Your version of Dynasty

[Silvermoon]

Hello, i'm Silvermoon, i'm new to this, so this thread is about Dynasty, I think it had a good premise with a overall messy execution.

That being said how would you write Your version of Dynasty?

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Well, everyone knows I'll bite.

Seasons 1, 2 & 9 were great.

There would be no static acting directive (which began with the first episode of Season 3 and ran through Season 7) which was perhaps the single most destructive creative decision bestowed upon DYNASTY (causing well-written scenes to feel dumb-ish, and badly-written scenes to seem worse).

And that would change the entire vibe of this suffocated series.

I once asked what "ridiculous ideas" you might actually use if you were making the show... Some of my ideas were:


*Sammy's Jo's sex tapes (what we used to call "porno films") would compromise Blake's S8 campaign for governor

*Krystle would be charged with Tracey Kendall's murder concurrent to Alexis being charged with Senator McVane's murder. During testimony, Alexis and Krystle, the gallery, the jury and the baliffs all wind up in a melee on the court room floor.

*Krystle shows signs of clairvoyance following the limo being sideswiped off that mountain road.

*Steven #2 turns out to be Ben Reynolds after all, but he didn't really remember it.

*Matthew, Dr. Toscanni and Steven #1 indeed had some involvement with the Moldavian coup.

*I want Alexis to push Claudia into traffic, with only Sammy Jo as the witness; this way, Claudia's wheel-chaired inability to reach a La Mirage door makes more sense.

*What a nice idea to learn that the planned S7 avalanche that never was, and subsequent quakes around Blake's property, were caused by fracking. Because, despite 30 years on that estate, Blake had never been able to obtain the mineral rights because he'd never been able to determine who owned them -- that ownership masked by a slew of dummy corporations.

We learn, much to Blake's lack of surprise, that Alexis holds those mineral rights, his ex-wife feigning surprise when ColbyCo is identified as the owner, something Cecil snatched up (much like Alexis herself) back in the '50s.

I like the idea of the family being jarred awake in the middle of the night with the mansion seemingly about to collapse, chandeliers swinging, spinets playing, Ming toppling, potted plants overturning, Krystle unable to determine whether this is an earthquake or one of her psychic headaches (or maybe both).

Smells like Season 8, to me.

*I want to see the Carringtons go to Mardi Gras for some business purposes. They can film it in the studio, if they must, as long as they get the Second Unit footage. Again, feels like Season 8.

I want the Carringtons' limo, perhaps in New Orleans (or even Denver), get lost in "the bad side of town" and we see the core characters being taunted, assaulted, and chased thru the ghetto, terrorized by the have-nots.

More Season 8.

*I'd like Ye Olde Englishe Faiyyyrre to be more elaborate than it was. I want Alexis to have another psychic reading, but delivered from either Esther or Aaron in a mysterious hoodie.

*I'd have the Prince stay around long enough to impregnate Sammy Jo, then kidnap her for an enforced abortion at Alexis' demand, leaving Krystle's niece barren.

*Alexis would later witness Sammy Jo "accidentally" push the Prince into an animals' cage at Ye Olde Anglishe Faiiyyrrre, thus killing him.

*Dex would be long gone by late Season 8, and a hunky, younger former beachboy she shacked up with in Acapulco -- someone with a real history with Alexis -- appears in Denver upon hearing about her injury in the assassination attempt. (I always picture Joe Penny, a very good actor and great-looking, but I think he'd already started on JAKE & THE FAT MAN. Meh.)

*I'd seriously have Eva Braun mow down Sable and Caress in a mansion bedroom over the missing crystal skull and then set the house on fire just as Blake and Krystle return home from him gettin' all his stuff back.

I swear I would.

Well, maybe just Caress, in the final minutes of the REUNION.

*I'd have a running joke where a silent Jackie Onassis double, always in sunglasses, pops up occasionally in a crowd beside Alexis -- at an opening, an opera, whatever high end soiree... Alexis would make a smart-ass remark which suggesting a long enmity, and "Jackie" huffs and walks away.

