LMLDallas78
Telly Talk Enthusiast
I thought he called it Dysentery. Either one is favourable. Someone definitely referred to it as dysentry, I was sure it was Wogan.
For some fans Knots beat them both
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Dallas vs Dynasty
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For some fans Knots beat them both
Barbara Fan
Admin
He called it both 
LMLDallas78
Telly Talk Enthusiast
This is why I used to feel infuriated by the constant Dallas vs Dynasty.
Really daft comparisons. Who compared JR to Blake? He was always compared to Alexis.
Goodness knows why I kept these, I must've known they'd come in useful one day and be good for a laugh if nothing else.
Sue Ellen has a really unfair advantage here. Her character is world's away from Alexis.
JR's faults are only business related here too and his abusive ways aren't even mentioned.
Really daft comparisons. Who compared JR to Blake? He was always compared to Alexis.
Goodness knows why I kept these, I must've known they'd come in useful one day and be good for a laugh if nothing else.
Sue Ellen has a really unfair advantage here. Her character is world's away from Alexis.
JR's faults are only business related here too and his abusive ways aren't even mentioned.
LoganRhinewood
Telly Talk Member
Comparing JR to Blake I can somewhat understand (even though I agree that he should be compared to Alexis), but Sue Ellen to Alexis??? Shouldn't they be comparing her to Krystle in this particular constellation?
LMLDallas78
Telly Talk Enthusiast
Poor Krystal and Sue Ellen failed in having business sense. I can't comment on Krystal as I don't have enough knowledge about her.
I guess if this was done in the latter years Sue Ellen would have done a lot better though.
I guess if this was done in the latter years Sue Ellen would have done a lot better though.
Richard Channing
Eternal Member
I think what's great about Sue Ellen is that you can't really compare her to either of them. She doesn't fit into any cookie cutter soap stereotype. She's not 'the bitch', although sometimes she can be, and neither is she 'the adoring wife' although at times she was.
LoganRhinewood
Telly Talk Member
It still makes a tiny bit more sense to compare Krystle with Sue Ellen than Alexis with Sue Ellen, but yeah, I agree, Sue Ellen doesn't fit into either type. (One big reason why she's my favorite Dallas character.)
Jock Ewing Fan
Telly Talk Star
Dynasty copied Dallas, although it was a very good copy.
Alexis was the JR of the show.
Blake was a more refined Jock Ewing
Dynasty never had a Ray Krebbs type character, a former everyman who became wealthy.
In a sense, Alexis was also a Cliff Barnes - an educated character who gained wealth and influence.
Dynasty seemed to utilize major high profile guest stars more - Rock Hudson, Diahann Carroll, George Hamilton, Ali MacGraw,
Ken Howard, Billy Dee Williams, Charlton Heston, Barbara Stanwyck, John Saxon, Ricardo Montalban to name some.
It is shame both shows eventually became a shadow of what they were, but both were still iconic shows
Alexis was the JR of the show.
Blake was a more refined Jock Ewing
Dynasty never had a Ray Krebbs type character, a former everyman who became wealthy.
In a sense, Alexis was also a Cliff Barnes - an educated character who gained wealth and influence.
Dynasty seemed to utilize major high profile guest stars more - Rock Hudson, Diahann Carroll, George Hamilton, Ali MacGraw,
Ken Howard, Billy Dee Williams, Charlton Heston, Barbara Stanwyck, John Saxon, Ricardo Montalban to name some.
It is shame both shows eventually became a shadow of what they were, but both were still iconic shows
Snarky Oracle!
Telly Talk Supreme
And that was a mistake. Krystle had been the executive assistant to Blake (and did a good job sitting in for him with the board while he was on trial for killing Ted Dinard) so she should have had a good business sense. And we needed to see some intellect from Krystle over the years just to give her something to do. But, sadly, they just didn't think to write her that way.
Sue Ellen eventually became a businesswoman, but they didn't really do much with it.
Yes, and yet we always understood her motivations -- that's what made DALLAS' writing better than DYNASTY's usually was.
Among the major characters, only Pam was flippy-floppy in a way to facilitate the current plotline.
And DYNASTY was better when it was "copying" DALLAS -- down to the Sun in Capricorn/Aquarius Rising being dumped into a lake in the pilot episode. But DYNASTY got into trouble when it quickly started copying itself and doing so badly.
LMLDallas78
Telly Talk Enthusiast
I always thought it looked desperate then just too much and that the original cast were not enough on their own.
I guess it worked though as new characters need to be introduced and it soon became a who's who in Dynasty.
Dallas didn't seem to need high profile guest stars especially in the early days. Was that because their ensemble cast was unbeatable?
When other high profile stars were introduced like Priscilla Presley we expected so much, but got so little.
WarriorsFan
Telly Talk Active Member
The 1980s in US television history I divide into four eras.
1980/1981 and 1981/1982 seasons: Dallas dominates.
1982/1983 to 1984/1985 seasons: Dallas vs. Dynasty. Dallas wins 1982/1983 and 1983/1984 but Dynasty barely wins 1984/1985.
1985/1986 to 1987/1988 seasons: The Cosby Show dominates.
1988/1989 and 1989/1990 seasons: The Cosby Show vs. Roseanne.
1980/1981 and 1981/1982 seasons: Dallas dominates.
1982/1983 to 1984/1985 seasons: Dallas vs. Dynasty. Dallas wins 1982/1983 and 1983/1984 but Dynasty barely wins 1984/1985.
1985/1986 to 1987/1988 seasons: The Cosby Show dominates.
1988/1989 and 1989/1990 seasons: The Cosby Show vs. Roseanne.
