www.dallasfilmcommission.com

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 06:00:00 GMT

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 06:00:00 GMT

Linda Gray clearly recalls the first time she was introduced to one Larry Hagman.

They’d been cast as Sue Ellen and J.R. Ewing, a super-rich, often-backstabbing Texas couple on the CBS series, Dallas, which debuted in April 1978.

“All of the actors walked into this room in Burbank,” Gray says. “Mr. Hagman, as he likes to be called, walked in carrying a carved leather saddlebag on his shoulder, and he was wearing a cowboy hat.

“The saddlebag was filled with ice and two bottles of champagne — very expensive champagne,” she adds with a smile. “He looked right at me and said, ‘Hello, darlin’.’ I thought, ‘What have I gotten myself into?’”

What she’d gotten herself into was a television phenomenon, which for 13 seasons defined the city it was named for. Dallas became the epitome of over-the-top cliffhangers and family drama. It was home to the devilishly charming J.R. Ewing, who still shows up on most lists of all-time greatest TV villains. And every week, Dallas was introduced by a toe-tapping theme song that has been hummed by viewers across the globe.

Say hello again, darlin’. They’re back.

A new version of the series, which features Hagman, Gray and Patrick Duffy from the original cast, along with characters representing the younger generation, began filming in North Texas on Oct. 17 and will premiere this summer on TNT. On a recent Friday on the set, the atmosphere among cast and crew could be summed up in two words: love fest.

“We’re just beside ourselves,” Gray says as she nibbles on lunch before filming a scene at her character’s high-rise office downtown. “About two years ago, the three of us got a phone call: ‘Would you be interested in coming back?’”

The veteran Ewings checked in with one another before answering a hearty yes.

“People don’t realize that we’re very good friends,” she says. “We love and respect and take care of each other. We’ve grown up together. Well, we’re still not grown up, but we’re grandparents.”

After the project became reality, “I thought, ‘Wow, let’s do some Sue Ellen homework,’” Gray says. “Where would she be?”

For now, she’s in a fancy office in the Harwood building on Bryan Street. While filming a scene with Josh Henderson, who plays her son, John Ross Jr., Gray tries to keep a prop on her desk still.

“I don’t like that clock,” she quips between takes. “Sue Ellen’s putting it on eBay tomorrow.”

The ruggedly handsome Henderson, who grew up in Mesquite and Tulsa, says he was “too ADD” to pay attention to the original series way back when.

“But my meemaw watched it all the time,” he adds. “It’s amazing that I’m now on her favorite show. I know she’s looking down on me from above, and the fact that I’m J.R. Jr. is surreal.”

What has it been like to work with Hagman, who has this particular day off?

“I met him a few times before we did the first scene, but on Day One of the pilot, it was like, ‘There is J.R.,’” he says. “That character lives.”

Such a rebirth in television is rare. Executive producer Cynthia Cidre, taking a break at the South Lamar stage where the interior Southfork Ranch scenes are shot, admits that when she was approached to create the pilot, her answer was more of a question mark.

“I said, ‘Well, I don’t know. It’s been 20 years. What do you want to do about Dallas?’” she recalls. “But then the idea had taken root. I knew J.R. and Bobby had sons, and I did the math, which would make them 28 or 30. With intra-family fights, it was a great plan. Blood-on-the-page drama.”

As for the returning cast members, “we were extremely fortunate to get Patrick, Linda and Larry,” Cidre adds. “It was just dumb luck that I picked the right three.”

Duffy would have to agree with that.

“Nothing happens concerning Dallas, past or present, that we don’t communicate with each other on first,” he says from his character’s den. “We must have been married to each other in a past life. What do you call it? We have an unconditional friendship.”

The three assumed they’d never be able to work together again, because the audience would immediately associate them with the Ewings.

“It was a dead issue,” he says, “and now here we are again.”

As for his famous TV brother, “when you get a Larry Hagman, you never let a Larry Hagman go,” Duffy says. “It’s like an infection, actually.”

The laughter flows easily on the set when the cameras stop rolling. During one break, the crew surprises Jesse Metcalfe, who plays Duffy’s son, with a birthday cake.

“This right here is the best experience I’ve ever had acting,” Metcalfe says of his new job.

After watching several episodes of the original series, Metcalfe says he grew to appreciate it for the phenomenon that it was.

“If we could have a fraction of that success,” he adds, “we’d be sitting pretty.”

Of course, that remains to be seen. Producer Ken Topolsky, whose credits include The Wonder Years andParty of Five, says predicting success in his industry is difficult: “All we can do is make the show as good as we can make it. Then it’s up to an audience to give us a grade.”

For now, the cast and crew are enjoying what Dallas and Dallas have to offer. Jordana Brewster, who plays a family friend of the younger Ewings, raves about shopping in the West Village. Metcalfe is a big fan of the cheeseburgers at Del Frisco’s. Gray visited the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art three times.

As for Topolsky, “If I never worked in LA again and only work in Dallas, I’d be the happiest guy on earth.”

They’re all hoping for lightning in a good ol’ Texas storm to strike twice.

“People say something about TV as an art form that they don’t say about anything else: ‘I grew up with that show,’” Topolsky says. “Friday night with the parents watching Dallas — that’s a touchstone in people’s lives. We’re stepping into a legacy, and we have to measure up.”

A lot has changed in the two decades since Dallas, including Dallas itself.

“Downtown has totally changed,” Gray says. “I went 500 feet down a one-way street once. I thought, ‘Man, I’m gonna be killed on my first day back.’ But Mr. Hagman stepped in and said, ‘Listen, darlin’, I’ll get you a GPS.’”

Whenever she mentions her old friend, Gray’s face lights up.

“Larry and I work so well together,” she says. “You can almost feel it in the air, this clear connection. It’s magic. So to get this shot at the same characters, 20 years later, is such a great gift.”

Darla Atlas is a Fort Worth freelance writer.

darlajatlas@yahoo.com

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 06:00:00 GMT

THIS STORY APPEARED IN THE BOSTON GLOBE

Bigger-than-life Dallas holds pleasant surprises

January 01, 2012|By Katie McLeod

The Nasher Sculpture Center (above) in Dallass Arts District, and a busy… (LM OTERO/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

DALLAS - This city seems to be all over TV these days. Lamar Odom, who rose to fame as a Los Angeles Laker and is married to reality TV star Khloe Kardashian, was recently traded to the reigning NBA champion Dallas Mavericks. Entertainment news shows have been asking, “But what will California-bred Khloe do with herself in Dallas?’’

