If you seat a bunch of lying, scheming, backstabbing relatives around one lunch table, would it be wise to remove all the sharp objects, just in case the situation gets a little dicey?

There was no need, as it turned out, to hide the cutlery from the cast of TNT's upcoming drama"Dallas" during a recent family-style Tex-Mex meal at the Beverly Wilshire. During the series itself, well, that's another matter entirely.

But as stars Larry Hagman and Linda Gray shared grilled salmon, Brenda Strong and Patrick Duffy chatted about the state of the media and next-generation cast members Josh Henderson and Jesse Metcalfe made a golf date, there was nothing but love in the air at the show's spring press junket in Beverly Hills.

And why shouldn't there be? The well-watched cable network is throwing its considerable resources behind the new incarnation of "Dallas," which, unlike its namesake hit from the Reagan era, actually was filmed on location in the scenic Lone Star State. And three of the original stars — Hagman, Gray and Duffy — have reunited after a 20-plus-year separation, bolstered by a model-perfect young cast that includes Metcalfe, Henderson, Jordana Brewster and Julie Gonzalo.

They all set up house at the fictional Southfork ranch, creating 10 hour-long episodes filled with power struggles, secrets, betrayals and cliffhangers — loads of cliffhangers — that premiere June 13. And Gray, for one, is elated.

"We thought we'd never work together again," Gray said of her former costars. "In fact, we'd been purposely kept apart as actors because people so closely associated us with those old 'Dallas' roles."

The irascible Hagman said he was convinced the day would come when he'd don J.R. Ewing's cowboy boots and Stetson again, "if someone wanted to make some money" by reviving the once-lucrative franchise. Not surprisingly, he thinks it's a fabulous idea.

"I said yes before I'd ever even seen a script," said the 81-year-old actor.

TNT isn't the first network to draw from the past. But no matter how they're plotted and executed, reimaginings of classic TV shows have often fallen flat. With the current exception of CBS'"Hawaii Five-0,"there are more failures than successes in recent years, including remakes of "Prime Suspect"and "Knight Rider"on NBC, "Charlie's Angels" onABC and "Melrose Place" on the CW.

Yesterday's hits are attractive because they have built-in equity with viewers, and network executives think they'll be easier to market in a crowded environment.

TNT's "Dallas," in addition to keeping the show title and actors, uses the theme music from the original series. And in a nod to the infamous Bobby Ewing shower scene, in which audiences learned that all of Season 8 had been a dream, network marketers put the cast in bath towels, and little else, for a promo campaign.

"Networks are constantly looking for anything that'll mitigate their risk, and they think a remake gives them a running start and guarantees a big tune-in," said Tim Brooks, a TV analyst and historian. "But audiences want something fresh and new. They don't want to watch a show their grandmother used to watch."

What set "Dallas" apart when it launched, Brooks said, was its uniqueness. "'Dallas' in its day looked completely different than anything we'd seen before. The question is, will this 'Dallas' look different to us today?"

This new "Dallas," dubbed a "sweeping family epic" and not a nighttime soap opera by its creators, introduces the next generation of the Ewing clan and puts those characters alongside J.R., Bobby and Sue Ellen from the 1978-91 series. It picks up some 20 years later in the lives of the warring family members.

That makes it a bit of a hybrid for television, an untested format that's technically not a remake because it's not the same story told with different actors. Nor is it a true reboot because the principal actors remain, as does much of the mythology, with references to the late matriarch Miss Ellie, for instance, and guest appearances by former "Dallas" players like Ken Kercheval.

Hagman, Duffy and Gray aren't drop-ins, either. They're full-fledged stars, with executive producer Cynthia Cidre promising "no bait and switch" for fans of the original.

"It's a show about two generations where the stories aren't parallel, they're intertwined," Cidre said. "They feed off each other, and they depend on each other."

J.R.'s son, John Ross (played by Henderson), plots with his aging tycoon father to take over Southfork and drill for valuable oil on the property, for example. Meanwhile, Bobby's adopted son, Christopher (Metcalfe), is trying to wean the family from crude and shift to Earth-friendly alternative fuel, with Bobby's financial backing. Head butting and double crossing ensue.

The goal was to be true to the beloved nostalgia brand, Cidre said, but "ground it in a modern way," avoiding camp and over-the-top melodrama. She thinks it can appeal to baby boomer and older fans of the original and to the advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-old demographic, two audiences that don't often have the same taste in TV programs.

Duffy said he feels protective of the show's legacy and wasn't sure initially about revisiting "Dallas," thinking, "If we do it again, there's a chance of screwing it up," he said. "And if this new show fails, the whole world will hear about it."

Once he read the script, he said he felt like it was "a perfect 2012 version of 'Dallas,'" allaying any fears he'd had about jumping back in.

Even the cast members who weren't involved the first go-around understand the weighty responsibility of awakening a sleeping TV giant. Henderson, a Dallas native, said his family had a couple of inalienable rules: "You go to church, you watch 'Dallas.'"

"I know there's a lot of expectation, and the skeptics are saying, 'Why even touch it?'" he said. "But this is a legitimate continuation, with everything that made the old 'Dallas' so juicy and fun — greed, dysfunction, entitlement, love triangles, villains. We pick up right where it left off."