*Gloria Swanson appears as Alexis' opportunistic mother in one episode early in Season 3 immediately after Cecil's will is read (Swanson has 6 months to live)...

*Bette Davis appears as Sable's over-protective mother in one episode late in Season 6 (looking for her daughters) and hands a mysterious package of stuff to her niece, Caress (Davis has 3 1/2 years to live)...

*I want to overhaul Season 8 (Krystle's psychic-healing, Blake's ex-fiancée becomes his political mentor, etc.) in particular. But I also want to add a Season 10 (with the pursuit of the crystal skull) and Mother Blaisdel on the warpath.

*Ending Season 10 with Krystle (fresh from the asylum) and Alexis hovering over Dennis Grimes' body in the ballroom is the only way I can picture the weekly series ending now.

^^^
But all of those are just concepts, not fully fleshed-out narratives.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Season 8 wraps with 76 episodes....but with a 56 share, so Aaron Spelling doesn't care. OSHA and the Labor Relations Board have to intervene because the actors are doing 200 pages of dialogue per day, 24/7. Again, Spelling doesn't care because Candy wants to add another wing on the mansion.

 

[ClassyCo]

This is actually quite an interesting idea for a thread, although, to be honest, I've never really thought about "my version" of DYNASTY. It's be so long since I've seen the show, and there are so many problems and so many things that I didn't like, that I honestly haven't a clue where I would begin trying to "fix" it all, if only to my liking.

As others have said, Seasons 1, 2, and 9 are the best seasons, even if Season 1 is a little slower than I personally liked -- or was it just because Joan Collins hadn't arrived yet that made me find it lesser overall? Hard to tell.

Anyway, I actually enjoyed some of what we got in Seasons 3 and 4, but I recall finding Season 5 a little drab and hard to get through. The massacre was honestly underwhelming. Was it because I had seen the clips and new that the follow-up was a mess prior to my viewing? Yeah, probably so. The first half of Season 6 was really quite bad, but around halfway through, I thought things improved. I don't remember liking Season 7 at all, but I seem to think that I liked what Season 8 presented, even if I didn't like how it was all executed. Season 9, as it were, was probably the best DYNASTY ever was as a primetime soap. It's too bad that someone competent like David Paulsen wasn't the driving force behind the show the entire time. Had the show been better written, acted, and presented, I'd make the argument that DYNASTY very well could've been the best primetime soap of the 1980s.

 

[Silvermoon]

I'm going to lay out a few rules for this topic atm.

1. Both Adam and Amanda must arrived simultaneously or Amanda shows up in season 3.

2. Dominique is not a Carrington, she's her own character and replaces Ashley as Blake's interest. I think her being related limited her character, so no Ashley in S5, Dominique doesn't die.

3. You can use Kirby or Jackie in place of Kirby's role, as either the daughter of both Joseph and Dominique, or alternatively Jackie shows up later and becomes the new interest for Adam.
P.S. Sean is also the son of J&D.
That means the family would have 2 or 3 children, Jackie/Kirby and Sean.

6.1. Jackie has a father, he's a stern/serious father, be based bit of Uncle Philip Banks, while also caring for his daughter/grandchildren, he also has some issues with Joseph and hates Adam.
6.2. D's Father would be hesitant about his Daughter's relationship with Blake, not trusting him to be the good man for Dominique, he's friends with Daniel Reece served with him an as his superior.
He also be friendly with Krystle, liking her for treating his granddaughter/s with more respect compared to Joseph.

7. It can be set in the 1980s or 2000s as both decades can have their own flair.

8. When it comes Krystle's romance, she's either with Blake or Daniel, depending on circumstance, if Blake's too crooked, she'll be with Daniel or is flawed, she and Blake might still get together.

9. Constancy Colby is the matriarch of the Colbh household, being the mother/grandmother, with only 2 sons.
I' m not only one who thought she was older than the rest family, she looked way elderly. She'll be an antagonist.
There is No Colbys spin-off.

10. Sable could be or not be a cousin of Alexis, which if she is, Monica could still be her daughter or be Daniel's or his niece instead.