And then there is the anticipated return of the popular ’80s series “Dallas,’’ which hits TNT airwaves next summer. The show will pick up where it left off, starring a few characters from the first series (Larry Hagman, Linda Gray, and Patrick Duffy) alongside a new generation of Ewings.

When I thought about the city, I envisioned the first “Dallas’’ cast, living in a world of oil and cattle ranching - with the stereotypical cowboy hats, big hair, barbecue, and Tex Mex. But once I saw an episode of Bravo’s sexy TV series “Most Eligible Dallas,’’ I began to wonder what Dallas is really like. Is the night life that hot? Are there young singles everywhere? Does anyone dress down? This last question weighed on my single thirtysomething mind when my aunt asked if I would join her for a long weekend there to visit my twentysomething cousin. What would I wear?

As a Cape Cod-raised, Boston-dwelling, khaki-and-cardigan-loving gal, I needed a lesson in all things Dallas. When friends asked what I planned to do there - all I could imagine was eating steak and learning the two-step - I realized how little I knew about the seemingly glamorous city. I hoped my wardrobe wouldn’t stick out like a cranberry bog in the middle of a dude ranch.

My aunt and I packed our bags (think jeans, dangling earrings, and boots that weren’t for snow) and off we went for three days of eating with a hefty helping of pleasant surprises.

Yes, I ate my way through Dallas. But I also toured a sprawling arboretum where I got lost in a fairy tale world of pretty pumpkins and gorgeous gourds (even the gourds were glamorous), and ventured to the symphony. I walked from downtown through uptown, and drove a few miles north of downtown to check out Southern Methodist University with its tasteful brick buildings and manicured campus. The nearby Highland Park neighborhood was jaw dropping. “Everything’s bigger in Texas’’ rang true there, and my impressions were right on since watching HGTV’s “Donna Decorates Dallas.’’ The houses are sights to be seen: one after another, flawless and picturesque. Size does matter in these parts. I pictured Donna going door to door, transforming great rooms and master suites.

We spent much time in uptown, a strip of restaurants, bars, shopping, hotels, and condos with droves of young people. “Most Eligible Dallas’’ unfolded before my eyes. But I saw no big hair. Jeans? Yes. Boots? Yes. Dressed to the nines? Oh yes. But no big hair. I was at least in the clear in the locks department.

I quickly stopped paying attention to style, though, when I tasted the food. While we ate everything from juicy burgers to tapas to Vietnamese, I drooled over the Mexican food. I had hoped to find an authentic Mexican restaurant and Javier’s, north of uptown, didn’t disappoint. There were no tacos or chimichangas on the menu, but rather elegant dishes featuring anything from red snapper to shrimp to chicken and steak. I ordered the Filete Azteca, tenderloin tips in Mexican sauce with guacamole, rice, and beans ($22.95). The meat was juicy and tender with just the right amount of heat for my mild-medium taste buds. The margaritas were a hit, and then there was dessert: Tres Leches cake ($6.95). With every bite of its smooth and creamy rum-flavored richness, I melted. The table shared the dish, and while the conversation flowed up to this point, our words became syllables as we tasted (“mmmmm,’’ “wow,’’ “yum’’).

But, the food is not the only thing worth talking about. The restaurant has character and charm. With dim lighting, green plants all around, and plenty of framed art and wall decor, the atmosphere is homey. The multiple dining rooms with dark wooden tables and high-back chairs made us feel like guests at a crowded dinner party. And the mounted game on the walls certainly commands attention.

Brunch was up next. We ventured to Bread Winners Cafe in uptown, and when we arrived, we almost didn’t make it past window shopping in the front bakery. We were greeted by mouth-watering sweet treats - homemade strawberry and banana cream pies, cheesecake, chocolate brownies, breads, cookies. The place was packed. We walked through several formal dining spaces en route to our table in an enclosed garden patio with plenty of greenery and light. We quickly relaxed and dug right into the basket of moist breads. The menu included everything from the more traditional eggs any style and a smoked salmon bagel to the spicier breakfast burrito and tacos. I ordered a scramble of eggs, grilled chicken, ham, onion, tomato, and jack cheese with potatoes ($9.99).

If I had planned a picnic of this scrumptious food in the middle of the Dallas Arboretum, it would have been a match made in heaven. The arboretum was simply a delight. Sixty-six acres of fall gardens, sculptures, and pumpkin displays on White Rock Lake were stunning, the vibrant autumn colors mesmerizing. We passed several bridal photo shoots along the way. I found myself lost among the flowers and trees, and didn’t want to find my way out. Open year-round, the arboretum also offers dining, concerts, high tea, and educational programs for children and adults.

The downtown Arts District is also worth a visit. We took in a “casual Friday’’ performance of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, a shortened program of Chopin and Stravinsky without intermission at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center. For a three-day weekend, it was just the right length. Before the performance, we sipped wine in the lounge area of the lobby, listening to piano by candlelight as we watched operagoers mingle next door at the AT&T Performing Arts Center’s Winspear Opera House. The symphony center, opened in 1989, feels spacious and still new, and the music was splendid.

While we visited only the symphony, the list of other performing and visual arts venues in the Arts District is impressive, including the Dallas Museum of Art and the Nasher Sculpture Center. Opened in 2009, the AT&T Performing Arts Center includes several indoor and outdoor performance spaces. Also in the area, the Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe and the St. Paul United Methodist Church add a touch of history to the district’s otherwise contemporary vibe.

But keep in mind that the downtown area is a long walk from the plentiful dining out and night life options in uptown. The McKinney Avenue Transit Authority, known as the M-Line, does offer a free vintage trolley service through uptown into the Arts District (www.mata.org). If you are not driving, there are taxis, and the city has other public transportation by way of Dallas Area Rapid Transit, or DART (www.dart.org).

If you are dying to two-step into the wee hours, boogie on over to Cowboys Red River Dancehall. It’s a bit of a drive from downtown, but the spirited scene is worth the trip. The country-western dancing takes center stage, and the live music is rocking. If you feel brave, kick up your heels and give it a whirl - or just have fun watching couples step in time. And don’t forget your cowboy hat. It is Texas, after all (Khloe and Lamar, take note).

If you go...

