okay, tomorrow night goldie. not tonight. we spoke on the phone for about 2 hours and i spoke to her mother for at least an hour. at the end of it, her mother said, 'you probably have too much.' i said, 'no, i'll just sit down, read over everything and pull some together.'
she said, 'well you have more energy than i do, i'm just going to crash in front of the tv and watch dynasty.'
i said, 'oh i used to love that show. i haven't watched it in syndication but i know every episode.'
that's when she says, 'oh, no, this is a reunion special.'
i said 'what!' and i'm grabbing for the papers. i see the arts section of the new york times which i never got to. there it is. i'm reading parts of it to her and i see this 1 part about al corely only on being on the show for a year.
what?
when tv talk 'years' in tv, they usually mean seasons. he was on the first season of dynasty - which wasn't a full season and he was on the second season. that's when he leaves, with 2 seasons under his belt. so goldie's mother and i, her name is marlene by the way, are talking about that and then we're talking about dynasty. she said she had a pint of mint cholocate chip in the freezer that she'd puchased for this and that she used to watch the show with friends. i usually watched it on the phone with friends. she said we should watch together and i did have some ice cream in the freezer too (rocky road).
so we watched and laughed and remembered.
it was really fun and we were talking about alexis and fallon and how big a deal they were. a lot of people compare it to dallas but dynasty was way ahead of dallas. joan collins didn't play a dish rag like sue ellen. she wasn't always the victim. the women on dallas were like house pets until pam left bobby (many, many years later - and after dynasty was a hit). they were useless.
donna reed came on as miss ellie and a lot of people didn't like that. i didn't have anything against barbara bel geddes but i honestly thought donna reed brought a little life to the show.
i really felt like you had to enjoy being a doormat to watch dallas if you were a woman.
marlene didn't believe what i'd said. why? she felt the same way.
'what was the best soap on prime time?' she asked and we both said 'knots landing!' together.
but it wasn't until dynasty that knots landing finally became a decent show.
they didn't know what they were doing with that show. then dynasty came along and showed that women could do a little more than say 'oh bobby' and 'oh j.r.'
or lucy with her prolonged childhood. if it weren't for the sexually acting out, she would have had nothing to offer as a character.
and never det me started on that hideous woman ray krebbs married.
but for awhile, it was the only show in town. then came dynasty and women weren't just sitting on the sidelines while bobby and j.r. and jock duked it out over ewing oil.
dynasty also had hotties. not a lot.
the first year was the best. you had matthew blaisdel who was hot. you had al corley who was hot. and john james who was just so pretty.
i don't think he could act at all but he was very pretty.
after corley left they brought on jack coleman and he was just not my type, that face shape was just not anything i'd be interested in. it was like a box with a little pointy chin attached.
after the first year of alexis (the 2nd season), dynasty had such an impact that abby (donna mills) went from annoyance on knots landing to first class bitch.
we were done with the family type drama and in soap territory.
and then knots landing took off. and women could be front and center.
joan collins, linda evans and pamela sue martin pushed it. give them and dynasty credit. but blake carrington always had to come out on top. on knots landing, abby could win, she could lose.
and once that happened there was real reason for karen to stand up for val. i thought i was the only 1 who never cared for val during all that time of nuttiness but marlene was worse about val than i was. 'she left her kid years ago and she's going to spend her whole life whining?' and we couldn't stand laura until she was about to leave richard. the women were dish rags on that show. even abby was 'little sister' depending on her big brother.
dynasty allowed women to do more than sit around the table shooting glances. sue ellen was so boring. pam was a drip until she left bobby.
so we talked about that and we talked about the scenes that got included and the 1s that didn't.
where was sammy jo? we saw her in 1 scene, for a 2nd.
just because heather locklear didn't want to do the reunion doesn't mean they couldn't use the scenes.
i didn't see kathleen beller sit down with the cast but they showed kirby.
marlene pointed out that they didn't show diahann carroll either. she wasn't invited to the chat. but that's how they treated her character the whole time. the minute that she wasn't playing kirby's mother, they didn't know what to do with her.
i liked joan collins' fire and humor. i did wonder about the fact that alexis wore wigs.
was she supposed to or was that a glitch? in one episode, she had short hair, then we see her at her apartment lifting free weights and wearing this hideous blue body suit and her hair's very long.
joan collins changed tv. there's no getting around it. linda evans, no offense, but she was 1 person. when joan collins came on, suddenly it was 'women.' and women were more than the aunt beas. joan collins showed that a mature woman could be a lead, could be sexy and funny. she didn't have to be some 1 standing on the sidelines. she was powerful, she was mean, she was tender, she was funny and she looked incredible.
but you could love alexis, you just couldn't identify with her. marlene said she always identified with fallon. me too!
as played by pamela sue martin, we both agreed. emma samms was hideous.
they shouldn't have even had her on the show. she was part of the colbys. they brought her back on dynasty just to spin off that show. then what, she got kidnapped by a ufo or something? i didn't watch, no 1 did. the worst thing about it being cancelled was that emma samms came over to dynasty.
she was awful. it was like battle of the bad daytime stars between her and jack coleman. you felt like they'd slashed the budget and moved the show to daytime.
heather locklear was good as sammy jo, we both agreed on that.
but pamela bellwood was always too nutty and creepy.
'1 life ends and another begins, little lindsey,' she said and that was probably her best moment.
sammy jo was so much better after she came back - her voice was lower (i think heather locklear had taken voice lessons) and she was much more complex.
worst guest star?
we think henry kissenger was on and he would be the absolute worst.
after him, we'd say ali magraw.
but we could take her with jeff. it was just when lady ashley was going after blake.
why any woman wanted blake was beyond both of us.
al corley was hot. whether stephen was gay or straight, he was hot.
after dynasty, he ended up on bare essance. marlene watched that religiously. i saw the mini-series. i'm not sure if he was in that or not. but i remember genie francis was and she was in the show. but linda evens, who was in the 'mini-series' (2 episodes) wasn't in the tv series and donna mills wasn't either.
when people watch desparate housewives, they're seeing a bunch of tiny girls. joan collins played a woman. alexis wasn't a bimbo.
we were talking about least favorite storylines. (anything with emma samms.) and it was just amazing how much we could remember.
what would have made the special better? just have pamel sue martin, al corely, linda evans and joan collins talking.
with john james and michael nader (dex) missing, we started wondering what they did that kept them from being on or being invited.
so that's the point of tonight's entry. and if you were a young girl or woman when dynasty came on, you know how much of an impact joan collins, linda evans and pamela sue anderson had on tv.
