Texas Metropole
Oil, the American West, and U.S. Power in the Postwar Years
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7309080 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Karen R Merrill (Williams College, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 99 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 197-207 |
| Publication date | 2012-05-22 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of American History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8723 • E-ISSN: 1945-2314 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jahist/jas096 |
| OpenAlex | W2324830723 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
June 2012 The Journal of American History 197 In the spring of 1980 television viewers in the United States and across the world found themselves swept up in what the New York Times called “an international mystery”: who shot J. R.? Larry Hagman, the star of the immensely popular television series Dallas, played the villainous J. R. Ewing who was head of the fictional Ewing Oil Company and whose cowboy hat and Southfork family ranch signaled his Old West cultural roots. From the beginning of the series, J. R. had wheedled and connived his way through power plays involving oil, Texas politics, and women, and with enemies now arrayed around him at the end of the third season, the final episode used one of the oldest tricks in the book to keep its audience engaged: the cliff-hanger. Viewers heard the shots ring out, saw J. R. fall from what appeared to be a mortal wounding, and then had to wait until the fall television season to find out who did the deed. Over the summer of 1980 the suspense built until the night of the season preview, when more than 80 million U.S. viewers learned that J. R.’s mistress Kristin had pulled the trigger and that J. R. was still very much alive, able to return to his nefarious ways with barely a hiccup.1 American viewers were not alone in their fascination with the Ewings. Looking back on the cultural phenomenon ten years later, the Los Angeles Times noted that the craze for the show, which was the third most watched in tv history, spread around the globe: “The show had become an international obsession, enthralling 300 million viewers in 57 countries. It struck a nerve in Singapore, stoked passions in Australia and diverted the war-ravaged residents of Lebanon. More than half of all Britons stayed home to watch the episode in which J. R. got perforated.”2 What attracted American and worldwide viewers to the dramas of this Texan oil family and to the exploits of J. R. Ewing in particular? How and why did J. R. Ewing become the icon of the American oil industry in the late twentieth century at home and around the globe—an icon drawn from particular popular images of the American West? His Texas Metropole: Oil, the American West, and U.S. Power in the Postwar Years
American west · Economic history · Ethnology · Geography · Political science · Power (physics · American Environmental and Regional History · History · Literature, Film, and Journalism Analysis
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,27 |
| Citation span | 2015 - 2026 (12) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |