TV Shows
How ‘Dallas’ Pulled Off Bobby’s Famous Shower Scene While Keeping Victoria Principal in the Dark
In 1986, ‘Dallas’ shocked fans when Bobby Ewing reappeared alive in a shower scene, revealing season 9 was all Pam’s dream in one of TV’s greatest cliffhangers.
It was a water-cooler moment TV fans will never forget. In 1985, Patrick Duffy opted to leave the hit primetime soap Dallas, so his character, Bobby Ewing, was hit by a car and killed off. A year later, Duffy decided to return to the CBS primetime soap.
So, in the 1986 season finale, Bobby’s love, Pam, opened her shower door to find Bobby standing there as if nothing had happened. America was in shock, as was Victoria Principal, who played the put-upon heroine.
‘Dallas’ Delivers a Stunning Cliffhanger
By the end of Dallas‘ ninth season, Pam had properly mourned her former husband and reunited with her old flame, Mark Graison (John Beck). When Pam woke and heard the shower running, she was sure that Mark was there, so she decided to greet him. However, when she opened the shower door, Mark wasn’t there at all. Instead, it was Bobby, smiling from ear to ear, wishing the love of his life a good morning.
Not only did that moment come as a surprise to Dallas fans, but it was also a stunner for Principal, who thought that Pam really had found Mark in the shower. As Duffy explained in an interview with the Television Academy, that scene was edited onto the end of the episode, with the cast kept in the dark. Principal had taped a scene in which Pam did find Mark, but she had expected it to air mid-episode. When it didn’t, she was sure that innocent scene had been cut.
“I was home watching with my family when it gets to the end of the show,” Duffy began. “Victoria gets out of bed, walks into the bathroom and then you see her reach for the door. You only see the door opening, and I turn around and say, ‘Good morning.’ Not 10 seconds after it aired, my phone rang — it was Victoria, screaming.”
In the end, fans learned that the entirety of season nine had been Pam’s horrible dream and her beloved Bobby had never died. Dallas aired for five more seasons after that, but that iconic shower moment will go down in television history forever.
