14 hours ago, kalbir said:

Aaron Spelling went all out to the biggest and best, mainly by cashing in on Diana-mania.

I agree.

16 hours ago, Khan said:

When you compare S9 to the five or six seasons that came before, I would agree. There's a sense of purpose in the storytelling that those previous years woefully lacked. On the other hand, as good as S9 was overall, I still feel it falls short, due to budget cuts and the toll that years of bad or non-existent storytelling have taken on the characters.

But I definitely agree with you about Matthew and Lindsay Blaisdel. Once again, as I've said in the past, it really comes down to the casting of those two roles. If they had hired better actors, I feel like that component would've lasted much longer on the show and maintained the "rich vs. poor" element (with Krystle caught in the middle) that DYNASTY was built upon.

I think it's during the commentary on the Season 1 DVD (that I bought in...Lord knows when - 2005?!) where either the Shapiros or the Pollocks said that the first season hadn't done as well as the network had wanted. So they did focus groups and the biggest thing they discovered was that no one cared about the middle-class family. They wanted to "see what was going on behind the doors of that mansion!" So they changed the show and, people will always debate its quality, but between that change and the addition of Joan Collins, the show became a hit.