Nearly eleven o'clock, and I'm still trying to wake up fully and get my bearings about me. To get myself together in the morning, I usually start with a quick glimpse at Blackboard and student email to see if there are any pressing changes that I need to get to working on as quickly as possible, then start cruising through the hot stories of the day and the ten most-searched items on the Yahoo page. Although it was in the news on Friday afternoon, I realized that the death of John Forsythe is actually a pretty big deal, and a search through the articles related to his passing led me to a series of lists. Really not so much for Forsythe, most of the associated links are to the series that made him such a star in the 1980's, Dynasty, and I started thinking about a top ten list of my own: the ten greatest storylines, episodes, and cliffhangers that I remember from the series (although I never watched any of it in entirety in my youth, I was definitely hooked from the three-hour premier that aired on SoapNet a few years ago, and all through the daily airings of the series in syndication). So, here they are...
10. The Star Witness - The first season of the show started airing in the spring of 1981, I think. The thing I remember most about the first season in stark contrast to the rest of the hit series was that it could have run as a self-contained mini-series of its own. In the beginning, Dynasty was more of a story about the comparison between two families: the Carringtons and the Blaidesdailes (probably didn't spell that correctly). Krystle was just coming on the scene in her marriage to Blake. Blake was ultra-conservative, and definitely not a fan of his tortured son's sexual orientation. The culmination of the struggles between Steven and Blake culminated in Blake accidentally killing Steven's lover, and the trial that ensued. In the final episode of the season, the prosecution called a surprise witness and the episode ended with a thin, well-dressed woman swaggering into the courtroom, all members of the court wide-eyed and mouths agape and Fallon gasping, "Oh, my God, that's my mother!" Of course, the woman was hidden under a wide black hat and big black sunglasses and viewers would have to wait the summer for the true birth of the most famous of all of the show's pivotal characters, Alexis.
Note: Producers were undecided as to who would actually be portraying the new role, and the figure in the black and white ensemble was not that of Joan Collins, who would come to replace a series of other options of actresses who were to play the starring role.
9. The Original Steven - In the beginning, Steven Carrington was gay. Clearly, the producers wanted to do be champions of having one of their main characters as an open homosexual; however, there was so much controversy over the frank and issue-less portrayal of a gay man on prime time television that Krystle's scheming niece was brought on as a love interest for Steven to give the character a more advisable edge. When Al Corley, the actor who originated the role, objected to the network's fear of public reprisal and major change to the character's integrity, Steven was believed dead in an off-shore oil rig explosion, and a subsequent plot point revealed that he was actually alive and undergoing corrective plastic surgery brought a different actor in to play the role that took the character in a totally different direction. However, true (non-Conservative) fans of the show can look back with happiness to see that Dynasty was truly ahead of its time in at least attempting to do something that had never been done on network televison before.
8. The Original Fallon - Probably one of the all-time best female leads in television history, Pamela Sue Anderson originated the role of Blake's strong-willed, tempestuous daughter, Fallon. In a lot of ways, Fallon was the son that Blake really wanted, and it seemed that she was always trying to get Blake's attention and recognition for her capabilities, and managing to create some amount of sexual scandal in the process. It started with her first season affair with the Carrington chauffer while Fallon was being promised to Jeff Colby, went through some degree of very odd escapades with his uncle Cecil, an almost-affair with the man who would turn out to be her long-lost brother, and culminate in an ill-fated romance with Peter. One of the worst bits of the first half of the show's run involved Fallon's secret headaches that led to an implied car accident in the cliffhanger from which the actress would never return. Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against Emma Samms as a replacement, but the original Fallon was far more believeable in the role.
7. Amanda - Probably one of the most interesting characters ever written into the show was the mysterious Amanda, later revealed to be Alexis's secret daughter, then revealed to be the child Alexis was carrying when Blake and Alexis separated and divorced many years ago. Amanda was beautiful, selfish, and a pawn in several of her mother's machinations toward power and control of the Carrington empire. The best of her many story lines involved her secret love for her mother's husband, Dex Dexter.
6. Dominique - The only woman who could really hold her own against Alexis. She was beautiful, she was powerful, she was talented, she was a bitch, and she was the secret black sister of Blake Carrington. Awesome stuff. Her bout with a tuberculosis-like illness and the performance in which she collapsed on stage calling out to her brother, "Blaaake.." was one of my favorite moments in the show's history.
