Dallas: The Complete Eighth Season DVD: Review By Brian Gallagher

Dallas was one of the most successful shows in television history. The show ran for 14 seasons and almost 400 episodes, and the infamous "Who Shot J.R." episode, the Season 4 premiere, was the highest rated single episode in television history, until the series finale of M*A*S*H broke that record in 1983. Still, this Texas-style drama will be remembered forever, and it might even get a new boost of popularity with the upcoming Dallas movie in the works. You can revisit this eighth season now on DVD, and it sure is a doozy.

There are changes aplenty this season, as Barbara Bel Geddes, who plays the Ewing matriarch Sue Ellen Ewing, left the series the year prior, citing exhaustion. This season she was replaced by Donna Reed, but that's not all that's new. There are also the additions of Jenilee Harrison as Jamie Ewing, a cousin who's trying to get a piece of the family business for herself, and Deborah Shelton, who plays Mandy Winger, who tugs at the heartstrings of both J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) and Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval). Oddly enough, it was this season's famous departure of Patrick Duffy in the season finale that set up the next season; perhaps one of the most infamous seasons in all of television: the "dream season."

This show really has it all, and while I was just a kid during this show's entire existence, revisiting it now it is now clear why the adults of my generation were glued to the set when this show aired. This is simply one of the best dramas television has ever seen, and this is one of the most pivotal seasons in this series' entire run. Larry Hagman is at the top of his game as the show's star, J.R. Ewing and this huge ensemble cast featuring Patrick Duffy, Victoria Principal and the others hardly ever miss a beat as well.

While some of this might not translate quite as well to a younger, modern audience, if you're just a fan of good old-fashioned drama, you can't get much better than Dallas.

The only feature we get here is Dallas Makeover: Travilla Style, which takes an in-depth look into how the fashion of the show was impacted by fashion designer Travilla taking over as costume designer for the show. The move obviously paid off, since the show won an Emmy for Costume Design for this season. It's a fairly unique featurette, and, even though this is all we get in this department, it's worth a look.

This set is presented in the fullscreen format, in the 1.33:1 aspect ratio.

The sound is handled through the Dolby Digital format.

A nice simple design, that's in line with the previous seven seasons on DVD. This time they went with a gold cover with pictures of the principle characters on the front and an overall solid package to house this five-disc set.

This is just one of the best television series in history, and this season on DVD is a must own for any follower of the Ewing clan.