CATFIGHTS, SECRETS & BETRAYAL
Four decades on, we’re still addicted to the the ultra-scheming Carrington and Colby clans
Dynasty turns 40!
When top Hollywood producer Aaron Spelling started filming Dynasty, it was very much the “poor” cousin of another huge prime-time US hit series,
Dallas, which was breaking ratings records thanks to hundreds of millions of viewers around the world tuning in to find out who shot JR.
During its first season
Dynasty was overshadowed by Dallas – that is until Joan Collins’ rich and beautiful superb**ch Alexis Carrington Colby made her grand courtroom entrance at the end of season one, shrouded in mystery with her face hidden.
SWEET VS EVIL
But from the instant Joan – who won the role ahead of Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor and Raquel Welch
– was revealed to be Alexis at the start of season two, Dynasty became a whole lot nastier –and the world couldn’t get enough!
Fans lapped up every twist and turn – and dramatic hair-pulling, knockdown catfights – in the legendary feud between evil vixen Alexis, who was often seen dripping in diamonds and wrapped in a mink fur, a and sweet heroine Krystal pla played by Linda Evans. Four-tim Four-times married Alexis was the ex-wife of Krystal’s husba husband, oil magnate Blak Blake (played by the deb debonair John Fo Forsythe), and the tw two women fought l like cat and dog over everything from the family fortune and their degenerate c children to the d dark secrets of both fa families, which were dri drip-fed to fans over nine seasons from 1981 to t 1989.
Set in Denver, Colorado, the series grew rapidly in popularity both here and in the US, where it smashed ratings records to become the number one show in 1985, spawning a fashion and luxury products line and also a short-lived spin-off series, The Colbys.
But despite wrapping up in May 1989, fans still clamoured for more and Dynasty: The Reunion, Dynasty: The Making Of A Guilty Pleasure, Dynasty Reunion: Catfights & Caviar, and the more recent reboot, 2017’s Dynasty, which is still in production and streaming in Australia, came along to satisfy their appetite for high drama.
Joan, who starred alongside such big names as Rock Hudson, Heather Locklear, Catherine Oxenberg, Diahann Carroll, Ali Macgraw and Stephanie Beacham, remained the show’s main drawcard.
The 87-year-old says she knew the series was a hit when fans stopped calling her by her real name.
‘It was the first time you saw a woman who took charge’
“I think it was during that first season. I was driving with my best friend Judy down Mulholland Drive,” she recalls. “There was a bunch of young kids in a car, all waving at me and calling my name, ‘Alexis! Alexis!’ I rolled down the window and waved. They said, ‘We love you! We love you!’ I thought that was very sweet.”
On why her character Alexis still resonates with fans of the remake, Joan says, “I think it was the first time that you saw a woman who was very empowered and took charge, used her wile, and – yes – used her sexuality as well to get what she wanted and didn’t care what people thought about her.”