Dallas ( /ˈdæləs/) is the third-largest city in the state of Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States. Divided between Collin, Dallas, Denton, Kaufman, and Rockwall counties, the city had a population of 1,197,816 in 2010, according to the United States Census Bureau.

The city is the largest economic center of the 12-county Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area (the DFW MSA) that according to the March 2010 U.S. Census Bureau release, had a population of 6,371,773. The metroplex economy is the sixth largest in the United States, with a 2010 gross metropolitan product of $374 billion.

Dallas was founded in 1841 and was formally incorporated as a city in February 1856. The city's economy is primarily based on banking, commerce, telecommunications, computer technology, energy, healthcare and medical research, transportation and logistics. The city is home to the third largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the nation. Located in North Texas and a major city in the American South, Dallas is the main core of the largest inland metropolitan area in the United States that lacks any navigable link to the sea.

Larry Martin Hagman (born September 21, 1931) is an American film and television actor, producer and director most widely known for playing J.R. Ewing in the 1980s primetime television soap opera Dallas and Major Anthony "Tony" Nelson in the 1960s sitcom I Dream of Jeannie. He is also the son of actress Mary Martin.

Hagman was born in Fort Worth, Texas. His mother, Mary Martin, later became a Broadway actress and his father, Benjamin Jack Hagman, was a district attorney. His parents divorced in 1936 when he was five years old. He lived with his grandmother in Texas and California. His famous mother became a contract player with Paramount in 1938 and occasionally took him to her movies.

In 1940 his mother met and married Richard Halliday and gave birth to a daughter, Heller, the following year.^{[citation needed]} Hagman attended the strict Black-Foxe Military Institute (now closed). When his mother moved to New York City to continue her Broadway career, Hagman again lived with his grandmother in California.^{[citation needed]} A couple of years later, his grandmother died and Hagman joined his mother in New York. At age 14 (in 1945) while attending boarding school, he began drinking heavily which led to serious health problems later in life.^{[citation needed]}

John Ross Ewing, Sr., better known as Jock Ewing, (August 26, 1909 - December 10, 1981) is a character in the popular American television series Dallas, played by Jim Davis (1978–1981) and Dale Midkiff in Dallas: The Early Years. Jock Ewing was the founder of Ewing Oil in 1930 and the patriarch of the Ewing family.

Jock was born in 1909 the younger of two sons. Through his older brother Jason, Jock got a job in an oil field in east Texas and while riding in a train boxcar he met Willard "Digger" Barnes and the two became friends. Jock, Digger, and Jason all became wildcatters and began drilling their own fields. Digger had a unique ability to smell oil underground and with Jock's business skills they began making a fortune. Jason married and soon left Texas for wildcatting in Alaska where he married a woman named Nancy Shaw and fathered a son Jack (played by Dack Rambo) and a daughter Jamie (played by Jenilee Harrison). Jock and Digger returned to Dallas and Southfork where Jock met Eleanor "Ellie" Southworth. Digger and Miss Ellie were dating but Digger's drinking and undependability made Miss Ellie see that Digger would never change and was not the type of man to marry. Jock and Digger continued with their oil ventures but when Ewing 6 came in Jock put the field in his name only to prevent Digger from gambling and drinking his half away but Digger was furious and claimed Jock had stolen the wells for himself and their friendship ended.

Clifford "Cliff" Barnes, played by Ken Kercheval, was a character on the popular American television series Dallas. The Barnes family were competitors and sometimes enemies of the Ewing family. Cliff was the son of Willard "Digger" Barnes and Rebecca Barnes Wentworth. J.R. Ewing (played by Larry Hagman) was Cliff's personal nemesis; Cliff and J.R. were the only two characters to appear throughout the entire run of the series.

During the show's original conception, the character of Cliff was modeled after the late Robert F. Kennedy. However, he evolved into a bumbling sad sack who was very much his own worst enemy. A lawyer and a bureaucrat, not an oil man, Cliff was out of his element when dealing in the cutthroat oil business and, despite repeated attempts, would always be outsmarted and outdone by his rival J.R. Cliff finally beats J.R. in the final season, and takes over Ewing Oil.

Cliff's half-sister, Pamela (played by Victoria Principal), married Bobby Ewing (played by Patrick Duffy), J.R.'s younger brother.

Robert James Ewing, commonly called Bobby Ewing, is a fictional character central to the long running TV soap opera Dallas. The youngest son of Jock and Miss Ellie Ewing, he was portrayed by actor Patrick Duffy between 1978 and 1991, although both the actor and the character left the show briefly during 1985-1986. The show was originally planned to center around Bobby's Romeo and Juliet-style marriage to Pamela Barnes (Victoria Principal), who was from the rival Barnes family. However, the show ended up being centralized around his older brother, J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman), as it became clear that he was the breakout character.

He was born 16 February 1949 on Southfork, according to his gravestone in season 8's "dream-season".

Bobby was a successful (though reluctant) oil baron, like his father and brother, but he lacked J.R.'s ruthlessness and insisted on playing fair which resulted in his limited success. Bobby could be seen as kind-spirited or naive in what was portrayed as a vicious, cut-throat business. When they weren't at odds with each other, the brothers had many run-ins with his brother in law Cliff Barnes, and later more formidable enemies such as Jeremy Wendell and Carter McKay, successive heads of huge oil conglomerate Westar.