What to do

Dallas Arboretum

8525 Garland Road

214-515-6500 www.dallasarboretum.org

Adults $12, age 65 and older $10, children 3-12 $8, members and under 3 free. Parking $7.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra

Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center

2301 Flora St.

214-692-0203

www.dallassymphony.com

Cowboys Red River Dancehall

10310 Technology Blvd.

214-352-1796

www.cowboysdancehall .com/dallas

Lively country-western music and dancing will keep you on your toes until the early morning hours; age 18 and older.

Where to eat

Javier’s Gourmet Mexicano

4912 Cole Ave.

214-521-4211 www.javiers.net

Bread Winners Cafe and Bakery

3301 McKinney Ave.

214-754-4940 www.breadwinnerscafe.com

Where to stay

Hotel ZaZa

214-468-8399 www.hotelzazadallas.com

Boutique hotel features concept suites, luxury guest rooms, fine dining, and day spa. Pet friendly. Rates typically $299-$2,500 per night.

Dallas Marriott City Center

650 North Pearl St.

214-979-9000 www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/daldt-dallas-marriott-city-center

In the Arts District off the DART Rail Pearl Street Station. Rates typically from $109 per night.

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 06:00:00 GMT

CBS 11's Jay Gormley makes his 6th short film

Article

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Fort Worth actors Charles Baker (best-known for his role as Skinny Pete in Breaking Bad) and Lydia Mackay inOdds or Evens, CBS 11 reporter Jay Gormley's latest short film. (Courtesy Jay Gormley/Filmcynix and Ludus Studios)

By Robert Philpot

DFW.com

Posted 5:48pm on Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011

Writing about short film can be tricky, because it's not always easy to see short films. Sites like YouTube and Vimeo have changed that somewhat (see Fort Worth filmmaker Erik Clapp's The Fort -- no, really, see it, because it's very cool). But short films are usually relegated to package programs at film festivals, where often they screen only once.

So although I've known for a while that veteran CBS 11 reporter Jay Gormley has made several short films, I haven't done anything about it till now, as Gormley is working to get his latest, Odds or Evens, into film festivals. I can't show you Odds or Evens, but I can show you a trailer for the 23-minute film:

Odds Or Evens Official Trailer from Ludisian Legion Entertainment on Vimeo.

A few weeks ago, Gormley did have a private screening for the film at Dallas' Landmark Magnolia Theatre (I couldn't attend, but I did see it on DVD). The key word there is private.

"A lot of times, film festivals will frown upon public screenings," Gormley says. "[But] we wanted feedback. We wanted people going, 'Eh, I didn’t like that,' so we invited them out to watch a rough cut. It wasn’t brutally rough; there were sound issues, and one scene we thought was kind of long, so we cut it down a little bit." After getting feedback from the crowd of 125 or so, Gormley and his assistant director/co-writer John Venable tweaked the film even further.

The film stars Charles Baker, the Fort Worth actor best-known for playing Skinny Pete, one of the recurring meth-heads in AMC's Breaking Bad. Baker plays Travis, a former marathoner who has overcome a couple of major life setbacks and hopes to find further redemption by helping out a woman (Fort Worth's Lydia Mackay) who has a tragedy in her own past. That's a necessarily vague and coy description of a film that has its share of surprises.

Gormley, who has been with CBS 11 since 1997, has been shooting short films since 2002. Odds or Evens is his sixth, and he also worked on Venable's feature, Karma Police.

"My first [short] was awful," Gormley says. "I shot it like a news package. But I learned and I learned." He even got as far as being in negotiation with Dune Entertainment, a production company that has been involved with such films as 127 Hours, on a feature script. Although the film didn't get made, he spent a year doing a dozen or so rewrites for Dune while negotations were ongoing. He says he took a lot of that rewriting experience into his subsequent writing.

"The goal is ... to make a name for ourselves," Gormley says. "We’ve got other scripts, we’ve got a TV pilot. I’ve got a manager in Beverly Hills now, so if I can make a name for myself on a short film, people might say, ‘Well, what else do you got?' "

A variation on the "What else do you got?" question led Baker to appear in Odds or Evens."Typically, any time somebody asks me to do something in Texas, I kind of jump at the chance to do it, because I’d much rather work at home," Baker says. "I was kind of flattered that they thought I could do it, and I was really anxious to have that chance to show that I could something other than Skinny Pete or somebody else who’s on some other kind of drug."

Baker says that the sensitive Travis is much closer to his real-life persona than the wired and wiry Skinny Pete.

"Skinny Pete, I had to create him because of the circumstances," Baker says. "I went in for what I thought was a two-line role. I wasn’t prepared to have a character with a background and a habit. ... Travis, it’s as much me saying those lines and putting myself in Travis’ place, without having to go into a dialect or change my walk or anything like that. It was almost scary for me to do that, because it was more of showing my true self on camera rather than hiding behind the mask of a character."

The actor has worked for a variety of directors, from Breaking Bad's team of episode directors to the meticulous Terrence Malick, whose next film (still dubbed Untitled Terrence Malick Project)Baker appears in. He says he likes Gormley's style, which is pretty hands-off when it comes to letting the actors do what they want to do.

"There were a couple of things he saw, like a hand movement that I was doing during a scene," Baker says.. He said it changed the scene from being a really tender moment to being kind of preachy, and I thought about it, and it was true, and it helped soften that moment a lot. He wasn’t nitpicky like that, except when it was really necessary."

Gormley is realistic about the film's chances -- he knows that film festivals get thousands of submissions, but only a fraction of them make it to a screen, and only a fraction of those are shorts. Some festivals, such as Aspen Shortsfest, are dedicated to short fi;ms, but most have a mix of features and shorts, with an emphasis on features.

He was proud of his previous film, God's Pub, a satirical look at religion that he was sure was going to get into a major film festival like Sundance or South by Southwest, and he was disappointed when it only got into a few midlevel fests -- but then he saw last year's five Academy Award-nominated short films, and realized that he wasn't in the league yet, and that he needed to work on evoking more emotion in his films.

Gormley says that CBS-11 has been supportive of his filmmaking efforts.

"They’ve always been supportive of us having creative outlets," he says. "I think you need them, because the news is depressing, with all the violence. You have to let loose sometime. [My films are] not faith-based by any stretch, but there’s no overt cursing or nudity. I just like screwing with people’s minds, that’s all."

Gormley -- whose wife, Robin, gave birth in October to their first child, Daniel Patrick -- shoots the films during weekends, and he knows he's lucky in that, unlike many other filmmakers trying to get their work seen, he has a good day job to pay the bills. But he says what started out as a hobby has been growing and growing.