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Luke_Krebbs_Ewing
Telly Talk Champion
He called it both
Dear Terry, he was the one who coined the phrase - the poisoned dwarf, in relation to Lucy on Dallas!
LMLDallas78
Telly Talk Enthusiast
Terry had a lot to do with Dallas growing in popularity over here.
I'll always be thankful to him for his brilliant wit and humour and for promoting Dallas the way he did.
His critical but comedic take on things was often hilarious unlike others who loved poking fun at it in a more horrible way.
I still see a certain journalist on TV now who was really mean and enjoyed critising Dallas, but then she was mean about everything.
I'll always be thankful to him for his brilliant wit and humour and for promoting Dallas the way he did.
His critical but comedic take on things was often hilarious unlike others who loved poking fun at it in a more horrible way.
I still see a certain journalist on TV now who was really mean and enjoyed critising Dallas, but then she was mean about everything.
Richard Channing
Eternal Member
Correct me if I'm wrong, but was it not Linda Gray that first said it? (on his show)Dear Terry, he was the one who coined the phrase - the poisoned dwarf, in relation to Lucy on Dallas!
LMLDallas78
Telly Talk Enthusiast
I'm sure she wasn't, I've got Linda's interviews on cassette tape. Certain it was Terry himself, he had nick names for most of the characters.
He even referred to Lucy once as "the poison dwarf's a nymphomaniac!"
This was after he called Pam frigid and Sue Ellen an alcoholic during an interview with Larry Hagman.
Snarky Oracle!
Telly Talk Supreme
Of course, the very term "dynasty" means a large intergenerational family of rulers, so I'm okay with DYNASTY having a larger cast of characters who come and go. And DYNASTY's conceit of having an Old Hollywood vibe with Old Hollywood guest stars was fine -- except that the show didn't really do that (unless Ali Mac Graw qualifies). It did have ailing Rock Hudson, and Charlton Heston & Barbara Stanwyck were barely even there, brought in for the spin-off, THE COLBYS (which was never going to survive its terrible time slot).
DYNASTY's regular cast was damn near perfect -- as was the case with all four of the big '80s nighttime soaps -- but the DYNASTY writers got bored quickly with their characters and didn't write for them properly. So the revolving heads dynamic was their way of compensating.
DYNASTY was indeed "desperate" but that had more to do with an ambitious but insecure production team that fervently wanted the show to be important, yet seemed to become apathetic towards their characters and their stories as early as the fourth season.
John Forsythe once said the producers "didn't know what they wanted" for the show, while Kate O'Mara quoted one of the producers admitting that "we make it up as we go along" -- both of which points became painfully obvious. Karen Cellini (Amanda #2 for all of five minutes) observed that "all anybody wants to see is Joan and Linda" and yet the producers all-but-dropped the Krystle & Alexis aspect very quickly. And circa 1987 DALLAS creator David Jacobs lamented that on the rival series "Joan and Linda don't even seem like the stars of the show anymore."
DALLAS' writers, in contrast, maintained an obvious interest in their core characters for a decade, only stumbling in the closing years.
So DYNASTY may have desired to compete with DALLAS, and in the minds of the press and the public they did. But DYNASTY's main weakness was internal.
There was room for both shows, and millions of viewers watched each of them, not necessarily wanting them to be identical. But it was readily apparent that the DYNASTY brass soon became more interested in the profile and "success" of their program than anything else. And that's just no way to run a television series.
DYNASTY didn't just have a PR campaign, it was a PR campaign. And that's a shame.
But Seasons 1, 2 and 9 were terrific, DYNASTY then living up to its potential, however briefly.
Willie Oleson
Telly Talk Schemer
Yes they did.
Maybe because Southfork didn't have enough rooms to accomodate them?
But make no mistake, the Ewings didn't shy away from shameless celebrity name-dropping, as we saw it in the GUZZLER episode.
At that time she wasn't a star but a celebrity, and in that regard DALLAS out-guilty-pleasured DYNASTY.
Besides, Howard Keel and Alexis Smith and Mel Ferrer were all big names to appear in a soap opera. The difference is that they didn't appear in the opening credits and - more importantly - were usually better used than their DYNASTY counterparts.
DALLAS was about power, DYNASTY was bout wealth, privilege and snobbery - which worked very well in its semi-satirical and criticizing first season. But when the 80s zeitgeist overtook DYNASTY (and vice versa) a lot of it got lost in translation.
DALLAS could be repetitive sometimes but their plot twists were always the best when it mattered (well, almost as good as KNOTS LANDING).
DYNASTY played the most significant part in my formative soap-loving years and as others have pointed out this is impossible to ignore. I also like the main cast a little bit more than the cast of DALLAS.
I'm still undecided.
Richard Channing
Eternal Member
Yes they did.
View attachment 49921
Maybe because Southfork didn't have enough rooms to accomodate them?
I guess Adam went from being a poorish country bumpkin to being super rich, and then of course there's Sammy Jo.
Snarky Oracle!
Telly Talk Supreme
But DALLAS mostly seemed to know not to do that, and references to "Farrah Fawcett-Guzzler" and "John Candy" were rarities. They didn't work, as DALLAS was more inward-looking and Texas-centric.
When DYNASTY still retained its identity, those celebrity and real-life political scandal references seemed to fit -- the show more high-society oriented and jet-setty where you suspected the Carringtons actually knew these people.
Once DYNASTY became a mess, and it did quickly, it didn't seem to matter one way or another.
Willie Oleson
Telly Talk Schemer
Funnily enough it did matter on THE COLBYS that Fallon was a Carrington.
From Sable's point of view anyway.