He created one of televisions most iconic characters j. R. Ewing on the longtime drama dallas. A rather nasty guy that people loved to hate. Before that, he played a nice guy, captain tony nelson on i dream of jeannie. He appeared here on today last june, and well have a look back at his life and career next. A legend, absolutely. It is the day after black friday and people were going crazy hunting for bargains, so as you do your shopping this weekend, well reveal some ingenious tricks retailers use to get you to spend more and more of your hardearned cash. Speaking of shopping, today is Small Business saturday. A day for you to support the local mom and pop shops in your town. You can do it every day, of course. Something very important to new york city mayor michael bloomberg, who will join us to talk about it in our next half hour. Then an unusual punishment for a convicted killer in oklahoma. A teenager was sentenced to spend ten years in church after pleading guilty to manslaughter. The ruling has sparked a legal dispute and well hear from both sides in that case. A bit later, well switch gears with a look at tonights power ball jackpot drawing. There are 325 million reasons or so to buy a ticket. It is one of the biggest jackpots in history. Did you buy one . Will you buy one . I am going to play and then i am going to pray. I like that strategy. I like it. Well see if it works this time. We do want to begin with the death of actor larry hagman. Msnbcs Thomas Roberts is here with a lot more on that. Good morning. He truly was a one of a kind. Larry hagman will forever be remembered for iconic role as j. R. Ewing on the primetime drama dallas. The character was a scheming business cheat, an unfaithful husband, and a larger than life texan. It was all of those qualities that kept viewers tuning in for years. More than 350 Million People worldwide tuned in to find out who shot j. R. In 1980. Turned out to be his sisterinlaw kristen. That success was no big surprise for hagman. He was born into a show biz family. His mom the legendary actress mary martin, but it was a blonde with magic powers that helped propel hagman to star status. He played astronaut tony nelson in the nbc sitcom i dream of jeannie for five seasons. After that role came hagmans role of dallas. Years of hard drinking came back to haunt him. He suffered from cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer. And in july of 1995 he received a transplant that saved his life. This year he starred in season one of the next generation of dallas on tnt with some of his original costars. He appeared with them on today back in june to talk about reprising the role of j. R. Ewing. Yeah, it was strange kind of getting back into the swing of things, but we all fit right into our characters again, so there was nothing to worry about that. Hagman filmed appearances for the shows second season, set to begin airing in january. Larry hagman was 81 years old. He is survived by his wife of nearly 60 years and two children as well. Certainly an iconic character. You remember that, in 1980, the big night, the big reveal . Kristen, sue ellens sister. I like that youre reminding everybody. Didnt you watch this with your parents growing up . Of course. To me hell always be major nelson. Major nelson. I knew him more from i dream of jeannie. That was my thing as a kid. Yeah, well, dallas apparently coming back, second season, the reboot and hell be making some appearances. Theyll have to figure out a way to respect j. R. In the second season. But apparently its done really well for tnt, so well see how they do. Interesting to see how thats worked out. Hell be missed. Thanks, thomas. Absolutely. We want to turn now to the black friday shopping rush. Crowds turning out, looking for their bargains. Did it all live up to the hype . Michelle franzen is new yorks Herald Square outside macys flagship store. Good morning. Its a little quiet here this morning, but weve made it through that initial wave of black friday that actually began early on thanksgiving this year. So how did we fare . Retail analysts say the number of shoppers didnt necessarily go up, but you see that rush of shoppers going into those doors, just spread out a little earlier over that thanksgiving and black friday morning. Now, in georgia, at one walmart store, there was a mad rush and crush of people grabbing for prepaid cell phones out of cases that were just opened. But for the most part, it was very orderly. People were out there in force looking for those hot door buster items, from electronics and flat screen tvs to deep discounts on clothing. Overall, retail analysts say theyre expecting that a drop in shoppers this weekend, thats from thursday to sunday, but overall, with shoppers having nearly five weeks to shop, theyre hoping that sales will increase just over 4 . Thats the estimate. And shoppers will spend nearly 600 billion. So people will be out in force again today on this saturday, looking for whole new round of sales. Michelle franzen, thank you. How did this black friday add up . Want to bring in cnbcs kayla taush with more on that. Good morning. Good morning, era. We had an overview there from michelle. In terms of the discounts, did these live up to expectations . Customers will always say they didnt, because if you werent there at the crack of dawn, you likely missed out on the heavily discounted big ticket items. But that being said, there were supposed to be more deals. 