"At the height of his career, Aaron Spelling wielded more influence than any TV producer before or since," 'The Hollywood Reporter' reported in 2015. "He changed the face of pop culture in the '60s and '70s and pioneered crossover episodes. Aaron Spelling dominated his industry in a way no single producer in today's landscape possibly could."
Ted Harbert recounted, "In 1984, Aaron Spelling had seven hours of programming — more than a third of the ABC primetime schedule — and people were calling it 'Aaron's Broadcasting Company.' There was 'Hart to Hart' on Tuesday; 'Dynasty' and 'Hotel' on Wednesday; 'Matt Houston' on Friday; and Saturday was 'T.J. Hooker', 'The Love Boat' and 'Fantasy Island'. We would go to his office several times a year, and I remember the smell of the world's finest pipe tobacco and not being able to see your shoes because the shag carpet was so high."
Eilish Zebrasky remembered, "Aaron had a thing about being able to identify the characters. God forbid you put two of the Angels in blue or red. And most of the time, you never saw the girls' shoes, but we still bought the best." Jaclyn Smith added, "'Charlie's Angels' was originally called 'Alley Cats'. It was Kate Jackson who said it should be 'Angels'. It was escapism, not Shakespeare, but it inspired people.
"Aaron got us new motor homes, the latest cameras and our own makeup people, but he wouldn't let you change your hair. We had Nolan Miller doing the costumes and we would stand for hours in fittings like the Old Hollywood era. Kate wore turtlenecks and slacks. I was dressed more in classics. Farrah (Fawcett) was a little sexier, no bra."
Candy Spelling confessed, "Of all of my husband’s shows – and yes, I dutifully watched every episode of every series, often multiple times, even though I had read the scripts already – my favorite was 'Fantasy Island'. Aaron really liked that one too. The title was deceiving because people expected a wish-granting scenario where their wish would be Mr. Roarke’s command."
E. Duke Vincent had said in an interview in 2005, "Any television show starts with a concept, and if you don't have a story you don't have anything, but probably the most important thing in television is casting, and that's where he's king. Aaron has been the king of casting for the 28 years I have been working with him, and for the 15 years before he even knew me."
Joan Collins recalled, "I had played Cleopatra on a 'Fantasy Island' and Aaron wanted me to play Alexis (on 'Dynasty'). All the people at ABC wanted Sophia Loren or Elizabeth Taylor." Candy Spelling made known, "I can tell you how 'Fantasy Island' came to be. Aaron was in his office, trying to sell a show to ABC, and I heard him say, 'What would you like me to do? Put some guy on an island and have him grant wishes to people?' He was being sarcastic."
"Aaron got us new motor homes, the latest cameras and our own makeup people, but he wouldn't let you change your hair. We had Nolan Miller doing the costumes and we would stand for hours in fittings like the Old Hollywood era. Kate wore turtlenecks and slacks. I was dressed more in classics. Farrah (Fawcett) was a little sexier, no bra."
Candy Spelling confessed, "Of all of my husband’s shows – and yes, I dutifully watched every episode of every series, often multiple times, even though I had read the scripts already – my favorite was 'Fantasy Island'. Aaron really liked that one too. The title was deceiving because people expected a wish-granting scenario where their wish would be Mr. Roarke’s command."
E. Duke Vincent had said in an interview in 2005, "Any television show starts with a concept, and if you don't have a story you don't have anything, but probably the most important thing in television is casting, and that's where he's king. Aaron has been the king of casting for the 28 years I have been working with him, and for the 15 years before he even knew me."
Joan Collins recalled, "I had played Cleopatra on a 'Fantasy Island' and Aaron wanted me to play Alexis (on 'Dynasty'). All the people at ABC wanted Sophia Loren or Elizabeth Taylor." Candy Spelling made known, "I can tell you how 'Fantasy Island' came to be. Aaron was in his office, trying to sell a show to ABC, and I heard him say, 'What would you like me to do? Put some guy on an island and have him grant wishes to people?' He was being sarcastic."
In his review of the pilot movie, 'Dynasty', premiered in January 1981, Tom Shales of 'The Washington Post' noted, "'Dynasty' is really yet another flash back to the silky, sudsy women's pictures that Universal cranked out in the '50s. It is retro kitsch - yesterday's much toned down and streamlined for the soft focus of '80s TV. It would look and sound exactly like those films if not for its sprinkling of selected topical tidbits about oil, energy and flare-ups in the Mideast.
"John Forsythe played the baron Blake Carrington, rich as Rockefeller and slightly to the right of Alexander Haig. He has a 48-room house - the biggest in Colorado - $200 million 'and,' says one character, 'his own football team.' Forsythe says things like 'Now, what's the bottom line?' Bo Hopkins as the middle-class Matthew Blaisdel offers such advice as 'Don't ever look back.'
