Dynasty
Originally titled Oil, the extravagance of this
blockbuster was matched only by its sister super-soap Dallas.
The weekly wardrobe budget alone topped US$10,000.
Dynasty was also possibly also the only series ever to
include royalty in its line-up - Princess of Yugoslavia, Catherine
Oxenberg as Amanda.
The show focused on the duelling Carrington and Colby families
and was designed to be about luxury, romance, money, entrapment,
clothes, children, power and more money. It was the fantasy series
the women of the world had been waiting for.
Dynasty re-introduced John Forsythe to prime time TV and
made Joan Collins (as Alexis) a household name. The show also
achieved a first of sorts in 1983 when one episode featured former
President Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger as guest stars.
This show was NOT about reality. No camped-up catastrophe was
left unused in Dynasty. Every kind of accident, kidnap and
breakdown occurred. There was even a wedding eve heart attack and
an attempted murder by poisonous paint!
Blake failed to spot an impostor in his bed for weeks (Krystle
was abducted by her white trash niece Sammy Jo's friend - played
by Linda Evans of course). A barmy congressman dressed up as
Alexis to commit a murder, and the disguise fooled her son so that
she was almost convinced of the crime herself.
Alexis later disguised herself as a nun. That, too, fooled an
entire army of Moldavian revolutionaries. Yes, honestly! At one
stage, Blake lost his sight after fighting with Dr Toscani.
Fortunately it returned after Krystle cried enough.
The Carrington opulent mansion (173 Essex Drive, Denver,
Colorado, if you're ever passing by) was a large part of the
fascination. With opening aerial views of Mansion Fioli in San
Mateo (thirty miles south of San Francisco off Highway 280 - the
mansion used in the film Heaven Can Wait) and clinging
shots of some of its 48 rooms, halls, the gym, solarium, ballroom
and library (there were actually five or six sets, cleverly
rearranged in the studio), the place seemed fit for an emperor.
Liberace would have loved it . . .
Watching the clothes was always fun too. Dallas women
had shoulder pads and plunging necklines. Dynasty women had
those and wings, flounces, trains and bustles - the sort of
dresses Danny La Rue (or any other drag artist) would die for.
At the height of its popularity, Dynasty finally overdid
it. The twisted plotlines led in the direction of Moldavia, a
mythical kingdom. Amanda was courted by wimpy playboy Prince
Michael of Moldavia and devious King Galen (an old flame of
Alexis). As the Carrington's trotted off to the wedding, the
revolution began.
 The
wedding turned into an ear-splitting bloodbath with every
character collapsing, apparently riddled with bullet-holes. Only
Jeff was moving - because he had to be there for The Colby's,
in which he starred.
By the next season, most of the others couldn't stay dead
either!
As one by one the Carringtons awoke, crawled away and escaped
the gunmen to arrive back in Denver shaken but not stirred,
audiences worldwide hissed "Swizz" and began to switch
off.
The frantic plots continued : Alexis made Blake bankrupt and
took over the mansion. Claudia survived the massacre but died in
the fire at Fallon's hotel, La Mirage. More relatives turned up
with English accents - Blake's embittered brother Ben and Alexis's
scheming sister Caress.
Blake and Krystle's baby Christina underwent a heart swap. Adam
married Dana and Claudia's presumed-dead nutter husband Matthew
Blaisdale turned up with a machine gun and his pals. The ratings
fell even further.
In the 1988 series, Alexis married the handsome man who saved
her from drowning and turned out to be a swine. Adam and Dana had
a child by a surrogate mother.
Fallon and Jeff divorced again, and as Blake and Alexis ran
rival political campaigns for the governorship of Colorado the
younger characters fought in business.
After the stock market crash in 1987, Newsweek declared
'The Eighties are over. Down with greed'. Sagas of the super rich
were sunk.
TRIVIA NOTE: Additional exterior shots for the Carrington
Mansion were shot at the Arden Villa - a 20,000 square-foot
mansion located at 1145 Arden Road in Pasadena, California. This
mansion was used for the garden and pool shots (including the
famous fight in the pool between Joan Collins and Linda Evans who
were actually on their knees because the lily pond was only
two-feet deep).
This mansion also served as the exterior of the Foundation For
Law And Government (F.L.A.G) seen on the NBC adventure series Knight
Rider.
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