Weird parallels between DYNASTY and FALCON CREST

[Snarky Oracle!]

DYNASTY was always compared to DALLAS, but the two series which really shared a similar karma -- and a similar trajectory -- are DYNASTY and FALCON CREST.

Some parallels:

**Same theme composer, and many of the same incidental score composers.

**The saintly heroine of both shows was born on November 18, 1942. (Both Sun in Scorpio/Moon in Aries -- with different Rising signs). Who both get brain tumors.

**The resident nut job of both series winds up spilling everybody's secrets in the courtroom finale of the first year, secrets of which the audience already knows the details.

**John Saxon pops up in both.

**They both take a trip to Italy (S1 for FC, S2 for DYNASTY, the same fall of 1981) and they use one of the same establishing shots (which DYNASTY identifies as NORTHERN ITALY in huge letters, nonetheless entitling that episode "The Mideast Meeting" -- although I never saw Rome as being part of the middle east).

**Steven & Claudia and Cole & Katherine Demery dropping a plate on the floor in front of the sink, leasing to a kiss.

**Neurosurgeons who won't neurosurge (Toscanni, Ranson).

**Buried nazi treasure.

**Both shows often visit "The Village" nearby (DYNASTY eventually named theirs "Harmon Springs" -- which I didn't like, and I don't recall that ever named theirs -- although I always want to call it "Tuscany Hollow," even though it seemed to transition from a sleepy rural hamlet into a bustling metropolis in the later years).

**Two bickering women, one of whom is pregnant, run off the road after escaping a party at night, and crash into a construction site.

**Angela appropriating Alexis' white Rolls Royce.

**They both ran nine seasons.

Many other weird little things...

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

One perverse thing that distinguished DYNASTY from the other three '80s nighttime soaps is that the others' Nielsen ratings were, more or less, higher during their better seasons, lower during their worse years.

But DYNASTY's numbers were at the lowest when the show was at its best (although the S7 and S8 tumble was inevitable and warranted).

 

[Lankershim Blasdel 1]

Both shows tried to get Sophia Loren for a short story arc but failed

 

[Lankershim Blasdel 1]

I’m pretty sure I remember the exterior building that was St Dennis Club was also used in FC,
Both intros eventually had “the pivot” followed by the smiling “ oh it’s you”
Did FC actually shoot in Europe?, at least they did location shooting in Napa or wherever that house was.
Unlike Dynasty that went nowhere.
Alexis on location in NYC ‘s streets to find Krystle’s ex husband, sure that would have been cool.
B&K’s honeymoon on location in Rio, fantastic yea.
The cast actually filming at that hotel in Acapulco
instead of a windowless banquet room set, perfection.
Back to the similarities:
Both shows were only really good the first 2 seasons
Vicky’s recast didn’t really matter because neither did the character unlike the Dynasty children.The first Vicky was much better though

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Did FC actually shoot in Europe?, at least they did location shooting in Napa or wherever that house was.
Unlike Dynasty that went nowhere.

FC never went to Europe, only Napa.

But even last night, I was marveling how chic FC (in its early years) could feel, even during the last half of the season when they're back in Hollywood, with all those dark, trendy little bistros and bars and five-star restaurants they visited that looked so atmospheric and upscale; they're using Los Angeles clubs very effectively, not over-lighting them, and so they could be anywhere.

That's where FC's lack of flat-lighting during Seasons 2 & 3 was such a benefit. Everything exists in this shrouded world called "Tuscany Valley" and nearby San Francisco.

As a result, when the mid-season exodus from Napa happened and the filming team returned to Southern California each year, the transition was less-jarring than you might expect (except for those fake-terrace scenes on the Falcon Crest porch at Lorimar, which they rarely tried very hard to perfect)... DALLAS sometimes just redressed their restaurant studio sets to look like another restaurant set, and hoped we wouldn't notice (when Bobby visits Donna in Washington during Season 10, there is almost no attempt to obscure the fact that it's really just one of their stock restaurant sets, used repeatedly) but the DALLAS flat-lighting prevented us from being fooled about re-used locations; I'm not sure where the interiors for "Madisons" were shot. DALLAS' use of Los Angeles restaurants was okay-ish, mostly non-descript, could be anyplace.

While DYNASTY, in contrast, never left the studio at all. Unless it was to film in front of an L.A. courthouse or something, never even bothering to keep the "L.A. Courthouse" sign out of camera view or at least a little blurry.

I'm not sure if DYNASTY was really more studio-bound than the other shows, but it certainly felt like it was. But that's probably as much the series' eternally suffocated psychology as its limited locational physicality.