"Writers Richard and Esther Shapiro and director Ralph Senensky don't do much dawdling. Virtually the only performers who appear capable of human emotions are Dale Robertson, who played a character named after an avenue in Burbank and Pamela Bellwood, who as the emotionally disturbed housewife, Claudia, gets the film's best line. When a door-to-door evangelist asks her 'How do you know you won't be going to hell?' she replies, 'Because I've already been there.'"
Pamela Sue Martin as heiress Fallon made the observation, "For four years (1981-84) I was doing something that was kind of like modelling. People enjoy 'Dynasty' because it's like looking at a glossy magazine, and that's fun. Most people see my character as bitchy, conniving and ambitious, hardly a perfect companion (to the consensus that most males would like to spend a week alone with her). But then again, a lot of people see the character simply as over-sexed. I like acting from a position of strength.
"Fallon is a sex object with brains. It would be so painful for me if I were playing a vacuous thing. I like a woman who's able to really kick ass in the end. Fallon is pretty much a pawn in the whole picture, but I have a vested interest in the character. My input is minimal. Sure, I have a feeling for what the character should or would do but mostly I don't interfere with the writers. Actually I was surprised when Fallon got married. I thought the writers would prefer to keep her wild. But I guess she's still got some sparks. Now that I think about it, it’d probably better that she's married."
In conclusion, Tom Shales of 'The Washington Post' remarked, "The smatterings of sex are about what would be expected of an Aaron Spelling Production. Claudia sums up the show succinctly when complaining to her husband about their uneventful conjugality: 'It's got all the flash and fire of two snails mating.'" In the 1984-85 season, 'Dynasty' was ranked the No. 1 show on television attracting an average of 21.2 million TV households (or 25% of the ratings). Ali MacGraw guest starred as Lady Ashley Mitchell, an internationally known American photojournalist, once married to a wealthy British lord.
On 'Sons and Daughters' in 1985, the writers decided to pair divorcée and former waitress Beryl Palmer with electrical engineer and widower with two teenage children Rod Campbell. David Bradshaw guest starred. The couple were introduced at an old-time dance. Thrown into the mix was the bad-tempered housekeeper Doris Hudson. Carole Skinner (Nola McKenzie in 'Prisoner') guest starred. Leila Hayes played Bez said at the time, "She's not the sort of girl to hop in the cot on the first night … She wants to be wooed and won – none of this fly-by-night slap and tickle."
In that year, Belinda Giblin had, as one observer pointed out, "what surely must be the most difficult task any actress has faced in a soap", taking over the role of Patricia the Terrible. Belinda told 'TV week' she was a "very restless person. Not only in the show but generally in life. I'm very fast. I go very fast in every direction and for me the travel, the journey and the anticipation are far more interesting than the arrival. I'm sort of going fast nowhere."
Courtesy of a plastic surgeon in Brazil, Patricia II had a new face. As Alison Carr, Belinda Giblin told the press at the time, "I now consider not seeing it ('Sons and Daughters' before joining the cast) a great advantage because I really had nothing to go on. Coming in as a sort of new person gave me a fresh approach I think. Let's face it, it's a character brought to life by Rowena (Wallace) but, nevertheless, it's a character created by writers and I'm doing what the writers have written for me."
Belinda also mentioned, "I have actually asked for a scene to be done again from my point of view, but only for the performance. I don't do it for the sake of it, but I believe it has to be done so it can be fixed for the good of the show. I'm not the only person who does it but I'm one of the few … After all, I'm the one who's up there on the screen." Speaking to 'Woman's Day', Belinda said after 'Sons and Daughters', "I'd like a change. The next thing I do will be far removed from this character. I would be really stupid to do anything vaguely resembling her."
As reported in 2015, "'Fantasy Island' is the latest drama to get a possible re-do in the 21st century." Created as a vehicle for guest stars, 'Fantasy Island' featured four to six plot lines in each episode. The excited cry of 3-foot-11 Hervé Villechaize's character Tattoo, "The plane! The plane!" as he pointed skyward to announce the arrival of each week's visitors became a national catch phrase between 1978 and 1983.
Ricardo Montalbán played the resort owner, Mr Roarke, who as 'The Washington Post' observed, was "impeccably attired, unbelievably wise and frighteningly well informed." Aaron Spelling told 'TV Guide' in 1980 that Ricardo Montalbán gave Mr. Roarke the "otherworldly quality we needed." Edward James Olmos regarded Ricardo Montalbán "one of the true giants of arts and culture. He was a stellar artist and a consummate person and performer with a tremendous understanding of culture ... and the ability to express it in his work."
Each week, viewers witnessed Mr Roarke and Tattoo welcoming normal and unusual people, many with problems of one kind or another, who had booked time on the remote, magical and tropical island resort to play out lifelong fantasies, dreams or wishes in order to improve their lives. However visitors whose fulfilled wishes usually turned out disastrously. Mr Roarke was endowed with the power to fulfil the dreams and desires of his guests who were "getting away from it all" by being on Fantasy Island. As stated, "Fantasy Island was a world where almost anything could happen."
