David Jacobs, creator of soap opera Dallas, dies at 84 after Alzheimer's battle
The writer and producer behind esteemed, long-running American soap operas "Dallas" and "Knots Landing" has died. David Jacobs was 84.
Jacobs' son Aaron told The Hollywood Reporter that his dad died Sunday at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, following a years-long bout with Alzheimer's. What allegedly did him in, however, was a series of infections.
The writer is credited with altering the face of television, with his shows becoming a staple of American households during the 1980s. "Dallas" aired for 14 seasons and had 357 episodes, making it the longest-running series at the time. "Knots Landing" wasn't far behind, however, airing for the same number of seasons but with 344 episodes.
David Jacobs has died aged 84 (WireImage)
He's well-known as the creator of Dallas (Getty Images)The former started as a miniseries in April 1978, being broken into five parts. It then ran through May 1991, garnering a first place Nielsen rating for its fourth, fifth and seventh seasons. "Knots Landing" began in December 1979 and ran most Thursday nights until wrapping up in May 1993.
Jacobs' film journey began after he worked as a story editor for ABC's drama "Family," a five-season series that first aired in 1976. That secured him a deal with Lorimar Productions, an American production company that later folded into Warner Bros.
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It was there that he met Michael Filerman, who was a development executive, and the two became fast friends. Jacobs pitched to Filerman an idea for an American version of "Scenes from a Marriage," a 1973 Swedish miniseries, which detailed a marriage falling apart, but wanted the new series to focus on not one but four couples.
The two went back and forth on ideas, with Filerman telling him to watch the 1957 movie "No Down Payment," which detailed dramatic scenes in a Southern California housing development, as Filerman thought it had the proper tone for Jacobs' new piece.
He had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's (Chris Polk/FilmMagic)In an interview with "The Interviews: An Oral History of Television" in 2008, he told the TV history foundation that he had "wanted to do art" but that Filerman "wanted to do trash." "Between us, we did television. It was a beautiful partnership," he said.
Pitching the idea to CBS, the network was enthralled, but at the time, actress Linda Evans was under contract and needed a role, so CBS asked Jacobs to create a saga. That's what sparked his idea for "Dallas," as he thought of the Texan oil industry.
It was actually titled by Filerman, who slapped the city's name on an outline Jacobs had sent him, which Filerman reportedly did behind Jacobs' back, later telling the writer that the city name had more of a ring to it than Houston, where the oil industry was actually based.
Within weeks, it had already become a primetime smash hit, starring Larry Hagman as J.R. Ewing, the notorious and manipulative oilman who was later killed in one of TV's largest cliffhanger endings. That eventually became the basis for "Knots Landing," a Dallas spinoff that also garnered massive success.
Jacobs decided to pursue writing after failing as an artist following his enrollment at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Writing had always come easy to him, he previously said, and he had always done it, so he hadn't considered it as a potential career until his artistic aspirations flopped.
He wrote for magazines, published books on art history, which he got his master's in from Hunter College in New York, then wrote short stories for magazines like Cosmopolitan. He later opted to pursue a career as a writer in Los Angeles, having moved there to be closer to his ex-wife and daughter when they moved across the country following an amicable divorce.
That's how he dipped his foot into TV writing. His ex, Lynn Oliansky, helped him find work, and he eventually startd writing for the cop show "The Blue Knight" before it was canceled. That gave him an in to his stint story editing for "Family," which launched the rest of his journey.
He's also credited with co-creating the Western "Paradise," "Four Corners" and ABC's "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and Homefront," which garnered him Emmy nominations in the early 1990s.
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Jacobs was born in Baltimore on August 12, 1939. He is survived by Aaron and Albyn, his two children, and his second wife, Diana, their daughter, Molly, and their grandchildren, Riley and Georgia.
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