Dynasty Discussion Thread

[Paul Raven]

Some Dynasty trivia

John James tested for Steven ,along with Al Corley and a few other actors.

The auditions were taped on a set at the General Hospital studio.

George Peppard upset the Shapiros by rewriting his lines for a presentation film made for ABC bigwigs.

Also he rewrote scenes in the pilot and instructed Al and Pamela on how to play scenes.

The Shapiros issued an ultimatum him or them.

One scene was written for Matthew and Blake to get into a brawl but when John was cast Bo Hopkins wanted it change because it looked wrong to have his character pummeling 'an old man'.

George may have been off the booze but his trailer was well stocked with 'dolls'

Dale Robertson upset the shooting schedule one day when he refused to wait around a location for hours to film  the final scene of the day.

The pilot was supposed to be 2 hr but came to 2 and a half once filming was complete. They expected to have to trim things down but Esther Shapiro decided to write extra scenes and persuaded ABC to go with a then unprecedented 3 hr premiere.

Initially to save time they contemplated using long shots of Peppard but then realized he would have to be paid for any appearances.

Entire scenes w/o Peppard were reshot b/c originally local SF actors had been used and they would have to be transported to LA for reshoots. So it was cheaper to do the whole sequence again. Jerry Ayres and Barry Cahill were among the actors hired as replacements.

[Khan]

ICAM.

[kalbir]

Dynasty time slot competition

1980/81 Monday 9 pm. CBS 9 pm M*A*S*H and 9:30 pm House Calls. NBC Monday movie.

1981/82 Wednesday 10 pm. CBS Shannon, Wednesday movie. NBC Quincy, M.E.

1982/83 Wednesday 10 pm. CBS Tucker's Witch, Wednesday movie. NBC Quincy, M.E.

1983/84 Wednesday 9 pm. CBS Wednesday movie. NBC 9 pm The Facts of Life and 9:30 pm Family Ties, Night Court, Double Trouble.

1984/85 Wednesday 9 pm. CBS Wednesday movie. NBC 9 pm The Facts of Life and 9:30 pm It's Your Move, Sara.

1985/86 Wednesday 9 pm. CBS 9 pm Charlie & Co. and 9:30 pm George Burns Comedy Week; Crazy Like a Fox; Wednesday movie. NBC Hell Town, Blacke's Magic.

1986/87 Wednesday 9 pm. CBS Magnum, P.I. NBC 9 pm Gimme a Break!, Night Court and 9:30 pm You Again?, The Tortellis, Easy Street.

1987/88 Wednesday 10 pm. CBS The Equalizer. NBC St. Elsewhere, A Year in the Life.

1988/89 Thursday 9 pm. CBS Paradise, The Equalizer. NBC 9 pm Cheers and 9:30 pm Dear John.

If we don't count the first season and the final season, Dynasty was very fortunate compared to the rest of the primetime soaps in that it didn't have much in the way of time slot competition.

[adrnyc]

Steven Carrington always came across as bisexual to me. Has no one else ever thought of that? In the 80s, bisexuality wasn't a "real thing." One was gay or one was straight. There wasn't the complexity of sexuality and gender that we understand today. I think, if watched from that perspective, Steven's journey makes a lot more sense and is, frankly, much more believable and interesting than simply "He's gay but his dad hates that so he dates women."

[Paul Raven]

Dynasty makes a come back in early 87

Week 19

Dynasty 18.9/28

Gimme A Break 16.1/24/Toretellis 16.2/25

Broken Vows CBS Movie special 14.1/22

Week 20

Dynasty 18.2/28

Magnum PI 16.7/25

Gimme A Break 14.3/22/Tortellis 13.1/20

Week 21

Dynasty 17.8/26

Magnum PI 16.7/25

Gimme A Break 13.6/20/Tortellis 11.6/17

Week 22

Dynasty pre-empted for Amerika miniseries

Week 23

Magnum PI 20.6/30

Dynasty 16.9/25

Gimme A Break 13.6/20/Tortellis 11.6/17

*Magnum hits a season high.W/o checking I suspect this was some kind of highly promoted special ep.

Dynasty begins another dip

Week 24

Due to Pres Reagans speech Dynasty pushed back to 9.30

I'll Take Manhattan 22.5/36

Dynasty 13.7/21

NBC continued Reagan coverage not rated

Week 25

Houston Knights 2 hr premiere 17.1/26

Dynasty 16.5/25

Highway to Heaven 2nd hr of 2 hr rpt 13.7/21

Week 26

A new possible challenge as NBC moves Top10 hit Night Court from Thursday

Dynasty 16.8/26

Magnum PI 16.1/25

Night Court 16.5/28/ Tortellis 14.22

 

 

[Franko]

Steven absolutely should have been bi, but that obviously wasn't going to fly on 1980s TV. I feel like the closest we would have gotten was a winking joke about Fallon's up for anything period before marrying Jeff, something along the lines of her hooking up with the players and a cheerleader or two of Blake's football team.

It was the Magnum episode with Special Guest Star Frank Sinatra.

