Dallas: The Early Years was a made for television movie that first aired on March 23, 1986 on CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 during the eighth season of the TV series Dallas

Dallas (TV series)

Dallas is an American serial drama/prime time soap opera that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing...

. It chronicled the exploits of John Ross "Jock" Ewing (played by Dale Midkiff

Dale Midkiff

Dale Alan Midkiff is an American actor.-Early life:Midkiff was born in Chance, Maryland, the son of Joyce and Thomas Midkiff. He attended Edgewood High School near Baltimore. His first acting experience came playing Jack in a production of Jack and the Beanstalk for a local children's theater. His...

), Eleanor "Miss Ellie" Southworth Ewing (played by Molly Hagan

Molly Hagan

-Youth:Hagan was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the daughter of Mary Elizabeth and John Robert Hagan. She was raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana.-Career:She featured in the series Herman's Head which ran on Fox from 1991 to 1994...

), and Willard "Digger" Barnes (played by David Marshall Grant

David Marshall Grant

David Marshall Grant is an American actor and playwright.-Life and career:Grant was born in Westport, Connecticut, to physician parents...

) during the 1930s and firmly established the beginning of TV's Dallas with the long and ongoing feud between Jock Ewing and Digger Barnes. Larry Hagman

Larry Hagman

Larry Martin Hagman is an American film and television actor, producer and director known for playing J.R. Ewing in the 1980s primetime television soap opera Dallas and Major Anthony "Tony" Nelson in the 1960s sitcom I Dream of Jeannie.-Early life and career:Hagman was born in Fort Worth, Texas...

 appeared in the opening sequence as his character J.R. Ewing

J.R. Ewing

John Ross Ewing, Jr., more commonly known as J. R. Ewing, played by Larry Hagman, was a central, nefarious figure on the hit CBS television series Dallas . J. R...

, conducting an interview with a reporter who is researching the Barnes-Ewing feud.

DVD Release

Warner Home Video

Warner Home Video

Warner Home Video is the home video unit of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., itself part of Time Warner. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video . The company launched in the United States with twenty films on VHS and Betamax videocassettes in late 1979...

 is releasing Dallas: The Early Years on DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

April 12, 2011 on Dallas: The Movie Collection 2-disc set.