20150708

DYNASTY

Esther Shapiro believed, "A TV show has to reflect, even in a fantasy way, the times." Douglas Cramer added, "In the serial form, as in life, no one lives forever. That makes for exciting shows." John Forsythe observed, "There will always be crises on our show but we'll give it more humanity." The show was 'Dynasty'. "We feel that 'Dynasty' should be like living your life. You don't know what's happening next," one producer pointed out. Another added, "('Dynasty') just seemed to work, just seemed to capture what the '80s were all about." 

Tony Shepherd recounted, "John Forsythe wasn't the original Blake Carrington. George Peppard played the part in the pilot and was replaced as a mutual decision. Again, there was irony in the piece of film that got John the part. It showed him played a crooked judge and a thoroughly nasty character in a movie called 'And Justice For All'. John hadn’t wanted to do that movie because he felt it went against his image. But his daughters convinced him otherwise. Blake Carrington was originally conceived to be more like J.R. Ewing of 'Dallas'. But John didn't want to play him like that. So, today (in 1986), Blake is a very strong, but nice, character." 

John elaborated, "In the beginning, the producers were looking to make Blake a kind of J.R.-type character – and I objected to that. Blake is very much the hub of the show. A much more dimensional figure than what they saw the part as...I simply didn’t want to be another J.R. Ewing, then, fortunately, Joan Collins joined the cast and helped take the pressure off me in that arena by playing the woman you love to hate." 

"Alexis," Joan enthused, "is vaguely based on a friend of mine whose modus operandi was always yachts, Givenchy and the top restaurants." Nicolas Sarkozy made the comment about the free-market economies in 2008, "Laissez-faire (policy of no interfering), it's finished. The all-powerful market that is always right, it's finished." One finance minister insisted, "This world will become multipolar. The world will never be the same again." "At a fundamental level," it was explained, "the model of globalization and deregulation has blown up and that's what's caused the (global financial) crisis." The future, it was thought, would be "less freewheeling, less aggressively speculative, less leveraged, and tighter on credit. We're in the midst of a massive de-leveraging." Joan made the point in 1981, "I am the top English movie star, which isn't saying too much because there isn't much of an industry there today (in 1981). After 'Starsky & Hutch', I quit doing episodic television and decided to go back to the theater. If you're an actor you want to work in all the media. Let’s faced it, this year's television stars are next year's unemployed actors." 

"You’ll notice that with all of Blake Carrington's shenanigans he's still a man of integrity," John made the observation. "He’s a collector of things. His diadem, the jewel of his collection is Krystle...Blake has changed remarkably since we came on the air. A lot of it is my doing, a lot is the realization on their part that we should go another way. I never wanted to be the J.R. of the show. I figured it was better to make Blake more human, a man with blacks and whites. I fought for that and we finally came to that decision. It gives him more dimension. 

"I never wanted to be J.R., and I told them that in the beginning. That’s not my bag. Whenever I play a character, I always look for the blacks and the whites. When you play a villain, you look for the goodness in him, and when you play comedy, you look for the dark side...I think (Lee) Iacocca represents strength, and I think now (in 1985), when there are so many uncertainties – economic uncertainties, questions about peace, about atomic weaponry, about the displacement of people by robots and the computerization of the world – I think for a man to have strength and know what he wants is very appealing thing to people." 

"When 'Dynasty' was first conceived in 1981," Nolan Miller mentioned, "everyone agreed – from the producer, Aaron Spelling, to Esther and Dick Shapiro, the creators, to the actors – the clothes were important...I do think it is the first episodical TV show to make clothes so important. I think it has awakened the industry." However "I don't think all of this interest has had an impact on the fashion world but on the TV industry, yes. It's like the days of the movies with Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Crawford and Bette Davis. When what they wore in their films made women so interested in fashion." 

In 1985, the Speaker of the House office complained, "ABC has chosen 'Dynasty' over Democracy," when the network decided to delay the showing of the Democrats' response to Ronald Reagan's State of the Union address by screening 'Dynasty' first. It was understood each season, $500,000 was budgeted for the costume designer. By 1991, it was reported, "To reflect the New Austerity, Joan Collins and Linda Evans have been limited to a mere 42 costume changes." John told the press in 1985, "I used to have this certain kind of marvelous anonymity when I went to Europe, because my work has largely been seen only in the U.S. I could ride in the subways or walk in the streets. But now (in 1985) it's hectic. You can't go anyplace on this orb where they have not seen 'Dynasty.'"

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