The time has come to say goodbye to a TV icon.
After Dallas' shocking final moments in last week's episode, tonight's outing will officially send off J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) with a memorial and a funeral, which was an emotional episode for the cast and crew to film as they were also saying goodbye to Hagman, who passed away in November.
We chatted with Linda Gray and Patrick Duffy at the 2013 PaleyFest, where they remembered their friend and costar of 30 years. Plus, stars Josh Henderson, Jesse Metcalfe and Jordana Brewster tease the TNT hit's new mystery: Who shot J.R.?
"It was hard for us because Larry passed away doing what he loved to do best: Playing J.R. Ewing," Gray says. "There was this great momentum and then all of a sudden...Patrick and I were speaking at his real memorial and then we were speaking at the memorial [on the show]. It was a little tricky."
Duffy adds, "I think it's different for Linda and myself than any other member of the cast or the crew or the producers. Linda and I have had our 30 plus years with Larry. These people all had two years and they were just getting to know this incredible person and looking forward to an open-ended relationship and it got snipped. I think they felt a sense of being cheated.
"I am done because I can't put any more Hagman in me," Duffy continues. "I'm so full of Larry in all the good ways that I don't even miss him because I think he's part of my genetic makeup right now."
As for Dallas' next generation, Brewster recalls, "He just always had a twinkle in his eye and was always so happy. That was what was wonderful. He was always joking, too, which was great. We all tend to take ourselves way too seriously in this business and he certainly didn't." Henderson, who plays J.R.'s son on the show, says, "He and I were very close and I learned a lot from him. I was so excited when I got the role and being able to play J.R.'s son, I was just like, 'Oh my gosh. This has got to be the coolest role on TV for a guy like me, my age...I really truly hope his spirit lives through me being his son on the show."
Of course, J.R. went out with a bang on the TNT hit, once again ushering in the question of who shot him. "I hear it's really juicy and really good," Brewster says of the new mystery, with Metcalfe adding, "[His] murder really sets it motion some storylines that are pretty outlandish and pretty incredible."
And Henderson reveals to us that only one person on the cast actually knows who killed J.R. "There's one person on the cast who does know and it's Patrick. He won't tell anybody, which I love, but he loves holding it over my head, like, 'Wait till you see, I know!' They gave Patrick different scripts. He shot different scenes without us, so he knows what's going on!"
Dallas airs tonight at 9 p.m. on TNT.
To hear more from the Dallas cast, watch our interviews with them above!