Southfork, JR and a few Texan truths

Dallas is now a modern, shiny city with a skyline of skyscrapers of various colours, shapes and sizes. The Reunion Tower is one of the most noticeable — it looks like a tower with a golf ball on top.

I AM SITTING in a room within the Southfork Ranch listening to my tour guide describe a property that will feel familiar to a generation of television viewers who followed the fortunes of a singular Texan family. When the original series of Dallas was being filmed, Southfork belonged to the Acres, who lived here while renting out the exterior for filming.

At first the location was kept secret, but as time went on and the programme’s fame grew, word got out. Soon the Acres were finding strangers swimming in the “Ewing pool”. When JR was shot in 1980 — an episode estimated to have been watched by 350 million people — they received “get well soon” cards addressed to the world’s favourite villain.