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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 21995" data-attributes="member: 22">05 Mar 86: DYNASTY: Masquerade v. 06 Mar 86: THE COLBYS: My Father's House v. 06 Mar 86: KNOTS LANDING: High School Confidential v. 07 Mar 86: DALLAS: Masquerade v. 07 Mar 86: FALCON CREST: Hidden MeaningsLet the battle of the masquerade balls — one thrown by Alexis Colby on DYNASTY, the other by Angelica Nero on DALLAS — commence. Behind each woman’s hospitality lies a devious plan requiring the identity of one guest in particular to be concealed until the end of the party. “I have got a reunion planned for you and your brother that he’s never going to forget,” Alexis explains to Ben Carrington. "I can’t wait to see Blake’s face when he first sees you!” “I thought it would be the best way for you and Jack to be seen,” Angelica informs JR, "but at the same time hidden behind masks. The oil people should see just enough of Jack to be sure he is Dimitri."While the DALLAS party is thrown at an anonymous venue in Martinique, the choice of location for the DYNASTY bash — a fundraising event in aid of the Carrington/Colby wildlife preserve — is more controversial. Krystle is taken aback to hear Alexis declare on television that the ball is to be held at the Carrington mansion. “You announced a party that Blake never agreed to and then you had the nerve to say it was being held here,” she complains. "If you think we’re going to go along with it, you’re wrong!” Over on THE COLBYS, Jeff is equally opposed to Fallon’s suggestion that their upcoming wedding should take in the Colby mansion. "I will never think of Jason Colby as my father. I will not be married in this house,” he says firmly. While Fallon refuses to take no for an answer, Blake gives into Alexis. “We should let her have the party here,” he tells Krystle. "Denver Carrington has got to be on the side of protecting the land.” (From the Office of Land Management in the early days of DALLAS to Gary and Greg’s squabbles over Empire Valley at the beginning of this season’s KNOTS LANDING to the current controversies surrounding the pipeline on both DYNASTY and THE COLBYS, “protecting the land" has proven to be the most useful Soap Land Maguffin of all.)The Carrington and Colby mansions both come under the spotlight this week. Alexis, in recalling “the wonderful parties that Blake Carrington and I used to have at the mansion when we were married, superb elegant parties that Denver hasn’t seen since I was mistress there,” paints a picture of the Carrington house as a kind of Manderlay with herself as the first Mrs. de Winter (one who has no need of a Mrs. Danvers to sing her praises). Meanwhile on THE COLBYS, as Sable sets her sights on the Colby estate as part of her divorce settlement, the house itself suddenly acquires a history reminiscent of Southfork’s or Falcon Crest’s. We learn that it was built by Jason’s father on land bought by his grandfather and that “Andrew Colby’s will stated that the Colby house was irrevocable Colby property, never to be sold or bargained away … Old Andrew considered that house to be the heart of the Colby family.” The very fact that it is so sacred makes Sable all the more determined to fight for it. This an unusual plot development for Soap Land, where the finer details of a divorce settlement are customarily glossed over (the parties involved being either too rich or too noble to worry about such material concerns). Things are simpler for Cole Gioberti on FALCON CREST, but not necessarily easier. “It’s kind of a shock to see your entire married life reduced to three hundred and forty-seven words,” he says of his joint-custody agreement with Melissa."I tried to make Phillip a hero for you,” Constance Colby tells Jeff of the man he grew up believing to be his father. “You’ve made him a legend for me,” Jackie Devereaux tells Dominique of the man she’s grown up believing to be her father. While Dominique is still reluctant to disillusion her daughter, Constance comes clean about the kind of man Phillip Colby really was — a gambler who embezzled from the family business and left his brother Jason to cover his debts. This isn’t the only tale of sibling betrayal alluded to in the DYNASTY-verse this week. While Ben Carrington refers darkly to “the land my brother stole from me," Caress Morelle continues to blame her sister Alexis for the five years she spent in prison.In the same week that Jack Ewing finally impersonates Dimitri Marinos (pretty feebly, it must be said), Alexis makes a decent stab of mimicking Caress’s voice when she intercepts a call from her publishers. (An infamous episode of DOCTOR WHO the following year will require Kate O’Mara, in turn, to impersonate her younger, squeakier co-star Bonnie Langford, to somewhat bizarre effect.) Following the call, it doesn’t take Alexis long to discover Caress’s hidden copy of Sister Dearest: The True Story of Alexis Morelle Carrington Colby Dexter. (Like DALLAS’s Lady Jessica before her, Caress keeps her most confidential documents in the dresser next to her bed.) While Maggie Gioberti found Jeff Wainwright’s manuscript darkly compelling in last week’s FALCON CREST, Alexis is less impressed when she reads what her sister has written about her in her opening chapter. Her response is the same as JR’s was when Val wrote her novel about the Ewings: she buys the publishing house.Just as Alexis is scheming to get rid of her sister Caress in Denver, cousin Sable