Character
He was born February 16, 1949 on Southfork Ranch, according to his gravestone in season 8's "dream-season". The original series went back and forth on whether his full name was "Robert" or just "Bobby", but the new series has appeared to settle on Robert.
Bobby was a successful (though reluctant) oil baron, like his father and brother, but he lacked J.R.'s ruthlessness and insisted on playing fair which resulted in his limited success against Wendell and Carter McKay, successive heads of huge oil conglomerate Westar.
The oil industry was not Bobby's only interest. From time to time, he also took part in the raising of cattle on the family ranch, Southfork. He was also a state senator in Austin for a while. For several years, Bobby drove a red third generation Mercedes-Benz SL with the license plate EWING 4. In 1987, J.R. replaced Bobby's destroyed Mercedes with a black Maserati Biturbo cabriolet (the Mercedes was driven by Pam on the day of her fateful crash). After that, Bobby owned a bronze-colored Jaguar XJ-S convertible. In season 13, he once again drives a Mercedes-Benz SL-Class in bronze of the fourth generation from 1989.
Bobby's most defining character trait was his altruistic desire to do the right thing. This almost always put him in the cross-hairs of his older brother J.R., who was far more ruthless. Yet Bobby did on many occasions use ruthless tactics in order to attempt to beat J.R. Bobby was one of the few characters on the show to openly take a stand against J.R. on numerous occasions (at times physically), yet the two never forgot they were brothers.
In addition to the differences between their treatment of others, as well as their conflicting views on morality, another reason for JR and Bobby's rivalry was their father's preference for Bobby (their mother, Miss Ellie, favored middle son Gary). Growing up, and even into adulthood, Jock made no secret of the fact that Bobby was his favorite son. This caused a major rivalry with J.R., who was jealous of the unearned favoritism Bobby got from Jock.
Read more about this topic: Bobby Ewing
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