20,000 deals advertised versus 17,000 last year. But they were roughly in line. Experts say they were 25 to 60 off on average with the televisions and apparel getting the heaviest discounts. What about how this is going to add up for retail . Final numbers probably will come on monday. But this is black friday because it tends to push them into profit for the year with retailers. Is this going to happen with the numbers . Its always the hope. Theyll say we were waiting for Small Business saturday. Theyre waiting for cyber monday. There are a few benchmarks to get to. The good news is, foot traffic was up slightly. If you look at places like the mall of america, or macys in Herald Square, youre seeing about a 30 increase in foot traffic. The problem is people were on average expecting to spend less money. American express said the average shopper who was out on black friday spent 398, which is a lot of money. I wouldnt go and spend 398 on black friday. But its a 25 drop from last year. So its likely that even though there were more people, they probably spent less. There were also more hours in which to spend your money. It seems that black friday i feel like next year its going to start on monday. But it was a little bit of backlash. Walmart and walmart employees striking, protesting here. Did it have an impact on sales for some of those stores . Did people stay away . Interestingly, walmart is one of the only retailers that weve heard from so far as far as the success of black friday. The retailer came out and said this was our best ever, actually. Between 8 00 p. M. And midnight on thursday, which is when the backlash started. Of course, the employees did not want to work during that time. Walmart said the bulk of the protesters were not store associates and they actually sold 5,000 items per second. Its almost like negative Political Campaign ads. We hear they work and theyre not going away. Despite the complaints, its sort of like were going to keep opening earlier because it works. What about what we have coming up monday . Cyber monday has become such a big thing. Anything to look forward to . I think everyone shops every day online now. Thats the problem with cyber monday. It used to be this heavily advertised event. But actually, because of thanksgiving, thats the day that everyones sitting around at home and actually with the time to shop, you have a glass of wine, the tryptophan sets in, you grab your ipad and before you know it youre on amazon. Mobile shopping. A lot of mobile shopping now. Internet sales were up 17 . On thanksgiving day, mobile shopping up 65 . Its not just you and me grabbing our ipads. It was a lot of people. So you know how did you know i did that . I know you. Kayla, thanks, appreciate it. Thank you. Its the shopping with the wine that gets you in trouble. Meantime, want to get some of the other top stories. Msnbcs Thomas Roberts has those. I think we have a hot tip, because ericas ipad is under her scripts. Its right here. Do you want the Christmas Gift or not . Is the question. Of course i do. Good morning again, everybody. We begin in new england where officials in massachusetts are calling it a miracle that no one is dead after a natural gas explosion levelled a strip club in Downtown Springfield and heavily damaged a dozen other buildings friday night. The blast injured 18 people, mostly First Responders who had been checking on a possible gas leak. Luckily, officials had already evacuated part of the citys entertainment district. Black ice led to several black friday accidents in new england, including a fatal crash in maine. A 24yearold woman was killed when she lost control of her suv. Her 38yearold passenger is listed in critical condition. State police say she was driving in foggy conditions and hit a patch of black ice. Her suv slid off the road and into a tree. The mother of Hector Camacho says shes going to ask doctors to take her son off life support today. Maria mattias tells reporters shes just waiting for three of camachos sons to get one final chance to see their dad. The 50yearold boxing champ was gravely wounded in a driveby shooting on tuesday night. So it is beginning to look a lot like christmas at the white house. This years official tree arrived on friday atop a horsedrawn carriage with O Christmas Tree playing in the background. First Lady Michelle obama along with daughters sasha and malia welcomed the 19 foot frasier fir from north carolina. The tree will stand in the blue room of the white house. A group of friends in northern utah have a talent for creating videos that really draw big audiences on the internet. Take a peek at this. They shot a movie of them jumping and flipping, doing cartwheels from the roof of a house into this giant 17foothigh pile of leaves. The video has already gained about 1. 5 million clicks thus far. They just posted it on their Youtube Channel on sunday night. Pretty amazing. Thats going to do it for the news now. Now back to carl, erica and dylan. Apparently they collected about a thousand bags of leaves to create that. Wow. Wow. And its safe. It is . Okay. I want to try it. I used to do that all the time. Not to that extent. Just this little grill we had in the back that my dad had built and we would jump off into probably like five bags of leaves. You look like you survived. Dylan dreyer is here with the check of the forecast. Old man winter is visiting for the holidays. I know. Especially in the great lakes. That lake effect machine is back on. We are seeing perhaps several inches of snow across the great lakes. We have lake effect snow warnings into western new york, northwestern pennsylvania, even into cleveland, ohio. Syracuse will most likely see some snow. You can see the northwest wind from the Upper Peninsula of michigan, right down off of lake erie and ontario. We can see some areas pick up three to six, six to nine inches of snow. Were also looking at chilly air through montana. The northwest, well be dealing with more rain. And the middle of the country, colorado today, topping out in the lower 70s. Thats a look at the weather across the country. Heres a look at the temperatures around the bay area. Mostly 30s and 40s and San Francisco in the 50s with patchy fog possible in the inland east bay valleys. Not much wind the the moment, but during the day a slight perhaps offshore breeze that will keep the skies clear. Storm track to the north and pleasant to kickoff the weekend. Upper 60s to low 70s around the bay area. San jose near 70. A few clouds and cooling and rain returns on wednesday. And thats your latest forecast. Dylan, thanks. Now to egypt, where protests have erupted over president Mohamed Morsis decree expanding his power. Jim is in cairo. Good morning. Reporter almost two years after their revolution, egyptians seem more divided than ever. After many hear their elected leader has