is scheming to get rid of her sister Frankie in California. To this end, Sable enlists the aid of Zach Powers — whom Caress, rather knottily, describes in this week’s DYNASTY as "the man I happened to be in love with" before Alexis stole him from her. (As if this weren’t incestuous enough, the establishing shots of Alexis’s and Zach’s apartments seem to suggest that they live in the same building.)Much in the spirit of PEYTON PLACE’s “suddenly, out of nowhere” method of storytelling, DYNASTY has recently invented a whole new batch of characters — Blake’s brother Ben, Alexis’s sister Caress, Senator Buck Fallmont and his wife Emily — each of whom arrives in the series with pre-existing ties to each other and/or the Carringtons and/or Zach Powers. It’s a bit of a tangle, but I like the inter-connectedness of it all.Two weeks after FALCON CREST introduced us to Peter Stavros’s son Eric, this week’s DYNASTY presents Buck Fallmont’s son Clay. Whereas Eric’s thrill-seeking mountain-climbing rich-kid credentials were established in his first scene ("Where were you?” asks Peter. "Nepal, climbing Annapurna,” Eric replies), Clay’s are indicated even earlier — during the opening credits where a shot of a man scaling a mountain is used as his character backdrop. (We’re treated to further such derring-do at the beginning of this week’s COLBYS when Miles rescues Jeff from the mountain ledge he landed on after last week’s fall. Any hope of a truce between the brothers is soon dispelled, however. "I’d have done the same for a stray dog,” Miles assures Jeff.) Eric and Clay both seem amiable enough, each seemingly unencumbered by emotional baggage and so free to flirt with the first good-looking twenty-something divorcee with a chequered past that crosses his path: for Clay, that means Sammy Jo, while Eric already has his sights set on Melissa.Whereas Sable almost sleeps with Zach Powers in an attempt to get Frankie and her diplomat husband reposted overseas, KNOTS LANDING's Abby does sleep with Peter Hollister in order to persuade him to lure Jill Bennett away from Gary. So far so resourceful, but there are twists in both tales that Sable and Abby know nothing about. While Sable remains unaware that a detective hired by her sister-in-law is observing her and Zach, Abby has no idea of the pre-existing conspiracy between Peter and Jill. We don’t yet know what connects the two characters either, but at the end of this week’s episode, Peter enjoys telling Jill about Abby’s complicity in Val's twins’ kidnapping. Meanwhile, this week’s episode of THE COLBYS ends with a brand new child abduction mystery when LB disappears. Who could be responsible — Joel and Rita? Mexican bandits? Another of Peter Stavros’s offspring? Or maybe LB's just run away in his pyjamas like cute little Joseph Gioberti did on FALCON CREST a couple of weeks ago.While Abby pimps Peter out to Jill on KNOTS, JR urges Jack to snuggle up with Grace on DALLAS in the hopes that she’ll spill the beans on Angelica’s real plans for the two of them. “It’s a dirty filthy job, but somebody's gotta do it,” he tells him. Conversely on FALCON CREST, Peter Stavros urges his son Eric to "think with your head, not with other parts of your anatomy” when it comes to negotiating with Melissa for the Agretti harvest. Eric sleeps with Melissa anyway, prompting a wince-inducing put-down from Lance: “Good old Melissa, the social disease of the Tuscany Valley.”DALLAS’s Sue Ellen and FALCON CREST’s Maggie also share personal encounters with business associates this week. Over dinner with her boss Jerry Kenderson, Sue Ellen asks why he never married. “I never found the right woman ... till now,” he replies, whereupon he reaches across the table and takes her hand. She doesn’t object. Meanwhile, Maggie asks her publicist Jeff Wainwright why he didn't marry his fiancee. “She was murdered, strangled,” he replies. Shortly thereafter, he declares his love for Maggie, making a pass at her and refusing to take no for an answer. After fending him off, she severs their professional relationship.Later, we watch Jeff watching Maggie promote her book on a TV talk show. (Although Maggie makes for a more confident, less nervy guest than Val Ewing did on THE MIKE DOUGLAS SHOW three years earlier, she is likewise depicted as modest and unassuming, with an emphasis her humble beginnings: "I didn’t come from a rich family so I think I did my travelling by reading.”) The most intriguing part of Maggie’s interview is Jeff’s reaction to it. He’s watching on videotape in his bedroom, thus allowing him to rewind and re-watch it obsessively. (That's technology for you: four years earlier, Roger Larsen had to make to with a wall of Lucy Ewing photographs.) Suddenly, a woman appears behind him and puts her hands on his shoulders. It’s Maggie herself! Two Maggies in the same scene — one on TV, one in the flesh — immediately makes one think of two Krystles, specifically in the attic scene where the real Krystle watched the fake Krystle on TV. Here, the real Maggie is the one inside the television set while the one in Jeff’s bedroom (and pretty soon in his arms) is a fantasy version. In a way, this is an extension of Alexis’s recent dream sequence on DYNASTY where Blake embraced her and swore his undying love. Upon awakening, Alexis sought to turn this dream into a reality but failed (Blake's rejection prompting the vendetta we now see unfolding in this week’s episode). Jeff Wainwright’s will would appear to be stronger than Alexis’s — the Maggie in his room may not be real, but she is most definitely there, posed submissively on his bed in naught but a teddy. “You will be gentle with me, won’t you?” she asks. But then, Jeff makes the fascinating meta-mistake of turning off the television set which housed the real Maggie, thus breaking his connection to the imaginary Maggie on his bed who promptly evaporates into thin air.Although Soap Land is prepared to climb inside the mind of an obscure character like Jeff Wainwright to show us both the agony and ecstasy of his obsessive nature, when it comes to the mind of KNOTS LANDING's Olivia, whom we have seen grow up over the past five seasons, it remains firmly on the outside. Olivia’s drug use is the dominant storyline of this week’s episode yet the show views her solely from an adult perspective as bad-tempered, sulky and withdrawn. While these are certainly common teenage traits, they are not the whole story. The thrill of adolescent rebellion — after all, nobody would bother dabbling in drugs to begin with if it wasn’t fun and exciting — isn't even remotely hinted at. Stoned or straight, Olivia is perpetually whiny and sullen — a one-note dilemma for the show’s resident problem solvers, Karen and Mack, to grapple with.In the meantime, Olivia’s cousin Michael continues to take the rap for the joints found in his car, but Karen suspects the truth. When she attempts to broach the subject with Abby, she receives predictably short shrift: “You just can’t face the fact that your little angel broke the law so you’re finding fault with Olivia. You’re blaming my daughter because she’s my daughter." Meanwhile, on DALLAS, an equally well-meaning Pam blurts out the truth about her and Bobby's reconciliation to Jenna and receives an even more hostile response. “I’ll never forgive you! I hate you!” Jenna tells her. Over on FALCON CREST, Terry confronts Jordan with the truth about her double life (in the form of compromising photographs) so she can blackmail her into passing on information about Richard’s business dealings. Although Jordan won’t go along with Terry’s blackmail, her split personality Monica will. She even tells Terry to take the compromising photos and “splash them right across the front page of the New Globe. I can’t think of a more perfect way to ruin Jordan once for all.” The headlines splashed across the cover of the National Informer on this week’s DYNASTY (“SENATORIAL HOPEFUL ADMITS GAY PAST: COLLEGE ROOMMATE WAS LOVER”) look set to do the same for Bart Fallmont’s political future. When Steven realises Adam is behind the story during the masquerade ball, a fight breaks out between them.Visually, DYNASTY's ball has the edge over DALLAS's. Everyone on DYNASTY is in fancy dress all the time anyway so extravagant costumes and spectacle are par for the course. The prize for the best costume goes to Adam Carrington for his amusingly appropriate huntsman outfit. Funniest is Emily Fallmont as Little Bo Peep. (Imagining her wearing this outfit when she removed Maggie Gioberti’s brain tumour on FALCON CREST made me laugh out loud.) Ben Carrington, meanwhile, carries off his disguise with a good deal more panache than Jack Ewing does his. While Ben’s costume is a sort of musketeer-cum-pirate ensemble that includes a fake beard, eyepatch and hat, Jack is concealed twice over, first as Dimitri Marinos (old man make-up, grey hair) and then as Dimitri in disguise (a birdlike mask and headdress). Despite the presence of jugglers and acrobats and sundry extras milling about in masks and costumes, the DALLAS party looks strangely drab, the camera work displaying none of the flair of the Oil Baron’s Ball or Southfork Rodeo sequences earlier in the season. Certainly, the moment where Jack’s would-be assassin falls from a balcony after being shot by Nicholas is nowhere near as dynamic as the sight of Adam almost pushing his brother Steven over the balcony of the Carrington landing (only a week after Miles Colby did push his brother Jeff from a cliff on THE COLBYS) as a crowd of party guests watches aghast from below.The climax of the DYNASTY and DALLAS parties each arrives during a speech. Blake is mid-way through his equivalent of the “thank you for coming and being so generous” address Sue Ellen delivered at the medical fundraiser on DALLAS a few weeks ago when brother Ben removes his disguise to reveal his true identity. And it’s when a reluctant Jack is brought to the podium to make a speech as Dimitri Marinos that his would-be killer takes aim (with a bow and arrow as opposed to a gun, which at least is novel). JR shouts out a warning, he and Jack take cover and a shootout, nowhere near as excitingly staged as the Moldavian massacre, occurs in which no significant characters are harmed.The final moments of each episode really sum up the difference between them. After exchanging a variety of threats and ultimatums with Blake, Ben strides up to Alexis, who is dressed as Madame de Pompadour at this point, takes her gloved hand and kisses it. They then glower and gloat at each other malevolently as the music builds to a crescendo around them. It’s really over the top and funny. DALLAS, meanwhile, ends with JR and Jack both sat on their bottoms wearing silly capes and looking a bit bewildered. “I think the masquerade is over,” JR concludes. Well, someone had to say it.And this week’s Top 5 are:1 (3) DYNASTY2 (1) THE COLBYS3 (2) FALCON CREST4 (-) KNOTS LANDING5 (4) DALLAS</blockquote>

Verification: Who played JR Ewing?