Both shows were only really good the first 2 seasons

And perhaps the third -- though FC's Season 3 was much better.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Angela was much more concerned (obsessed?) with the legacy she received from her ancestors and keeping that legacy intact as she passed it on to her descendants than Blake Carrington ever was. In that sense, Dynasty was a much more appropriate name for Falcon Crest. If there had not been a show already on the air called Dynasty, Angela could have used that word more often to describe what she was protecting and growing.

 

[Lankershim Blasdel 1]

Angela had a reason to be obsessed, she thought her brother and his nephew were too weak to keep it going so she had to take it all over.
Alexis on the other hand didn’t care about her husbands company other than the comfortable life it gave her. Her daughter had the business interests.
Alexis cared even less about Colby co or Cecil so her obsession with running and holding on to a multi billion dollar business and the work that went into it made no sense after being introduced as a total slacker.
The Agretti Cumson marriage like the Fallon Jeff union made sense to strengthen the empire
what would making DC going broke or taken up under Colby do in the long run.
Alexis only wanted to get in Blake’s pants nothing more and taking his company away then him getting it back over and over was dumb.
JR and Jock needed to take out Cliff Barnes because his political ambition was a threat to them and when he inherited his mothers company he needed to be taken out because of the same reason
Melissa like Fallon were the true heir’s to the empires

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Angela had a reason to be obsessed, she thought her brother and his nephew were too weak to keep it going so she had to take it all over.
Alexis on the other hand didn’t care about her husbands company other than the comfortable life it gave her. Her daughter had the business interests.
Alexis cared even less about Colby co or Cecil so her obsession with running and holding on to a multi billion dollar business and the work that went into it made no sense after being introduced as a total slacker.
The Agretti Cumson marriage like the Fallon Jeff union made sense to strengthen the empire
what would making DC going broke or taken up under Colby do in the long run.
Alexis only wanted to get in Blake’s pants nothing more and taking his company away than him getting it back over and over was dumb.
JR and Jock needed to take out Cliff Barnes because his political ambition was a threat to them and when he inherited his mothers company he needed to be taken out because of the same reason

That's the thing about the lazy way in which Alexis and DYNASTY were written: she never did anything!!

JR Ewing, Abby Cunningham and Angela Channing always had a dozen little scams going at any given moment, minor little plots and manipulations to rob, ruin, or impugn somebody else; some of these things the viewer knew about in real time, others they'd learn about later.

But those schemes were always bouncing around. And indicated that these shows' main villains were always engaged, always looking past today's conspiracy with their eyes on the next. So we assumed they were taking all types of actions away from the camera we weren't conscious of (like running a major corporation).

Not so with Alexis and DYNASTY. She was after a lifestyle -- and got it. Like a gold-digging wife. All she did was deliver put-downs apathetically, haughtily bark at people to leave her office, and eat chocolate-covered strawberries while dragging Blake into court every couple of years to prove he killed somebody else we knew he hadn't (at least, after Ted Dinard).

Oh, DYNASTY -- we hardly knew ye.

 

[Lankershim Blasdel 1]

she never did anything!!

In season 2 she had schemes all over the place
Why did that change after her season 3 wedding episode.
Alexis laughed when Rashid called her a businessman, exactly when did they decide to turn her into one? The fortune teller episode way back in season 2?
What lazy writing to let her come and go into the house after admitting though lying that it was whoops an accident that she aimed a gun at his pregnant wife ,he knew she way lying to him. imagine letting someone in your house after that.why not bulldoze her studio, season 1 he would have thrown her ass out of the country again, using that you’re on probation wouldn’t have mattered to him and he was powerful enough to get away with it. He also had a witness in Tony but let her plan her wedding on his property.
They always wrote that she was afraid of Blake’s wrath but he never did anything to her no matter what crap she pulled, The very first episode of 3 she was back in the house like nothing happened.
Season 3 really had no redeeming value at all, it was over artistically.
Blake should have used JR like good ol’ boys or Dobermans knocking on her studio door the next morning, the beginning of the end
Once they moved studios and didn’t bring her studio set along her power over them was over.
Look at how JR had Sue Ellen manhandled off of the ranch so many times, if that happened to Alexis then her desperation to marry Cecil asap would have been much more desperate. And him dying even though she was married would have made her isolated and scared still
That had to have been the original plan with Sophia Loren, cause the accident then get out quick back to Mexico, it was awkward keeping a character around after such a horrible move and I guess they had no option but ignore it once Alexis was going to stick around

Alexis was never ever this scared or vulnerable ever again

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

In season 2 she had schemes all over the place
Why did that change after her season 3 wedding episode.

