American Icons: Television’s Dallas

This is the American dream in a ten-gallon hat. Remember the prime-time soap opera from the 1980s about a wealthy Texas family in the oil business? Dallas has been off the air for 20 years but it’s still considered one of the most successful television shows in history, and next month the cable network TNT will launch a new season of the series. Studio 360 listener Laura Detre nominated Dallas on our American Icons website, and we liked her idea so much, we sent Julia Barton to Southfork Ranch (and beyond) to understand how Dallas changed the way the world sees America.
(Originally aired: February 18, 2011)
  
  
Bonus Track: Dallas Behind the Iron Curtain
Documentary film director Jaak Kilmi remembers watching Dallas in Soviet Estonia as an escape, but also as a source of frustration.

  
Slideshow: Southfork – At Home and Abroad