Let There Be Judith Light

Judith Light returns to TNT's Dallas as deliciously evil queen

The TV gods heard our prayers: Judith Light is back on Dallas. Playing Judith Ryland, matriarch of a rival family to the Ewings of Southfork, Light was abruptly written off last season to accommodate her being cast in a Broadway play.

To get rid of her, Dallas exec producer and head plot-deviser Cynthia Cidre had Judith's evil son Harris (Mitch Pileggi) push her down a flight of stairs and then ship her off to a rehab hospital. But she wanted to return to the show this year, Cidre told Entertainment Weekly. So they found the money to hire her again and gave the series back its deliciously evil queen.

Light's voice as this character sounds like she's gargled with battery acid.

On this week's episode (written by Bruce Rasmussen), Judith's entrance was preceded by the menacing step-clunk, step-clunk noise of her hobbling with a heavy cane into son Harris' office at home in Murky Mansion. Surprised by the "intruder," Harris grabbed a gun from a drawer and pointed it at the door just as Judith appeared.

"Let's not shoot Mommy on her first day home," she growled. Light's voice as this character sounds like she's gargled with battery acid.

Judith let Harris know she was taking over the family's trucking business again. She isn't averse to doing deals with drug smugglers hauling party powder across the Mexican border into Texas.

When Harris meekly suggested this could bring trouble, she reared back like an angry adder: "Money and morality are like two cars on a one-lane road. When they meet, morality's gonna end up in a ditch."

Just to review: Harris is fresh out of prison, sent there for a brief stay in a set-up by his nymphet daughter Emma (Emma Bell, the Charlene Tilton of the new Dallas). He got sprung by paying off a crooked judge.

Emma is now living at Southfork and boinking John Ross Ewing (Josh Henderson) regularly. He's newly married but game for some games on the side. Emma's bedroom is directly across the hall from John Ross' marital boo-dwah. Convenient.

The last thing Harris needs is a violation of his parole, but his mother has other ideas. "I made my bones dealing with psychopaths and criminals while you were still playing with your Easy Bake Oven," she said this week.

Watch how Judith Light squints on the really good lines. When she blinks, only her right eyelashes move up and down, as if she's keeping one open to see if Pileggi is stealing focus. (He looks appropriately terrified in their scenes.)

Back at Southfork, Bobby (Patrick Duffy) and John Ross were still arguing about fracking this week. Yawn city. But Sue Ellen (Linda Gray), bless her, was honing in on the bedroom antics of her baby boy. She set a tail on John Ross.

"I spent 40 years being cheated on. I'm pretty good at picking up the signals," she said. Then she pulled a flask out of her handbag and took a healthy swig of firewater. Sue Ellen's back on the sauce! Let's all drink to that!

There were some dandy nuggets of dialogue in this episode. Bobby's wife Annie (Brenda Strong), trying to get him to come to bed, said, "I can't watch Duck Dynasty without you. I get all the beards confused."

And this one, after Judith Ryland took a hefty snort of cocaine offered by one of the cartel members she's doing a deal with. "Mama like," said Judith, then she sniffed another line as long as a garden snake and rubbed the excess into her gums.

The end of this week's installment offered a humdinger of a cliffhanger. Harris Ryland, it turns out, has become a quisling. He wired up to tape his mother's nefarious goings-on with the coke smugglers, and he's working with the CIA to bust the cartel.

To let Bobby Ewing in on the secret, he arranged a Deep Throat-like (the Watergate one, not the dirty movie one) meeting in an underground lair. Annie came along to the meeting but managed not to burst into tears, as is her wont.

Now this is the kind of hot nighttime soap writing we can get addicted to fast. Mama like.

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Catch full episodes of Dallas on TNT online. New episodes air at 8 pm CST every Monday, with a rerun at 10.

Judith Light is back on Dallas as Ewing rival Judith Ryland.

Photo courtesy of TNT

Judith Light is back on Dallas as Ewing rival Judith Ryland.

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The grass will be greener

AT&T Stadium glows pretty in pink as World Cup field takes root

Dallas Stadium pitch for 2026 FIFA World Cup

Photo courtesy of FIFA

Grass grow-lights suspended from the ceiling at AT&T Stadium are turning the pitch pink.