"I like to tell stories," he says. "When you’re writing news, you’re limited. There are certain boundaries. You stick with the facts, you try to be unbiased, you let the viewers react. Here, I can control how the story goes, I can control people’s emotions, and I have no limitations. If I want to have a fantasy sequence, I’ll have a fantasy sequence. I like that freedom."

For more on Gormley and Odds or Evens, go here.

Lights, Camera, Dallas!

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Dallas-Fort Worth locations find fame onscreen

By JOY TIPPING, jtipping@dallasnews.com
The Dallas Morning News-Staff Writer

A while back, I noticed an odd sight while driving into downtown for work one weekday: a car dangling headfirst out of an abandoned parking garage. “Wow, someone had a crazy night,” I pondered. Going home nine hours later, though, I saw the doomed vehicle still perched in its downward trajectory. But now I could see why: Television lights were set up and crew-type people wearing Good Guys T-shirts milled around.

Mystery solved! I saw the results (including a crunchily satisfying crash as the car hit concrete after taking brief flight from several stories up) a few weeks later on an episode of the now-defunct Good Guys TV show.

The last year has also seen cast and crew for the now-canceled Chase and Lone Star come and go, but — good news! — the next few months will bring filming to town on TNT’s new incarnation of Dallas and ABC’s grown-up mean-girls potboiler GCB, based on Kim Gatlin’s book.

In fact, with an estimated 400 films, television episodes, webisodes, commercials and videos being filmed in Dallas and nearby every year, you probably blithely bypass dozens of shooting sites every week.

True Blood shot a scene on the Adolphus hotel rooftop for last season (exploding vampire!), American Idolheld some of its first auditions (including that of Kelly Clarkson) at the Sons of Hermann Hall in Deep Ellum, and Tree of Life features shots of the stained-glass spiral ceiling at Thanks-Giving Square’s chapel downtown.

The area’s also hosted zillions of lesser-known gems: We can lay at least partial claim to 2010’s Mongolian Death Worm, 2009’s Tommy and the Cool Mule (really, does the Lone Star State have any other kind?) and the 2008 … ahem … classic Blood on the Highway (set in “Fate, Texas”) among others.

Dallas Film Commissioner Janis Burklund, who has worked in the local film industry since 1982, says the estimate of 400 shoots annually actually just “skims the surface — that doesn’t count the B-movies and commercials and things we never even hear about. … It’s a constant challenge to keep up with what’s going on out there.”

Burklund, who worked as a location manager before becoming film commissioner, says she “can’t step outside my door or drive around and throw a rock and not hit a place we’ve filmed something.”

Of course, some sites stand out as iconic: Southfork Ranch in Parker, where parts of the original TV and film versions of Dallas were filmed (as well as a pilot for the future series); Dealey Plaza and the formerTexas School Book Depository, immortalized in JFK and Ruby; the Tarrant County Courthouse andDallas City Hall.

Burklund says the area got its big break in the film industry with 1962’s State Fair , starring Pat Boone ,Bobby Darin and Ann-Margret and filmed at Fair Park, and things picked up steam with 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde with Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.

“That film was really the beginning of what they called ‘runaway production,’ shooting out on location, and it was a big one for us,” Burklund says. B and C was shot at dozens of locales in North Texas, many of them decrepit and now nonexistent. B and C fans can find all sorts of interesting fodder at texashideout.tripod.com/bc.htm.

Burklund says location touches and props sometimes outlast the show on which they were used. A “Western Morning News” sign outside the Davis Building in downtown Dallas, made of “some kind of paper or fabricated plastic or cardboard, nothing sturdy at all,” she says, remained there from the early 1990s — it was put up for a Martin Sheen TV movie called Touch and Die — till a few years ago when the building was renovated into lofts.

No matter how far in the past certain shows or movies are, she says, someone will want to look up the locales. “I got a family from the Deep South a few years ago — Pure Country was their favorite movie, and they wanted to visit all the places it had been shot.” More recently, a group of fervent Australian fans of the TV show Prison Break converged on the area, notebooks and cameras in hand.

Want to take your own gander at the area’s claim to celluloid (and videotape, and DVD, and Internet) fame? Here are some of the top sites where shows have filmed. Just be sure to wear your hat and big sunglasses; you don’t want to get harassed by paparazzi.

Dallas Arboretum. The gorgeous Woman’s Garden was used in the wedding scene in 2000’s Dr. T & the Women , starring Richard Gere, Helen Hunt and Farrah Fawcett. Fawcett also took a naked swim (she was actually wearing a bodysuit, Burklund assures) in a NorthPark Center fountain, and there’s a scene where Gere drives across the Houston Street Viaduct and into open prairie (Oak Cliff? Apparently abducted by aliens.).

Burklund notes that sort of thing happens frequently. “People say to me all the time, well, you’re here, and then you’re on this street, and that’s not possible.” So, you’re on the Houston Street Viaduct, and then you’re instantly amid waving prairie grass. In the movies, though, it’s not only possible, it’s probable.

Dallas City Hall. The I.M. Pei-designed structure was deemed just futuristic enough for the headquarters of Omni Consumer Products, the company that designed RoboCop in the 1987 movie of the same name. Across Interstate 30, the outside of the historic Tarrant County Courthouse served as Texas Rangers headquarters in Walker, Texas Ranger. Indoor hallways and such were also occasionally used (and theWhite Elephant Saloon in the Fort Worth Stockyards “portrayed” C.D.’s bar in the series).

Dealey Plaza and the Dallas County Administration Building (former Texas School Book Depository). Director Oliver Stone spent weeks here filming 1991’s JFK, about the 1963 Kennedy assassination. Stone also shot some of 1989’s Born on the Fourth of July hereabouts; he shot a parade scene on Jefferson Boulevard in Oak Cliff, and Milo Butterfinger’s bar on SMU Boulevard was the site of a fistfight involving Tom Cruise’s character.

Those JFK locales may get back in the spotlight soon; HBO has a series in development about Vincent Bugliosi’s book Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and Stephen King’s fall book (which one expects might get a movie deal) is called 11/22/63.

Fair Park. Along with State Fair, approximately a zillion other movies and TV shows have filmed here. The Good Guys used the exterior of the Hall of State as the Dallas police station; the interior stood in as the Houston U.S. Marshals office on Chase. Some interiors for Good Guys were also shot at the park, on specially built sets in warehouses, etc.

