Dallas to promote itself with J.R. Ewing bourbon and real-live oil war

By Sean O'Neal | February 21, 2014 | 9:30pm

Aux Features TV

Looking for ways to promote Dallas’ first season without Larry Hagman, TNT is offering new product tie-ins that play off two of the show’s strongest associations, besides family members slapping each other: oil and alcohol. According to Variety, on Feb. 24— the date of the revived show’s third-season premiere—Manhattan will play host to the opening of the first-ever Ewing Energies gas station, as the Dallas Facebook page will announce a pop-up location for the one-day-only service pump that promises to “drastically reduce gasoline prices for real-life customers,” and to drastically increase the number of people shoving each other at a New York gas station.

Then in March, liquor stores across 14 states in the South and the Midwest will begin rolling out J.R. Ewing Bourbon, a four-year-old, 80-proof, Kentucky bourbon with “hints of vanilla, oak sweetness and a touch of orange”—just like the real J.R. might have enjoyed swilling while never once using the words “hints of vanilla,” and just like his recently deceased portrayer, Larry Hagman, enjoyed so much, he had to have a liver transplant. Both of these tie-ins promise to bring the experience of Dallas to life, by creating real-live oil wars and uncomfortable feelings. And aren’t fights and tackiness what Dallas is all about?