Kristin Pulled The Trigger: A ‘Dallas’ TV Flashback
The post Kristin Pulled The Trigger: A ‘Dallas’ TV Flashback appeared com. LOS ANGELES NOVEMBER 15: CBS Television advertisement as appeared in the November 15, 1980 issue of TV Guide magazine. An ad for the drama DALLAS. The Who Shot J. R.? revelation in the episode “Who Done It?” which aired on CBS, Friday, November 21, 1980. DALLAS features Larry Hagman as J. R. Ewing. Forty-five years ago today, in 1980, the world finally learned that Mary Crosby’s bratty Kristin Shepard was the one who pulled the trigger and shot Larry Hagman’s irresistibly devious J. R. Ewing on the CBS smash hit Dallas. And don’t worry Kristin didn’t get away with it for long. In the 1981 season-four finale, J. R.’s longtime rival Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval) discovered her body floating in the Ewing swimming pool. Karma, as they say, can be a real bitch. Suspects Galore As a diehard Dallas fan who recently revisited the entire series, I secretly hoped the trigger finger might belong to Sue Ellen’s (Linda Gray) creepy therapist, Dr. Simon Ellby, who I assumed was secretly obsessed with J. R.’s long-suffering wife. The list of suspects was staggering from Cliff and Bobby to Pam, Lucy, Ray, “Dusty” Farlow, Alan Beam, Vaughn Leland, and Miss Ellie or Jock. Heck even Gary or Val could have popped in from spinoff Knots Landing with a gun! In a scene from ‘Dallas,’ cast member gather in a hospital to hear the fate of recently shot character J. R. Ewing in an episode called ‘No More Mr. Nice Guy,’ June 1980. From left, Mary Crosby (as Kristin Shepard), Linda Gray (as Sue Ellen Ewing), Ken Kercheval (standing at rear) (as Cliff Barnes), Peter Donat (as Dr.