11. Cecil can not die early, he'll return midway through series as he faked his death, he'll fake his death a 2nd time, only to die for real between S8-S9. Cecil should be overarching villain, he was written out way too soon.
That's all I got for the moment.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I've never really thought about "my version" of DYNASTY.

Funny. That's all I think about.

 

[Ked]

Funny. That's all I think about.

Boy is it ever.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

My version of DYNASTY is very, very close to what they actually did -- but not quite the way they did it. So it isn't.

Certainly, the stifled, unable-to-breathe constraints under which the show toiled for most of its run would have to be entirely different. The script details are negotiable... The quiet majesty of the pilot, the solemness of Season 1, the splashy hints of high-society scandal of Season 2, and the dark secrets of Season 9 --- mix them all together in a blender and you've got what DYNASTY could've been, should've been, and desperately wanted to be.

Most of the story ideas for Season 3 thru 8 are acceptable, but the execution (sometimes downright childishly amateurish) would need to be corrected. And the S.A.D., which ruined so many decently-written scenes -- "the human vigor drained away" as Gordon Thomson phrased it -- should never have happened.

Somebody's going/went to hell for this. And it better not be me!

 

[Laurie Marr]

Out of interest, how many cast members have actually confirmed the S.A.D.?

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Out of interest, how many cast members have actually confirmed the S.A.D.?

John James hinted at it later. Leann Hunley came right out with it when she left in 1988, being the first cast member to go public with it. (Producers refused to respond to TVGUIDE's inquiries about it). But it was in evidence from the very first episode of Season 3.

The line producer would rush the actor is he/she gestured or moved more than the producers' liking. Which had the destructive impact of causing the performers to self-consciously self-censor any naturalism in their body language.

By Season 8, they seem to finally let it go, even though it was still enough to run off Miss Hunley. (And, ever the good girl, Linda was still doing it even after Paulsen arrived for Season 9 and eliminated the last remnants of S.A.D.).

Frankly, I think S.A.D. made the writing look worse than it actually even was.

A few years ago, @Gabriel Maxwell made this observation:

"I do have to note, while watching the scenes from 2x22 and 3x01 today I could really see it. Whatever happened behind the scenes in the summer of 1982, it's there the second Krystle opens her mouth in the season opener — she sounds so stilted and fake. She's not even looking at the ranger when she talks to him.

Whereas only in 2x22, in her leisurely scenes at the ranch with Blake and later asking Toscanni, with worry in her voice, if he'd managed to find Blake — she's so natural and believable.

There were some nice touches in 3x01 — Alexis talking to Cecil through that hole was a hoot and I loved the ominous music while the wind covers Blake's lifeless body in filth — but there's an undeniable jarring shift in the overall tone.

Maybe there's a metaphor in there. Scorpio Peak's attempted murder of the show that resulted in severe crippling instead."

 

[Ked]

The quiet majesty of the pilot, the solemness of Season 1, the splashy hints of high-society scandal of Season 2, and the dark secrets of Season 9 --- mix them all together in a blender and you've got what DYNASTY could've been, should've been, and desperately wanted to be.

Oooooooh! That DOES sound like an awesome show!!! Of course, I'd still include the campy fun of Season 6B; the challenge would be to balance the camp with the solemnity, but I think it can be done; Season 9 had its own share of camp and fun and humor, after all.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Oooooooh! That DOES sound like an awesome show!!! Of course, I'd still include the campy fun of Season 6B; the challenge would be to balance the camp with the solemnity, but I think it can be done; Season 9 had its own share of camp and fun and humor, after all.

Oh, sure. Certain campy elements are not only acceptable but necessary -- as long as "campy" isn't used to justify stupid or lousily executed. (In fact, even the Season 2 catfight in the art studio -- then a phenomenal event for TV, two leading ladies duking it out -- could stand to be re-edited: there was footage of Joan and Linda on the floor, just as Alexis smashes a vase next to Krystle's head, and yet the show chose not to use it and instead stayed with the master shot with the doubles... Go figure).

