Love Quote by Steve Kanaly

Kanaly’s line isn’t just an actor reminiscing about a role; it’s a small x-ray of a career strategy meeting a shifting industry. “I was in love with this character” is deliberately romantic language, the kind performers use when they want to signal more than professional interest. It frames Ray Krebbs not as a gig, but as an identity he could inhabit - and, crucially, one the audience might accept as authentic because Kanaly already carried Western credibility from film.

The subtext is scarcity. By the time he says there “wasn’t much opportunity” for Western roles on TV, he’s quietly pointing at a broader cultural pivot: television was moving away from the frontier mythos that had dominated earlier decades, trading dust and moral clarity for contemporary drama and glossy ensemble soaps. So wanting the part “badly” isn’t only ambition; it’s urgency. He’s chasing a narrowing lane before it disappears, trying to smuggle the Western archetype into a new container.

That’s why Ray Krebbs works as an object of longing. In Dallas, a “cowboy” isn’t the uncomplicated hero of a standalone Western; he’s a disruptive figure inside a world of money, bloodlines, and backroom deals. Kanaly’s phrasing hints that he recognized this: TV might not have been making Westerns, but it was still hungry for the symbolism of the West. The character becomes a bridge between eras - and Kanaly’s desire reads like an actor sensing that a familiar American type could survive, if it learned to speak primetime.