Why did DYNASTY need to be saved in season 6 but not season 7?

[colbyco]

Well according to that article you posted Clay and Caress only scored 7% and 5% in most missed Dynasty characters. I'm surprised Caress scored so low, but she was only in 4 episodes of Season 7 because of Joan's insistence that her part be diminished. And I doubt that many viewers missed Ted Kiss of Death McGinley.

Understandably Sable and Dominque were the two characters that the audience missed the most.

- Well, Clay was the most handsome man the show ever had in the opening credits ... together with Sammy Jo they were tv´s hottest couple of the season for me!

 

[The2ndLostSonOfAlexis]

While I was scrolling through an Instagram account devoted to Alexis fashion I stumble upon this comment by a user regarding the original version of S7.
Did the retooling of S7 stopped the season from becoming S5 with just a lot more snow and gangsters? Cause in theory, this plot sounds kinda exciting compared to the existing S7, especially in comparison to the 13 episodes long baby-drama-where-is-Alexis-and-why-is-she-suddenly-nice plot?

 

[GillesDenver]

The 2nd cliffhanger and the thing about Claudia are just rumors but the rest comes from the bible of season 7.
Killing Amanda was part of the retooling but it was eventually cancelled, like the idea of having another ex-husband of Dominique joining the show.

 

[The2ndLostSonOfAlexis]

The 2nd cliffhanger and the thing about Claudia are just rumors but the rest comes from the bible of season 7.
Killing Amanda was part of the retooling but it was eventually cancelled, like the idea of having another ex-husband of Dominique joining the show.

The 2nd cliffhanger Sounds to me just like a recycled version of the Moldavian Massacre.

I suppose they came up with the “Killing Amanda Idea” because Karen Cellini wasn’t popular? Because I can’t think that they would have written such a storyline with Oxenberg being Amanda.

 

[tommie]

The 2nd cliffhanger and the thing about Claudia are just rumors but the rest comes from the bible of season 7.
Killing Amanda was part of the retooling but it was eventually cancelled, like the idea of having another ex-husband of Dominique joining the show.

I think the Claudia thing is actually how they originally intended to write her off in season 6 - she was going to get rich off the oil wells and leave Denver in a limo as a rich woman. She wasn't going to be in season 7 ever though, because they were so pissed off with her becoming pregnant.

 

[Jimmy Todd]

I think the Claudia thing is actually how they originally intended to write her off in season 6 - she was going to get rich off the oil wells and leave Denver in a limo as a rich woman. She wasn't going to be in season 7 ever though, because they were so pissed off with her becoming pregnant.

Why were they that upset with Pamela Bellwood being pregnant? Either hide it or write it into the show, as so many other series have done.
They could have her pregnant by Adam, the baby is stillborn, which sends Claudia into an abyss of madness and she spends the season plotting revenge on her "enemies."
Or, she could have had am affair with Brady while married to Adam. Brady would have previously reconciled with Dominique. Part of the season finale is that when the child is born it's obviously not Adam's. This will set up an entire season's worth of conflicts with Claudia, Adam, Brady Blake, Alexis and Dominique.
There. Two good ideas, as opposed to firing Pamela Bellwood,one of their best actresses, just for being pregnant. Now if my time machine starts working, I'll go back to the 1980's and, among other things, give Aaron Spelling my ideas

 

[GillesDenver]

I think the Claudia thing is actually how they originally intended to write her off in season 6 - she was going to get rich off the oil wells and leave Denver in a limo as a rich woman. She wasn't going to be in season 7 ever though, because they were so pissed off with her becoming pregnant.

They were pissed by the fact that Pamela Bellwood had a lot of strange demands regarding her pregnancy as not kissing Gordon Thompson.

However, they did not kill Claudia because of that. You're right, when they decided to write off, they wanted her to leave Denver in a limo with her furs. They just changed their mind for a simple reason : they needed someone to start the fire at La Mirage.

But the idea of Claudia being pregnant with Adam or Steven's baby was just something that comes from a rag, not a season bible or a story outine.

I suppose they came up with the “Killing Amanda Idea” because Karen Cellini wasn’t popular? Because I can’t think that they would have written such a storyline with Oxenberg being Amanda.

Yes, absolutely. Had Catherine Oxenberg stayed, Amanda would have married Michael Culhane as planned or dated Clay because it's what the audience wanted to see.

 

[Luke Fuller]

I have no intention to defend season 7, for me it is the worst Dynasty season at all. The show fell from being No. 1 to No. 24 in only two years (between April 1985-April 1987). There are rumours that Dynasty become the most and the quickest devasted No. 1 show in US TV history. I wondered and checked data on Wikipedia (I know, they are not always reliable.) Then I found two shows No. 1 (before Dynasty!) which fell even quicker. Western "Wagon Train" was a winner in 1961/62 season, but show No. 25 in the following season 1962/63 and then disappeared from TOP 30 in next two seasons. Sitcom Laverne and Shirley won 1978/79 season and... was No. 42 in 1979/80 (nevertheless retured into TOP 20 for three following years). Btw, The Cosby Show was No. 18 just two years after being No. 1 (in 1991/92) and... cancelled.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I have no intention to defend season 7, for me it is the worst Dynasty season at all. The show fell from being No. 1 to No. 24 in only two years (between April 1985-April 1987). There are rumours that Dynasty become the most and the quickest devasted No. 1 show in US TV history. I wondered and checked data on Wikipedia (I know, they are not always reliable.) Then I found two shows No. 1 (before Dynasty!) which fell even quicker. Western "Wagon Train" was a winner in 1961/62 season, but show No. 25 in the following season 1962/63 and then disappeared from TOP 30 in next two seasons. Sitcom Laverne and Shirley won 1978/79 season and... was No. 42 in 1979/80 (nevertheless retured into TOP 20 for three following years). Btw, The Cosby Show was No. 18 just two years after being No. 1 (in 1991/92) and... cancelled.