FIFA officials unveiled the soccer pitch taking shape at AT&T Stadium in Arlington for 2026 World Cup matches, and the most noticeable feature is that it's ... pink. At least for now.

Much like pink-hued LED lights that make indoor gardens grow at home, giant grow lights have been suspended from the ceiling to promote photosynthesis, as the stadium's retractable roof does not allow enough sunlight for grass to grow.

The innovative roof-suspended light system (which allows for lights to be raised or lowered) is the first of its kind for FIFA, says Ewen Hodge, FIFA World Cup 2026 head of pitch infrastructure. AT&T Stadium is the only 2026 World Cup venue employing the technology.

FIFA pitch, Dallas Stadium The lights are suspended on 18 rigs, which can be raised and lowered over the field.Photo courtesy of FIFA

"They've never been hung from the ceiling before," Hodge says. "Typically these systems have a set of wheels that they're wheeled in and out of the facility and these are able to be lifted up, and that means that we have one less thing on the field."

For soccer newbies, the "pitch" is the official term for the rectangular field where a match is played. And in FIFA World Cup world, that field is real grass - not the artificial turf that the Cowboys play on. It is 105 meters by 68 meters, which roughly converts to 115 yards by 75 yards.

Pitch prep at "Dallas Stadium," which AT&T Stadium will be called during World Cup, started about two months ago, Hodge says.

They started by installing ventilation and irrigations systems above the stadium's concrete floor, then laid down several inches of sand to support the natural grass surface - a mix of Kentucky bluegrass and ryegrass grown and shipped from Colorado, he says.

Dallas Stadium, World Cup pitch The pitch is a mix of Kentucky bluegrass and ryegrass, and there's a layer of sand underneath.Photo courtesy of FIFA

Nylon fibers are being stitched into the grass using specialized machinery to help reinforce the field.

A team of about 25 workers is mowing and irrigating daily, Hodge says, to ensure the grass will be ready and healthy for the first game (Netherlands vs Japan) on June 14. During matches, the grow-lights will be taken up 290 feet into the ceiling so they will not create sight lines, says Tod Martin, general manager of AT&T Stadium.

Between the nine matches that will be played at the stadium, the grow-lights will come back down from the ceiling, and grass will be fertilized, monitored for diseases, and adjustments will be made.

"We always say that our days from the pitch management side are busier than a match day," Hodge says. "On a match day, we're doing a mow and getting the line marks out there, so it's the final touches so we're ready for the game."

Dallas Stadium, World Cup pitch Nylon fibers are being stitched into the grass using specialized machinery to help reinforce the field. Photo courtesy of FIFA

Maintaining a grass standard across all venues for the World Cup tournament is a major challenge due to the climate differences between each city, he says.

Hodge, a New Zealand native, first visited AT&T Stadium in March 2023 to begin planning how the venue would accommodate a World Cup-caliber pitch. To gather ideas, AT&T Stadium's Martin traveled to Wembley Stadium in England, where he met with officials to learn firsthand how they manage one of the world's most famous soccer fields.

"They're impressive. It was a sight to see for sure," Martin says.

"Test games" at AT&T Stadium have been used to evaluate things like how the field feels under the players' feet and how fast the ball travels, Hodge says.

World Cup pitch, Dallas Stadium The field is longer and wider than it would be for an NFL game to allow for things like corner kicks.Photo courtesy of FIFA

By the numbers, Martin offered, the pitch at the stadium has involved 10 contractors, 45,000 man hours, 15,000 tons of materials hauled in, and 24 refrigerated trucks to transport the pitch from Colorado; the grass came in four-foot-wide rolls, 50 feet long.

The biggest installation challenges, Martin says, involved structural modifications to the stadium, including extending the field into the patio suites. "We had to take out roughly three feet in our corners to get a little bit more room for those corner kicks," he says.

After the tournament, Martin says, the grass will be taken out and recycled by a contractor for other projects.

pitch world cup arlington stadium at&t stadium fifa world cup 2026 soccer sports