“We move in quiet and mysterious ways,” Burklund says with a laugh. “Well, not always so quiet. But you never know what might be shooting in some building you think is empty.”

The ABC show GCB , planned as a midseason show either this fall or spring, shot a party scene under the Texas Star, the tallest Ferris wheel in North America.

Southfork Ranch. This is the granddaddy of area film locations, Burklund says; her office still gets frequent calls from fans of the oil-rich Ewing family of Dallas, wondering how they can get a tour of the palatial digs. You can also get married or hold a reunion on the site, and there is, naturally, a gift shop.

Even if it’s not quite as grand, or not palatial at all, your home or office could get its chance at stardom on the new Dallas — producers are looking for real-life locales to give a feel for the “real Dallas, beyond boots and hats and big hair,” Burklund says (information on the “location auditions” can be found at the commission website, www.dallasfilmcommission.com).

For Dallas überfans, the Ultimate Dallas website gives an extensive list of other locales used for shooting the iconic series, at www.ultimatedallas.com.

Other downtown spots: Thanks-Giving Square and Pioneer Plaza, home to that winsome herd of bronze steers, are popular film sites, and the Adolphus had a brief (shorter than the film’s title, probably) moment of glory in 2006’s Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

For a selected filmography of locally shot movies and shows, visit www.dallasfilmcommission.com.

"Dallas" Locations

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 06:00:00 GMT

'Dallas' vs. Dallas

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 06:00:00 GMT

'Dallas' vs. Dallas: Where TV stops and reality begins

Dallas (CNN) -- Jessica Angelly stood outside the Sixth Floor Museum last week, taking in the sights of downtown Dallas with family and friends.

It wasn't what she expected.

"I figured it would be a lot of cowboy hats, Wrangler jeans and boots," said Angelly, 17, who was visiting from Metropolis, Illinois. "It's actually kind of disappointing."

Well, you can't believe everything you see on television.

More than 30 years after it premiered, the images of the TV show "Dallas" -- oil derricks, herds of cows, endless fields of the Ewing family's Southfork Ranch, those ubiquitous 10-gallon Stetsons -- still hold sway. Visitors such as Angelly, who wasn't even born when the TV series went off the air in 1991, expect them. Popular culture and even some locals want to present them.

And there's more on the way. On Friday, TNT announced it had picked up a new version of "Dallas," with 10 episodes scheduled to begin airing in 2012.

The new show will feature the children of J.R. (Larry Hagman) and Bobby (Patrick Duffy) as the latest generation of Ewings conniving for control of the family businesses. With guest appearances scheduled from the original cast, expect to see more 10-gallon hats, big hair and luxe accommodations.

Marquee blog: Watch a preview of the new "Dallas"

But "Dallas" -- oil, ranching and families like the Ewings -- isn't much like the real Dallas.

Sure, the city and surrounding area have their share of oil companies -- ExxonMobil is headquartered there, as is Hunt Oil and the drilling product firm Dresser -- but it's also the home of Texas Instruments, American Airlines, 7-Eleven, JCPenney, AT&T, Hostess Brands and TGI Fridays.

The real Dallas is a city of 1.2 million, making it the ninth-largest city in the country. Including Fort Worth to the west and dozens of suburbs, it's part of the United States' fourth most populous metro area, with 6.4 million people.

It's a lot more diverse than oilmen and Miss Texas winners of "Dallas," too. Forty-two percent of city residents identify themselves as Hispanic or Latino; the county sheriff is a Hispanic gay female. The city has gone Democratic for most of the past 30 years; in that time, its mayors have included two women (both of whom happened to be Jewish) and an African-American man. The metro area includes sizable populations of people from all over the world.

The city's establishment used to lament the stereotypes put forward by "Dallas," said city native Darwin Payne, a retired Southern Methodist University professor and former journalist.

"When the show first began, Dallasites scoffed at its stereotypes, considering it more or less a joke," he said. (If you're looking for cowboy hats and -- for that matter -- cows, Fort Worth is where you want to be. That city still has a twice-daily cattle drive in its stockyards.)

But their tune quickly changed when the show, powered by its early "Who Shot J.R.?" storyline, became a national phenomenon.

"It was great for tourism," said Ed Bark, the longtime Dallas Morning News television columnist who now runs UncleBarky.com. "Despite the initial reservations, there was no one who was unhappy about that."

Overcoming the "City of Hate"

Actually, the city of Dallas has rarely fit its stereotypes. In fact, it's been as elastic as its residents want it to be.

The city was founded in 1856, and the area quickly became an agricultural center and transportation hub, particularly known for cotton.

But more important for Dallas' development, it became a financial center. The city aggressively pursued -- and received -- one of the nation's Federal Reserve Banks in 1914. When oil was discovered in east Texas in the 1930s, Dallas bankers financed the growth. The city's determination was so pronounced that when the state was ready to celebrate its centennial in 1936, Dallas beat out Austin, San Antonio and Houston for the honor. The Texas Centennial Exposition "put Dallas on the national map," Payne said.

"Big D," as the city styled itself, prided itself on its commerce, its culture and its well-dressed women.

"The image of Dallas as a city of ranchers wearing string ties and cowboy hats was a carryover from the larger Texas image," Payne said. "It was hard to overcome it."

Why there's no messing with Texas

After the Kennedy assassination in 1963, however, the city picked up an unhappy new image from outside -- the "City of Hate."

That stereotype was largely unfair, points out Gary Mack, curator of the Sixth Floor Museum in the Texas Book Depository building where Lee Harvey Oswald fired his shots. For one thing, the president was a relatively popular man in town: up to 200,000 people, about one-third of Dallas' population at the time, lined the streets for the motorcade on November 22, 1963.

But the city's extremist elements gained greater notoriety after JFK's death, including vocal members of the reactionary John Birch and Patrick Henry societies. It didn't help that, in a widely viewed photograph, U.N. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson had gotten bonked on the head by a protester a month before Kennedy's arrival.

After the assassination, "there was no way to adequately explain what Dallas was really like," said Mack. "For a long time, a lot of people wished (the tragedy) would go away."

Redemption came from two unlikely places: football and a prime-time soap opera.

Cheerleaders and cowboy hats

Creator David Jacobs, fresh off the downbeat drama "Family," proposed a saga to CBS intended to star Linda Evans. Another producer, when submitting the idea, retitled it "Dallas."

