first seen on "Downhill" on February 14, and on "The Call of the Wild" a week later on February 21 respectively.


title: Major film studios

text: The studios were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic with some cinema chains closing, precipitating box office flops (like Disney's "Onward" or Sony's "Bloodshot"). Several films were delayed (Universal and MGM's "No Time to Die" or Paramount's "A Quiet Place Part II" and even Disney's "Black Widow" and "Mulan") and others were launched to the digital market (like Universal's "The Invisible Man" and "Trolls World Tour" and Warner Bros.' "Birds of Prey", "Scoob" and "Wonder Woman 1984").


title: Major film studios

text: On May 16, 2021, it was reported that AT&T was in talks with Discovery, Inc. for it to merge with and acquire WarnerMedia, forming a publicly traded company that would be divided between its shareholders. The proposed spin-off and merger was officially announced the next day, which is to be structured as a Reverse Morris Trust. AT&T shareholders will receive a 71% stake in the merged company, which is expected to be led by Discovery's current CEO David Zaslav, with that, AT&T will leave the entertainment business.


title: Major film studios

text: On the same day after the announcement of the acquisition/merger of WarnerMedia by Discovery, Amazon entered negotiations with MGM Holdings to acquire Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The negotiations were made directly with MGM board chairman Kevin Ulrich whose Anchorage Capital Group is a major shareholder. MGM already began to explore a potential sale of the studio since December 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic and the domination of streaming platforms due to the closure of movie theaters as contributing factors. On May 26, 2021, it was officially announced that MGM would be acquired by Amazon for $8.45 billion, subject to regulatory approvals and other routine closing conditions; with the studio continuing to operate as a label under Amazon's existing content arm, complementing Amazon Studios and Amazon Prime Video.


title: Major film studios

text: On April 8, 2022, Discovery, Inc. completed its acquisition of WarnerMedia and was renamed Warner Bros. Discovery. The primary goal of the merger is to combine their respective streaming services into one (HBO Max, Discovery+) and to reach 400 million subscribers.


title: Major film studios

text: The eight major film studios of the Golden Age have gone through significant ownership changes ("independent" meaning customarily identified as the primary commercial entity in its corporate structure; "purchased" meaning acquired anything from majority to total ownership):


title: Major film studios

text: This does not include Walt Disney Pictures (then Walt Disney Productions), which was primarily an animation studio at the time and the only studio owned by the same conglomerate since its founding.


title: Terry Nichols

text: Terry Lynn Nichols (born April 1, 1955) is an American domestic terrorist who was convicted of being an accomplice in the Oklahoma City bombing. Prior to his incarceration, he held a variety of short-term jobs, working as a farmer, grain elevator manager, real estate salesman, and ranch hand. He met his future co-conspirator, Timothy McVeigh, during a brief stint in the U.S. Army, which ended in 1989 when he requested a hardship discharge after less than one year of service. In 1994 and 1995, he conspired with McVeigh in the planning and preparation of the truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on April 19, 1995. The bombing killed 168 people.


title: Terry Nichols

text: In a federal trial in 1997, Nichols was convicted of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and eight counts of involuntary manslaughter for killing federal law enforcement personnel. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole after the jury deadlocked on the death penalty. He was also tried in Oklahoma on state charges of murder in connection with the bombing. In 2004, he was convicted of 161 counts of first degree murder, including one count of fetal homicide, first-degree arson, and conspiracy. As in the federal trial, the state jury deadlocked on imposing the death penalty. He was sentenced to 161 consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole, and is incarcerated at ADX Florence, a super maximum security prison near Florence, Colorado. He shared a cell block that is commonly referred to as "Bomber's Row" with Ramzi Yousef and Eric Rudolph, as well as Ted Kaczynski until his transfer in 2021.


title: Terry Nichols

text: Nichols was born in Lapeer, Michigan. He was raised on a farm, the third of four children of Joyce and Robert Nichols. Growing up, he helped his parents on the farm, learning to operate and maintain the equipment. According to the "Denver Post", he also cared for injured birds and animals.


title: Terry Nichols

text: Nichols attended Lapeer High School where he took elective classes in crafts and business law. Throughout school, friends characterized him as shy. While in high school he played junior varsity football, wrestled, and was a member of the ski club. His brother James, who self-published a 400-page book about the bombing, has stated that Terry was good at artwork and book smart. He graduated from high school in 1973 with a 3.6 grade point average, with ambitions of becoming a physician.


title: Terry Nichols

text: Nichols enrolled at Central Michigan University. He completed one term of 13 credit hours with B grade average. He had Cs in biology, chemistry and trigonometry, a B in literature and an A in archery. In 1974, after another brother, Leslie, was badly burned in a fuel tank explosion on the farm, he offered to give him skin for grafts. He tried farming with his brother James for a while, but they did not get along; he felt his brother was too bossy. Later he moved to Colorado and obtained a license to sell real estate in 1976. Soon after he closed on his first big sale, his mother told him she needed his help on the farm, so he returned to Michigan.


