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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 10650" data-attributes="member: 22">16/Mar/83: DYNASTY: The Downstairs Bride v. 18/Mar/83: DALLAS: Hell Hath No FuryWith KNOTS LANDING and FALCON CREST both taking an early bath, Soap Land’s biggest rivals, DYNASTY and DALLAS, are left to slug it out for the rest of the season. DYNASTY gets in the first punch by having Sammy Jo pick up a copy of the National Enquirer (the genuine article this time, not a fictionalised equivalent) that has the cast of DALLAS on its cover - the audacious implication being that the Ewings exist as TV characters within the DYNASTY universe, thus making them more fictional than the Carrington. Sue Ellen swiftly strikes back when she declares on Roy Ralston’s talk show (which, from a DYNASTY perspective, is now a TV series within a TV series within a TV series) that, “My husband started a trend … then the others followed.” Admittedly, she’s talking about cut-price gas stations not prime time soap operas, but you catch my drift.Given that context, it’s ironic that the main plot of this week’s DYNASTY should so closely resemble that of DALLAS’s very first episode: rich boy, having eloped with poor girl, brings her back to the family home to face the music. Yes, it’s Pam and Bobby all over again, but this time played by Kirby and Jeff. Now as then, the reception they receive is cool. Fallon combines Lucy’s wisecracks with Sue Ellen’s frostiness, Joseph Anders is no happier about his daughter’s marriage than Digger Barnes was about Pam's, and where JR enquired of Pam, “What sort of settlement do you require to annul this little farce?” Adam accuses Kirby of opportunism. “You married Jeff Colby for his money and his name,” he tells her. Instead of trying to buy her off, however, he makes yet another grab for her.While Pam moving in with her husband’s dysfunctional family was sufficiently dramatic for 1978, such is the rate of inflation in Soap Land that a more complicated scenario is required in 1983. Now Kirby is expected to live under the same roof as her husband’s ex-in-laws, including his former wife (and first love) Fallon. And let’s not forget her father continuing to serve the family from below stairs. It’s as if Pam had found herself living at Southfork with the Ewings, Jenna Wade and Digger.Some of the complications of this situation are addressed in a scene between Kirby and Joseph. DYNASTY being DYNASTY, Joseph has a lot more to say on the subject of his daughter’s elopement than Digger did in his equivalent scene. “From this moment on, what am I supposed to call you? Mrs Colby? Madam? Your Royal Highness? Don’t answer that. As the major-domo of the house, I’ll come up with the proper form eventually.” Look beyond the customarily stilted demeanour here and one can see a man who is touchingly out of his depth. That leaves Kirby, for once, behaving as level-headedly as early Pam. (This time around, I’m finding the dynamic between Kirby and Joseph - particularly these father/daughter kitchen scenes - a lot richer and more interesting than I ever have previously.)We’re also reminded of Bobby and Pam’s early relationship in this week’s DALLAS. “You know, Pam, I remember the first time I saw you,” Bobby recalls during a brief respite from their marital conflicts. “After everything Digger had told me about the Ewings, I thought they were a family of monsters,” says Pam. (Kirby accuses Joseph of something similar in their kitchen scene: “What is it you’re thinking, that the people that have known me in this house practically since I was born are not going to let me forget that I’m a majordomo’s daughter?”) Meanwhile, DYNASTY’s Steven also takes his estranged wife on a trip down memory lane - alas, they’re the memories he made with his dead boyfriend. “This place, your favourite restaurant,” Sammy Jo realises, looking around the eatery Steven has brought her to, “isn’t this where you used to eat with him … your boyfriend, Ted Dinard?”(The atmosphere of this New York restaurant is brighter and more upbeat than in the after hours style jazz bar JR takes Holly to for a drink in this week's DALLAS, but both venues feature a black man tinkling away on the ivories for the white folks’ pleasure.)In spite of ending up in bed together, Bobby is no more successful at persuading Pam to return to Southfork than Steven is at getting Sammy Jo to come back to Denver. “ I love you, but sex hasn’t changed anything,” Pam tells him. “You make me feel like I should give you a bill for services rendered!” Bobby barks in reply. Sammy Jo’s sexual put down to Steven cuts even deeper: “You want to do your thing with other guys? Go do it. But if you really give a damn about your son, let him grow up with a straight family. Don't stick him with you for a father."The brief glimpse we get into Sammy Jo’s life in New York is intriguing. She is the kept woman of a middle-aged married man who is clearly stringing her along with the promise of becoming a spokesmodel for a cosmetics company. Meanwhile, on DALLAS, Lucy Ewing perches on a stool and happily tosses her hair about as part of a shampoo advertising campaign. In contrast to Sammy Jo’s sleazy struggles, Lucy’s modelling career seems remarkably straightforward (the occasional insane photographer notwithstanding). There are no stylists or makeup artists fussing over her and at the end of the shoot, she doesn’t even bother to change her clothes before leaving on a date with Mickey.Elsewhere on this week’s DYNASTY, Adam’s attempts to befriend Steven, the brother he never knew he had, strongly parallel Richard Channing’s efforts to get close to Chase, the brother he never knew he had, on FALCON CREST earlier this season. Both sets of siblings start out with good intentions and for a fleeting moment it looks as if they’ll connect, but then the “bad” (i.e., needy, jealous and childlike) brother (Adam/Richard) oversteps the mark in some way, causing the “good” (i.e., prickly, self-righteous and unforgiving) brother (Steven/Chase) to react badly. (In this case, Adam gives Steven some unasked for advice abut his marriage, which Steven interprets as a slur on his sexuality.)So, without the distractions of KL and FC, (hey, combine those initials and you’ve almost got a chicken shop) how do these periods of DYNASTY and DALLAS compare? Well, if DYNASTY is like a succession of exploding fireworks - one colourful pyrotechnic display burning brightly and briefly, immediately followed by another then another - then DALLAS is all about the slow burn.Everything both great and frustrating about the latter is encapsulated in the character of Sue Ellen. For much of this season, she has been happily ensconced in her second marriage to JR, asleep to almost everything else around her - sometimes to the point of absurdity. In this week’s ep, thanks to Holly Harwood, she starts to awaken and it’s captivating. Even when Holly first approaches her in the beauty parlour, all compliments and smiles, (just as Angela Channing did her prey/rival, Amanda Croft, a few weeks ago on FALCON CREST) Sue Ellen is gracious and polite, but also wary. She may have been in living a fantasy world for months, but she can still sense that something is off. We begin to see that beneath the shiny, happy Sue Ellen of recent times, the smouldering, brooding one of old still lingers. It’s there at the end of the episode when she sneaks a look at the liquor cabinet while pacing the Southfork living room and assuring her husband that everything is just fine. And when the frame freezes on her reaction to the sight of Holly’s lipstick on JR’s shirt collar, it becomes clear that Sue Ellen is the season’s ticking time bomb we’d almost forgotten was there.And this week’s Top 2 are …1 (4) DALLAS2 (2) DYNASTY</blockquote>

Verification: What month follows July?