"I said, 'I'm not sure this takes place in Dallas.' I said, 'Kennedy was killed in Dallas. I don't even think there is oil in Dallas. Dallas is a cattle town,' " Jacobs told the website UltimateDallas.com. "He said, 'Then we'll change it later,' but then I thought, 'Hey, they won the Super Bowl last year, so perhaps it's time to move with it.' "

The series began as a miniseries in April 1978, was renewed for a full season and gradually rose in the ratings until it was a bona fide hit. But nobody could have predicted the frenzy that erupted at the end of the 1979-80 season, when an unknown assailant shot Larry Hagman's villainous J.R. Ewing, leaving him for dead. The "Who Shot J.R.?" sensation propelled "Dallas" to TV's No. 1 show -- and gave the city of Dallas a shot in the arm.

"It's not like Dallas was an unknown entity when the show came out," said pop culture expert Robert Thompson, head of Syracuse University's Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture. "But what 'Dallas' did was build upon those images people already had and then try to graft upon that the changing idea of what was the emerging New South."

Panoramic: See downtown Dallas' skyline in detail

Along with the big ranches and oil wells, he points out, the show also shattered some stereotypes, showing the city's glass-and-steel skyline and modern cityscape, he said.

TV critic Ed Bark said he suffered "culture shock" upon arriving in the city in 1979 from Wisconsin. He thought the series, with its soapy plotlines and exaggerated acting, was easy to mock. But he remembers the show being a "huge industry" in town.

For most of its run, "Dallas" shot scenes at Southfork, a ranch in the northeast suburbs of the city, during the summers before retreating to Los Angeles soundstages. Other productions followed it into the area.

"(There was) a lot of money coming in, and it got other parts of Hollywood understanding that there were production crews here and people knew how to do this stuff. So it had a big impact on the economy and the awareness of the city, without question."

The impact was biggest on Southfork itself.

Like its cast, the Southfork Ranch of "Dallas" was bigger than life. On the show, the house was a mansion with grand, sprawling interiors. The winding asphalt path that led from the gate to the house appeared to stretch for miles. The estate was listed at 100,000 acres -- an area six times the size of Manhattan and more than one-third the size of Dallas.

In reality, it sits on 364 acres in the town of Parker, Texas, just outside of Plano in Dallas' northeastern suburbs. Built in 1970 as Duncan Acres, it includes a handful of cabins and stables for its horses and cattle, a sizable conference center and reception hall and a comfortable, if not cavernous, five-bedroom main house. The pool and patio are modest.

According to Tim Wood, a longtime Southfork tour guide and "Dallas" aficionado, the ranch received little attention until the "Who Shot J.R.?" madness began and CBS' Phyllis George mentioned the location on air.

"The next morning Mrs. Duncan woke up to all of Murphy Road out there packed with visitors," he said.

People jumped the fence and left trinkets for J.R. They even helped themselves to a swim in the pool. The Duncans sold Southfork a few years later.

"They finally had had enough -- they had to live in a fishbowl in their own home," Wood said.

The next owner started tours of the ranch, which were immediately filled, and built its convention center with an eye to bigger business. But a failed natural gas deal forced him into bankruptcy, and Southfork sat vacant for two years until being purchased by Rex Maughan, an Arizona millionaire, and his Forever Resorts company.

Southfork has now been outfitted with a pair of gift shops -- one specializing in "Dallas" memorabilia, the other in Western wear. Visitors can see patriarch Jock Ewing's 1978 Lincoln Continental and a bedroom dedicated to J.R. (which overlooks the pool, of course), as well as the glass table where the Ewing clan gathered for meals.

Still, Southfork remains a consistent draw, the upbeat yin to the Sixth Floor Museum's somber yang. The ranch is visited by 30,000 people a year, one-third of them from outside the United States -- testament to the TV show's worldwide reach, and just how far the city's fictionalized reputation stretches.

The latest market? Africa, where independent TV stations are airing old episodes.

Indeed, on July 4, visitors included a Frenchman leading around three Italian auto technicians ("Now their life is fulfilled," he joked) and David Muvevi, a Kenyan computer engineer who recently relocated to Dallas and called the show "very famous."

He was surprised at the size of the ranch, which was much smaller than he'd imagined. Nevertheless, he was tickled to finally stand on the second-story porch where so much action occurred.

"It's still 'wow,' " he said.

The city beyond the stereotype

So many far-away "Dallas" fans are drawn to the real Dallas by its diversified economy -- particularly the technology sector. Almost 18% of the metro area's population is foreign-born, according to 2008 statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Sudipta Bhattacharya, the president and CEO of Invensys Operations Management in Plano, came to the city fresh out of graduate school at the University of Cincinnati. The native of India never had to leave, he said: one tech job has led to the next, all in the Dallas area.

"The thing that people miss about Dallas is all the innovation that is happening," he said. "Here, different industries are forced to work together, and that's where innovation flourishes."

Dallas benefits from a central location, low cost of living, universities and weather, though Bhattacharya jokes that people uncomfortable with 100-degree summer days might disagree.

Indeed, if the city has a flaw, it's that those old stereotypes die hard, Bhattacharya said.

"We don't market ourselves well enough," he said.

While the world envisions oilmen and cheerleaders, Dallas struggles to get the word out about its stronger points, critics say.

There's DART, the city's expanding rapid transit system .The city has a thriving downtown arts district, including the spectacular I.M. Pei-designed Meyerson Symphony Center, the Renzo Piano-designed Nasher Sculpture Center and the Wyly Theatre, a striking structure -- co-designed by Rem Koolhaas -- that looks like a box draped in a graceful aluminum curtain.

Dallas' intown neighborhoods have made a comeback, with renewed attention to the Greenville Avenue shopping district and, after a mid-decade dip, the Deep Ellum entertainment area.

Dallas Arts District Executive Director Veletta Lill said the area is capable of more.

"Here is a place where, if somebody comes and plants their flag and said, 'I would like to do this,' they would go, 'How can I help you?' There's pretty much an embracing of new ideas and new opportunities," she said.

Jackie Bolin, who co-owns the V.O.D. Boutique not far from the arts district, saw that when she opened her shop four years ago. The business caters to women seeking upper-end fashion, a market keyed to the youth of the city. (More than 55% of the city's population is younger than 35.)

She saw a need for a place that specialized in small labels and imported styles, though it was hard at first to convince commercial buyers it was a viable business.

