Morgan Brittany: "Dynasty" copied "Dallas"' clothing??
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Rove
Telly Talk Warrior
I'd be scorned as well if I had discovered mummy dearest had a secret previous life. And then mummy dearest decides to break up the family fortune which Katherine was entitled to.
Willie Oleson
Telly Talk Schemer
Katherine copied Kristin as the troublesome sister, so take that, Mrs. Brittany!
However.....something else happened in that particular episode.
Yes, there were pretty gowns in Dynasty's first season, but not more extravagant than Dallas or Flamingo Road or anything else glamorous at that time.
Could this be the first example of soapy overdressed, before Dynasty made it their trademark thing?
Unless they copied it from Dynasty's April 20 courtroom scene!
However.....something else happened in that particular episode.
Yes, there were pretty gowns in Dynasty's first season, but not more extravagant than Dallas or Flamingo Road or anything else glamorous at that time.
Could this be the first example of soapy overdressed, before Dynasty made it their trademark thing?
Unless they copied it from Dynasty's April 20 courtroom scene!
Rove
Telly Talk Warrior
Sue Ellen could wear a tea cosy on her head and still look hot.
Rove
Telly Talk Warrior
I will concede the writers had regurgitated the evil sister story. Shame really because I think there was still life in both characters. Kristin could have drifted between Dallas and Knots Landing, chewing through men at random. Katherine should have stayed in Dallas for the long haul as a thorn between the Ewing and Barnes family.
stevew
Telly Talk Star
I’m not saying she didn’t have a reason to be that way. In fact in her place I’d have hired a legal team to cut those two out of as much as possible. In fact more than likely her father’s will would have helped with that and certainly the fact that he knew nothing about these two children either. It would have been different if this was Rebecca’s business but they were very clear it had been Herbert’s and that she married Herbert after he created it not in anyway helping him do so. I think she’d have had a very good case. In fact a good plot for Dallas TNT might have been Katherine Wentworth with a presidential pardon and Herbert Wentworth’s long lost will which would cut Cliff and Pam out. Yes, I defiantly agree she had reason to be scorned.
stevew
Telly Talk Star
I completely agree. Imagine either one married to Wendell and/or having JR’s baby. Too much just to shunt her to the side. And with Kristen it would have changed everything with Christopher. I would have liked to have seen more from the Shepard side and maybe a long lost John “Black Jack” Shepard III.
Barbara Fan
Admin
When Terry Wogan asked Linda Gray about copying Die Nasty (as he called it) re shoulder pads she said
We were first darlin, we were first (after 6 plus mins in)
We were first darlin, we were first (after 6 plus mins in)
Willie Oleson
Telly Talk Schemer
For what it's worth...
BATTLE #2: Biggest Shoulder Pads
Sue Ellen Ewing (Dallas)
Does anyone know the episode in which she wears this outfit? Great hair, too, btw!
Snarky Oracle!
Telly Talk Supreme
Interesting that Victoria says she liked the first season of DYNASTY but didn't like it anymore after that...
Toni
Maximum Member
For what it's worth...
BATTLE #2: Biggest Shoulder Pads
Sue Ellen Ewing (Dallas)
Does anyone know the episode in which she wears this outfit? Great hair, too, btw!
@Willie Oleson, that image is from episode 24 from DVD Season 5, "The Investigation", when Cliff asks Sue Ellen for a loan, and she begins to be "oh-so-confused" all over again...
Grant Jennings
Telly Talk TV Fanatic
The first to wear a wide-brimmed hat was neither Katherine or Alexis, but Madeline, played by Maggie Wickham. I can't believe people are still debating this years later. The decision to hire Travilla to design costumes and the remodeling of Southfork (enlarging the living room and the addition of the second floor hall) were clearly attempts to imitate Dynasty.
Richard Channing
Eternal Member
Right, and anyway Katherine wasn't particularly glamourous at all in her early episodes, she was dressed rather plainly a lot of the time.
Jock's Ghost
Telly Talk Well-Known Member
DALLAS had better looking ladies. With the exception of Joan Collins.
The hair alone on Charlene Tilton, Morgan Fairchild and Morgan Brittany is incredible. All the actors had such gorgeous eyes. Lucy and katherine, characters they played were criminally underused and misused.
The hair alone on Charlene Tilton, Morgan Fairchild and Morgan Brittany is incredible. All the actors had such gorgeous eyes. Lucy and katherine, characters they played were criminally underused and misused.
Snarky Oracle!
Telly Talk Supreme
And I never knew she and Evans had ever been photographed together (along with Jane)..
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Brian Kinney
Telly Talk Addict
Lorimar hired Travilla for Dallas (61 episodes) and Knots Landing (60 episodes), both 1984-86! I didn't see any enlarged living rooms at the Seaview Circle...
Travilla won an Emmy for Best Costume Design in September 1983 for The Thorn Birds . While people were talking more about Dynasty's shoulder-pad costumes Travilla was a natural choice for Lorimar to do something different. Travilla also won an Emmy for The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980) where he dressed Morgan Brittany as Vivien Leigh. I think that could have been a stronger inspiration since Brittany's Katherine wore the most glamorous dresses. And his costumes for Victoria Principal, Linda Gray and Priscilla Presley actually bore more references to what he designed for Marilyn Monroe and her co-stars in How to Marry a Millionaire, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and The Seven Year Itch.
