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Cliff and the Feud Questions?

posted 9 years ago by Withrow68
6 replies | jump to latest

Why did it take Jerry Dandrich to make Cliff see that Digger had lied about Jock? Why didn't his and Jamie's failed lawsuit accomplish that? How could he still justify his hatred for J.R. to Ellie while at the same time acknowledging that he had pursued vengeance based on a false premise? Did this make Cliff the antagonist of the series instead of J.R.? Why was Cliff back to blaming the Ewing's for Digger in the reboot?

[–] radrobd 9 years ago

Why did it take Jerry Dandrich to make Cliff see that Digger had lied about Jock? Why didn't his and Jamie's failed lawsuit accomplish that? How could he still justify his hatred for J.R. to Ellie while at the same time acknowledging that he had pursued vengeance based on a false premise? Did this make Cliff the antagonist of the series instead of J.R.? Why was Cliff back to blaming the Ewing's for Digger in the reboot?

You mean "Dandy" Dandridge? Here's my take on the Barnes-Ewing feud. In the beginning of the series, the origins of the feud was kind of murky. Digger accused Jock of taking advantage of him, Jock had all the money and power while Digger had nothing. Jock denied it, but the truth appeared to be somewhere in between.

Things changed after Jim Davis died in real life. All of sudden, Jock was canonized. The prequel showed Jock took Digger's shares of Ewing Oil to protect him (because he was drunk and gambling) and offered to give them back, but Digger didn't want them.

That presented a problem for the series. I'm sure they had no idea how to keep the feud going for six more seasons. I guess with Cliff when he tried to help Dandy and Dandy accused him of trying to steal from him, it put him in Jock's shoes and Cliff realized Digger was wrong. But J.R. had done some horrible things to Cliff that he couldn't just turn the other cheek. The only solution for the series was to re-ignite the feud but between J.R. and Cliff. Season 12 was kind of silly having Cliff and J.R. working together at Ewing Oil, but Cliff left the next season intent on getting back at J.R.

For the new series, I think they ignored/disregarded some events in the previous series. Fans of the original remember the feud, that was a big plot for most of the series, but only die-hards knew all about the feud ending.

[–] drewstewartcolumbia 9 years ago

Miss Ellie told Digger she married Jock to save South Fork during the depression.

[–] hnt_dnl 9 years ago

Cliff even told Miss Ellie that he and JR were destined to be enemies regardless of the feud. JR and Cliff had done so many horrible things to each other by that point, Cliff realizing that Jock was not to blame didn't matter in the JR-Cliff feud.

[–] Rajesh_pimp06 9 years ago

I really enjoyed that scene with Cliff and Miss Ellie.

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[–] Stratego (31081) 10 months ago

Because that's just a retcon and Jock clearly did screw Digger over. He pretty much admitted it in the first season.

[–] Stratego (31081) 7 months ago

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