Should Billy Dee Williams have been brought back for Season 6 ?

[Snarky Oracle!]

Instead of Garrett Boydston?

Billy Dee Williams was, by most accounts, underused for Season 5, and left mid-year because they wouldn't pay him enough (why didn't he have a "Special Guest Star" billing?) wanting a raise from a reported $80,000 to $120,000 per episode, so he went off to do a CBS action series that didn't last.

I thought he was perfect for that period of mid-'80s DYNASTY, and he had a great chemistry with Diahann Carroll (quite unlike Calvin Lockhart).

Should they have coughed up the extra cash and brought Brady Lloyd back for Season 6, his return to Denver inspired by his concern for his ex-wife after the massacre in Moldavia? I can even envision some good scenes between Williams and Charlton Heston (well, two Scorpio Risings).

Perhaps Brady & Dominique could reconcile and remarry. And if Billy Dee didn't want a long-term contract, Brady could die in the La Mirage fire and then Dominique would be richer than ever!

(I have a side-wish that Brady was the father of pasty Sammy Jo, the Daniel Reece character eliminated -- but it's hard to imagine history, let alone DYNASTY history, without the Rock Hudson/AIDS event... But Brady could be drawn to Krystle, as Daniel was, and that would create greater pressure on Brady's marriage, and Dominique's jealousy could facilitate some tension between her and Krystle we never saw after Dominique had assimilated into Denver society..... But that's just me).

 

[Monzo]

Personally, I would have preferred to see The Lloyds as a spin-off rather than The Colbys. Brady possessed the aura and presence required of a patriarch; he could have had adult children from a previous marriage with whom he ran a music business empire. Yet, perhaps it was precisely that presence that made him seem somewhat ill-suited for Dynasty as just a supporting character. I’ve always wondered how Brady’s story would have unfolded in season 5 had Billy Dee Williams stayed. The only scenario I can picture is him acting as a sounding board for Dominique as she navigated her place among the Carringtons—along with constant marital spats and reconciliations (much like Alexis and Dex)—and finally, him dying in the Moldavian massacre, ensuring that the hundreds of flying bullets claimed at least three lives.

To me, the ideal moment to bring Brady back would have been the start of season 7, when Jackie was critically injured. We would have found out that she had always been like a daughter to him—someone he would want to support in this time of need, thereby bringing him closer to Dominique again. Amidst the worry over Jackie, there could have been some beautiful scenes between Dominique and Brady—though beautiful scenes weren't necessarily what Dynasty was aiming to deliver in season 7.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

ersonally, I would have preferred to see The Lloyds as a spin-off rather than The Colby

That's also something I'd thought for years (as only Heston, Stanwyck and Beacham really worked on THE COLBYS).

And if Brady had been killed in the Moldavian hotel fire, Dominique could marry his twin brother -- Grady, and continue on as usual... I'd want the Lloyds' spin-off set somewhere in the swamps of Louisiana, I think.