When should they have changed the opening?

[Snarky Oracle!]

I don't mean the actors' title cards -- they changed those frequently -- but the opening shots of the Rocky Mountains and of Denver.

DALLAS updated theirs in 1984 (although I didn't love the hazy high-noon look of it) and then again in 1989 (opening on a dam explosion and abandoning the split screen format).

When should DYNASTY have updated theirs? The original shots of the Rockies and Denver got tired pretty quickly. I vote that in the Autumn of 1984, as Season 5 commenced, we needed new, more majestic footage.

 

[bmasters9]

DALLAS updated theirs in 1984 (although I didn't love the hazy high-noon look of it) and then again in 1991 (opening on a dam explosion and abandoning the split screen format).

I don't know how to exactly answer the original question, but I do know that the Dallas opening of which you speak (dam explosion, no more three-ways for the cast) actually started in 1989 with the 13th go, and carried forward the rest of the way (even in the TV movies of 1996 and 1998).

BTW, why didn't you like the hazy high-noon look of the 1984 go?

 

[Lankershim Blasdel 1]

The season 6 opener should have been completely overhauled. Shot at Fioli and California on location and on the studio sets, the title cards should have become full screen as well and it was time to end that oil gusher thing.
Maybe even new title fonts, they had the biggest show in the world, the most talked about cliffhanger, but having the whole cast walk out of the church (Joan was playing hardball, they should have quickly wrote Alexis was dead ) after I guess all fainting from the shock of it all in the finale, btw where were all the other wedding attendees? Dead in the church, after that horrible season opener and Emma Samms I guess once they got to number 1 they didn’t care anymore . Writing didn’t matter so where does that leave opening titles.
The and Joan Collins as Alexis I would have liked her sitting on her Moldavian Throne wearing a crown for the season.
No new cards for Claudia, Prince Michael and Dex since they all died

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I don't know how to exactly answer the original question, but I do know that the Dallas opening of which you speak (dam explosion, no more three-ways for the cast) actually started in 1989 with the 13th go, and carried forward the rest of the way (even in the TV movies of 1996 and 1998).

Yes, of course you're correct that the third version of the DALLAS theme started in 1989 (I inadvertently entered the series' end date of 1991 -- let me go fix it, so I won't look too stupid for too long).

BTW, why didn't you like the hazy high-noon look of the 1984 go?

I liked the composition, but not the hazy part. The original opening was shot during the clear, crisp winter, ~February 1978.

The second opening was shot during Summer 1984, but it was too hazily bland for my tastes (and still is). I recall suffering through the Republican convention held in Dallas that summer, and they had gorgeous sunset-streaked helicopter shots of the skyline during the broadcast. And I said to myself: 'Gee, DALLAS needs to upgrade their opening shots to look like this -- especially since the skyline had changed over the previous six-and-half years.'

In September, as the new season began airing, I was pleased to see the shots had indeed been updated, but it was just too drab for me, too colorless, too hazy.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

the title cards should have become full screen as well

Absolutely not. Continuity of style is important for a series -- you can tweak it, but only so much.

You know what happened when DALLAS made the shift from split-screen to full-screen title cards in 1989 -- and nearly everybody hated the new design; it was just too great a departure.

Or maybe they could just have shown a full-screen shot of Donna Reed for 50 seconds, even though she'd been off of DALLAS for years. With a brand new theme song from Zamfir... Would that work for you?

 

[bmasters9]

The season 6 opener should have been completely overhauled. Shot at Fioli and California on location and on the studio sets, the title cards should have become full screen as well and it was time to end that oil gusher thing.

I take it by that you mean the straight lines rising up from the middle of the black screen, with curved ones out to the sides, which then zoomed in and dropped the straight lines (repeated between some of the cast cards [the cast cards having more straight lines revealing the insets of the characters]).

