Loraine Despres
 You can see a video of Loraine Despres, Dick Van Dyke and Mary Crosby discussing the "Who shot J.R.?" episode here
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You can see a video of Loraine Despres discussing the The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc here
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Loraine Despres is a novelist and screenwriter. Her novels The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc (2002) and The Bad Behavior of Belle Cantrell (2005) were Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club featured selections. Despres wrote episodes for many top network TV shows including The Highlander, The Equalizer, Knots Landing and Dynasty. Most famously, she wrote the Who shot J.R.? episode of Dallas.
Despres was raised in Amite, Louisiana and graduated from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She started writing at an early age – writing educational radio in Chicago; advertising in Paris, France; poetry and plays in New Orleans.
In 1975, Despres moved to Los Angeles and was soon writing episodes for TV series.
Despres’ first television sale was an original script about a man falsely accused of child molestation. Aaron Spelling purchased it for his TV series Family. Her other credits include episodes of The Highlander, The Equalizer, Knots Landing, The Waltons, Dynasty, Crime Story, CHiPS, Family, Love Boat and The Lazarus Syndrome. Despres’s most memorable script was the 58th episode of Dallas named Who Done It?, popularly known as "Who shot J.R.?" When it aired on November 21, 1980, over 90 million American viewers – 76% of all television viewers in the U.S. – watched the "Who shot J.R.?" episode. The 53.3 rating was the highest rating of any television episode in U.S. history, a record it held until February 1983 when the final episode of M*A*S*H aired.
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