"The rich are different." - Fallon Colby Carrington (Pamela Sue Martin) in "The Dinner Party"
Dynasty: The Complete First Season DVD Review
By Kate Heilman
Ah, the 1980s. . .the decade of big hair, even bigger shoulder pads, and the go-go market on Wall Street. In 1981, in response to the ratings juggernaut that was CBS' Dallas, ABC launched its own primetime soap to explore the lives of the rich and hateful: Dynasty. Dynasty's first season, surprisingly enough, broke new ground for television by introducing the first sympathetic and (fairly) non-stereotypical gay character to mainstream American audiences. Simultaneously, it also made history as the first show to allow the profanity "bitch" to be uttered. But I digress. During the first season of Dynasty - which pop culture historians have pretty much unanimously determined summed up the flagrant greed and consumerism of the "Me" Decade - the cat fights, outrageous fashion, and ridiculous storylines which would ultimately define the series are largely absent, and superseded by the wretched suffering and personal tribulations of two central families: the blue-blooded Carringtons and the blue-collar Blaisdels.
There is stiff competition among the characters for the coveted Pity Award for Most Unhappy Life. The patriarch of the Carrington clan and the anchor for the series is Blake (John Forsythe), whose determination, ruthlessness and hard work built a massive oil empire from scratch. While hugely successful in business, Blake's family life is a mess: his daughter, Fallon (Pamela Sue Martin, fresh from her days as Nancy Drew), is a spoiled and aimless rich girl whose main hobby is sleeping with every man in sight, and his disappointment of son, Steven (Al Corley), suffers from "curious New York ways" (my new favorite euphemism for homosexuality), and defies his father at every turn. Entering into this happy family unawares is Krystle (The Big Valley's Linda Evans), whose marriage to Blake is the central event of the series three-hour pilot, "Oil, Parts 1-3." As Blake's former secretary, Krystle acts as the show's moral compass (in the words of the series co-creator, Esther Shapiro), trying to bring decency to the strange and often sinister world of the rich, where the rules are often very different.
Interwoven with the misadventures of the fabulously wealthy Carringtons are the humdrum stories of the fabulously tiresome Blaisdels. Matthew Blaisdel (Bo Hopkins) is the (relatively) stand-up, decent everyman of the show, whose one failing is that he once had an affair with Krystle while his wife, Claudia (Pamela Bellwood) was recovering from a nervous breakdown in a mental institution. After her recovery and release from the booby hatch, Claudia spends the first half of the series on the verge of tears over everyday, miniscule problems, which unfortunately does not make for the most interesting television. A woman too depressed to get out of bed and on the verge of tears over a burnt cake does not make for fabulous drama. Snore. But without a doubt, the most pathetic character of the series is the Blaisdels' slightly dumpy Mary Ingalls-lookalike daughter, Lindsay (Little House on the Prairie's stock player Katy Kurtzman). Throughout the first season, Lindsay experiences enough teenage angst to send her to a mental institution - the stigma of her mother's depression, an almost "date rape" moment with a boy from school, finding out that she was born out of wedlock, witnessing her mother's affair. While the cumulative effect of all these tragedies does not make for great drama, it does often produce a few snickers.
Filmed with the look and feel of a lavish '80s mini-series, complete with a sweeping musical score, wide scenic shots, and haute couture costumes, Dynasty has a self-importance and seriousness about it that was lacking in its primary rival of the day, Dallas. As a former hard-core nighttime soap opera fan, I was shocked at the often slow and plodding pace of Dynasty: The Complete First Season. The unforgettable villainess Alexis Colby (Joan Collins), the sophisticated, cynical and ruthless businesswoman who became an archetype of the 1980s is nowhere to be seen. . .her character enters during the last scene of the last episode. At least half of the early episodes are taken up by the soporific story line of the Blaisdels. Both the Carringtons and the Blaisdels are blindingly dysfunctional, and have more problems between them than all the After School Specials ever produced put together. The producers of Dynasty soon learned, however, that the audience had no interest in seeing their everyday problems reflected on screen by the fictional Blaisdels, but instead clamored for the glittering fantasy world of the rich and powerful Carringtons.
For the soap opera genre that thrives on stories filled with amnesia, lost children appearing twenty years later, and other such unlikely events, the driving force of the first season of Dynasty is character development and the exploration of 1980s "issues" - feminism, greed, the American oil crisis, homosexuality - rather than outrageous story lines. We enter the world of the Carringtons through Krystle's character, who gradually and painfully discovers that money cannot buy happiness, and that Blake is not what he at first seemed to be. Krystle is more than a little lost in the new world of the wealthy.
