There may of been threads in the past but i thought a new thread on the iconic 80's american soap opera, Dynasty, is in need. I recently finished re watching the show and would love a good chat with fans about the show in general.

I LOVE the show!

My viewing of it is a bit all over the place though. I watched abridged YouTube videos of certain storylines before I watched the series in full. To date, I seen seasons 3, 4, 5 & 6 in their entirety as well as the first four of five episodes of season 1. My plan is to pick it back up and watch all of 1 & 2 followed by 9. From what I've seen and read, seasons 7 & 8 are pretty bad so I think the edited down versions of them that I watched will be enough for me.

Have you watched The Colbys yet? Initially, I found it a bit boring in comparison to some of the madness on Dynasty but having rewatched bits of it recently, I've a new found appreciation of it. Mainly down to Stephanie Beacham's performance. Sable to The Colbys is what Cookie currently is to Empire. The breakout matriarchal role that steals the show.

The Colbys is ok. Just ok. I mean it never had it's own identity and I think that is one reason why it never worked out. Especially if you look at Knots Landing which was very different to Dallas in terms of it's setting and it's characters. And the same with 90210 and Melrose Place which would follow in the 90's. Sable was the indeed the best character. On paper, she sounds like a poor man's Alexis but Stephanie's portrayal of her allowed Sable to be her own creation.

For dynasty. Season 7 is ok-ish but for me, season 8 and 9 are the worst and they are so bad, the show actually becomes unwatchable. And the wrap up mini series isn't good either in my opinion but it's nice to see the characters all get their happy ending

I had a new found new appreciation for season 1 when I was re-watching the show. It wasn't as bad and as boring as I thought. It was slow and it was trying to find it's way but not every television show can manage that in it's first season. Season 2-6 are for me the golden years. Season 5 and 6 are when the show begins to lose it's touch with reality but it still remains addicting. Season 7 is frustrating because of how the show dealt with the death of Claudia. Claudia was my fav character and the fact she died off screen and barely anyone on the show shed a tear or really cared broke my heart so much.

Anyone else wanna join the conversation? It might be a lot of fun.

Funny enough I watched the drama that was made about the series yesterday..I loved Dynasty back in the day.
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I bloody loved Dynasty. I remember making my parents and grandparents letting me watch it while we were visiting my grandparents of a Friday evening while they chatted and absolutely did the watch because no end of them liked any of that American crap. Then I'd look round half way through and certainly the other women of the family were glued to it too

I had such a crush on John James when I was a teenager.

Hi everyone-this is my first post. I loved the Dynasty era-just to be able to switch off from reality for around an hour each week and enter into another world of glitz, glamour, beautiful women, handsome men and dirty boardroom dealings was fabulous. As I was a younger viewer when Blake and Alexis were finally reunited with their son Adam Carrington, I always said to myself that if I had a son one day then I would call him Adam-and I did. Happy memories !!

We need a Dallas Disscusion thread
I love that show!

Well create one then.

What did anyone here think of the recasts and the later seasons of the show?

I will. I've actually been meaning to since i saw a thread had popped up.

I love Dynasty. It was a major obsession of mine in the 80s, started recording it from the end of Season 3 and have rewatched it multiple times since although i only managed to get hold of 'The Colbys' a couple of months ago, my original recording having been on Betamax so effectively lost well over 25 years ago.

Whilst KL was undoubtably the best of the 80s soaps quality wise, dynasty probably remains my favourite. To the person that hasn't seen much of season 1 or any of 2 and 9, you really should try to as they're very good. They're very different to season 3-8 though which can be jarring.

Personally i think the quality is highest in season 2 and 9 (much of season 1 is very dull, Lindsey Blaisdel and Walter Lankersham are almost painful to watch at times) but it hits it's stride in Season 2 with the introduction of Alexis, Sammy Jo and a believable and charismatic, sympathetic villain in Nick Toscanni.

Personally season 3 and 4 are my favourites - the quality is still fairly high although they are starting to ramp up the melodrama, Adam (my favourite character in the whole show) is introduced and I also liked Kircy. I can't really think of any part of season 3 or 4 that i don't enjoy.