Best line ever: "I want my rightful name, Old Man!" To the man who impregnated her mother and refused to recognize Dominique as his daughter.
Best line directed toward her: "Dominique, get well soon. I miss the fun and games. Alexis." - on the card Alexis sends to her following her collapse.
5. Claudia - I know it seems that I'm really only picking characters, but it would be impossible to pick any one specific Claudia moment. Unhinged, desperate, and convincing, she was the one character who was always taking everyone else's dirt. She was responsible for the melodramatic car accident injuring her daughter in the cliffhanger of the first season. She had a very strange on-again, off-again relationship with Steven Carrington where she sometimes advocated for him to be true to his sexuality and sometimes clung to her romantic love for him, and she was the one who burned down Fallon's hotel in later seasons; however, it was the episodes that involved her descent into madness, abduction of Fallon's baby, and throwing what everyone thought was LB off the roof of a building that was my absolute favorite story arc.
Best line: "Cecil Colby, please..." Claudia's gravelly voice as she discovers Cecil has been plotting against her and stringing her along and calls his secretary.
4 - Steven Loves Luke Fuller - Ah... finally, after a couple years of really poor choices in romance, Steven finally meets a good-looking, sweet, honest, and wholesome gay man who is comfortable with himself and his sexuality. The duo have some difficulty, but Luke manages to pull Steven out of the Carrington mire of self-hate and embark on a romance that could have really given network sensors myocardial infarctions. Played by a very young and very cute Billy Campbell, Luke ingrained himself in the heart of Steven, even earning an invitation to the royal wedding of Steven's sister, Amanda, to Prince Michael of Moldavia. Unfortunately, Luke was one of the casualties of the ill-fated ceremony when he attempted to pull Claudia (his arch nemesis) out of the line of fire and was shot.
3 - Alexis and Krystle: the Fire in the Cabin - It was dramatic and campy and totally over-the-top when Kirby's father burned down Alexis's cabin with both her and her arch-enemy inside arguing. However, it was during the next season's resolve of the cliffhanger that showed Alexis bandaged in her hospital bed calling out: "What's happened to my face?! Quick! Bring me a mirror!" AWESOME!
2 - the Moldavian Massacre - Perhaps one of the absolute greatest season finale's in prime time history. Although Sammy Jo was back in New York plotting against her aunt, virtually every other member of the Carrington and Colby clans were gathered in a politically hostile nation in Europe for the marriage of Amanda and Michael. Just as the duo said "I do" and exchanged rings, guerillas smashed through the windows, opened fire on everyone in attendance, and left every character on the show in a big, bloody pile on the floor. As the church bells began to ring, the camera pans over to show Adam, Dominique, Lady Ashley, Jeff, Claudia, Luke, Steven, Amanda, Michael, the King, Krystle, Blake, and Alexis motionless... and viewers would have to wait all summer to see the absolute worst and most unsatisfying resolves to the terrorist attack. This was definitely the episode where the show jumped the shark and the writing would never recover.
1 - Krystle vs. Alexis number one: the studio catfight - It seems that the one that happened the following year in the lily pond is the one that always gets the most praise (probably because that's the first time the word "bitch" was ever aired on prime time television), but it was the first fight between the rivals that was probably the best because it was the roughest, the dirtiest, and the campiest. After Krystle realizes that Alexis was skeet-shooting the day Krystle was horseback riding and thrown from her horse (supposedly, a car backfired, scared the horse, and Krystle miscarried her baby), the tall, shoulder-padded Linda Evans confronts the witchy Alexis in her artsy studio on the Carrington grounds. Hateful words are exchanged and Alexis slaps Krystle, assuming that the incident is over. What happens next is the greatest girl-fight ever filmed. The two spend the next two minutes slapping, punching, pulling hair, breaking glass, ripping clothes, tearing up pillows, breaking picture frames, collapsing tables, and covering every inch of the studio in shattered crystal, feathers, furniture, and anything else that wasn't nailed down... and some of what could be pulled from the walls. Of course, Krystle wins, but her victory only gives Alexis the ammunition for the kind of war that she could always win.
Now that I've wasted more than half an hour of my morning, it's probably time that I go do something productive. It was fun to remember all that, though.
