DYNASTY, folks, in retrospect, is really a comedy masquerading as a nighttime drama! NOTHING in this show was very realistic, but that's the fun of it. When I was a pre-teen/teenager, DYNASTY was required viewing every Wednesday night! A 100%, pure, unadulterated hour of campy fun! I recall classmates talking about it the next morning in school EVERY week! Now this is the highest praise you can give a show. Forget about TV critics (can we, please?!), DYNASTY was all about the ratings and this show was for at least a couple years the #1 show on TV, even surpassing DALLAS as the ratings king! Ironically, although about wealthy families, DYNASTY was really the polar opposite of DALLAS. While DALLAS stayed pretty much grounded in it's Texas setting, DYNASTY constantly went to a different international (and sometimes national) spot each week away from it's Denver base. You name it! Morocco, Tahiti, England, France, Hong Kong, etc. DYNASTY probably went there! Also, whereas DALLAS pretty much kept the same core Ewing family members, DYNASTY's Carrington clan increased at an exponential rate! But I loved every second of it.
The nominal stars of DYNASTY was the dignified John Forsythe as Blake Carrington and the hot almost-middle aged Linda Evans as his long-suffering wife Krystle, but the real star of this legendary soap was the singular Joan Collins, who played one of the all-time great TV characters Alexis Morrell Carrington Colby Dexter Rowan! Lot of names, but all belonging to one unique woman! In her first season, Collins' imbibed Alexis with a raw nature that I'd never seen in a woman over 40! Collins made me realize that women over 40 years of age had sex appeal! Then later, Alexis became a cutthroat businesswoman who threw men around like paper airplanes and it was pure fun to watch. She emasculated so many men that it would make Susan B. Anthony proud! The Blake/Alexis and Alexis/Krystle exchanges throughout the show's run were priceless, indeed.
The Carrington clan also included Blake/Alexis children Adam, Fallon, Steven, and Amanda. Fallon and Steven (originally Pamela Sue Martin and Al Corley, then later Emma Samms and Jack Coleman) were the original children w/ Adam (the terrific Gordon Thomson) and Amanda (the royal Catherine Oxenberg) part of the increasing brood. Adam was kidnapped as a child and Alexis had Amanda AFTER Blake threw her out of the house!. Good job, Blake. You shot one off right before Alexis got away! I would have, too! It was all made up as the show went along but that was all part of the fun. Also, you can't forget Jeff Colby (solidly played by John James), the Carrington by marriage and Fallon's constant whipping boy! Then there were all these new characters/family members that magically popped up over the years and everybody seemed to know everybody! Ben (Blake's younger bro), Cassie (Alexis' younger sis), Dominique (Blake's half-sis played by the uber-classy Diahann Carroll), and on and on and on. This is the most wicked family tree ever assembled! Other classic characters included Dex Dexter (solidly played by Michael Nader), Claudia Blaisdel (wonderfully played by Pamela Bellwood), and of course Samantha 'Sammy Jo' Dean Carrington Reece (played by the 80s AND 90s icon Heather Locklear).
DYNASTY was class of the highest nature: limos, caviar, champagne, fur coats, mansions, private jets, royalty, skyscrapers. Everything was big and over-the-top. And it was all done well. It is well-known that the outlandish Season 5 cliffhanger Moldavian massacre was a jump-the-shark moment of the show, but I still watched it after that. I think it got back to what made it great to begin with. But with the end of the 80s and entry into the more 'realistic' 90s, I guess the glamor and intrigue had to end! May have been unrealistic to the extreme, but based on it's dedication to glamor and influence of dozens of carbon copy shows that could never equal it's uniqueness, DYNASTY is an all-time classic!
The nominal stars of DYNASTY was the dignified John Forsythe as Blake Carrington and the hot almost-middle aged Linda Evans as his long-suffering wife Krystle, but the real star of this legendary soap was the singular Joan Collins, who played one of the all-time great TV characters Alexis Morrell Carrington Colby Dexter Rowan! Lot of names, but all belonging to one unique woman! In her first season, Collins' imbibed Alexis with a raw nature that I'd never seen in a woman over 40! Collins made me realize that women over 40 years of age had sex appeal! Then later, Alexis became a cutthroat businesswoman who threw men around like paper airplanes and it was pure fun to watch. She emasculated so many men that it would make Susan B. Anthony proud! The Blake/Alexis and Alexis/Krystle exchanges throughout the show's run were priceless, indeed.
The Carrington clan also included Blake/Alexis children Adam, Fallon, Steven, and Amanda. Fallon and Steven (originally Pamela Sue Martin and Al Corley, then later Emma Samms and Jack Coleman) were the original children w/ Adam (the terrific Gordon Thomson) and Amanda (the royal Catherine Oxenberg) part of the increasing brood. Adam was kidnapped as a child and Alexis had Amanda AFTER Blake threw her out of the house!. Good job, Blake. You shot one off right before Alexis got away! I would have, too! It was all made up as the show went along but that was all part of the fun. Also, you can't forget Jeff Colby (solidly played by John James), the Carrington by marriage and Fallon's constant whipping boy! Then there were all these new characters/family members that magically popped up over the years and everybody seemed to know everybody! Ben (Blake's younger bro), Cassie (Alexis' younger sis), Dominique (Blake's half-sis played by the uber-classy Diahann Carroll), and on and on and on. This is the most wicked family tree ever assembled! Other classic characters included Dex Dexter (solidly played by Michael Nader), Claudia Blaisdel (wonderfully played by Pamela Bellwood), and of course Samantha 'Sammy Jo' Dean Carrington Reece (played by the 80s AND 90s icon Heather Locklear).
DYNASTY was class of the highest nature: limos, caviar, champagne, fur coats, mansions, private jets, royalty, skyscrapers. Everything was big and over-the-top. And it was all done well. It is well-known that the outlandish Season 5 cliffhanger Moldavian massacre was a jump-the-shark moment of the show, but I still watched it after that. I think it got back to what made it great to begin with. But with the end of the 80s and entry into the more 'realistic' 90s, I guess the glamor and intrigue had to end! May have been unrealistic to the extreme, but based on it's dedication to glamor and influence of dozens of carbon copy shows that could never equal it's uniqueness, DYNASTY is an all-time classic!