Nice review. I'll have to get the set now. Was waiting to hear about the picture quality. I thought the initial announcement said they'd be Pamela Sue Martin commentaries, but I guess not. Oh well. Maybe on Season 2.
When Dynasty was shown on cable in Australia a couple of years ago, all the prints were uncut and had the 'previously on Dynasty intros. So there's no real reason why the eps should be cut. The prints do exist. The OIL premiere was cut up into three eps as was The Reunion cut up into 6 or so individual eps rather than presented as the mini-series as it was orginally shown.
Late last year,I saw an interview with Linda Evans,on Larry King Live,and she said that John Forsythe was not the first actor to play the role of Blake Carrington.She said that George Peppard was originally cast in the role.Disagreements between Peppard and the producers led to him quitting and being replaced by Forsythe.This leads to my question.Did Peppard have any epsiodes "in the can" before him quitting and,if so,would the pilot with him be shown as an extra,ala the Three's Company pilots with the different actresses playing Janet and Chrissy?
The Peppard story is true- in fact, I've seen color stills of George as Blake from the aborted first version of the pilot. He had already filmed the Blake/Krystle wedding scenes with Linda Evans, Pamela Sue Martin and Al Corley before he and the producers parted company. For Aaron Spelling, it was a blessing is disguise since he finally got his first choice John Forsythe (who initially turned the part down) to accept the role of Blake Carrington. They merely reshot the few scenes George Peppard did (the pilot was still in production) and went on from there.
I do not know if any Peppard filmed footage survives, but there are the production stills.
Did season 1 actually have 'previously on Dynasty' intros originally? That review doesn't mention them at all (either as present or missing). I used to love those bits on tv shows (and especially this one!) and do hope they are kept for the future seasons on dvd.
The George Peppard stills were shown during the "Dynasty: E! True Hollywood Story" docu.