 

[Lankershim Blasdel 1]

You know what happened when DALLAS made the shift from split-screen to full-screen title cards in 1989 -- and nearly everybody hated the new design

The show was on the air for 11 years at that point, Veering away in season 6 changing it all up (it all didn’t matter if they kept them same horrible writing from Dianna Gould, their opener was the least of it all) would have shown to the audience that Dynasty was at its zenith and about to another hour a week with the Colby’s, which could have continued with the new style opener.
Or they could have went full Cosby since that was the new number 1 hit and had JF dance with the whole cast and mug it up

 

[Lankershim Blasdel 1]

I take it by that you mean the straight lines rising up from the middle of the black screen, with curved ones out to the sides, which then zoomed in and dropped the straight lines (repeated between some of the cast cards [the cast cards having more straight lines revealing the insets of the characters]).

Yes those, they were already dated and cheap looking by 1985, it felt like a 70’s effect.
Didn’t the pilot just have the title Dynasty appear on screen, much more effective

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Or they could have went full Cosby since that was the new number 1 hit and had JF dance with the whole cast and mug it up

I can never tell if you're kidding or not. That's the most generous thing I can say.

 

[bmasters9]

Yes those, they were already dated and cheap looking by 1985, it felt like a 70’s effect.

Speaking of which, an unrelated 70s series, a police procedural called The Streets of San Francisco (that was also on ABC, with Karl Malden, Michael Douglas and Richard Hatch) had an effect that may have presaged it in a way, except that that one was more horizontal than vertical. Here is the opening with that effect, from a 1974 third-season episode:

Didn’t the pilot just have the title Dynasty appear on screen, much more effective

Yes, it did-- we got right into it on that 3-hr. ABC Movie Special broadcast of Monday, January 12, 1981 that started it all.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

If DYNASTY ran ten seasons (and, in my head, it did) then I might go for the "golden fraction/Fibonacci number" and update the opening shots (of the Rockies and Denver) at the beginning of Season 7 in 1986.

These things are so very scientific!

But, yes, we'd maintain the same basic design and the same font. (In fact, I've never really understood why they didn't use the Aurora font within the body of the show -- only in the opening credits).

 

[bmasters9]

But, yes, we'd maintain the same basic design and the same font. (In fact, I've never really understood why they didn't use the Aurora font within the body of the show -- only in the opening credits).

The 3-hr. pilot movie's creative and starring credits did use the same Aurora font that the series proper would use, but IIRC, that Aurora was also used for the closing credits of the pilot movie, and the setup of those credits was straight down atop the mansion (the last shot [Fox-Cat IAW Aaron Spelling Productions], however, being against a perpendicular still shot of the mansion, which [also IIRC] was used until sometime in season 5, I believe [after the pilot, Aurora was no longer used for the end titles]).

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

The 3-hr. pilot movie's creative and starring credits did use the same Aurora font that the series proper would use, but IIRC, that Aurora was also used for the closing credits of the pilot movie, and the setup of those credits was straight down atop the mansion (the last shot [Fox-Cat IAW Aaron Spelling Productions], however, being against a perpendicular still shot of the mansion, which [also IIRC] was used until sometime in season 5, I believe [after the pilot, Aurora was no longer used for the end titles]).

Yes. The "A Fox-Cat Production in association with Aaron Spelling Productions" title card at the end of the closing credits of the pilot was switched (at least the DVD) rather sloppily with a different shot of the house and the non-Aurora font in order to change the copyright information from "The Oil Company" to "Spelling Ventures" (or something like that). And the copyright date was switched from "1980" to "1981".

This was apparently due to the complicated contractual situation between Spelling and the Shapiros about who had dominion over the first-run/-syndication/home-video stuff. (The Shapiros were allowed ownership over the program's film negative).

BTW: the Shapiros never even wanted to be partnered with Spelling on DYNASTY, but Spelling's contract with ABC was so far-reaching that he was allowed to partner on whatever show took over the 9:00PM timeslot after MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL once the football season ended in January. This enforced amalgamation was, obviously, both good and bad for DYNASTY. (No wonder the new team at the network eventually wanted to get rid of him, as people snarked that "ABC" stood for "Aaron's Broadcasting Company").

 

[ClassyCo]

Of the "big four", DYNASTY had the least appealing opening for me. They could've changed it as early as Season 3 for me.

The instrumental kind of got on my nerves, the backdrops were sometimes bland and boring, and the "main" photo for the actors weren't always the most flattering.

I'm at a loss of what I would suggest in the place of the tried-and-true DYNASTY intro, but something better could've been done.