It is probably at itsmost 'Dynastyish' in Season 5 with the budget at its zenith, lots of foreign locations (even if they were all shot in LA) and culminating in the Moldavian Massacre. It's a cliche but it really was downhill from then on with me particularly hating the aftermath of that with Galen tricking Alexis at the same time as the alwful Krystle stuck in the attic whilst her doppelganger goes unnoticed in the House for weeks on end. Watching them at the same time, The colbys was more enjoyable.

Things looked up in the second half of the season and I'm in the minority in actually rather liking Season 7 and it becoming a little 'nicer' and more down to earth. But then it was a strong season for Adam and his new love interest, Dana.

Again, i don't think season 8 is as bad as most say. I'd rather watch it than Season 6 that's for sure. But, it was far from good and Sean Rowan was a rare miscast which was a big problem as so much of the season was dependent on him being convincing/interesting.

I love Season 9. I love that it dug into the past (even if thsat did mean contracting a lot of things previously stated) and the over arching Roger Grimes death mystery. Bringing Sable and Monica across from the Colbys worked. Bringing more humour (real rather camp) in worked for me. The characters started to feel 'real' rather than being cartoons re their speech patterns and motivations. Even Krystle came alive again in her few episodes.

But, it is very different tonally to what came before so i can understand why some don't like it or see it as Dynasty.

The only good thing about The Reunion, for me, is that it brought Kirby back and reconciled her with Adam as they were my favourite pairing throughout the series - even with the rape which obviously I hate.

Recasts - necessary evil really.

I think it is obvious that the originals were the best but i didn't hate any of them except Karen Cellini - who i don't want to slag off as she seems a reasonable actress and nice person but just wasn't right as Amanda.

Steven was okay - at least we got an explanation not just for the face change but personality as going through that explosion probably would have had an effect.

Fallon was jaRring at first but that was the writing on the Colbys making her a victim and a subservient, wimpy wife to Jeff - to Jeff of all people! Once they started writing Fallon as Fallon in season 8 and especially season 9, Samms shone.

Robin Sachs was fine as Adam in the Reunion considering how little of him we saw and how little time he had to prepare - i remember asking him about it at a Buffy convention and apparently he did a telephone audition on the Friday evening, was put on a plane from London to LA on the Saturday and started filming on the Monday. He wasn't Adam of course and as I was completely in love with Gordon Thomson, that was hard for me, but he did the best he could and doesn't stick out like a sore thumb in the way Cellini and Samms for her first 3 years did.

For me (re re-casts)

Fallon - original best

Steven - second best

Adam - original best

Amanda - original best.

I think the thing with Steven is that although i do think Corley was the better actor (at least in dynasty, coleman has been great in other roles), coleman was in the role much, much longer so became more firmly entrenched as Steven to me.

Yes, I was devastated when Al Corley left the role and it took a while to get used to Jack Coleman but then he really became Steven for me so much so that when Al Corley returned he seemed wrong to me!!

Yes, I was going to mention the rerecast. That was just bizarre and bothered me more than Adam having changed in the reunion. Especially as it wasn't even the same Bart Fallmont so it felt like stepping into an alternatate universe.

I so wish they'd had the guts to made a reference to it - I've always thought it would have been funny if somebody had commented on how they've now got so used to Steven post plastic surgery they don't see any difference to him pre Explosion now!

That would have been hilarious!

I disliked Emma Samms with a passion as Fallon. I would of much preferred they had kept Fallon dead. She couldn't do an american accent to save her life and she is just a generally bad actress. Her later work on Models Inc, Holby City and General Hospital were all just ad bad.

Jack Coleman and Al Corley were as good as one another to be honest

The new Amanda was awful. But it wasn't the actresses fault. All of the sudden, Amanda now had an american accent and had a personality transplant. It clearly backfired on the producers because after 13 episodes, the actress was shown the door and Amanda was given an off screen exit and a quick reference that she moved back to London. Sadly she was never mentioned or seen again. But by this time, the writers and producers didn't care about how characters were treated. Look how they treated Claudia towards the end.

What they did to Claudia made me really sad. I loved her as a character in the early years, especially with Steven.