As I said above, there are very few plots I'd nix. But the What-the-Devil is in the details.


We never actually saw this:

Season 3's plots were okay, and the writers still seemed interested in their characters. But that's also when S.A.D. kicked in, and a certain illogic began to slip into the scripting... The horrid La Mirage lobby and the mis-recasting of Steven are metaphors for what's wrong with the year.

Season 4 saw the writers become seemingly disinterested in the characters, and so the problems of S3 were just exacerbated. I guess the year's plot concepts were OK, but the execution was sort of crappy (never finding out who ransacked Alexis' penthouse was endemic to the script issues: good ideas go nowhere, while boring ones take center stage... Season 4 should have been the most posh, yet still organically, glitzily sophisticated year in DYNASTY's pre-royalty era, with its verbalized "European glamour" aspirations at an apex... Instead, we get smarmy PeeWee DevilBus (who, as others have pointed out, was correctly cast as a slice of Eurotrash, had the show around him been more competent).

Season 5 was indeed the splashiest year of DYNASTY, enhanced by Michel Hugo's glossy camerawork in that particular era of the series. The show had this weird blend of confidence that it was at its peak, yet that was countered by the continuation of S.A.D. and the nervous insecurity it communicates... The storylines -- Amanda, Dominique, Brady, the entry of the Moldavians -- were adequate but, as always, the details were cartoonishly shaky.

Season 6 could have been the summit of DYNASTY, especially if they'd wrapped up the massacre better, if the Colbys had stayed longer, if Krystle's time in the attic (if it happened at all) was much briefer -- her captivity occurring concurrently with Alexis' three-episode tenure on the Moldavian throne... The last-third of Season 6 could play out more or less as it did.

Season 7: Alexis in the mansion could have worked, but everything is pedestrian: the writers aren't interested in anything about their own show (other than the "success" it provided them). DYNASTY tries to get less whacky than it was the previous year, but the stale drabness of Season 7 doesn't help... It still just feels utterly incompetent in a slightly different way. (The recasting of Amanda is symptomatic of Season 7's problems -- and so does the fact that it also doesn't seem to matter at all!). We need that avalanche cliffhanger we didn't get just to cleanse the palate.

Season 8: the excessive, mostly-lame musical scores, and S.A.D., are markedly rolled back. And it helps. But there should have been a little politics in the gubernatorial race. And there should have been a slightly ghostly mood over the year as Krystle's headaches give her increasing problems which she's trying to handle privately. (I want her to turn clairvoyant healer behind-the-scenes -- and I'm completely serious about that -- she ironically being the one who tries to shoot Alexis in her Carlton Hotel suite before disappearing and running off to Ohio, with no memory of what had transpired). Maybe, also, a story arc in which Chris Deegan is dying of AIDS, and the family is afraid for Steven's health.

Seasons 1, 2 and 9: no real changes.

Phantom Season 10: the scandal over the revelations connected to The Collection rock the Carringtons' world, with Blake in and out of jail throughout the season after Captain Handler dies... I want that crystal skull subplot thing to occur, Adam finding it in the basement and dutifully hands it off to his mama... The auction at the mansion proceeds, overseen by Sable and Caress, the living arrangements complicated by Blake suggesting Alexis move in once she realizes she's being stalked by Dennis Grimes.. Revelations over a late-night dinner between the Three Witches (Alexis, Sable and Caress) are made in which Caress is exposed as the culprit who'd told Blake where to catch his wife with Roger Grimes back in 1964; Caress also claims Roger (with whom she'd had an affair before he left her for her married sister) raped her as punishment (Sable's startled reaction leading the viewer to believe that she, too, may have been raped by Roger back in the day)... Does a drunken Alexis inadvertently shoot Dennis as he's breaking into the darkened ballroom? Does someone catch her as she, in a panic, tries to hide the body?? Would Linda make a non-verbal cameo in the last 30 seconds of the series in order to permit Krystle the opportunity to escape the asylum in Switzerland??

