Forty years ago this week, Dallas premiered on CBS – and changed TV history forever. At a time when network television was staid and dull, this Lone Star Peyton Place came on as a totally shameless melodrama full of sex, money, bad blood, family feuds, cowboy hats and shoulder pads – the first, best and most splendidly ridiculous of the prime-time soaps. It spun the saga of
This article originally appeared on www.rollingstone.com: ‘Dallas’ at 40: How the Primetime Soap Paved the Way for Peak TV