Pamela Sue Martin as heiress Fallon made the observation, "For four years (1981-84) I was doing something that was kind of like modelling. People enjoy 'Dynasty' because it's like looking at a glossy magazine, and that's fun. Most people see my character as bitchy, conniving and ambitious, hardly a perfect companion (to the consensus that most males would like to spend a week alone with her). But then again, a lot of people see the character simply as over-sexed. I like acting from a position of strength.
"Fallon is a sex object with brains. It would be so painful for me if I were playing a vacuous thing. I like a woman who's able to really kick ass in the end. Fallon is pretty much a pawn in the whole picture, but I have a vested interest in the character. My input is minimal. Sure, I have a feeling for what the character should or would do but mostly I don't interfere with the writers. Actually I was surprised when Fallon got married. I thought the writers would prefer to keep her wild. But I guess she's still got some sparks. Now that I think about it, it’d probably better that she's married."
In conclusion, Tom Shales of 'The Washington Post' remarked, "The smatterings of sex are about what would be expected of an Aaron Spelling Production. Claudia sums up the show succinctly when complaining to her husband about their uneventful conjugality: 'It's got all the flash and fire of two snails mating.'" In the 1984-85 season, 'Dynasty' was ranked the No. 1 show on television attracting an average of 21.2 million TV households (or 25% of the ratings). Ali MacGraw guest starred as Lady Ashley Mitchell, an internationally known American photojournalist, once married to a wealthy British lord.
On 'Sons and Daughters' in 1985, the writers decided to pair divorcée and former waitress Beryl Palmer with electrical engineer and widower with two teenage children Rod Campbell. David Bradshaw guest starred. The couple were introduced at an old-time dance. Thrown into the mix was the bad-tempered housekeeper Doris Hudson. Carole Skinner (Nola McKenzie in 'Prisoner') guest starred. Leila Hayes played Bez said at the time, "She's not the sort of girl to hop in the cot on the first night … She wants to be wooed and won – none of this fly-by-night slap and tickle."
In that year, Belinda Giblin had, as one observer pointed out, "what surely must be the most difficult task any actress has faced in a soap", taking over the role of Patricia the Terrible. Belinda told 'TV week' she was a "very restless person. Not only in the show but generally in life. I'm very fast. I go very fast in every direction and for me the travel, the journey and the anticipation are far more interesting than the arrival. I'm sort of going fast nowhere."
Courtesy of a plastic surgeon in Brazil, Patricia II had a new face. As Alison Carr, Belinda Giblin told the press at the time, "I now consider not seeing it ('Sons and Daughters' before joining the cast) a great advantage because I really had nothing to go on. Coming in as a sort of new person gave me a fresh approach I think. Let's face it, it's a character brought to life by Rowena (Wallace) but, nevertheless, it's a character created by writers and I'm doing what the writers have written for me."
Belinda also mentioned, "I have actually asked for a scene to be done again from my point of view, but only for the performance. I don't do it for the sake of it, but I believe it has to be done so it can be fixed for the good of the show. I'm not the only person who does it but I'm one of the few … After all, I'm the one who's up there on the screen." Speaking to 'Woman's Day', Belinda said after 'Sons and Daughters', "I'd like a change. The next thing I do will be far removed from this character. I would be really stupid to do anything vaguely resembling her."
As reported in 2015, "'Fantasy Island' is the latest drama to get a possible re-do in the 21st century." Created as a vehicle for guest stars, 'Fantasy Island' featured four to six plot lines in each episode. The excited cry of 3-foot-11 Hervé Villechaize's character Tattoo, "The plane! The plane!" as he pointed skyward to announce the arrival of each week's visitors became a national catch phrase between 1978 and 1983.
Ricardo Montalbán played the resort owner, Mr Roarke, who as 'The Washington Post' observed, was "impeccably attired, unbelievably wise and frighteningly well informed." Aaron Spelling told 'TV Guide' in 1980 that Ricardo Montalbán gave Mr. Roarke the "otherworldly quality we needed." Edward James Olmos regarded Ricardo Montalbán "one of the true giants of arts and culture. He was a stellar artist and a consummate person and performer with a tremendous understanding of culture ... and the ability to express it in his work."
Each week, viewers witnessed Mr Roarke and Tattoo welcoming normal and unusual people, many with problems of one kind or another, who had booked time on the remote, magical and tropical island resort to play out lifelong fantasies, dreams or wishes in order to improve their lives. However visitors whose fulfilled wishes usually turned out disastrously. Mr Roarke was endowed with the power to fulfil the dreams and desires of his guests who were "getting away from it all" by being on Fantasy Island. As stated, "Fantasy Island was a world where almost anything could happen."