Key word being "could've".

But couldn't a lot of DYNASTY been better? Yeah, it could've.

 

[Lankershim Blasdel 1]

Dynasty was destroyed by greed, the rush to spin off the Colby’s.
I am completely convinced by this, by 1985 Dynasty, Dallas and Falcon Crest hit their peak and all were plagued with bad writing by then.
I don’t understand why the big shots didn’t produce a couple of mini series in the 1984-85 tv season of The Colby’s with all the big names they originally wanted - Burt Lancaster, Faye Dunaway, Elizabeth Taylor and didn’t try to intertwine their stories with Dynasty. They would have had a huge ratings hit on their hands, that crap Hollywood Wives was hugely successful and was complete shit.
I think the reason was they were intent on pushing up dynasty to the number 1 spot and didn’t want their resources diverted in that goal.
The Dynasty open got tired by 1985 but it was the least of their problems with how they resolved Moldavia, Rita and Joel, Emma Samms and the push to create another series out of nothing. If they got rid of a few actors (which they didn’t so obviously they didn’t care about how much they were making - joan Collins’ hostage raise didn’t make any difference to them) kill off Adam, it would have shocked the audience and made endless more possibilities than keeping the same stale plots around, bring in fresh blood

A Thick Slice of My Favorite Cheese: "The Colbys"

The evening of January 12th, 1981, this thirteen year-old plunked down in front of the television set at 8:00pm and settled in for the t...

neptsdepths.blogspot.com

 

[bmasters9]

The instrumental kind of got on my nerves

What was it about that title track that bothered you?

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

What was it about that title track that bothered you?

As has been discussed many times over the years, the orchestration of the theme, after the first three seasons, just began to increasingly sound (as someone here once described it) like "the shriek of a skinned cat" -- and a metaphor for the creative disengagement from behind the camera from the brass.

Like the theme visuals, and the show itself, the theme instrumentation just drags and drags and gets worse and worse.

(And then there are all the excessive stringsy/woodwindy scores -- only with the wrong strings & woodwinds -- that scream over 40 minutes of every episode, until Season 8 finally reined it in... Doug Cramer once bragged that DALLAS only had half as much score per episode).

Of the "big four", DYNASTY had the least appealing opening for me. They could've changed it as early as Season 3 for me.

The instrumental kind of got on my nerves, the backdrops were sometimes bland and boring, and the "main" photo for the actors weren't always the most flattering.

I'm at a loss of what I would suggest in the place of the tried-and-true DYNASTY intro, but something better could've been done.

Key word being "could've".

But couldn't a lot of DYNASTY been better? Yeah, it could've.

Yup. Pretty much.

But, as John Forsyth said, "the bosses weren't minding the store."

In 1983, the New London Symphony released this sparkling "cascading strings" Mantovani-esque version of the DYNASTY theme. Something like this might have been nice for, say, maybe Season 4 or 5 --- but we never got anything other than the flatulence-filled versions which lay ahead.

 

[Jock Og]

The best time to have done a freshening up of the opening was after the Moldavian Massacre, even though you could argue at this stage the change should have been earlier. The Colbys had joined, after this dramatic and ratings grabbing event so why not do it then? It seems to me like the ideal point.

All of the super four were on the decline, in the mid eighties. As we all know DYNASTY was very conservative compared to the other three, as regards the opening. I'd say have more location shots of Denver Colorado and a window or two from Filoli with the basic design of the opening titles remaining. More 'rocky not blocky'.

No aliens yet.


The umpteenth clash happens, between Blake and his first wife:

Alexis: "You're so terribly out of touch Blake. So terribly misguided in your thinking. My company can afford to plant daisies in that acerage. So I'm afraid that my offer for your process is zero."

Blake: "Don't you try to bluff me Alexis."

Alexis: "I don't have to bluff you Blake. Gone are the days when you were king of my fate, when you exiled me from my children and threw me out of Denver."

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Here's a another good orchestration:

Thanks @Richard Channing !

 

[Willie Oleson]

Season 5, to stay in sync with Falcon Crest. Alternatively, broadcast-wise since Dynasty was one season ahead of FC, it should be season 6.

And then of course a complete make-over for season 9.