Dallas: J.R. Returns

Dallas: J.R. Returns is a 1996 American made-for-television drama film and is the first of two Dallas reunion films, produced after the series went off the air in 1991. It originally aired on CBS on November 15, 1996, and was rerun as part of TV Land's salute to 50 years of Warner Bros. Television. The film is the second installment of the Dallas film series, following Dallas: The Early Years (1986).

The film begins with an American Airlines flight landing in Dallas. Aboard the plane is J.R., who is returning home after spending the previous five years living in Europe. The last time he had been seen in Texas, J.R. was in the throes of a catastrophic downfall that cost him everything that was near and dear to him, including control of his family's company Ewing Oil and being disowned by his progeny, son John Ross (Omri Katz). In the years that have passed, however, J.R. has become rejuvenated and wants to return to the oil business.

Meanwhile, Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) lives at Southfork Ranch alone with his son Christopher (Christopher Demetral). After Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval) took over Ewing Oil, Bobby was given the deed to Southfork after Miss Ellie Ewing and Clayton Farlow opted to retire to travel. Having been out of the oil business for some time, Bobby is considering selling the ranch.

Cliff, meanwhile, is also looking for a way out of the business. Although he won the ultimate victory over the Ewing family, Cliff has grown more and more frustrated over the amount of time that running the oil company has taken from him. He desires to spend more time with his family, especially his wife Afton Cooper and his recently discovered daughter Pamela Rebecca, and has been in what he thought were secret talks with Carter McKay (George Kennedy) to merge Ewing Oil and WestStar Oil. J.R., however, pays a surprise visit to Cliff's office and tells him he intends to enter the bidding war.

In order to do this, J.R. is going to need financial backing and after Bobby refuses to go along with him, he enlists the assistance of his former assistant Sly Lovegren (Deborah Rennard), Ewing family accountant Harv Smithfield (George O. Petrie), and Harv's daughter and business partner Anita (Tracy Scoggins) to try and find some way to get enough money to buy back into the business.

In her search, Anita discovers a previously unknown stock portfolio belonging to John Ross. Prior to his death, Jock Ewing had bought five thousand shares of a technology company named Cyberbyte and had placed them in a trust for his grandson. As it happens, John Ross' eighteenth birthday is approaching and J.R. figures that the trust will become his son's to do as he wishes shortly. However, Jock added a condition to the terms of the trust; John Ross is only to receive his portfolio once his father is dead, so as to prevent J.R. from potentially pulling one of his usual tricks to access the money.

That does not stop J.R. from trying, though, especially once he discovers that the current value of the portfolio is $200 million; since this would be enable him to buy the majority stake of WestStar Oil and freeze McKay out of any merger with Ewing Oil, J.R. crafts a plan to where his attorney will transfer the portfolio to him. He would then sell the stock, purchase the controlling stake in WestStar, then buy the Cyberbyte shares again and put them back into the portfolio which would then be placed back under John Ross' name. To cover his tracks, he would claim an accidental oversight if he was caught.

J.R.'s plan also includes faking his own death, which brings John Ross and his mother, J.R.'s embattled ex-wife Sue Ellen (Linda Gray) back to Dallas for the funeral. Eventually J.R. reveals his ruse to everyone, including an angry Cliff and a disgusted Sly, the latter of whom resigns as his personal assistant.