[Broderick]

Good thing they didn't cast John James as Steven!  Seriously, I believe those three roles (Steven, Fallon, and Jeff) were cast extremely well initially.  Pamela Sue Martin made Fallon ballsy & aggressive, as well as likeable.  No one could do moody & sensitive as well as Al Corley.  And John James was great as the rather shallow, superficial all-American boy.    

Corley's Steven Carrington was such a complex character (to me) that his sexuality seemed almost "secondary" to the other traits that he brought to the role.  He came across as well-educated, well-read, introspective, sensitive, kind-hearted, tortured, and confused.  I found it believable that he could go from Ted Dinard to Sammy Jo to Claudia.  He always struck me as a character who was searching for himself and trying to discover who he really was.  

I know Al Corley took a certain amount of pride in playing one of nighttime TV's first "gay characters" in a dramatic series, but I wish he'd opened himself more to the fluidity that his characterization was bringing to the role of Steven.   

[SFK]

@Broderick I'm currently watching season 2, and I agree that I find Steven's fluid sexuality very believable whether his bi-ness was network mandated or not.

[DaytimeFan]

Right? Like all 110 lbs of Dame Joan would have crushed a stud like Michael Nader? That he and Alexis didn't get a happy ending in the reunion was terrible. 

Dame Joan loves a good pair of matching cuff bracelets...and is friends with Lynda Carter IRL...so you never know...

It certainly didn't help that Forsythe that Blake 1) always had to win and 2) would not screw around on Krystle. Ali MacGraw recounted that Forsythe protested to her and Rock Hudson joining the show, telling the producers that America did not want to see "anyone f-cking around with the Carringtons"

That Blake and Krystle stayed together the entire series really hampered it. They never evolved. Alexis had repetitive storylines with Blake, but her romantic storylines evolved over time with other actors. 

[Khan]

Staying together is one thing - and IMO, every soap needs at least one stable couple.  But it's as if the producers (or the actors) were so afraid to bring any conflict into Blake and Krystle's union to the point of doing away with any and all traits within the characters that would have made them even a little bit flawed. 

You shouldn't have to bring in an outsider like Lady Ashley or Daniel Reece to give Blake and Krystle marital tension, and it doesn't always have to end with Blake and Krystle splitting up either.  There were ways, I think, to create conflict for Blake and Krystle without suggesting that separation was in the future; however, both together and separately, Blake and Krystle became so fundamentally dull that they HAD to bring in outsiders just to give them some drama, no matter how manufactured; and if you were hip enough, you'd know that neither would ever even THINK about hurting the other in any way, so what was the point?  (Best example: Mark Jennings.  Maybe it was silly to think Krystle would have left Blake and returned to Mark, but in order for Mark to have been a real threat to Blake and Krystle, you needed to see Krystle still drawn to him in some way, but that never happened.  Ergo, the entire storyline became pointless.)

Same thing happened, I'm afraid, to Jeff and Fallon, especially once Emma Samms took over as Fallon.  You could argue that marriage to Jeff and motherhood matured Fallon, but the problem was that Fallon became as lifeless as Jeff.  Part of the appeal with Jeff and Pamela Sue Martin's Fallon, after all, was how different they were; he was solid and conservative, while her Fallon was cunning and unpredictable.  However, somewhere along the line, that disappeared, then got worse after the recast.  ES' Fallon needed to be torn between two men - like Jeff and Miles - just to remain even semi-interesting.

In a way, killing off Dex was ironic, since he had vowed to be a part of his and Sable's child life only minutes before.  I just wish they hadn't turned his death into a gaudy punch line.

Edited November 15, 2023 by Khan

[SFK]

See, I never got the impression that Dex was killed, just badly injured.

[Soaplovers]

Season 2 was the last time that Krystle had layers that made her more than just the 'good one'.   The way she went after Alexis in the gatehouse during the catfight and the way she felt guilt over being the other woman while Claudia was in the mental hospital showed that her character still had layers.

Starting in season 3, Krystle became a stepford wife... losing all the layers/strength she had in the first 2 seasons.   In fact, right before Claudia's death in season 6... Claudia rightly called out Krystle's passiveness remarking how that was more dangerous than the people doing horrible things.

[Khan]

Hey, I could be wrong!  Maybe Dex didn't die in the fall and I just misheard.  I hope that's what I did anyway, lol.

I think Claudia's was the death that annoyed me most on this show.  Not only was she reduced yet again to being insane, but she also died in the most idiotic manner, too.  (I mean, who lights candles near such obviously flammable curtains?  And who stands there and watches their hotel suite become engulfed in flames when they have plenty of time to escape?) Such an ignoble end for a character who, IMO, was often shat upon by the producers.

Edited November 15, 2023 by Khan

[Franko]

I promise I won't get too far into fanfiction, but I wish there would have been a 25th reunion in 2006 rather than the '91 reunion. In my version, Dex (having spent 17 years recovering from paralysis) returns to Denver to get to know his and Sable's son. The boy (anyone got a name in mind?) is in a love triangle with Amanda Carrington (credit where it's due, I'm taking this point from the legendary JamesFromLondon) and Lauren Colby (or if we must, Krystina Carrington, for the sisters fighting over a man of it all).

[Khan]

...Colby?  Colby Dexter.  "Cole," for short.

(I'll grant you, it's not particularly inspired, lol.)

Edited November 16, 2023 by Khan