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When McGraw was on screen the only ’tension’ was experienced by the viewer at having to endure another weirdly mannered performance.
Should Lady Ashley have been Blake former fiancée ?
- Thread starter Snarky Oracle!
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Hard to remember who would have been age appropriate
Diana Rigg?
Elizabeth Montgomery?
Barbara Eden?
Diana Rigg?
Elizabeth Montgomery?
Barbara Eden?
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Katharine Ross was too young be John James' mother; Barbara Bel Geddes was too young to be Larry Hagman's mother.
But it worked -- especially in the latter case. Frankie seemed so spacey and obliviously entitled that it's hard to assess whether she was anybody's mother.
But it worked -- especially in the latter case. Frankie seemed so spacey and obliviously entitled that it's hard to assess whether she was anybody's mother.
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Maybe someone who had already worked with him (aside from BE)? Candice Bergen, Raquel Welch, Joan, ahem, Collins?
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James? Who's James? I can only think of John James, so do you mean Jeff? Or Geoff?
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They offered the role of Lady Ashley to Candice, Raquel, Angie and, I think, Elizabeth. They all turned it down. If Blake and Ashley were engaged in the 1950s and Ashley was shoved aside by a teenaged Alexis, Candice would have been too young (and Raquel too, really).
I like the idea of Angie and Rigg -- but, a year later, they also turned down Sable in THE COLBYS (as did Faye Dunaway). As we've said, Frankie could have been the same character as Ashley, potentially.
Over time, I think I've come to best like the idea of Angie as Ashley (Spelling was always trying to get her for DYNASTY anyway) but Angie either told Aaron that "you have too many ladies on that show already!", or she asked for too much money for the "special guest star" billing, reportedly $120,000 (even Billy Dee Williams was only getting $80,000/episode, which is why he left so quickly). But Angie might have fit the bill as a mysterious lady from Blake's past, an ex-fiancé, who is now tied in to international high society, a slinky, globe-trotting, jet-setting power broker who knows the secrets of the world. (Angie has taken any number of roles after turning them down initially; she just likes to be wined-and-dined and asked two or three times before saying "yes").
But whoever played Lady Ashley, we could learn in Season 6 that she had a role in the massacre happening, vengefully determined to prevent Alexis from becoming part of the royal family, Lady Mitchell (with a better last name) having orchestrated even her own murder at the melee because she was terminally ill
That just gives more motive, coming or going, for Ashley being on the show in the first place.
Some people prefer Audrey Hepburn for Lady Ashley, and Hepburn was a fan of DYNASTY (Joe Mankiewicz said she wasn't very smart -- which I question):
I dunno. When the show is supposed to be about a dynasty (hence, the title) it's seems a rich idea to mine the family's past associations than just offering up a slew of new characters completely unknown to the Carringtons or the Colbys -- especially when it's a pertinent "status" role like Lady Ashley.
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