The event organized to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the television show "Dallas" has created quite a bit of drama.
Fans are angry they didn't get the access they paid for after thousands more than expected showed up for Saturday night's barbecue and cast reunion at the famed Southfork Ranch. The event's organizers are blaming Southfork for allowing gatecrashers. And a Southfork official places the blame back on the organizers.
"It was a huge letdown -- totally not worth it. I do feel like I got really ripped off," Elizabeth Knight, who paid $400 in anticipation of getting access to the cast, told Dallas-Fort Worth television station WFAA.
Fans had paid anywhere from $100 to $1,000 for tickets, with those who paid higher prices to gain greater access to cast members including Larry Hagman, Linda Gray and Patrick Duffy.
Jason Hardison, the event's executive producer, said instead of the 2,000 people expected, 4,000 showed up to celebrate one of the most popular prime-time soap operas in TV history. Viewed panoramically in the show's introduction, the ranch is in the Dallas suburb of Parker, about 25 miles north of downtown Dallas.
"I'm brokenhearted about what happened and I feel like the fans were cheated out of what was promised to them," he said. "I felt like the beautiful party that was promised and planned was completely stolen by just a blatant lack of incompetence on the part of the property owners."
But an official with the management company that runs Southfork said it only provided off-duty police officers in the area where alcohol was served.
Hardison was in charge of the event and would have been in charge of the rest of the security, including the gates, said Darla Cook, vice president of public relations of Arizona-based Forever Resorts.
"I'm working on how they (the fans) can be reimbursed," Hardison said. "I'm working on how I can make this up to the fans. They deserve that. They did not deserve this disappointment."
He said that the intimate times the higher dollar ticket holders paid for were undermined.
But Joy Garcia, who paid less, said it worked out well for her.
"We were extremely happy that we were in the $100 section because we got the same access that everyone else did," she said.
