The character of Pamela was a cornerstone for "Dallas"; the lynchpin of the Barnes/Ewing family around which the soap was originally structured. At the beginning of the serial in 1978, Pamela was the newly married wife of Bobby Ewing, the youngest son of oil baron Jock Ewing and Miss Ellie Ewing. The fictional history of the character has been told via the serial, and the made-for-television movie "", which told the backstory of the Ewing family and the Barnes family. "Dallas: The Early Years" told the background of the longstanding feud between Jock Ewing and Pamela's father, Willard "Digger" Barnes, and how Pamela came to be raised. Later, on Digger's deathbed, Pamela comes to find that Digger is not her biological father, but that her biological father is in fact Hutch McKinney, who had an affair with her mother Rebecca Barnes while she was married to Digger. Digger caught them together, and Digger ended up shooting Hutch dead in a temper and burying Hutch's body on Southfork land. Digger then brought up Pamela as if she were his own daughter, becoming her legal father. Pamela's mother, Rebecca, left Digger and her children behind in mysterious circumstances when Pamela was a year old, giving Digger the impression that she was dead. Pamela and Cliff were both raised by Digger and Digger's sister, their aunt Maggie.