1991 REUNION: it should open up with Krystle & Alexis, both chemically altered, scurrying to hide Dennis' body and dump it in the same lake Papa Roger floated out of a couple of years earlier... We don't need so much of Alexis' Fashion Fury storyline (although the catfight in the design studio should be scored with Prokofiev's "Montagues & Capulets"). Alexis fails to help the Consortium take over Denver-Carrington, but Jeremy Van Dorn leaves her much of his financial empire (when the Consortium murders him) because he married her just days earlier... Alexis flies back to London with Adam and Fallon, mostly victorious in her decade-long revenge scheme, the crystal skull ominously in tow... Somebody who might be Eva Braun shoots Caress upstairs in the mansion. And Krystle & Blake have their final dance downstairs in the ballroom to Dominique's rendition of Strangers in Paradise before Krystle's Thene takes over and the program concludes once and for all. No freeze frame. Fade to black.

THE END

 

[Silvermoon]

The story i have for Dynasty, well i'm going to make it brief.

Season 1. Blake and Krystle get married which kicks off the events of the series.
Near the end Alexis shows up due to testify Blake of the accidental death of Ted Dinard.
I'm using Jackie instead of Kirby, i'm more or less combining them into one character.

Season 2. Adam shows up, later Amanda, both contrast against Steven and Fallon.
Jackie also begins an affair/relationship with Adam.
Steven tries to have sex with Sammy Jo, it doesn't work, she becomes the mother of his child.

Season 3. Jackie has a male crush, Adam being jealous, uses methods to look like him to have sex with Jackie by deceit, Jackie is angrily furious when she finds out.
Joseph suffers a stroke after angrily trying to strangle Alexis, he is later hospitalized.

Season 4. Dominique enters the show, she is Joseph's ex wife and Mother of Jackie,
Amanda develops a relationship with one of the servants.
Krystle leaves the mansion.
Cecil Colby has a funeral right after his wedding with Alexis.
The Colbys show up here, including his divorced wife Sable.
The introduction of Dex Dexter now with Alexis, not until a few dates he had with Fallon first.
Constance Colby is one of the main villains in this series, an evil matriarch.

Season 5. Amanda is now in a arranged marriage set up by her mother.
At the same time Constance was planning for a similar arrangement between Adam and Bliss.
Krystle and Daniel start a romance,
While Blake starts dating Dominique, at the same time being envious of Daniel.
Monica begins dating the servant that was formerly with Amanda.
Dominique's father and her son Sean.
Her father isn't keen on her relationship with Blake, while Sean starts to have beef with Adam, and having problems with his father Joseph.
Caress and her daughter Leslie show up midway through the season.

Season 6. The Fallmont family is now in the scene, Bart and Steven have a rocky start, but later become a couple.
Fallon becomes the CEO of Denver Carrington, after Adam mismanaged the company, who was really unpopular alomg with the former employees he fired, some them still hold a grudge and went to work with Clay Fallmont, who he was antagonistoc to Adam for various reasons.

7. Cecil Colby is alive, he had faked his death, and was now willingly to take down the Carrington Dynasty.
Dana is the romance of Adam.

Season 8?
Season 9. Cecil planned to faked his death again only to die for real by being buried alive.
Adam either dies or goes to jail this season, which to be honest, was much more deservedly of his character.
He be half eaten by wolves, before slowly dying in the hospital.
Constance Colby dies.
Dex after the accident finds out, he has two kids, a daughter and son respectively, which Alexis hid from him.

Should I push the Colbys up to S3?

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

It's interesting to see people's alternative narratives --- I certainly have mine, God knows.

But what is the difference, one wonders, between that and free association, stream-of-consciousness fan fiction?

 

[LB-Colby]

My version of Dynasty has only some changes here and there:

Season 1
Less scenes with Lindsay.
Blake doesn’t rape Krystle.

Season 2
No car races; instead, Steven is attracted to Tony.

Season 3
Fallon vs Kirby.

Season 4
Fewer “romantic” (boring) scenes with Blake and Krystle.
There are more suspects for Mark's murder.

Season 5
A better actress as Lady Ashley.