I think they made a huge mistake pairing Claudia with Adam. They never really fitted together and i think it was only done because they needed to split her and Steven up because of the Gay Communities backlash to the marriage (which i did sympathise with, it did seem like once Steven had been 'cured' and settled down with a woman, suddenly he was happy at work, got on with his Dad, was a wonderful father, satisfied sexually etc) so needed to pair her woth somebody and Adam was also at a lossed end due to the fairly late decision to write Kirby out at the end of season 4.

So, in some ways, i actually found Claudia becoming unhinged and very insightful in a spiteful way (loved her attacking Krystle for her hypocricy) the best part of Season 6.

But killing her off having relapsed mentally, seemingly unmourned by everybody except Adam for one scene, was a pretty horrible end for the character I agree.

That actually broke my heart what happened to Claudia. For me, Claudia was the tragic heroine of Dynasty. I felt she was the one who really had a brain and the audience could really kinda identity with. Pamela Bellwood for me was the best actress out of everyone. She took the mental health story line with such care and didn't make it into a pantomime. Especially considering this was the 80's and mental health story lines were never really written to be serious or cause an effect. But by season 6, they made her paranoid and she eventually turned against everyone. And then they had her die in a fire. Sadly, her death took place off screen and the last we saw of Claudia was the look of horror as the fire spread in her hotel room.

Her death eventually got one brief mention. Adam tells Blake Claudia has died. Blake and Adam both look sad. Adam mentions that Claudia remarked she never wanted a funeral so we never got a funeral. And that was it. That was the end of claudia. Steven showed no sadness, despite the fact he married her, she was the only woman he ever loved and that Claudia was essentially a mother to his son, LB. Even Crystal barely batted an eyelid and they had become rather close in season 5. One of the most saddest scenes in Dynasty that always sticks out is when Krystal is told about Fallon's death and her and Claudia hug and break down at the breakfast table. It was a sad and a real moment for two women whose original association began with the fact that Claudia's husband had an affair with Krystal. So they had really come far.

Rumor has it, Pamela Bellwood was bullied off the show by the producers. She was pregnant during the first half of season 6 and had four episodes off. When she returned, the producers apparently made nasty remarks about her weight regarding what clothes she was to wear and they were not willing to work around Pamela's schedule over her new born baby. She still wanted to do the show but work slightly less hours. I do often wonder if some of this is true. because of the poor treatment of Claudia towards the end.

For me the Adam Carrington recast was a disappointment. Gordon Thomson played the conniving character to perfection and was a hard act to follow, but sadly the late Robin Sachs wasn't the ideal replacement.

I don't actually think anybody would have been ideal. I agree that Thomson was wonderful, one of the best actors on the show and he played Adam perfectly, both the evil and sad sides. Also, he'd been in the role for 7 years soo completely fixed for most people i think - it was hard enough losing Pamela Sue Martin after 4 years.

But, they screwed up, they didn't specify the filming dates early enough to allow Santa Barbara to release him even though it was in his contract that they would in the event of a Dynasty reunion - he'd had the sense to put it in there but also SB needed some notice. Spelling actually paid Thomson compensation over it.

So, due to this, it was an incredibly late, desperate recast - not the interviewing of hunderds that you had with Steven and Fallon. So, given that in mind, i don't think it was that bad.

I struggle to think who could have done it better than Sachs. Lane Davies maybe - the original Mason Capwell which would have been ironic given that was the part Thomson was playing in SB.

But really, i think anybody would have felt wrong, as much as a different Alexis, Blake, Krystle of Jeff.

Oh it's certainly true that they were unhappy with Having to shoot round Bellwood's pregnancy and write her out for a few weeks. Whether that was actually the reason they didn't renew her contract is hard to say for sure but it's certainly possible.

That said, much as I loved Claudia, i'm not entirely sure where they could take her character wise. She was basically a satelitte character and given how everybody had to be part of the family, how to keep her in and relevent if she isn't part of it by marriage? They couldn't put her with Steven due to the problem with Gay Lobby groups saying they'd betrayed them (basically the reason is partnerless for his last 2 and a half years - they got grief whether he was with a man or a woman) and the relationship with Adam just didn't work and they'd got rid of her actual family by then.