# What role is Larry Hagman best known for?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-is-larry-hagman-best-known-for/1016749
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** tv-shows-scripted
**Created:** [April 7, 2025, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-is-larry-hagman-best-known-for/1016749 "2025-04-07T17:15:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2025, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-is-larry-hagman-best-known-for/1016749/21 "2025-04-07T20:52:57Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#):
>
> Is there anybody who was an American kid in the 1960s or 70s who didn’t vote “Major Nelson”? I suspect the JR voters are younger or from outside the US where _Dallas_ probably found a larger audience than _Jeannie_.
Me. Even though I’ve likely seen every episode of _I Dream of Jeannie_ and never saw a single episode of _Dallas,_ I think most people will think of JR before they think of Nelson.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2025, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-is-larry-hagman-best-known-for/1016749/22 "2025-04-07T20:55:28Z")
I was born in 1955, and I still voted for JR.
Does anybody remember a show from the '70s called _ **The Good Life** _ (not to be confused with the British sitcom of the same name, known as _ **Good Neighbors** _ in the US)? Hagman and Donna Mills played a married couple who tired of the rat race and went to work as domestic servants for rich dude David Wayne. In addition to making lots of money, they got to enjoy all the amenities of living in a mansion with a swimming pool and other luxuries.
Of course, all three wound up in _ **Dallas** _ a few years later.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2025, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-is-larry-hagman-best-known-for/1016749/23 "2025-04-07T21:02:22Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#):
>
> I still don’t know who shot JR. And still don’t care.
I can remedy that:
It was Sue Ellen’s slutty sister Kristen Shepherd, whom JR was banging on the side. She escaped facing charges by telling JR she was carrying his child. IIRC, said child (a boy named Christopher) was eventually adopted by Bobby and Pamela Ewing, JR’s brother and sister-in-law. The producers milked that for at least two more seasons.
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2025, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-is-larry-hagman-best-known-for/1016749/24 "2025-04-07T21:06:03Z")
My cultural literacy is failing me. I thought it turned out to be a dream.
FWIW, I have never seen an episode of _Dallas_. It premiered the same month I started High School and I don’t remember anybody talking about the show at school.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2025, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-is-larry-hagman-best-known-for/1016749/25 "2025-04-07T21:10:49Z")
Like others, I’ve seen _I Dream of Jeannie_ but never _Dallas_, but “Who shot J.R.?” was such a huge, inescapable cultural phenomenon that that was the first thing that leapt to my mind. But I think I thought of both almost simultaneously.
The OP’s question is a bit like asking,
What role is Harrison Ford best known for?
_Poll ([view on site](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-is-larry-hagman-best-known-for/1016749/25))_
or
What role is Sylvester Stallone best known for?
_Poll ([view on site](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-is-larry-hagman-best-known-for/1016749/25))_
In each case, there are two roles that overshadow all their others, but it’s hard to select one of the two.
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### Author:  [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2025, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-is-larry-hagman-best-known-for/1016749/26 "2025-04-07T21:10:54Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#):
>
> (even to point of being born in 1967!)
Hey, summer of love! Good year.
I watched a ton of IDOJ (and Gilligan’s Island, Get Smart, etc.) when I was home sick, mostly because it was either that or soap operas. Still, Dallas was a cultural phenomenon in a way that IDOJ was definitely not.
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### Author:  [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2025, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-is-larry-hagman-best-known-for/1016749/27 "2025-04-07T21:11:44Z")
I think those are much closer calls.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2025, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-is-larry-hagman-best-known-for/1016749/28 "2025-04-07T21:15:57Z")
> [@doreen](#):
>
> I know about " Who shot J.R."? and there was something about a shower and a whole season being a dream.
The dream came at the end of the disastrous 1985–86 season, after they had killed off the character of Bobby Ewing, at the actor’s own request. The show had taken a nose dive in the ratings and tried to make up for it by using _ **Dynasty** _-style plots, but they finally realized he had to be brought back.
Hagman spent a long weekend with Patrick Duffy and managed to convince him to return, and the only way to explain his resurrection was to turn the previous year into a dream of Pamela’s. She awoke to find him in the shower, and we all had to wait until September to find out what the hell was going on.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCEjeTb1rrs)
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2025, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-is-larry-hagman-best-known-for/1016749/29 "2025-04-07T21:21:14Z")
I’ve never seen any of his stuff and I know he was JR from Dallas.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2025, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-is-larry-hagman-best-known-for/1016749/30 "2025-04-07T21:24:06Z")
As I recall, it took a few months to catch on. It was one show where you absolutely had to understand each character and the complex relationship between them all.