"We always hear from buyers saying, 'Don't you want this for Dallas?' and they pick some pink, tight atrocity," she said. "And we have to say, 'No, it's more evolved than that here. Our customer is not that (stereotyped) customer.' "

A new Dallas -- and "Dallas"

Dallas has its big-city problems, of course -- much bigger than the Ewings' family feuds.

After 20% growth from 1990 to 2000, it slowed to less than 1% in the past decade; most of the growth was in the suburbs. The FBI is investigating local corruption that might affect some high-ranking politicians. A longtime project to develop the Trinity River corridor has been a political football for years. The city has struggled with crime, though violent crime rates have generally declined since the early 2000s.

Pop culture might be slow to catch on to the real character of the city, but city leadership has been slow to reflect how Dallas has changed, too, critics say.

Adelfa Callejo, an 88-year-old lawyer and longtime Hispanic activist, said the city has come a long way since she arrived in 1939. But it still doesn't recognize the importance of diversity, she said.

"(Hispanics are) now the largest ethnic minority in Dallas, and the ethnic minorities comprise the majority of the population in Dallas today," Callejo said. "We had to fight for political representation. We had to fight for economic equality. Nothing was given to us."

Rafael Anchia, a Texas state representative, came to Dallas from Miami 25 years ago to study at Southern Methodist University. In Miami, Hispanics were everywhere. From the steps of SMU's Dallas Hall, it was different.

"I looked out and I saw the landscapers and yardmen were Hispanic, and I turned to my mother and said, 'Mama, aqui los latinos estan pisados' -- literally, 'Mom, here the Hispanics are stepped on,' " he recalled.

But modern Dallas is a place where Hispanics are "part of the political, social and economic intelligentsia of the city," he said.

It's a tolerant city, said David Kunkle, the city's former police chief and a recent mayoral candidate. He defies stereotypes, too. The Texas native is a wiry man, soft-spoken and thoughtful, the antithesis of a big-city police chief or a Texas lawman.

"We have one of the largest gay populations and one of the strongest gay communities of any city in the country," he said. "(And) the anti-immigrant movement hasn't gotten any traction in Dallas like it has in other Southwestern cities."

Indeed, maybe it's time to put the old stereotypes, reputations and images away once and for all.

Heck, even the face of Dallas sports is changing. The Cowboys, despite a Texas-big new stadium, are down. It's the baseball Rangers -- American League pennant winners -- and NBA champion Mavericks that are getting the attention.

Mavs owner Mark Cuban, a tech tycoon, has taken the mantle of top local sports owner over the Cowboys' Jerry Jones, who made his fortune in oil and gas.

Even the new "Dallas" might be acknowledging the 21st-century Dallas.

This time, along with their business battles, J.R. and Bobby's sons are dueling over the love of a woman -- the Hispanic cook's daughter, Elena Ramos.

Who knows? Perhaps the new "Dallas" will look a bit more like real-life Dallas.

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/07/13/dallas.TV.city

"Dallas" Series to Shoot in Dallas

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 06:00:00 GMT

**TNT’s new Dallas TV series will be shot in Dallas**

DALLAS– Warner Horizon Television has selected Dallas, Texas as the location for TNT’s Dallas, an all-new series based upon one of the most popular television dramas of all time. TNT announced Friday that it has ordered a full season of 10 episodes and will give viewers their first look at the new Dallas tonight, Monday, July 11, with a sneak peek during the season premieres of the network’s blockbuster hits The Closer, which starts at 8 p.m. Central, and Rizzoli & Isles, which airs at 9 p.m. Central. The new series will show off the vibrant city that Dallas is today.

TNT’s new Dallas brings a new generation of stars together with cast members from the original drama series. The new Dallas stars Josh Henderson (90210), Jesse Metcalfe (John Tucker Must Die), Jordana Brewster (Fast & Furious), Julie Gonzalo (Veronica Mars) and Brenda Strong (Desperate Housewives), and they will be joined by iconic stars Patrick Duffy, Linda Gray and Larry Hagman as J.R. Ewing.

Executive producer Cynthia Cidre, who wrote the acclaimed film The Mambo Kings and executive produced the television series Cane, wrote the pilot for the new Dallas. TNT’s series is based on the original series created by David Jacobs. Michael M. Robin (The Closer) directed and executive produced the pilot.

The original Dallas aired from 1978 to 1991 and centered on the Ewing family, a cattle and oil dynasty occupying the expansive Southfork Ranch in Texas. A long and bitter rivalry between brothers J.R. Ewing (Hagman) and Bobby Ewing (Duffy) eventually led to J.R. losing control of most of the Ewing industries. In the new Dallas, this explosive rivalry now lives on through another generation, with the future of the family fortune in the hands of the Ewing offspring: cousins John Ross Ewing (Henderson), the son of J.R. and ex-wife Sue Ellen (Gray), and Christopher Ewing (Metcalfe), the adopted son of Bobby. Brewster stars as Elena, who is involved in a love triangle with Christopher and John Ross. Gonzalo stars as Christopher’s fiancée, Rebecca. And Strong stars as Ann, Bobby’s wife.

The series is expected to have a significant financial impact on the city; create many jobs for crew, actors, extras and vendors; and increase tourism.

"The City of Dallas is very excited to once again have an iconic television series named after our City and pleased that we could assist in making Dallas not only the obvious location choice, but a good choice for the bottom line too," said Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Pauline Medrano.Now that TNT has officially placed the series order, Warner Horizon Television can move forward with contracts to finalize the Dallas shoot. Pre-production and production on the series are expected to begin later this year.

http://www.tnt.tv/series/dallas/

The Dallas Film Commission is the official film commission for the Greater Dallas area. Its mission includes marketing and promoting the area to content creators; serving as the primary liaison between the industry, government and the community as well as educating, promoting and advocating for growth of the local industry. In November 2009 the film commission transitioned to the City of Dallas Office of Economic Development to provide a more synergistic approach to growing the City’s targeted media industries.

Warner Horizon Television (WHTV) is one of the entertainment industry’s leading producers of scripted series for the cable marketplace and primetime reality series for both network and cable. Founded in 2006, this second production entity allows the Warner Bros. Television Group to expand its programming offerings and explore creative options made possible under a new business model. WHTV’s current unscripted series are The Voice for NBC, The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, Bachelor Pad and the upcoming Take the Money and Run for ABC, H8R for The CW and Randy Jackson Presents America’s Best Dance Crew for MTV. Scripted programs from WHTV are Rizzoli & Isles and Memphis Beat for TNT, as well as Pretty Little Liars and The Lying Game for ABC Family.

