Dallas and Happy Days stars visit region to film documentary
Actor Patrick Duffy, who played Bobby Ewing in Dallas, and his partner Linda Purl, who starred in Happy Days as Fonzie's girlfriend, visited Don's Bar in Moate, Co. Westmeath, yesterday.
The couple are in Ireland to film a documentary on Irish rural pubs, with Don's Bar selected to feature in the documentary. Tom Allen, aka TR Dallas, whose son Don owns the bar, will also feature in the documentary singing his hit song 'Who Shot JR?'
Tom told the Offaly Independent today: "It was my first time to meet Patrick Duffy, and his partner Linda Purl. They were beautiful people, they enjoyed the fun and the laugh."
"I told them about recording the song and he was very interested in it," added Tom. "I showed him the sleeve with Larry Hagman's photo on the front and he got a chuckle out of that."
Tom added that the couple lives in Los Angeles and Patrick's son runs a pub there. They had already filmed in Connemara and were moving on to Cork after they filmed in Moate.
"It was a great privilege for Don to be asked and he was delighted to make the premises available for filming," said Tom, who explained that Don had kept the bar part (Coffey's) of his pub authentic to its origins.
"It's 99% the same as it was in 1972. The Coffey family had it before him and he kept the bar the same and then you have Don's Bar which is more modern," he said.
"I was asked if I could sing 'Who Shot JR?'. The documentary will be out some time around Christmas or New Year," said Tom.
"They were here for three hours. You would not meet nicer people," he added, saying the Duffy family came from Mayo originally and they chatted about that.
Tom added that he had met JR (Larry Hagman) twice before, but it was his first time meeting 'Bobby Ewing'. He said having people like Patrick Duffy and Linda Purl visit Moate helps to bring people to the midlands.
"We're actually starting an American country night in Don's next Monday and it will be held the last Monday of each month over the summer," he said, adding that Max T. Barnes will be coming from Nashville for the July date.