The Morgan Fairchild Thread

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I can see how they might confuse her with Donna Mills, but a professionally-produced publication should know better.
 

ClassyCo

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I can see how they might confuse her with Donna Mills, but a professionally-produced publication should know better.
Quite. My father has suffered strokes, and having never watched DYNASTY, he just assumed Fairchild had been on it. He did, however, remember FLAMINGO ROAD and her being on that show.

As for the magazine, I think their error is practically inexcusable. I mean, didn't anyone edit the story before pushing it out? I understand that the average person (whether they're a magazine editor/writer or an everyday Joe) wouldn't know a whole lot (if anything) about Morgan Fairchild. Most people today are probably most familiar with her playing Chandler's mother on FRIENDS.

But there should have been a fact checker before the issue hit the shelves. I mean, not that I'm terribly invested, but seeing such an error threw me for a whim.
 

Crimson

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There was an online article recently on ME-TV's website that included an interview with Morgan Brittany. The article repeatedly referred to her as the star of DYNASTY.

I've said it for years, but to most people the 80s soaps are only vaguely remembered and totally blurred together. When DALLAS was coming back to TNT, a few people asked me why Joan Collins wasn't returning.
 

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I am a Morgan Fairchild super fan and wanted to respond to some of the thoughts & questions above. Regarding not joining Dallas in 1983, Morgan has said that she was, in fact, pursued to play Jenna again at this time. The problem was, at the time, she had signed a deal to star in her own sitcom, which was then being developed. (It obviously never materialized) But at the time, if she’d done Dallas, she would have been committing to being an ensemble member (among many) of Dallas; so instead, she gambled on waiting for her own, percolating sitcom. She said it also seemed like the right move because Dallas had so many established main characters, she didn’t see how they could really let Jenna do much. She also felt that as of 1983, Dallas probably didn’t have many seasons left in it. How could she or anyone have known it would run until 1991?…. Regarding her one-year stints on both Falcon Crest and The City, Morgan has said she would have been happy to stay on both shows (I’m sure they were 2 of the most lucrative jobs she ever had), but that in both cases, her one-year contracts were not renewed by the producers/network. She seemed as mystified by this as her fans are. How could they let Morgan Fairchild go, from a show that was so perfect for her like Falcon Crest? In my opinion, besides the main longtime cast, she’s one of the actors people remember most from FC.
 

Snarky Oracle!

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Quite. My father has suffered strokes, and having never watched DYNASTY, he just assumed Fairchild had been on it

I always watched DYNASTY. And even I assume she was on it.

Morgan Fairchild returns to General Hospital on Monday in her role as Haven de Havilland.

Sounds like some cute writer's blending the names of Gloria de Haven and Olivia de Havilland.

And I'm sure it was.

I am a Morgan Fairchild super fan and wanted to respond to some of the thoughts & questions above. Regarding not joining Dallas in 1983, Morgan has said that she was, in fact, pursued to play Jenna again at this time. The problem was, at the time, she had signed a deal to star in her own sitcom, which was then being developed. (It obviously never materialized) But at the time, if she’d done Dallas, she would have been committing to being an ensemble member (among many) of Dallas; so instead, she gambled on waiting for her own, percolating sitcom. She said it also seemed like the right move because Dallas had so many established main characters, she didn’t see how they could really let Jenna do much. She also felt that as of 1983, Dallas probably didn’t have many seasons left in it. How could she or anyone have known it would run until 1991?…. Regarding her one-year stints on both Falcon Crest and The City, Morgan has said she would have been happy to stay on both shows (I’m sure they were 2 of the most lucrative jobs she ever had), but that in both cases, her one-year contracts were not renewed by the producers/network. She seemed as mystified by this as her fans are. How could they let Morgan Fairchild go, from a show that was so perfect for her like Falcon Crest? In my opinion, besides the main longtime cast, she’s one of the actors people remember most from FC.

Fairchild said on THE TONIGHT SHOW, circa 1983 or '84, that she knew "intuitively" to turn down the offer to return to DALLAS, and that her mother almost fainted at how much money her daughter had been offered (and had refused). Fairchild also resisted making a two-episode appearance, shortly before JR was shot, and before FLAMINGO ROAD had started.

And we all know why.

