Divákem Dallasu – Angová Ien (2019)

In the early 1980s, the American series Dallas captivated television viewers, becoming a must-watch. The fates of the Ewing family members entered living rooms week after week, first in the USA, but soon in many other countries around the world (in our case, only after 1989). Millions of viewers eagerly followed the unfolding drama in the relationships of the wealthy Texas oil magnates and ranchers from Southfork, and characters like the scheming J.R. or his unfortunate wife Sue Ellen, who drowns her sorrows in alcohol, became an important part of the shared cultural encyclopedia for a time. But where did this viewer fascination and extraordinary popularity come from? What exactly in the formation of the series caused it? Why does the fictional portrayal of the largely inaccessible and distant life experiences of American millionaires resonate so strongly and generate interest even in continental Europe? What attracts male audiences to Dallas, and what fascinates female viewers about it? Such questions were posed by the then-beginning Dutch researcher Ien Ang at the start of her research, the author of the book Watching Dallas (the original from 1982 is titled Het geval Dallas, but the monograph is better known in the world by its English title).