title: Terry Nichols

text: In 1980, Nichols met real estate agent Lana Walsh, a twice-divorced mother of two who was five years his senior. They married and had a son, Joshua, in 1982. During the marriage, Nichols engaged in a succession of part-time and short-term jobs: carpentry work, managing a grain elevator, and selling life insurance and real estate. According to Lana, she was the one with a career; Nichols was a house husband, who spent most of his time at home with the children cooking and gardening.


title: Terry Nichols

text: Nichols had never liked farm life, and in 1988, at the age of 33, he tried to escape it by enlisting in the United States Army. He was sent to Fort Benning next to Columbus, Georgia for basic training. As the oldest man in his platoon, he had difficulty with the physical aspect of the training, and was sometimes called "grandpa" by the other men. However, he was soon made the platoon guide because of his age. Timothy McVeigh was in his platoon, and they quickly became close friends. They had a common background: both men grew up in white rural areas. Both had tried college for a while and had parents who were divorced. They shared political views and interests in gun collecting and the survivalist movement. The two were later stationed together at Fort Riley in Junction City, Kansas, where they met and became friends with their future accomplice, Michael Fortier.


title: Terry Nichols

text: Nichols's wife filed for divorce soon after he joined the Army. Due to a conflict over childcare, he requested and was given a hardship discharge in May 1989 to return home to take care of his son, who was seven years old at the time. As he departed, he told a fellow soldier that he would be starting his own military organization soon, and would have an unlimited supply of weapons.


title: Terry Nichols

text: In 1990, Nichols, 35, married a 17-year-old girl, Marife Torres, from the Philippines whom he met through a mail-order bride agency. When she arrived in Michigan several months later, she was pregnant with another man's child. The child died at age two when he suffocated in a plastic bag while Nichols was babysitting him. Marife initially suspected foul play, but there were no bruises or signs of trauma to the child. The death was ruled accidental. Nichols and Marife had two more children during their marriage. Nichols and Torres frequently visited the Philippines, where she was attending a local college working on a degree in physical therapy. He sometimes traveled to the Philippines alone, while she remained in Kansas.


title: Terry Nichols

text: Nichols left a cryptic note and a package of documents with his ex-wife, Lana (Walsh) Padilla, prior to one of his many visits to the Philippines. Upon returning from the visit to learn that she had prematurely opened a letter instructing her what to do in the event of his death, he made a series of telephone calls to a Cebu City boarding house.


title: Terry Nichols

text: Nichols' anti-government views developed and grew over the years. Nichols spent most of his adult life in the Lapeer and Sanilac County areas of Michigan where mistrust and resentment of the federal government was common, especially after bank foreclosures of many farms during the 1980s. Neighbors said he attended meetings of anti-government groups, experimented with explosives and got more radical as time went on. Nichols began to adhere to a variation of sovereign citizen ideology.


title: Terry Nichols

text: In February 1992, he attempted to renounce his US citizenship by writing to the local county clerk in Michigan, stating that the political system was corrupt, and declaring himself a "non resident alien". Several months later, he appeared in court and tried to avoid responsibility for some of his credit card bills (he owed approximately $40,000 altogether), refusing to come before the bench, and shouting at the judge that the government had no jurisdiction over him. On October 19, 1992, he signed another document renouncing his US citizenship. In May 1993, Nichols appeared before a county judge regarding an $8,421 unpaid credit card debt. He also renounced his driver’s license.


title: Terry Nichols

text: McVeigh and Nichols grew closer after McVeigh's discharge from the Army. In December 1991, Nichols invited McVeigh to join him in Michigan and help him out selling military surplus at gun shows. For the next three years, McVeigh stayed with Nichols off and on. On April 19, 1993, Nichols was watching TV with McVeigh at the Nichols' farmhouse in Michigan during the siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. When the compound went up in flames, McVeigh and Nichols were enraged and began to plot revenge on the federal government. In the fall of 1993, Nichols and McVeigh, who were living at the farm, became business partners, selling weapons and military surplus at gun shows. For a while, they lived an itinerant life, following the gun shows from town to town.


title: Terry Nichols

text: Nichols then went to Las Vegas to try working in construction but failed. Next, he went to central Kansas and was hired in March 1994 as a ranch hand in Marion, Kansas. In March 1994, he sent a letter to the clerk of Marion County, Kansas, saying he was not subject to the laws of the U.S. government and asked his employer not to withhold any federal taxes from his check. His employer said Nichols was hard-working but had unusual political views. In the fall of 1994, Nichols quit his job, telling his employer he was going into business with McVeigh.


title: Terry Nichols

text: On September 22, 1994, Terry Nichols and McVeigh rented a storage shed and began gathering supplies for the truck bomb. In late September or early October, Nichols and McVeigh stole dynamite and blasting caps from a nearby quarry. Nichols began purchasing large quantities of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and storing it in three rental storage units. Nichols also robbed an Arkansas gun dealer who had befriended him and McVeigh at various gun shows.