I doubt a high schooler would have found much to attract him (or her). They were probably more geared to watching _ **Mork and Mindy** _ and _ **Angie** _, which were at the top of the ratings at the time.
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### Author:  [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2025, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-is-larry-hagman-best-known-for/1016749/31 "2025-04-07T21:24:09Z")
I agree
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### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2025, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-is-larry-hagman-best-known-for/1016749/32 "2025-04-07T21:25:50Z")
The army officer in _Superman_
> **[Larry Hagman in Superman the Movie (1978)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8diCW1uYo0U%2F)**
>
> Major Hagman assists a woman in distress.This is Hagman's only appearance in the film for which he was not listed in the closing credits. Less than two years...
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2025, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-is-larry-hagman-best-known-for/1016749/33 "2025-04-07T21:29:41Z")
And in _ **The Eagle has Landed.** _
> [https://youtu.be/2E4YzR-ZO2o](https://youtu.be/2E4YzR-ZO2o)
Got his brains blown out in that one, he did!
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2025, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-is-larry-hagman-best-known-for/1016749/34 "2025-04-07T21:29:49Z")
Or the Army officer in _The Eagle Has Landed_
ETA: Missed it by _that_ much.
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### Author:  [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2025, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-is-larry-hagman-best-known-for/1016749/35 "2025-04-07T21:45:38Z")
Watched IDoJ a lot in my youth, never watched Dallas. However, I think he’s best known for his work on Dallas, so that’s how I voted.
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### Author:  [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2025, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-is-larry-hagman-best-known-for/1016749/36 "2025-04-07T22:00:19Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> More people may have watched Dallas when it was being first aired but I’m sure reruns have given I Dream of Jeannie more exposure to people over time.
I was thinking that. I know him from I Dream of Jeannie because I never watched Dallas (and only watched Jeannie in syndication). But Dallas is newer and was just a juggernaut. But given my age and that Dallas is quite old now, I did wonder if it has flipped. Though I expect for the younger set, he’s not known for anything - I don’t recall that the revival made much splash, and the young set didn’t see the same old shows (or even so narrow a range that everyone was watching) as when I was a kid.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2025, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-is-larry-hagman-best-known-for/1016749/37 "2025-04-07T22:24:38Z")
No love for _Checkered Flag or Crash_?
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2025, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-is-larry-hagman-best-known-for/1016749/38 "2025-04-07T22:36:45Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#):
>
> Is there anybody who was an American kid in the 1960s or 70s who didn’t vote “Major Nelson”?
Yes, me. And I was a red-blooded heterosexual teenager who was delighted to see Barbara Eden each week. But it was Hagman as JR who was on the cover of every magazine from **Mad** to **TV Guide** to **Time** , and it was the “Who Shot JR” episode that got a TV rating of 53.3 and a 76% share of audience.
Just because IDOJ still hangs around in reruns on old people’s TV networks doesn’t make Tony Nelson a more memorable figure any more than it made Roger Healy more memorable than Howard Borden. Jeanie was the star, period.
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### Author:  [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2025, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-is-larry-hagman-best-known-for/1016749/39 "2025-04-07T22:50:44Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#):
>
> I’m sure I’ve seen every episode more than once.
>
> Dallas by contrast never attracted my attention much.
Same, but when I tried to think of the Jeannie character’s name (from the thread’s subject line), came up with a big blank. J.R. it is.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2025, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-role-is-larry-hagman-best-known-for/1016749/40 "2025-04-07T22:56:51Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#):
>
> And I was a red-blooded heterosexual teenager who was delighted to see Barbara Eden each week.
> …
> Jeanie was the star, period.
Yep.
And count me in as somebody even from the tender age of 8 when it first was released who realized the whole point of the show was ogling Barbara Eden as much as the mid-60s censors would permit.
I never saw an episode of _Dallas_ but it was pretty obvious the point wasn’t pretty women. So not a show I cared to watch.
> [@Briny\_Deep](#):
>
> but when I tried to think of the Jeannie character’s name
Jeanie’s name is … Jeanie. She has no other.
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