Dallas’ mystique charms visitors
How to find sites featured on the new TV series. A ‘Dallas’ tour of Dallas is lots of fun.
DALLAS — On June 13, Larry Hagman’s formidable eyebrows will welcome you back to a new “Dallas” TV series on TNT, and the city to our north is once again ready to bask in the spotlight of oil-rich backbiters.
Let’s clarify one thing right from the get-go: Even though oil is struck on Southfork Ranch in the very first episode of this new series, there are no oil wells in Dallas. Nor are there any in Collin County, where Southfork Ranch is actually located (Parker, to be exact — a bit east of Plano). Look all you want; you’ll never find a well or pump station there. It’s an oil-free zone.
Aside from that detail, though, you can handily craft a trip to Dallas visiting the TV show’s locations, many of which are iconic Dallas spots you should drop by anyway, if you haven’t already.
The original “Dallas” TV show, which debuted in 1978, did very little shooting in Dallas. Beyond the first few episodes, conceived as a miniseries, the show used exteriors from Southfork Ranch but was otherwise shot in Burbank, Calif., studios. The new TNT show — a deliciously deviosity-drenched blackmailathon starring the inimitable Hagman along with Linda Gray and Patrick Duffy from the old cast, as well as the young and the ruthless Josh Henderson, Jesse Metcalfe, Jordana Brewster and Julie Gonzalo — revels in the settings of real Dallas.
Executive producer Cynthia Cidre, who also was on the writing team, says shooting in the real Dallas was a no-brainer. The city, she says, “is part of the character of the show,” and the Dallas mystique still captivates people. For example, Cidre says, when she was in Bora Bora recently, someone overheard her husband talking about the show “and they got all excited.” The world still loves J.R.
The home base for your “Dallas” tour of Dallas should be the new downtown Omni Dallas, which gets a ton of screen time both in the series’ opening credits and in various scenes throughout the season in its rooms and restaurants.
“We’re some of their favorite people,” Cidre says of the hotel. No doubt. The Omni, which sits at 555 S. Lamar St. next to (and connected to) the Dallas Convention Center, has rooms typically starting at $229 (although rates vary depending on whether there’s a convention in town) and is a lot of fun to watch at night when it turns on its highly versatile exterior digital lighting system. You might see a multicolor light display, snowflakes or any number of other shows. Its Texas Spice restaurant, which you’ll see in the TV show, makes a credible chicken and dumplings.
You’ll also see the iconic Reunion Tower at 300 Reunion Blvd. — the big ball in the sky — home to Wolfgang Puck’s excellent Five Sixty revolving restaurant (reservations: 214741-5560; no sandals or torn jeans for guys). This place breaks with the tradition of revolving restaurants with lousy food. The food’s yummy, and this is a terrific place to indulge in a fairly pricey compilation of small plates.
Another “Dallas” shooting location you’ll want to visit is Dallas Fair Park, home of the annual State Fair of Texas (Sept. 28Oct. 21 this year). Although the Fair may be the fairest time to visit, you can enjoy Fair Park’s attractions (the African American Museum, Museum of Nature and Science, Hall of State history museum, Children’s Aquarium, Texas Discovery Gardens, Texas Automotive Museum, South Dallas Cultural Center, and Fair Park Museum Hall, home of Dallas Summer Musicals) at any time. Take Exit 47 (Second Avenue) off Interstate 30 just east of downtown Dallas. Find out more about each attraction at fairpark.org.
Join the “Dallas” ladies who lunch at the Zodiac on the sixth floor of the downtown Neiman Marcus, 1618 Main St. Those mirror-filled blue walls are unmistakable. Shopping also takes place at Neiman’s in the series. If you’re walking around downtown Dallas (and people actually do that these days), do pop into the iconic mother ship Neiman’s. See if the service is as spot-on as founder Stanley Marcus always demanded.
That Dallas that’s portrayed in “Dallas”? The one with the oil wells and cowboy hat-wearing people and all? That’s not really Dallas.
But here’s where you’ll find all that:
Cowboys and cowboy hats: Cowtown. That would be Fort Worth. Visit the Stockyard District ( fortworthstockyards.o rg) for daily trail drives down the street (at 11:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.) as well as plenty of stores in which to buy a cowboy hat.
Once you have the hat, please do not wear it to business meetings in Dallas or inside Cowboy Stadium. People will look at you like you’re a loon. You may wear your hat walking around the Fort Worth Stockyards as much as you like, though.
You may also wear it in Bandera, where you’ll find plenty of dude ranches as well as more places to buy cowboy hats. Check it out at banderaco wboycapital.com.
Cowgirls: Few Texas women actually tuck their jeans into cowboy boots. For a look at many who do, visit the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame (cowgirl.net), 1720 Gendy St. in Fort Worth’s Museum District. Admission is $10; $8 for seniors and children.
Gushing oil well: This