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My guilty pleasure. Hmmmmm. . .  Which one should I talk about publicly?

I love Dallas. The television show.

It all started in 1979 when my babysitter let me stay up on Friday nights to watch Dallas followed by Falcon Crest on CBS. I’m certain she never told my parents because they would have quickly put the kibosh on it. Dallas was definitely not proper viewing for a 7-year old.

I quickly learned the whole family tree. Jock married Miss Ellie and they had three sons: JR, Bobby and Gary. Jock also had an affair that produced a son, Ray. JR was scheming, drinking, and constantly cheating on his wife Sue Ellen. They married and divorced repeatedly and JR even married a couple of his mistresses. Bobby was the dutiful son, the voice of reason, and a smart businessman. He was married to Pam, who is the brother of Cliff Barnes, who was JR’s archenemy.

Each week, I looked forward to Fridays when my parents went out and was always disappointed when they stayed in because that meant I couldn’t watch Dallas and I’d surely miss a whole lot of action.

Fortunately, they went out on that fateful night of March 21, 1980 when JR was shot leading to seven months of speculation and gossip about “Who Shot JR?” and then went out again on November 7, 1980 when we learned that Kristin Shepard, Sue Ellen’s sister, shot JR.

My love for Dallas continued through the 1980s, through high school and even into college, when I happened to be babysitting on Fridays. Although the show with all its big hair, booze, shoulder pads, and sleeping around remained a guilty pleasure, it stopped being must see TV for me and I couldn’t begin to tell you how the series ended in 1991.

I loved everything about it. I dreamed of living at Southfork. I loved the crazy characters, the sober and drunk Sue Ellen, JR’s scheming, Bobby’s hotness, and, of course, the theme song. Oh, that theme song. I still know it instantly from just the first couple of notes.

This is the current version of the theme song. There were quite a few versions throughout the years.

Imagine my delight, in 2012, when TNT announced that it was bringing Dallas back with the original actors playing JR, Sue Ellen, Bobby, and Cliff. Bobby is now married to Ann, but JR and Sue Ellen are now divorced for good. Sue Ellen has sobered up and is a very successful businesswoman. In addition to my favorite characters, their children have grown up. We’ve got John Ross (son of JR) and Christopher (son of Bobby) who are both adults and running the family business, Ewing Oil.

My friends Tim and Michael are also huge fans of the show and invited me to a Dallas Dinner Party for the series premiere in 2012. We spent that night dining on pulled pork and many other Dallas-inspired goodies. We also shared our Dallas memories from childhood and listened to all the versions of the Dallas theme song. It turns out there were quite a few. We settled in with our cocktails and immediately were back in deep with our favorite family.

We’ve watched many episodes of Dallas together, including the heartbreaking funeral of JR. What makes the new version of Dallas so entertaining for me is how social media creates a community watch party every Monday night. I never miss it, even if I have to watch the repeat later that night or on-demand on Tuesday.

You might think that nothing can equal the badassness of the original Dallas, but you’d be wrong. There’s just as much lying, scheming, cheating, and drama as there ever was. There are many memorable lines, not the least of which was Sue Ellen informing us that after 20+ years of sobriety, “In fact, I’m a little drunk right now” at JR’s funeral.

Dallas today is full 21st century badassness. And I love it. Oh, and I still want to live at Southfork.

Want to read the all the posts from this month’s Blogapalooza, or, as Jimmy likes to call it, Blogapalooz-Hour. It’s one of his eight guilty pleasures, so we all try to humor him.