Season 6
Claudia and Michael (and Lady Ashley) die in Moldavia.
Luke survives but is injured. After some episodes, Steven and Luke split.
The Rita/Krystle storyline is shorter.
Caress and Clay come earlier.
Jackie’s father is not Garrett Boydston.
Adam marries Marin Dexter (like in the writers' original plans).
Marin sets the fire at La Mirage.

Season 7
Many changes for this season, including:
Amanda is injured in the fire. She leaves town in the first episode.
Caress appears in more episodes.
Sammy Jo is bitchy as ever. She lies to Clay and he leaves her.
Bart returns after his mother’s death; Sammy Jo interferes in Bart and Steven’s relationship.
Ben’s ex-wife (Leslie’s mother) comes to town for revenge, with the help of Caress.
Dominique leaves Denver earlier.
No health problems for Krystina; Sarah Curtis is her evil nanny who kidnaps her.
Better storylines for Alexis in 7B (no Dirk and Gavin Maurier).
At the end of the season, Adam discovers he is really Adam Carrington. No adoption.

Season 8
A more detailed backstory for Sean (he’s Kirby’s half-brother).
Kirby briefly appears to meet Sean (there is no other sister).
No more talk about the UFO after the first episodes.
Steven is attracted to Josh.

Season 9
No changes.

Season 10
Final season (with some elements borrowed from The Reunion).
Dex dies, Alexis and Blake survive. Sable loses her child.
Miles comes to Denver. Sable reveals to Miles and Monica that Cecil Colby is their father.
The lady in the limousine is Blake’s ex fiancée in search of revenge. She holds Krystle prisoner in Switzerland. Jeremy Van Dorn is her accomplice.
Steven reappears with Bart.
Sable, Miles, and Monica take over ColbyCo. Alexis vows revenge.
In the last episode, Krystle and Blake reunite.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

At the end of the season, Adam discovers he is really Adam Carrington. No adoption.

At least they finally did that in Season 8 -- I had to watch it again twice just to make sure. (The jailhouse scene with the reveal was actually pretty good).

 

[LB-Colby]

At least they finally did that in Season 8 -- I had to watch it again twice just to make sure. (The jailhouse scene with the reveal was actually pretty good).

Yes, but it would have been better at the end of Season 7, without that silly adoption.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Yes, but it would have been better at the end of Season 7, without that silly adoption.

They had some new writers in Season 8 who knew how to tell a story (and "Mike" was less-involved that year) which helped. Even if the actors seemed a bit sleepy.

Not that Season 7s Rita Lakin and Laurence ("No, don't kill her/you...!!") Heath weren't perfectly good writers, but they seemed to experience the same sabotage that many of the just-one-season writers did.

 

[Gabriel Maxwell]

A different Lady Ashley? Yes, please. Catherine Oxenberg was a great choice for Amanda, but someone like Jacqueline Bisset would’ve been a much better Lady Ashley.

An ailing Rock Hudson, was sadly also miscast. I actually would’ve changed the sentimental American backstory of Daniel Reece into a very Dynasty European mystique.

I think Alain Delon — also a 50s/60s eye candy — could’ve been great as a wealthy French industrialist from Paris or Monte Carlo with a passion for expensive race horses. Surely it would’ve come across better than the Helmut Berger casting the year before.

And I’m sure there would’ve been creative ways to fit Krystle and Sammy Jo into his storyline, maybe better than the actual clunky backstory they went with. A still trashy but delicious Sammy Jo could’ve been his trophy wife and pull an Alexis before his heart gives out.

 

[Monzo]

The only thing I would have wanted to change is increasing the number of special guest stars. In my opinion, Dynasty had the most memorable (not necessarily the best) guest stars of the four big soaps. Therefore, I would have liked to see another female guest star in the second half of season 6 as Emily Fallmont, who, like Lady Ashley, dies in the season finale. In season 7, I would have recast Michael Culhane with an once hot 1970s movie star. Sarah Curtis should also have been a star from that time. After that, I would have ended the era of special guest stars, as they probably wouldn't have boosted Dynasty's ratings in season 7.