Well, sure. But after Season 2, they were no longer telling a story about characters in which they were invested. DYNASTY quickly just became a display, a display of couture and attitude.

 

[GillesDenver]

In season 3 Alexis married Cecil at the hospital, ruined Neal McVane's career, brought Mark back in Krystle' life in order to invalidate her marriage to Blake, separated Mark from Fallon by pure jealousy...
She certainly did a lot of bad things.
It's in season 4 that she started to weaken while becoming a "strong" business woman.

 

[Lankershim Blasdel 1]

Alexis should have went along with Adam’s plan to poison Jeff like they originally intended, Mark Jennings was a dud of a storyline so I guess I forgot about it.
Season 4 she dug up dirt on Kirby’s mother then presented her with the info while she was still recovering from losing her son’s daughter and thinking her mother was dead, that was pretty bad but she should have sent the violets and phone calls to Claudia, she was trying to break them up anyway so go for it.
Season 5 i cannot remember one bad thing she did nor in the horrible season 6 even in the second half it was all ridiculous how they just pivoted into maniac mode with no motivation other than Blake declining her advances, lazy writing
Imagine in season 4 Alexis’ chauffeur backing up that giant old Rolls and pinning Krystle up against the garage because her giant hat she insisted on wearing in the car was blocking his view while she was telling him it was all clear (purely accidental on her part) after leaving little Blake’s birthday celebration.
Actually Krystle should have gotten pregnant every season and Alexis causing an “accident” each time until season 9 then again in the reunion .Krystle never learned to keep her mouth shut until she delivered.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Alexis should have went along with Adam’s plan to poison Jeff like they originally intended, Mark Jennings was a dud of a storyline so I guess I forgot about it.

Joan would have refused to allow Alexis to poison Jeff. Mark Jennings' plotline died on the vine of bad casting.

Season 4 she dug up dirt on Kirby’s mother then presented her with the info while she was still recovering from losing her son’s daughter and thinking her mother was dead, that was pretty bad but she should have sent the violets and phone calls to Claudia, she was trying to break them up anyway so go for it.

Kirby's mother was a very important backstory they dropped as quickly as it popped up, DYNASTY being DYNSTY.

Season 5 i cannot remember one bad thing she did

Alexis was now just the series' Key Fabulosity. Other than hiding, and then marrying off, Amanda, what did Alexis do?

Alexis should have accused Krystle of murdering Tracey Kendall when Tracey's body is found on the edge of town, because Alexis witnessed Krystle slapping Tracey from the hallway at Denver-Carrington only days before Tracey disappeared.

All while Alexis herself was on trial for killing Mark Jennings --- which Alexis tries to parlay into clearing herself by Krystle being charged with Mark's murder.

I just hope Sammy Jo didn't kill everybody.

Actually Krystle should have gotten pregnant every season and Alexis causing an “accident” each time until season 9 then again in the reunion .Krystle never learned to keep her mouth shut until she delivered.

Ha!!

Likewise, Blake should have killed one of Steven's gay lovers every year.... Put the "Die" and the "Nasty" in DYNASTY, dammit!

 

[Lankershim Blasdel 1]

Alicia Anders who could have played her, Diahann Carrol but who else.
She could have been a great character but instead delivered Dominique, Lady Ashley and Daniel Reese, each brought absolutely nothing to the story

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Alicia Anders who could have played her

Or "Alycia Aynders" depending on which headstone you ask:

 

[Lankershim Blasdel 1]

Sean “Aynders “Rowan, wouldn’t it have been easier to let the bitch drown

our resident villainess who foolishly drank the water in Mexico and had a violent episode one night on the toilet, decided sure why not while being extremely dehydrated and not thinking clearly to marry him after he shows up at her bungalow with a box of Imodium AD
He should have been a son of Blake who he never knew existed by a woman he dumped for Alexis who lived in squaller, raised him alone only to die a broken woman but not before telling him who he really was, a la Kate Torrence.
The casting department really didn’t give a sh#t anymore obviously

 

[Willie Oleson]

Angela had a reason to be obsessed, she thought her brother and his nephew were too weak to keep it going so she had to take it all over.

She's never had any intention to share Falcon Crest with her brother, and as for Chase, he was very determined hence why she couldn't control him.
I'm not saying that greed and lust for power aren't reasons but it's definitely not an excuse.

Alexis on the other hand didn’t care about her husbands company other than the comfortable life it gave her. Her daughter had the business interests.

Fallon wasn't very ambitious, she wanted Steven to be ambitious because that would please Blake. A complex character indeed.