Asian Film Festival of Dallas 2011

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 06:00:00 GMT

North Texas hosts three championships within 1 year

Sat, 04 Jun 2011 06:00:00 GMT

By JEFF MOSIER Staff Writer jmosier@dallasnews.com
Published 04 June 2011 11:16 PM

Few doubt that Las Vegas earned its Sin City reputation or that Los Angeles has a legitimate claim to be the world’s Entertainment Capital. But Sunday’s NBA Finals game here — capping a historic seven-month stretch that included a local Super Bowl and World Series — brings up the question of whether Dallas is or might become the nation’s new sports capital.

The last time this fortuitous mix of talent, timing and facilities met, Bart Starr , Sandy Koufax and Bill Russell were the stars. In 1966 and 1967, Los Angelenos were front row for the first Super Bowl, a Los Angeles Lakers loss to the rival Boston Celtics , and the Baltimore Orioles’ sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers — all just months apart. It took until the era of Aaron Rodgers, Josh Hamilton, Dirk Nowitzki and Jerry Jones’ $1.2 billion stadium to repeat.

“They’ve had the national stage since last autumn,” longtime sports columnist Frank Luksa said about the area’s teams and venues. “The eyes of the nation have been on Texas for six or eight months.”

Beyond Cowboys fame
Even the most casual sports fan, Luksa said, recognizes something extraordinary has been happening. Dallas has been associated with sports for decades but mostly as the Cowboys’ hometown. Now it could be that a sports golden age is starting that won’t necessarily rely on Tony Romo’s arm or Dez Bryant’s hands.

In addition to the big three team championships in less than a year, the NBA All-Star Game was played in Arlington for a record crowd last year, and Cowboys Stadium also has hosted a pair of championship fights and international soccer matches.
Tara Green, chief operating officer for the local Super Bowl host committee, said this area has nothing left to prove in the sports arena. This championship run combines a rare mix of facilities and organizers able to land the Super Bowl and All-Star Game and a pair of franchises on the rise: the Mavericks and Rangers.

“I would say we’re the top sports destination in the country right now,” said Green, who is working on plans for a regional sports commission. “This is a wonderful convergence.”
Although this team-sports trifecta was hit previously, there’s an argument to be made that this time is different — and more significant.

Jack Disney, a writer who covered most major sports for the now defunct Los Angeles Herald Examiner, was there the last time the big three team championships were played in quick succession. He said this feat by the Dallas area is more impressive.

That first Super Bowl was nothing like today’s gargantuan entertainment event, which costs as much to stage as a Hollywood movie and overshadows the other championships.
“It had not really caught on,” Disney said, noting that the game wasn’t a sellout and was blacked out on local television. “It was more of a curiosity than anything else. … I don’t think the Super Bowl even belongs in the equation.”

David Simon, president of the Los Angeles Sports Council, said he doubts those combined championships had much of an impact on his hometown. The two series featured heartbreaking losses for the local teams, and the football title game had yet to capture the imagination of many sports fans. As a high school student, Simon said, he had a chance to go to that first Super Bowl but skipped what he expected to be a “crappy game.”
“What Dallas is talking about is something much more significant than what we had back in the ’60s,” said Simon, who still has the unused Super Bowl ticket his father bought him.
“I’m not sure that anybody would have bothered to mention that we just had the football, basketball and baseball championships. I don’t remember any publicity about that at the time.”

‘Good for morale’
Notice of this rare sports year hasn’t slipped by quietly, particularly among fans such as cardiologist Raj Abrol. After tip-off Sunday at American Airlines Center, he will have been to all three championships without having to stray far from Interstate 30.

“It’s really quite remarkable,” said Abrol, who works at HeartPlace in Plano. “It’s good for the community. It’s good for morale. People seem to be happier, although they seemed to be tired during the Lakers series since the games were so late.”

Only a casual baseball fan, Abrol said he made a point to track down World Series tickets and attend with his wife since the games were here. The NBA Finals were a natural since he shares season tickets.

Abrol said he probably wouldn’t have gone to the Super Bowl if he hadn’t promised to take his father to this game a year earlier. His father, however, died last spring so Abrol bought tickets from a broker and took his sister as a way to pay tribute to their father.
After the Mavericks reached the finals, Abrol scheduled a trip to Boston to see a possible Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals and “complete the sweep” — a feat not even Dallas could accomplish.

For Dallas, though, this extraordinary stretch of sports bliss is not more than a week or so away from ending. And this year has been more oddity than ordinary.
“Unless it’s sustained, it could be a one-year phenomenon,” Disney said.
Carlton Stowers, a former Dallas Morning News sports writer and now best-selling author, agrees that the spotlight could fade fast.

“Sports is very much a ‘what have you done for me lately’ type world,” Stowers said. “The Rangers are still basking in the glow of reaching the World Series. Now, at the end of this season, we’ll see where they are. That will be a distant memory if they don’t make it back or ultimately win the World Series. That’s just the mindset of the sports fan.”
Possibilities ‘limitless’

Although he can’t predict the region’s sports future, he said “the possibilities are limitless now.” The Rangers and Mavericks both have strong teams and Cowboys Stadium is attracting high-profile events — even when the Cowboys aren’t on the field.
“They’ve got just about everything they need to be recognized as a major sports city,” Stowers said.

Even the players recognize that the past few months have been something special for sports in North Texas.

“It’s been a great year for the city of Dallas sports scene,” said Mavericks star Nowitzki, who attended the Super Bowl but missed the World Series. “The Rangers had a great run. I was pulling for them. Unfortunately, they fell short.

“Hopefully, we can come through for the city,” he said. “Dallas fans deserve to have a run like this.”

Luksa said that while this is a football town first and foremost, the other sports have a significant claim on Dallas.

And if none of the local teams claim a championship in this stretch, it shouldn’t “diminish the fact that people have been concentrating on the Dallas area for the past year,” he said.

Staff writer Eddie Sefko contributed to this report.

AT A GLANCE: Championship Cities

The Dallas and Los Angeles areas are the only ones to have hosted a Super Bowl, World Series and NBA Finals in less than a year. There have been a few that came close, though.
Here are the runners-up:
Detroit — 2005 NBA Finals and 2006 Super Bowl and World Series (time span: 16 months)
Los Angeles — 1973 Super Bowl and NBA Finals and 1974 World Series (time span: 21 months)
Los Angeles — 1980 Super Bowl and NBA Finals and 1981 World Series (time span: 21 months)