Dallas TV's Ewing Gas Station Selling Gas For $1.98 in NYC

Feb. 24, 2014 -- Manhattan drivers are hoping nobody shoots JR — at least not today.

As a promotional stunt kicking off its new season, the TV series "Dallas" opened a Ewing Energies gasoline station on Manhattan's West Side is selling gas at $1.98 a gallon for one day only.

With gas in Manhattan selling at an average non-stunt price of around $4 a gallon, the Ewing Energies price had motorists lining up. As of midday, according to a witness on the scene, the line of waiting cars was two blocks long.

In a video release, Ewing Energies head John Ross Ewing tells viewers, "I'm an oil man—third generation Ewing. I make my fortune on supply and demand. You demand, I supply."

The price of gasoline, he says, is too high. As a member of the most powerful (albeit it fictional) oil family in America, he says, he is in a unique position to do something about it.

"On February 24th," he announced in the video, "Ewing Energies will open its flagship service station and drastically reduce gasoline prices." Some people, he says, might call this undercutting the competition. Some might call it predatory pricing. "I just call it good business," the fictional oil baron says.

A disclaimer to the video says the station will impose a limit of 26 gallons per person and per vehicle, and that the promotion will be in effect today until 8 p.m., or as long as the supply of gas lasts.

The average price for a non-Ewing gallon, nationwide, is about $3.40, but in Manhattan it ranges from $3.67 to $4.19 a gallon.

Cheap gas isn't the series' only stunt. A new line of 4-year old, 80-proof J.R. Ewing bourbon will go on sale in March.