Continuity errors and retcons

[GillesDenver]

Quite an interesting read :
https://dynastytv.fandom.com/wiki/Continuity_errors_and_retcons

 

[tommie]

Cristal celebrates her engagement with two friends, who later feature in her wedding. These seemingly close friends of Cristal are never seen or referenced again after the pilot.

This is very OldDynasty.

• Alexis meets with a psychic who reveals that she is going to marry a man, but he will expire. This is inspired by a similar storyline from the 1980s Dynasty, but the prophecy never plays out as Alexis remarries two additional times: first to Jeff Colby, which ends in divorce ("The Sensational Blake Carrington Trial", "Vows Are Still Sacred"), and then to Dex Dexter, who is nearly lost in a plane crash but ultimately rescued. ("Vicious Vendetta", "Catch 22")

I assume Dex would've expired at the end of season 5 if the show had gotten renewed. Obviously nixed it.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Josh Reims mentioned in a post-finale interview that they (the writers/producers) had spent a lot of time choosing who was going to be on that downed plane. He gave the impression that they were tossing around many other main characters' names, so I don't think the plane crash was written to be Dex's exit story. He just happened to be the one they settled on after the story twist had been written/planned. The scenes we saw sort of prove this, since so much time was spent with Blake and especially Alexis as they reluctantly joined forces and traipsed around in the woods* but there were only brief glimpses of Dex as he emerged from the brush and hugged Alexis, never to be seen onscreen again (at least I don't think we saw him again). He wasn't seen struggling to survive or being in any sort of jeopardy in the build-up to the rescue, which says to me that his inclusion was....well, a formality.

* Months before, there were rumors about the show having a "major nighttime shoot" out in the woods as part of the finale, leading some to think they were going to mount an homage to Fallon's UFO kidnapping. Apparently it turned out to be these scenes, though the weird lighting led me to think they'd actually shot the scenes in the daytime and done that "day-to-night" film process.

 

[Lankershim Blasdel 1]

Clearly it was going to be Jeff that “expired” making way for Alexis’ rise to power. NS abrupt departure obviously sidetracked that plot and then they decided to keep Jeff on during season 3.
I never thought the Dex character was in any danger of dying to fulfill a plot from season 2, he was hardly on screen to matter and at that point Alexis was already rich .
Of all the inconsistencies I think the early Dominique scene where she’s talking to someone asking about the kids was the biggest plot hole, and how she was receiving checks from Blake when season 1 her mother called Millie confessing who her father was.
The OG Dynasty’s had the most inconsistencies of all the other night time soaps, they changed backstories, ages of characters, years being married , coming from poverty to coming from wealth, The CW ones are pretty trivial, well most of them anyway.
The biggest inconsistencies of that show was not being able to keep their Cristal's and Alexis’ . all those recasts were jarring for a show that lasted only 5 seasons. I’m sure those daytime soap opera s that lasted decades had less character recasts.

 

[tommie]

The OG Dynasty’s had the most inconsistencies of all the other night time soaps, they changed backstories, ages of characters, years being married , coming from poverty to coming from wealth, The CW ones are pretty trivial, well most of them anyway.

I agree that most of the things are pretty trivial, but then again the landscape has changed a lot - back when Dynasty aired VCR was a new thing and no one really expected people to watch an episode more than one time, so they probably felt like they could write it for what suited at the moment. Today, we have easy streaming access and of course online spaces, so people probably do expect more from a show these days.

I agree that Jeff seemed to be the one to fulfill the show's initial Alexis rise to power. With that said, it wouldn't surprise me if they had killed Dex off, mostly because they really spent no time in trying to develop him more than Alexis's supportive lover/husband. Her taking over DexCo for season 6 would've put her on a different level on wealth that would mean she could go toe-to-toe with Blake.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I guess I just have a different definition of "inconsistency," as I never think of recasts as a (plot) problem. It might count if there is a inconsistency in how the character gets recast (such as when Amer-Asian Blair Cramer was recast with a tall, white woman on One Life to Live). But other than minor changes in her motivation, the C2-to-C3 recast did not change the character too radically. There were many more problems with the Alexis situation, they handled that situation poorly, no doubt, and I can't help but imagine it would have been easier to work out since they had an in-story explanation for her changing looks/attitude.

But I recall getting a good laugh over Elaine Hendrix playing Alexis in the flashbacks we saw in the "death of Evelyn" story, since of course she didn't look like that in the 1990s or whenever that fb happened. Bringing NS back would have been great fun but not likely. So it would have been ideal to have the whole flashback filmed from Alexis's point of view, where EH could simply provide voice-over and an occasional hand in the shots. Maybe they no longer cared since the show was ending anyway; I mean, look how the whole plot with Ben was abandoned and not even mentioned after that break.

I tend to "fill in the blanks" when a plot inconsistency occurs, trying to come up with an explanation. I thought Blake could have been sending checks to Dom all those years to keep her quiet about his father's affair with her mother, with neither aware that Dom was the product of that affair. Tom traveled in a circle of bigots so the very idea of him having an affair with a black woman would have ruined his business relationships with those movers and shakers in Atlanta. So Blake thought the secret was just the affair, and they only later found out there was more to that secret.

 

[Lankershim Blasdel 1]

Kirby in the S1 cliffhanger sitting on her luggage putting a cigarette out on the floor of Carrington manor when we never saw Kirby smoke despite her initial bad girl introduction.
But when Monica saw she had spent the night at Jeff’s place her reply was she’s sleeping with guys now.
They showed Kirby being taken away to Australia when she looked like she was 12 or 13 the oldest so how would Monica have known who Kirby slept with.
I disagree about recasts not being plot inconsistencies.
Daniella was nothing like Ana Brenda nor was Elaine like Nicolette.
They both looked nothing alike (plastic surgery aside ) and brought their own take on the role. These cast changes happened early in the series, that and the change of show runner from season 2 to 3 probably had a lot to do with much of what that article was pointing out.
I doubt NS would have agreed or would have been offered to do that flashback scene.
They obviously parted on bad terms, why would they have clowned her and her character with the mummy wearing a turban and with that god awful Liz Gilles as Alexis fiasco.
Recast aside that’s when that character was ruined beyond repair.
I’d say they stopped caring about quality in season 3.