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Poor Morgan. She was right for the '80s nighttime soap genre. And although she kept trying, it's a shame she never quite found her "nest" there. I wish she'd done the two Francine Tacker installments in 1980, despite the presence of Pamzilla, before Presley took over. And her Jordan Roberts role on FALCON CREST, which she's been quoted as saying she'd hoped would turn into something longer, might've been one thing from FC's cluttered Season 5 that should've rolled over into later years of the show (although her incest plotline, or its execution, didn't quite work, IMHO).

Jane Wyman allegedly didn't want lawyers or husband s-- or lawyer-husbands -- to last longer than a year or two.

Frankly, perhaps DYNASTY might have been the place for Morgan Fairchild --- but in what role? That of Lady Ashley? As Frankie on THE COLBYS? As a blending of both Ashley and Frankie (as some, like me, have suggested might have been a clever idea)? Maybe Sarah Curtis? Or a Fallmont, one who survives the avalanche which never happened?

She's too old to play Kwysthteeeeeeeeeeena.

Why haven't I done a title card??

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Snarky Oracle!

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Morgan Fairchild as Nicole Simpson could have been interesting and would have fit well with the guest stars of season 5. With her as Nicole, the character might have stayed around permanently.

Until O.J. killed her. (You were waiting for that joke, right??)
 

Carrie Fairchild

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Regarding her one-year stints on both Falcon Crest and The City, Morgan has said she would have been happy to stay on both shows (I’m sure they were 2 of the most lucrative jobs she ever had), but that in both cases, her one-year contracts were not renewed by the producers/network.
Thanks very much for this info. I’d always assumed that Morgan left The City of her own accord after her year was up, possibly because of it being filmed in New York and her being based in LA. I can only guess that she was let go as a cost cutting measure, as part of the producer’s attempts to keep the struggling show afloat.
 

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What exactly do people know about Morgan and Victoria Principal perhaps having conflict on their one shared episode of Dallas? I’ve seen this implied before but have never been told anything concrete or specific or verifiable?
 

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What exactly do people know about Morgan and Victoria Principal perhaps having conflict on their one shared episode of Dallas? I’ve seen this implied before but have never been told anything concrete or specific or verifiable?

Well, Fairchild said Patrick was a doll.
 

GillesDenver

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Frankly, perhaps DYNASTY might have been the place for Morgan Fairchild --- but in what role? That of Lady Ashley? As Frankie on THE COLBYS? As a blending of both Ashley and Frankie (as some, like me, have suggested might have been a clever idea)? Maybe Sarah Curtis? Or a Fallmont, one who survives the avalanche which never happened?

She's too old to play Kwysthteeeeeeeeeeena.

Why haven't I done a title card??

View attachment 52587
As Marin Dexter ? According to the bible of season 5, Marin was to appear and have an affair with Adam. Also, it would have been revealed at some point that Marin was raped by her own father during her childhood. The same story that Morgan eventually played a season later in "Falcon Crest" (the incest, the love affair with a lawyer...)
 

Snarky Oracle!

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So Sandra Bernhard had problems with Morgan Fairchild. Is that surprising?
I liked them as a couple on Roseanne and wish Morgan Fairchild had been seen there more often.

Fairchild is a good comedic actress and (and this probably hurts her the most in some people's eyes) a nice person. And her idealized Hollywood "look" causes some to dismiss her. The fact that people weren't very nice to her on the ROSEANNE set is interesting, because the reason she was hired for both ROSEANNE and FRIENDS was because she was good, because she could do funny.
 

Snarky Oracle!

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At least Sandra admits she, and apparently the rest of the cast, were not nice to her through no fault of Morgan's. Maybe they were jealous because Morgan is professional, good at comedy and a beautiful blonde.

Since the '70s, "talented" people in Hollywood were supposed to play down the sexy-glamour thing in order to be seen as "legitimate." Fairchild was never going to go that route -- and the fact that she was nice just further convinced people that she was low-status riffraff with the usual excess of hairspray.

Somebody on a managerial level was smart enough to realize how funny she could be, because she was cast in these roles in these well-produced, high-profile shows to do so. But the ground-level snobbery didn't realize that her affable, glossy "movie star" physicality didn't mean that she was talentless, nor did she deserve to be treated like shit.

And, yes, at least Sandra Bernhard corrected the record, as it were.
 
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