David Jacobs, the writer and producer who changed the face of television in the 1980s by creating the primetime soap operas Dallas and Knots Landing, has died. He was 84.
Jacobs died Sunday at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, his son Aaron told The Hollywood Reporter. He had battled Alzheimer’s over the years and died of complications from a series of infections.
Dallas in its original incarnation aired for 14 seasons and 357 episodes, starting out as a five-part miniseries in April 1978 before wrapping in May 1991, and it was the No. 1 show in the Nielsen ratings after its fourth, fifth and seventh seasons. Meanwhile, the spinoff Knots Landing debuted in December 1979 and also ran for 14 seasons — and 344 episodes — a solid Thursday night staple through May 1993.
Based on his work as a story editor for the ABC drama Family, Jacobs had scored a deal at Lorimar Productions, where he struck up a friendship with Michael Filerman, a young development executive.
As Jacobs recalled during a 2008 interview for the website The Interviews: An Oral History of Television, he approached Filerman with the idea to do an American version of Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes From a Marriage, expanding it to four couples and setting it in a cul-de-sac.
Filerman told Jacobs to watch No Down Payment, a 1957 drama directed by Martin Ritt about the tawdry, soap opera-type happenings in a Southern California housing development. The exec thought the movie had just the tone they needed.
“I wanted to do art. He wanted to do trash. And between us, we did television. It was a beautiful partnership,” Jacobs said.
Jacobs wrote a treatment and pitched it with Filerman to CBS. The network liked it but was seeking something to feature Linda Evans, who was under contract. Could they go bigger — create more of a saga? As soon as Jacobs heard the word saga, Texas and its oil industry came to mind.
Over the next few days, Jacobs crafted an outline for a series and gave it to Filerman with a cover that read, “Untitled Linda Evans Project.” Filerman, though, knew CBS wanted more of a feature project for Evans, not the ensemble piece Jacobs had written. So Filerman tore off the cover, retitled it Dallas and sent it to the network. Jacobs was surprised that his partner had done that.
“Dallas! Kennedy was killed in Dallas. I don’t know if I want to do this in Dallas,” Jacobs said. “First of all, Houston is the oil city. Dallas is the banking city. Michael said, ‘Who knows that? Who cares? You want to watch a show called Houston? Well, anyway, we’ll change it later.'”
They never got the chance. CBS immediately ordered a script based on Jacobs’ treatment. When Jacobs turned that in, the network ordered four more scripts. Six weeks after Jacobs penned the pilot, shooting began in Dallas. Six weeks after the miniseries aired, Dallas, starring Larry Hagman as the manipulative oilman J.R. Ewing, had a place on CBS’ primetime lineup.
“Like his ’70’s counterpart, Archie Bunker, who gave voice to prejudices and attitudes that were no longer socially acceptable but still widely felt, J.R. proved unexpectedly appealing,” Jacobs wrote in a 1990 piece for The New York Times. “His unapologetic commitment to self-interest, his unabashed belief in the corruptibility of others linked him to a generation that would soon be told that greed was OK and read on bumper stickers that Jesus wanted people to get rich.”
Jacobs remained a creative consultant on Dallas throughout its run but gave up his day-to-day duties on the show after season two as he focused on creating another hit. During one meeting, the CBS executive to whom Jacobs had pitched the show set in a cul-de-sac brought the treatment out of a desk drawer. He proposed that Jacobs turn it into a Dallas spinoff.
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