Entertainment

Back to Southfork

THEN: Larry Hagman and Steve Kanaly in original series.

Larry Hagman (and his eyebrows) aren’t the only links to “Dallas,” TNT’s updated version of the ’80s prime-time soap that turned “Who Shot JR?” into a national catchphrase.

Hagman’s scheming, cutthroat oil baron JR Ewing is here — older, but still in fine fettle — as are original “Dallas” stars Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing) and Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing).

But the challenge faced by series executive producers Cynthia Cidre and Michael Robin was not only retaining the flavor of the original “Dallas” — which aired on CBS from 1978 to 1991 and returned in several “reunion” TV movies — but updating the show to incorporate new characters into a modern-day framework.

“We had to make sure it wasn’t campy, that we could legitimize the drama. That’s the critical thing,” says Robin about TNT’s “Dallas,” which premieres June 13.

“These shows can fall into silly soapiness really fast, so we had to get the behavior right,” he says. “One of the things ‘Dallas’ always did really well in the past . . . was its acting style, which used realism, and not melodrama. The actors and the characters would respond to wild things happening in a real way — they wouldn’t push the behavior to make it super-silly like some of the other melodramas.

“Some of the situations in ‘Dallas’ were gigantic, but the actors wouldn’t play that,” he says.

“They’d play it as real, so you went along for the ride, invested in the characters.”

The new “Dallas” has fast-forwarded the characters 18 years, pitting JR and Bobby’s now-30something sons — John Ross (Josh Henderson) and Christopher (Jesse Metcalfe) — against each other in a repeat of their fathers’ old battles.

And, since this is “Dallas,” it’s all about the oil — in particular, a huge reserve struck by John Ross on the family’s sprawling Southfork ranch that ignites a simmering, Texas-sized feud among the bickering Ewings.

“We found a way, financially, to film the whole show in Texas, unlike the original ‘Dallas,’ which was shot to a great degree in LA,” says Robin. “And it was really useful shooting in high-definition . . . you can really feel the largeness of Texas, and that’s one of the biggest keys for us. Southfork had to be this lush jewel with a size and scope worth fighting for.”

When asked how fans of the original “Dallas” will react, Robin says, “I think fans of ‘Dallas’ are not going to be disappointed,” he says. “The characters they grew to love fully are in place.

“We knew going in, if we didn’t get this right and honor the past properly, the show’s very loyal, vocal fan base would toss us aside very quickly,” he says. “But I don’t think that’s going to be the case. We worked hard to make sure there’s truth to the show’s past and a credible evolution of where this whole gang and world is 18 years later.”