Southfork Ranch

The Famous Southfork Mansion Patio

We did go out to Southfork Ranch on Wednesday. We purchased the tour which lasted about an hour and decided that it was well worth doing even though there wasn’t a Ewing in sight. The ranch is located northeast of Dallas near Parker, TX. We learned lots of interesting facts – the show ran for thirteen years, for example. The first episode aired in 1978.

Did I really spend thirteen years of my life glued in front of the television set on Friday nights? I guess I must have because there weren’t too many episodes that I missed, I can assure you. That was before Tivo. If you missed an episode, you missed an episode. And that was that…

By the way, it was Jack’s fault that I got hooked on that show. He was in a bowling league that met on Friday nights. One night I was just looking for something amusing on TV and found “Dallas”. I was one of the thousands of faithful fans until it ended.

This is a photo I took of the Waterford chandelier that hangs in the foyer. We were told that it is valued at $17,000. There are also two smaller Waterford chandeliers in the dining room which are worth $7,000 or so each. Who knew?

The original owner of the ranch and his family actually lived there while Lorimar Productions filmed the series. Lorimar was only allowed to film during the months of June, July and August because the family didn’t want to disrupt the children’s school schedule. As time went on the series became so popular throughout the world that the influx of tourists who wanted to visit the ranch became overwhelming and the family sold the ranch and moved away.

So that was a good day. We’re leaving our housesitting assignment today after Pretzel & Kitz‘ family returns. Tomorrow we’re headed north. Please, please, please let the weather be good when we get home…