J. R. Ewing subterfuges to plunder his foes' wealth. The original series concept was a blend of "Bonanza" with a rich, western patriarch and his three dissimilar sons, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" with its rival brothers, and their scheming wives, and "Romeo and Juliet" with two star-crossed lovers whose families are sworn enemies. The focus of the series was initially the feuding families, with J.R. just a supporting character, but his popularity grew and the producers acknowledged he became the breakout character. Two highly rated 1980 episodes became part of a cultural phenomenon that year known as "Who shot J.R.?". In
We Were So Beloved who were able to escape Nazi Germany before 1939. Kirchheimer himself escaped with his family in 1936 at the age of 5. Those interviewed for the film settled in Washington Heights, Manhattan. By the early 1940s, they had built a thriving community (sometimes called Frankfurt-on-the-Hudson)—at the same time that millions of Jews were being murdered in Nazi concentration camps. In the interviews, family and friends tell stories about "ordinary" Germans who risked their lives and their families to help their Jewish friends. The central questions of the documentary are asked by asking the interviewees what they would have done if