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Dallas is probably one of the most popular and widely known tv series ever made. It attracts thousands of viewers in front of the tv screens every week even in a country like Hungary, the inhabitants of which were not brought up in the culture depicted in the film.

According to a lot of people it is very difficult, if not impossible, to find literary values in soap operas like Dallas. They argue that such films do not convey any serious messages, their story is shallow and stretched which does not challenge the brain of the viewers, it sometimes can be felt that the authors had no new ideas which resulted in a lot of returning motives that make the film a bit boring and dull. People of such arguments claim that tv series like Dallas take the time of many-many high level cultural programs that could bring some colour into the dull, low level programs of tv stations.

However, I have the opinion that just like any literary works soap operas transmit certain important pieces of information toward the viewers. Such tv series attract people of a wide range of society from bricklayers to lawyers and this way they popularize the American way of life throughout the world to thousands and thousands of people. The film harps on several problems, although these may be mainly problems concerning everyday life and problems of personal relations.

The family of the Ewings is in the center of the story. The depiction of the family strongly emphasizes the importance of family values in the American society. Members of the family always keep together, they do not let each other down and they stand out for the interests of the family as one person.

Jock Ewing was the establisher of the family. His character represents the "American Dream". He came from nowhere and became one of the wealthiest people in Texas. He created his own existence and also that of the next generations of the family. He founded the Ewing Corporation which acted as a symbol of family loyalty throughout the story. The story of Jock Ewing emphasizes the idea that America is the land of opportunities. Anybody can become anything he wants to if he tries hard enough.

Ellie, Jock`s wife, is the one who keeps the family together. Her main role in the film is to express family loyalty and to present this kind of loyalty as a good example to follow for the viewers of the film.

The atmosphere of fairy tales appear in Jock and Ellie`s two sons` character. They are the total opposite of each other. J.R. is the bad boy who seems to have no human feelings at all and Bobby is the good boy, a typical boy scout character who pays attention to and understands other people`s problems. He strongly opposes J.R.`s corrupt ways of solving problems. The common feature in both of them is that they both highly respect the family and the Ewing name.

The problem of equality between sexes also appear in the film. There are two female characters in the story who undergo a certain change or development during the film. They are Samantha (J.R.`s wife) and Donna (the wife of the third Ewing, Ray Krebs). Donna Started out as a loving and caring wife who respected and obeyed her husband but later she gave up her family in favour of her career. She represents modern career women whereas her husband is a macho type man embodying the values of tradition and freedom. The other woman, Samantha, started out as a weak alcoholic woman and later she became a strong business woman, a powerful rival of men in the male centered world of business. This kind of change in their characters reflects a certain change in the American society itself. The film mirrors the changing attitude of Americans to the role of women and to the spreading of the feminist movement.

J.R.`s character represents pure capitalism. He shows exaggerated egoism, he only thinks of himself and has only his own interests in sight. He is the most powerful person in the story and the main source of his power is money. With the help of money he can achieve everything. He tramples down everybody in order to get more and more money. This exaggerated view of the capitalist society can be viewed as a warning saying that the role of money is growing dangerously and that it slowly supersedes all traditional human values in people`s life.

The creators of the soap opera borrowed some classical literary ideas as well. The relationship between Bobby and his first wife, Pamela, reminds the viewer of Shakespeare`s Romeo and Juliet. They are also the children of two opposing families (the Ewing family and the Barnes family) that do not want to accept and tolerate their love. However the classical story of Shakespeare`s drama: Romeo and Juliet has been altered here in order to fit the modern popular taste of American society: the love of Bobby and Pamela is fulfilled in their marriage.

The film depicts the life of the wealthy. It is the story of a rich American family in Texas. The viewers can project their dreams into the story. They feel themselves being members of the Ewing family, they enter fully into the spirit of the film. On the one hand the picture of this family sets standards for the ordinary viewer, it offers them a goal in life: to work hard in order to be able to lead a high level life without privation. On the other hand this family shows a lot of the features of typical American families, so the film fulfills the puritan idea of serving as an example for the whole mankind (being a ~house on a hill~). Families all over the world try to include some of the characteristic features of the life of this family into their own family life.

Through the Ewings` lifestyle the film emphasizes the importance of health and fitness, which are among the most important values of the Americans nowadays. We can often see the members of this family working out or jogging but we can never see them smoking and they hardly ever drink coffee either.

The Ewing family does not live in the busy city of Dallas, they live on a large ranch outside the city. The ranch is called Southfork and it also includes a large piece of free land where the Ewings often ride their horses. This large piece of land together with the habit of horse riding suggests freedom and independence. At the same time the fact that we often see the characters driving from one place to another or flying from one city to another emphasizes the importance of the value of mobility.

Also the ideas of puritanism left their marks on the story of this film. Typical puritan ideas are presented here, such as the glorification of hard work and the importance of education. Most of the main characters who have achieved something in the story have university education and all of them are highly scrupulous in their work (each of them in his or her own way), they often work overtime in order to help the advancement of their company.

In this paper I tried to show that, as far as the content is concerned, the soap opera: Dallas can be regarded as a film that has certain literary values, since it conveys several different pieces of deep inner meaning, from puritan values to feminist ideas, toward the viewer. The fact that these are embedded in popular style only helps them to get across to a lot of people of different social standings, but since any style can be regarded as being literarily valuable nowadays, I think that all in all we can assign such values to Dallas as well, and it can be claimed with perfect confidence that Dallas is one of the literarily most valuable pieces of work among modern soap operas.