Yes, it was one of the fastest.

For years it was rumored that DYNASTY was the most Emmy-nominated show in TV history never to have won anything, but in fact it won one in 1984 for Miller's costumes. out of 23 noms.

 

[Willie Oleson]

They just changed their mind for a simple reason : they needed someone to start the fire at La Mirage.

I'm glad they did, it's a fitting end for such a tragic character. There were simple solutions to make the fire scene itself look less dumb e.g. if she had taken pills she could have been too slow to react.

they wanted her to leave Denver in a limo with her furs

That should have been Caress. She'd leave Denver the way Dominique entered.
Alexis: Please Cassie, not my tiara!
Caress: Yes! That one too. Come on, keep moving, boys.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I'm glad they did, it's a fitting end for such a tragic character. There were simple solutions to make the fire scene itself look less dumb e.g. if she had taken pills she could have been too slow to react.

I have Claudia in a wheelchair which is stuck in the carpet, unable to escape the conflagration.

 

[Tony]

I met Pamela Bellwood at the Santa Barbara film festival a couple of years ago and should have asked her - but she was with her husband Nik Wheeler and it didn’t seem right to talk about Dynasty. She was very nice though and continues to speak in that posh English accent she’s picked up from her husband.

I think the producers were unhappy she got pregnant because it involved working around and hiding her pregnancy, rewriting her scenes and scrapping her physical fights with Heather Locklear. I didn’t know about her refusing to kiss Gordon Thomson - I guess after the Rock Hudson scare and she probably suspected that Gordon was in the closet.

 

[mrpitkin]

Just started watching season 6, at what point does 6A end and 6B begin?

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Just started watching season 6, at what point does 6A end and 6B begin?

Later than it should. Once they get Krystle out of the attic -- which was supposed to go on for seven more years -- the modest improvements begin.

 

[Mustard]

Just started watching season 6, at what point does 6A end and 6B begin?

I'd say that Season 6A ends with Krystle out of the attic and the end of the Rita plot (i.e. Season 6, Episode 17), but when Season 6B begins isn't as obvious. I'd say Season 6B begins either with Season 6, Episode 18, or shortly after with the last appearance of Prince Michael of Moldavia in Season 6, Episode 20, which was the final end of the Moldavia linked stuff that had been going on since Season 5.

With Season 7A, that ends with the "A Love Remembered" 2-parter (Season 7, Episodes 14-15), with Season 7B then taking over.

David Jacobs, who was running Knots Landing at the time, picked up on Dynasty's problems early on, saying at Dynasty's commercial peak in 1985 (i.e. Season 5 finale, the Moldavian massacre) that Dynasty would soon run into trouble unless they put a stronger focus on storyline telling than what they have been doing. Sure enough, midway through Season 6 of Dynasty (a matter of months), there was talk of crisis.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

David Jacobs, who was running Knots Landing at the time, picked up on Dynasty's problems early on, saying at Dynasty's commercial peak in 1985 (i.e. Season 5 finale, the Moldavian massacre) that Dynasty would soon run into trouble unless they put a stronger focus on storyline telling than what they have been doing. Sure enough, midway through Season 6 of Dynasty (a matter of months), there was talk of crisis.

Yes, as I recall it was a brief TVGUIDE article from early in 1985, where Jacobs and Esther Shapiro were asked what they would do differently if they were making each others' shows. Esther, of course, focused on making the DALLAS women tougher, singling out Miss Ellie whom she'd make "a much stronger character" (which presumably means she's have Ellie get raped and have affairs).

A year or two later, Jacobs lamented that "Linda and Joan don't even seem like the stars of the show anymore" (and Karen Cellini, after being fired, chimed in by saying, "All anybody wants to see are Linda and Joan").

Eternally tone deaf, the producers would later say that, had they to do it over again, they'd focus even more on the younger character (which presumably means less on the geriatric principals) unaware that they were already doing exactly that. (Diahann Carroll said the shift to the younger characters was what killed DYNASTY).

But pointless, time-killing bedroom scenes amongst the non-wrinkly cast are easier to write.

All too often, it seemed -- then and now -- that the writers simply had no idea what they were doing. (Something Paulsen observed about his predecessors' work when he came in for Season 9).

As John Forsythe said, the producers (self-evidently) "didn't know what they wanted (for the show)."

But they did seem to want DYNASTY to be all thngs to all viewers. Which rarely works.

What I found so frustrating about Esther Shapiro was that she would often cite what the show needed to do -- and then that never happened. The public statements were just that, and had little impact on, or connection with, where DYNASTY was going to go,