I really don't see the imitation of Dynasty. Dynasty's Nolan Miller had an own distinctive style as Travilla had too. When Lorimar hired him they had the extra money to spend on clothes for two of their highest-rated shows (and a few episodes for a third one, Berrenger's in 1985). Before that Lorimar spend more money on location shootings than Dynasty.
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Mel O'Drama
Admin
Absolutely.
If my memory serves, a British soap magazine I bought circa Dream Season had a couple of pages covering the costumes. I forget most of it now (other than a large photo of Angelica Nero's infamous owl winged getup featuring prominently), but something that registered with me at the time and has stuck since then was the observation that Donna's red dress from (I think) The Oil Baron's Ball could easily have been designed for Travilla's earlier muses such as Marilyn or Jane Russell.
I can only find this one picture of the top of it, but even here you can still feel the mid-century tone:
Grant Jennings
Telly Talk TV Fanatic
I'm not suggesting Travilla's designs were derivative of Nolan Miller. I'm saying the decision to hire a costume designer was a response to Dynasty and the publicity it received because of Nolan Miller's designs. Aaron Spelling had a long working relationship with Nolan Miller. Spelling liked Old Hollywood glamor and he liked to cast actresses from that era on his shows. I'm sure the fact that they would be dressed by Nolan Miller made offers to guest star on Spelling's shows more appealing. Lorimar didn't typically use costume designers on their shows; unless something specific was needed, actresses wore clothes that were purchased off the rack.
When Lorimar hired Travilla it was heavily promoted. Shows like Entertainment Tonight interviewed Travilla, showed sketches of his designs and finished costumes and even had Susan Howard twirling around in a Travilla dress. These stories, both on television and in print, almost always included references to Dynasty and said that this was an attempt by the producers of Dallas to be just as glamorous. I find it interesting that Lorimar decided to have Travilla design for Knots Landing but not Falcon Crest, I wonder if Travilla was given a choice or if the actresses on Knots Landing lobbied more aggressively than those on Falcon Crest.
Snarky Oracle!
Telly Talk Supreme
Yes, for all of its narrative and executional flaws, DYNASTY had more effect on changing street fashion than any series in TV history, with Joan Collins its most influential clotheshorse. Ever.
Superior as its storytelling usually was, we used to guffaw over early-DALLAS' cheapy office and home decor and oft-repeated K-Mart fashions for a family supposedly so fabulously wealthy, and long before DYNASTY ever existed. But when Princess Diana, the Rayguns, MTV, and DYNASTY came in circa '80/'81, things began to change: "rich and glamorous" became a major cultural trend, and DALLAS had to get on board with it, and did so by around 1983. It seems they'd tried to ignore their overdressed upstart rival, DYNASTY, but DALLAS couldn't permanently ignore DYNASTY'S impact on the media or the world at large in terms of wardrobe.
Even Princess Diana and the Rayguns cited DYNASTY as an influence. And when producers decided to remove the shoulder pads from their gowns and outfits in 1987, the catwalks of Paris and Milan went crazy, claiming they would be ruined because their entire fall line still had shoulderpads. Miller's picture wound up on the cover of The Wall Street Journal and the DYNASTY brass had to scramble to release a follow-up statement asserting they were only minimizing the shoulderpads; as a result, the fashion hubs of Europe relaxed.
Nolan Miller was the most important designer of the 1980s, full stop, due solely to DYNASTY. Even Armani, my favorite, had to take a backseat to Miller and his neo-40s creations.
In that way, DYNASTY led, and DALLAS had to get in line with it; Pam and Sue Ellen Ewing couldn't very well be out-dressed by Blaire and Tooti. And the idea that DYNASTY copied the Texas-based serial in terms of haute couture is just a blatant revisionist fib.
Travilla didn't dress FC? I didn't remember that.
Superior as its storytelling usually was, we used to guffaw over early-DALLAS' cheapy office and home decor and oft-repeated K-Mart fashions for a family supposedly so fabulously wealthy, and long before DYNASTY ever existed. But when Princess Diana, the Rayguns, MTV, and DYNASTY came in circa '80/'81, things began to change: "rich and glamorous" became a major cultural trend, and DALLAS had to get on board with it, and did so by around 1983. It seems they'd tried to ignore their overdressed upstart rival, DYNASTY, but DALLAS couldn't permanently ignore DYNASTY'S impact on the media or the world at large in terms of wardrobe.
Even Princess Diana and the Rayguns cited DYNASTY as an influence. And when producers decided to remove the shoulder pads from their gowns and outfits in 1987, the catwalks of Paris and Milan went crazy, claiming they would be ruined because their entire fall line still had shoulderpads. Miller's picture wound up on the cover of The Wall Street Journal and the DYNASTY brass had to scramble to release a follow-up statement asserting they were only minimizing the shoulderpads; as a result, the fashion hubs of Europe relaxed.
Nolan Miller was the most important designer of the 1980s, full stop, due solely to DYNASTY. Even Armani, my favorite, had to take a backseat to Miller and his neo-40s creations.
In that way, DYNASTY led, and DALLAS had to get in line with it; Pam and Sue Ellen Ewing couldn't very well be out-dressed by Blaire and Tooti. And the idea that DYNASTY copied the Texas-based serial in terms of haute couture is just a blatant revisionist fib.
Travilla didn't dress FC? I didn't remember that.
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Taylor Bennett Jr.
Telly Talk Winner
after all, Prince didn't sing "you don't have to watch Dallas to have an attitude"