The television show Dallas originally aired as a five-episode miniseries starting on the first Sunday of April 1978. These five episodes were originally intended to be the show's pilot but by the time they aired, it was thought that no further episodes would be made. However, the popularity of the miniseries led to the creation of an additional 13 full seasons.^[1]

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Quick Facts Dallas, No. of episodes ...

Dallas
Season 1
DVD cover
No. of episodes	5
Release
Original network	CBS
Original release	April 2 (1978-04-02) – April 30, 1978 (1978-04-30)
Season chronology
Next → Season 2
List of episodes

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The original miniseries was shot over six weeks during the winter of 1977, on location in Dallas, Texas. The Cloyce Box Ranch served as the first 'South Fork Ranch' exterior, and a Swiss Avenue building was used for the interior stage sets.^[2]

Series creator David Jacobs wrote the first and final episodes of the season and served as the executive script consultant (i.e. showrunner). He remained as the creative consultant until mid-way through the second season, when he left his day-to-day involvement with Dallas to create, and later serve as showrunner on spinoff series Knots Landing. The three other episodes were written by Virginia Aldridge, which was her only involvement with the show; Arthur Bernard Lewis, who remained on the show until the end and wrote the teleplay for the two reunion movies; and Camille Marchetta, who left during season four.

Lee Rich and Philip Capice served as executive producers. Rich stayed on the show until the season three finale, and Capice left his duties at the end of the ninth season. Future showrunner Leonard Katzman's involvement with the first season was limited to being the producer, and Cliff Fenneman—who served as producer for the final three seasons of the show—was the associate producer. The directing duties of the season were shared by Robert Day and Irving J. Moore.

The first and second seasons were released by Warner Home Video on a Region 1 DVD box set on August 24, 2004. It includes five double-sided DVDs. Alongside the 29 episodes of the first two seasons, it also features a SOAPNet’s Soap Talk Dallas reunion featurette, and three commentary tracks by actors Larry Hagman, Charlene Tilton, and series creator David Jacobs.^[3]