Barbara Stock had no idea she was being written out of the hit show \u201cDallas.\u201d<\/p>\n
The actress portrayed Liz Adams, a sharp, street-smart government agent and friend of Patrick Duffy\u2019s Bobby Ewing who became romantically involved with Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval), for two seasons. The prime-time soap opera was one of the most-watched series of the 1980s.<\/p>\n
Stock, who first caught viewers\u2019 attention on the 1980s series \u201cCHiPs,\u201d saw \u201cDallas\u201d as the opportunity of a lifetime \u2014 one that ended as quickly as it began.<\/p>\n
\u201cI realized I was being written out the day that somebody came up to me in the makeup room and said, \u2018I hear this is your last day!\u2019\u201d Stock,\u00a0now an interior designer in California, told Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n
\u201cI should have known,\u201d she admitted. \u201cThis shows you my level of intelligence about these things.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Stock\u2019s final episode, there was a clear clue she wouldn\u2019t be coming back.<\/p>\n
Barbara Stock had no idea she was being written out of the hit show \u201cDallas.\u201d ABC<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a scene where I was packing my suitcase,\u201d she said. \u201cI had no reason to even think that I wasn\u2019t coming back. But looking back, that\u2019s always a big clue for any actor \u2014 when you\u2019re packing your suitcase on a show, it might be the end. You\u2019re about to take a sudden trip or vacation, for good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stock said the realization \u201cbroke my heart.\u201d She was hoping to be part of the show\u2019s final send-off. \u201cDallas,\u201d which premiered in 1978, followed the powerful Ewing family and their ongoing battles over their oil empire. The series\u00a0inspired the spinoff \u201cKnots Landing,\u201d\u00a0which captivated audiences from 1979 to 1993.<\/p>\n
\u201cDallas\u201d ended in 1991.<\/p>\n
A promotional still from the American television series \u2018Dallas\u2019 shows members of the Ewing family as they pose in front of their television home, the Southfork Ranch, Dallas, Texas, 1979. Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cOne nice thing was that when you have a contract for all the episodes, you get paid anyway, even for the ones you didn\u2019t do,\u201d she said. \u201cI was free to go off and do other work, too. It all worked out OK, but I missed them. I really enjoyed everyone. I looked forward to going to work every day, whether it was for a big group scene or a small one. There wasn\u2019t a bad apple in the bunch. The cast was truly wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Larry Hagman, who starred as ruthless J.R. Ewing, later told Stock that his wife believed J.R. should have ended up with her character when the show ended.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would have been interesting for me to end up being J.R.\u2019s final love interest, as his wife suggested,\u201d said Stock. \u201cBut once it was over, it was over. I didn\u2019t overthink it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember Larry welcomed me with open arms,\u201d she reflected. \u201cHe was so down to earth and so nice. And then all of a sudden, I was packing my suitcase and leaving. I later learned it was because they had to finish all the other storylines for the original characters before it ended. So, I was sorry I didn\u2019t get to do all the episodes I was signed up for, but it worked out OK for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stock stressed there are no hard feelings. She has nothing but wonderful\u00a0memories from her time on \u201cDallas.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI just adored [Duffy],\u201d she said. \u201cLike Larry, he was so down to earth. I actually saw him last year at an autograph convention. It was so much fun to see him again. And man, he\u2019s still working all the time and doing stage work, so he seems to have a very happy life. He was wonderful \u2014 they all were. George Kennedy, with whom I had a few scenes, and Ken, they really welcomed me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stock is used to working with greats. She also played Florence Henderson\u2019s daughter in a 1986 episode of \u201cMurder, She Wrote.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDallas\u201d ended in 1991. ABC<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had worked together before,\u201d said Stock. \u201cWe did a stage show in Los Angeles, and I was in the chorus. I got my Actor\u2019s Equity card on that show. I was 22, and Florence starred in it. For those three months, she was fabulous \u2014 a great gal. And it was fun to later play mother and daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI initially thought it was a strange casting because she was small and petite, and I was tall and brunette,\u201d Stock continued. \u201cBut it was a lovely experience. Florence had such a wonderful sense of humor. And she was a great singer, too. She was just kind and good to everybody on set. And to work with Angela Lansbury, an icon who was just a consummate professional, was a gift.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stock said the actor she bonded with the most on set was Robert Urich, her co-star in the detective series \u201cSpenser: For Hire,\u201d which aired from 1985 to 1988.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was in my corner when I needed him,\u201d she said. \u201cWe were true friends, and that\u2019s one reason why our on-screen relationship was so good. We genuinely liked each other. I respected that he was the star of the show. I was a little intimidated at first when I met him, but he immediately put me at ease. I remember after the audition, when they called me back to meet with him, his face just lit up. I felt like he wanted me there, and I had a good chance of getting the role. It turned out to be the case.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Urich died in 2002\u00a0after a long battle with cancer. He was 55.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was heartbroken when he died,\u201d said Stock. \u201cI remember I had a really lovely conversation with him. At one point, he thought he had beaten it. This would have been around 1997 or 1998. He said, \u2018I just found out yesterday \u2014 they told me I beat this. I\u2019m cancer-free.\u2019 I was ecstatic for him. And after that, he and his wife adopted a baby. But then, four years later, his cancer came back. It was heartbreaking. He was too young.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stock stepped away from acting in the early 2000s. She has no regrets about the decision.<\/p>\n
Stock, who first caught viewers\u2019 attention on the 1980s series \u201cCHiPs,\u201d saw \u201cDallas\u201d as the opportunity of a lifetime \u2014 one that ended as quickly as it began. \u00a9Alive Films\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n
\u201cI fell in love with design,\u201d she explained. \u201cAnd then, when we had our son, my husband and I wanted to stay home and just be with him. My husband was producing a TV series when our son was born, and he was gone for at least 12 hours a day. So when the show ended, we looked at each other and said, \u2018We want to be home with our son.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd to be honest, I was getting older,\u201d she continued. \u201cI was 38 when I had him. I didn\u2019t start working until a year after he was born. I did a movie of the week, which was fantastic.\u00a0It was on location in Tucson,\u00a0so I took my son with me. But it starts to get challenging, balancing a career like acting with a personal life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI did a few things here and there, and I always took him with me. But I found myself torn between working on set and being with my son. Eventually, I realized that I loved working on houses and designing, and I could be home more with my son. So I made the transition. It wasn\u2019t a difficult decision, and I was always happy that I did it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stock said she doesn\u2019t know what show business is like these days. But the one piece of advice she\u2019d give aspiring actors is to study their craft.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo what you have to do to get the job,\u201d she said. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean sleeping your way there to the top. You can have a fantastic career without ever having to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barbara Stock had no idea she was being written out of the hit show \u201cDallas.\u201d The actress portrayed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2778,2779,102,104,103,2777,2780],"class_list":{"0":"post-2138","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-actors","9":"tag-classic-television","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-dallas-headlines","12":"tag-dallas-news","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-hollywood"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}