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When McGraw was on screen the only ’tension’ was experienced by the viewer at having to endure another weirdly mannered performance.
Should Lady Ashley have been Blake's former fiancée ?
- Thread starter Snarky Oracle!
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Hard to remember who would have been age appropriate
Diana Rigg?
Elizabeth Montgomery?
Barbara Eden?
Diana Rigg?
Elizabeth Montgomery?
Barbara Eden?
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Katharine Ross was too young be John James' mother; Barbara Bel Geddes was too young to be Larry Hagman's mother.
But it worked -- especially in the latter case. Frankie seemed so spacey and obliviously entitled that it's hard to assess whether she was anybody's mother.
But it worked -- especially in the latter case. Frankie seemed so spacey and obliviously entitled that it's hard to assess whether she was anybody's mother.
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Maybe someone who had already worked with him (aside from BE)? Candice Bergen, Raquel Welch, Joan, ahem, Collins?
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James? Who's James? I can only think of John James, so do you mean Jeff? Or Geoff?
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They offered the role of Lady Ashley to Candice, Raquel, Angie and, I think, Elizabeth. They all turned it down. If Blake and Ashley were engaged in the 1950s and Ashley was shoved aside by a teenaged Alexis, Candice would have been too young (and Raquel too, really).
I like the idea of Angie and Rigg -- but, a year later, they also turned down Sable in THE COLBYS (as did Faye Dunaway). As we've said, Frankie could have been the same character as Ashley, potentially.
Over time, I think I've come to best like the idea of Angie as Ashley (Spelling was always trying to get her for DYNASTY anyway) but Angie either told Aaron that "you have too many ladies on that show already!", or she asked for too much money for the "special guest star" billing, reportedly $120,000 (even Billy Dee Williams was only getting $80,000/episode, which is why he left so quickly). But Angie might have fit the bill as a mysterious lady from Blake's past, an ex-fiancé, who is now tied in to international high society, a slinky, globe-trotting, jet-setting power broker who knows the secrets of the world. (Angie has taken any number of roles after turning them down initially; she just likes to be wined-and-dined and asked two or three times before saying "yes").
But whoever played Lady Ashley, we could learn in Season 6 that she had a role in the massacre happening, vengefully determined to prevent Alexis from becoming part of the royal family, Lady Mitchell (with a better last name) having orchestrated even her own murder at the melee because she was terminally ill
That just gives more motive, coming or going, for Ashley being on the show in the first place.
Some people prefer Audrey Hepburn for Lady Ashley, and Hepburn was a fan of DYNASTY (Joe Mankiewicz said she wasn't very smart -- which I question):
I dunno. When the show is supposed to be about a dynasty (hence, the title) it's seems a rich idea to mine the family's past associations than just offering up a slew of new characters completely unknown to the Carringtons or the Colbys -- especially when it's a pertinent "status" role like Lady Ashley.
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He sounds like an idiot if he really believed that.
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Oui. That's how she got where she is!
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Random Lady Ashley question. I saw a clip online of Blake introducing Ashley to Amanda in Mexico, to which Ashley responded something along the lines of “the beautiful child has grown into a young woman”. I know in Ashley’s backstory, so supposedly knew Alexis while she was with Cecil, which was obviously well after Amanda’s childhood. Was it mentioned on the show, or is it just presumed, that she also knew Rosalind and her husband while they were raising Amanda?
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At one point in Season 2, Cecil implies that he and Alexis hadn't seen each other since around the time of her divorce from Blake. It's also said that Cecil may have introduced Alexis to Blake (which would mean the mid-'50s).
Otherwise, I dunno. What do you think?, because God knows the backstory wasn't written in stone.
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Having looked at the oral history thread, Ashley’s late husband Maynard was the ambassador to France, while according to the Dynasty wikia, Rosalind’s husband Hugh was a diplomat, so whether it was explicitly mentioned or not, I’m guessing that the backstory is that they (and Amanda) crossed paths due to Maynard and Hugh’s jobs.
Ashley and Alexis’ shared past seems a bit more muddled. They seem to know each other well enough for Ashley not to really trust Alexis, and it’s mentioned a number of times that Cecil and Maynard were friends. However, it sounds like Maynard died at some point in the 70’s, so if Alexis met them as a couple (which is insinuated), it wouldn’t have been during her relationship with Cecil. Anyway, as we all know, backstories and timelines got a bit looser as the series progressed, and this may just be another example of this.