Dallas writer Arthur Bernard Lewis dies

 

Writer Arthur Bernard Lewis, perhaps best remembered for writing duties on Dallas, has died at the age of 84.

Writer Arthur Bernard Lewis, perhaps best remembered for writing duties on Dallas, has died at the age of 84. He worked on the CBS ‘super-soap’ between 1978 and 1985 penning over 63 episodes including arguably the biggest storyline of the 1980s – Who Shot JR? The storyline saw the love-to-hate character of JR Ewing (Larry Hagman) shot sparking a huge cliff-hanger and a ‘whodunnit’ plotline with nearly all the major characters having a motive to kill the villain.

Suspicion initially fell on JR’s estranged wife Sue Ellen (Linda Gray) before it was revealed – in an episode penned by Lewis – it was in fact her sister Kristen Shepard (Mary Crosby). The storyline propelled Dallas to the top of the TV ratings chart with over 83 million viewers in America alone and audiences around the world where captivated by the saga of betrayal, passion and big business. The success of the storyline has since prompted similar storylines in soaps such as EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Emmerdale.

As well as writing episodes of Dallas Arthur Bernard Lewis also served as Story Editor and Supervising Producer on numerous episodes as well. In then 1990s the writer penned the two reunion movies Dallas: J.R Returns and Dallas: War of the Ewings – a third movie was planned but never happened. Arthur Bernard Lewis other credits include The Doctors and the Nurses, Streets of San Francisco and Hawaii Five-O.