Should Lady Ashley have been Blake's former fiancée ?

[Laurie Marr]

When McGraw was on screen the only ’tension’ was experienced by the viewer at having to endure another weirdly mannered performance.

 

[Jock Ewing Fan]

Hard to remember who would have been age appropriate
Diana Rigg?
Elizabeth Montgomery?
Barbara Eden?

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

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.

 

[Toni]

Hard to remember who would have been age appropriate
Diana Rigg?
Elizabeth Montgomery?
Barbara Eden?

Maybe someone who had already worked with him (aside from BE)? Candice Bergen, Raquel Welch, Joan, ahem, Collins?

 

[Ked]

I want her for James' mama, from her affair with JR back in the '60s.

James? Who's James? I can only think of John James, so do you mean Jeff? Or Geoff?

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

James? Who's James? I can only think of John James, so do you mean Jeff? Or Geoff?

JR's son in the later years of that other show called DALLAS. James Beaumont is that son.

 

[Toni]

And... (seriously) what about Pat Crowley?

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Maybe someone who had already worked with him (aside from BE)? Candice Bergen, Raquel Welch, Joan, ahem, Collins?

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):

No! Because totally new characters people never met before could be good for drama.

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.

 

[Ked]

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):

He sounds like an idiot if he really believed that.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

He sounds like an idiot if he really believed that.

Mel Ferrer, Audrey's husband, may have gotten the same assessment.

 

[Chris2]

Lady Ashley sucks, n’est-ce pas?

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Lady Ashley sucks, n’est-ce pas?

Oui. That's how she got where she is!

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

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?

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

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?

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.

 

[Tony]

I always thought that Lady Ashley knew Amanda in London through Rosalind, because, jet setter that she was, she knew everyone and their mother. She even took photographs of the Queen Mother's birthday.