The three-hour pilot tracks Krystle's trepidation and her vacillation about marrying Blake. Krystle thinks that Blake has manipulated the situation by bringing back her ex-boyfriend, Matthew Blaisdel, from the Middle East to test if she still has feelings for him. Meanwhile, Blake avoids his son Steven, who has just returned to Denver for his father's wedding. Near the end of the pilot, however, the shocking reason for Blake's cold shoulder is revealed, when he fumes at his son "How the hell can anybody respect the opinion of a man who put his hands on another man?" Clearly, Blake has some issues with his son's sexual orientation.
Those are not all of Blake's issues, of course. As Krystle soon discovers, Blake is at turns loving and protective, brutal and violent. He demands blind devotion and loyalty from his servants, employees and family and is willing to punish them, physically and/or emotionally, if they disobey. In both his professional and personal life, Blake resembles more of a 19th century robber baron that a 1980s businessman. Although Blake's daughter Fallon is bright, business savvy, as ruthless as her father, and a natural successor for his empire, Blake never considers her as a possibility to head his company. Fallon's role, as for all the women in Blake's life, is to marry, bear children and emotionally support a husband. Fallon does not fit Blake's ideal, of course, and her frustration at being passed over emerges in her multiple affairs and cynical attitude. Blake's worldview is summed up in "Oil, Part 3," when Fallon explains over billiards, "There's an unwritten law at Denver Carrington, at the upper management level there are no blacks, no Jews, no Eskimos, and no women." When Fallon fulfills her father's expectation to marry a man she despises (Jeff Colby, played by John James), the goody-goody heir to the powerful rival Colby Oil Company, in "Fallon's Wedding," she only does this to save her father's company and not to fit into her father's misogynous role for his daughter.
Oil and the vaguely referenced crisis in the Middle East serve as the backdrop for the first season of Dynasty. Pitted against the greedy oil giant of Denver Carrington, Matthew Blaisdel and his partner Walter (Dale Robertson) struggle to achieve another American dream - that of the small business - and not be gobbled up by the oil Wal-mart of the day. Obsessed with annihilating this small business - which does not even find oil until near the end of the season - Blake will stop at nothing to shut them down. Spies and saboteurs are hired, as banks are bullied into not lending money. Disgusted by this vindictive side of Blake, and in secret defiance of her husband, Krystle gives Matthew a valuable emerald necklace to keep his oil rig operation in the black in "The Bordello." The other painful story line of this episode involves Steven's fellow co-workers trying to "make a man" of him by bringing him to a bordello. The less said about this humiliating and dated storyline, the better.
Of course, Krystle's dirty little secrets (along with everyone else's) are soon revealed by the chauffeur-turned-spy extraordinaire, Michael (Wayne Northrop) in "Krystle's Lie, Part 1," and "The Necklace, Part 2." Blake discovers another secret that incenses him to the point of violence: Krystle has been taking birth control pills without his knowledge. To the ultimate control freak who desperately wants a baby, this "betrayal" is a breaking point for Blake and the episode ends with him "reclaiming" his dominance over Krystle by raping her. In many ways the typical abusive husband, Blake returns the next day with flowers to apologize and to explain his violent act against his wife as his strong desire to have a part of him live on in her by having a child. The ever-dutiful and loving wife Krystle forgives him.
Time and time again, the audience is confronted with Blake's violent temper and his obsession to control those in his life. In "The Beating," Blake has the chauffeur savagely beaten to punish him for sleeping with his married daughter Fallon. In this testosterone-driven world, Michael has broken the code and must pay. Blake's temper and homophobia lead to a murderous rage when Blake finds Steven and his former lover in a tender embrace in "The Separation." Blake misinterprets this goodbye hug as a passionate act, and pushes Ted away from his son, thus causing the hapless ex-lover to strike his head on the fireplace and die. . .a convenient end for the network's, and Blake's, discomfort with Steven's homosexuality.
Ted's death, and Blake's ensuing trial, provides Dynasty: The Complete First Season with the perfect venue to bring all the issues and relationships that have developed to a head. In classic soap opera fashion, the season cliffhanger ends with Blake's personal life and beliefs on trial, pitting family members against each other. Marriages are destroyed, brother and sister (Steven and Fallon) are torn apart, and a son is estranged from his father. The final shocker is the surprise witness for the prosecution - the first Mrs. Blake Carrington, who left her husband and her children over sixteen years ago.
The thirteen episodes that make up Dynasty: The Complete First Season are arranged in airdate order on four dual-sided discs. The discs are housed in two slim, clear keepcases, one featuring a publicity photo of Blake and Krystle, and the other featuring the veiled Alexis Carrington. The back covers include smaller production stills, as well as the titles, brief summaries and airdates for each episode. The two keepcases slide into a cardboard sleeve that repeats the pictures of Alexis, Blake and Krystle. The DVD menus begin with the glittering scroll of the Dynasty opening sequence, followed by alternating images of the main characters, with composer Bill Conti's memorable score playing in the background.
