According
to Sky News, In a fitting farewell to one of soap's greatest characters, JR
Ewing is set to be killed off in a who dunnit plot worthy of the 1980 Dallas
cliff hanger Who Shot JR?
The
unexpected death of actor Larry Hagman on November 23 left the producers of the
next generation Dallas with a dilemma about how to write his character out.
Hagman
had filmed five episodes of season two when he died, leaving executive producer
Cynthia Cidre with the task of finding a fitting end for the ruthless Texas
oilman he played.
The
character's funeral will be shown in March in episode eight of the series,
which begins on the US TNT channel on Monday. It will air on Channel 5 in the
UK later this year.
The
show's writing staff, headed by Ms
Cidre, have reworked the second half of the season in the light of 81-year-old
Hagman's death.
The
result is a multi-episode Who Killed JR? mystery that Ms Cidre hopes will rival
the wildly popular Who Shot JR? storyline.
"We
all felt having JR die of natural causes would have been completely
inappropriate, not only to the character, but also to Larry Hagman," Ms
Cidre told the US magazine TV Guide.
She
received the go-ahead for the plotline from JR's screen brother Patrick Duffy,
who plays Bobby, as well as Hagman's son, Preston.
Ms Cidre
told Entertainment Weekly: "It will be funny and appropriate to JR, but it
will also be sad because his family loved him, as do the fans."
She said
writing the plotline was an emotional experience, adding: "I never cried
when I was writing but the next day I started to type, and I started crying so
hard I couldn’t even see the computer screen."
Two
months after Hagman's death, cast members past and present assembled at the
swanky Petroleum Club in Dallas to shoot an epic, drama-filled funeral for JR.
Among the
mourners were Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval), Gary and Lucy Ewing (Ted
Shackelford and Charlene Tilton), Ray Krebbs (Steve Kanaly), Mandy Winger
(Deborah Shelton) and Cally Harper Ewing (Cathy Podewell).
It is
also rumoured that Victoria Principal, Bobby's first wife Pam, will be at the
funeral.
Hagman
died in a Dallas hospital following complications from his long battle with
cancer.
He had
suffered from liver cancer and cirrhosis of the liver in the 1990s after
decades of drinking. He had a liver transplant in 1995.
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