driven the wedge deeper and wider. At dawn, there were more tents and protesters around tahrir square, but that didnt stop clashes with police, where protesters blocked traffic defying president Mohamed Morsis orders. After morsi declared sweeping powers for himself, leaving him above the law. Translator we are here because the goals of the revolution have yet to be achieved. Reporter morsi told his supporters he had to take radical measures to protect the revolution. And fast track a new constitution being written by a mostly islamist assembly, after which he said hed give up those powers. Yes, he might be a dictator for the time being, but these powers will be transferred to an elected parliament, he said. But the decrees have triggered protests and riots across the nation. Dozens were injured in alexandria when angry youth stormed and set fire to morsis Muslim Brotherhood headquarters. This action makes him a dictator even more than hosni mubarak, he said. Critics call it a power grab, after brokering a cease fire deal in gaza. But suddenly, morsi the mediator is fighting for his political life back home. Regardless of the timing, this sort of move by morsi would always have been a risky and polarizing gesture. Reporter and just as egypt seemed to be emerging from his postrevolutionary hain, theres more trouble ahead. Later today, opposition members are meeting to plot out their next move. There are already plans for strikes by judges and a call for a millionman march against morsi on tuesday. Back to you. Jim, thanks. Once again, heres erica. Egypt is just one of the challenges facing president obama these days. His biggest challenge here at home, finding a way to avoid that so called fiscal cliff that could raise your taxes and throw the economy back into recession. Kristen welker is in our washington bureau. Good morning. Reporter president obama is also facing a number of challenges overseas, as you say, from the unrest in the middle east to the continuing fallout over the attack on the u. S. Consulate in benghazi. But the fiscal cliff looms large. President obama returning from a postthanksgiving round of golf, but off the links, the clock is ticking. Lawmakers need to hammer out a deal to prevent the so called fiscal cliff. Deep spending cuts and tax hikes set to take effect next year. I think were all aware that we have some urgent business to do. Reporter after a meeting at the white house last week, congressional leaders struck a rare tone of bipartisanship. We had a very constructive meeting with the president. We feel very comfortable with each other. Reporter but a major Sticking Point remains taxes. President obama wants to let the bush era tax cuts expire for the wealthiest americans. Many republicans still oppose that idea. Aides have been trying to work out a compromise. None of this is pretty. Its actually ridiculous. Pretty dysfunctional politics. Weve set this crazy trap for ourselves and were about to inflict a wound on our economy that really doesnt need that. Reporter in addition, the fragile cease fire looms large in the middle east. Some analysts say this could be an opening for mr. Obama to engage more actively in a middle east peace process, something he failed to do during his first term. We need to explore what is possible, but we have to be quite realistic and go in with our eyes open. Reporter and then theres the attack against the u. S. Consulate in benghazi. Republican lawmakers have accused u. N. Ambassador susan rice of providing false information after she appeared on the sunday shows days later saying the incident was spontaneous. This week, rice defended herself. When discussing the attacks against our facilities in benghazi, i relied solely and squarely on the information provided to me by the intelligence community. Now, rice has come under so much scrutiny, in part because shes been discussed as a possible replacement for secretary of state hillary clinton. Senator john mccain and other republicans are not satisfied by rices answers. They are calling for a select committee investigation. Now, as for the fiscal cliff, if lawmakers cant agree to a deal by the first of the year, economists say eventually the country could slip back into another recession. Erica . So many people focused on that date. Thank you. At 17 minutes past the hour, heres carl. Today authorities are looking into that horrific thanksgiving day pileup in texas that involved at least 140 people. Two people were killed, at least 100 others injured. Two heroes emerged. Tom costello had their story. Reporter it took more than nine hours to clear two miles of twisted wreckage on i10 in east texas. Two dead, a husband and wife. Their suv crushed by an 18wheeler. This semi was up in the air, higher than the back of my trailer. Its like he was jumping around. He was in the air, airborne, taking these cars with him. Reporter Police CreditGood Samaritans with helping to save lives. Katie is a nurse who rushed to help another family as the Chain Reaction continued. I jumped in the car, sat on a little boys lap, closed the door and we all just braced each other until we knew it was done. Reporter damian managed to free nine accident victims. You really couldnt see. I just ran to the nearest car and started yanking people out. Reporter the dense, fastmoving fog described as a death trap. Four years ago a deadly mix of fog and brush fire smoke caused a 50car pileup on i4 in florida, killing four. In california, in 2007, dense fog caused this 100car pileup near fresno that killed two. And this is the time of year when fog can move in quickly. You get the longer, cooler nights and that basically allowed the temperature to cool all the way down to where that moisture can condense and produce some pretty thick fog. Reporter fog is notorious for distorting a drivers perception of speed and distance. Experts advise to slow way down. Dont forget to use your fog lights, not your high beams. And try to pull way over until the fog clears. Overall, traffic fatalities continue to decline year round. Over thanksgiving, 610 deaths in 2005 to a projected 451 this year, a 26 drop. Thanksgiving is the single busiest travel p