Dynasty Season 9 Announced (2 Viewers)

[Brian Himes]

Well, I've finished watching the final season of Dynasty. What can I say? Compared to the previous three seasons this one is definitely heads and shoulders better. I really like the more streamlined cast. It kept the stories more tight and moving forward. There seemed to be less dead wood (cast or stories) floating around. While long time viewers certainly spotted the huge plot hole with the whole Roger Grimes story, this didn't drag down the pacing. Once you suspended your disbelief on that matter, the story was engaging and moved swiftly to its conclusion. The addition of Sable Colby to the cast was, in my opinion, very, very welcome. She hit the ground running and didn't let up. I loved each and every one of her confrontations with Alexis. Sadly, the inevitable cat fight between the two was just not up to par and was a mere shadow of some of the best ones between Krystle and Alexis. Sable and Alexis should have had an all out knock down drag out no holds barred fight. The story was building to that and only gave us a bit of tumbling around on a lobby table of the Carlton.

If I found one thing disappointing in the entire season (and series for that matter) is that not once in the eight years that Alexis was on the series did she ever get the genuine beat down that she deserved. Instead of her winning, yet again, at the end of season 9, the writers should have at last let her lose everything, and I do mean everything. It was done to Blake more than once, but Alexis never, ever in eight years so much as lost an earring. That is poor writing in my opinion. Alexis's life should have been laid waste at least once so that we could watch her scratch and claw her way back. The end of season 9 was just the opportunity and the writers chickened out. Sable was just the one to at last bring Alexis down, at least for a while. What a missed opportunity.

Also, ABC was short sighted by cancelling the series. With the quality of season 9 on the up swing, ABC should have renewed the series for one more season. ABC should have further made it 100% clear that season 10 would be the last season. That way the writers would have had enough time to fully bring the story to a satisfying conclusion. Sadly, the writers would probably have seen this as a way to bring back everyone who had ever been on the series to make a cameo or token appearance instead of crafting good stories that moved towards a good conclusion.

For the life of me, I will never understand why the networks take a show out of a time slot where it's a ratings winner and move it to a losing time slot. While Dynasty was on a rating decline all during the 8th season, ABC should not have moved it from its Wednesday night time slot. Yes, I know ABC wanted to kill the show off. That much is evident with several of the cost cutting measures imposed on the final season. Instead of letting it die a slow death, ABC should have told the producers that season 9 was going to be the last and left the show in the original time slot. Why networks don't do this is beyond me. While Dynasty was no longer the networks darling show, it did deserve to go out better than it did.

After viewing the final season, I see why Dynasty: The Reunion was a poor, poor conclusion. It just didn't make any sense in context of the final season.

 

[Powell&Pressburger]

Brian - nice run down. I had no idea it was going to end as it did and I just loved Stephanie Beacham she really gave the show some class and I wish it could have been wrapped up better. Some of the storylines were crazy bad but the show did deserve to be given time to wrap it up instead of canceling it like they did. It is nice that after all these years all NINE seasons finally have been released to DVD.

It was funny when CBS listed this show as a possible show they may release on BLU. Esp since we were lucky to get each season! It would be cool to have the first 5 seasons in HD on BLU but I won't hold breath. If they do attempt a BLU release they need to PLEASE do Season 1 + Season 2 in one Set otehrwise sales would be oddball People want Joan however I myself like the first season Bo Hopkins is one of my favorites on the show and even though I only watched the show when the DVDs were released. I am still not over how season 1 ended! (or how they dealt with that characters storyline in the future)

 

[Brian Himes]

Another thing that puzzles me is that ABC saw during Dynasty's 7th season (The Colbys 2nd) that anything going up against NBC's Thursday Night lineup (The Cosby Show, etc) was a losing move. The Colbys lost and was cancelled. So, obviously moving Dynasty (which was already declining in the ratings) up against NBC and Cosby was the smart move. It certainly worked well for The Colbys, didn't it?

 

[Ethan Riley]

With the Colbys, I don't think it was the ratings. It was creative burn-out. Everything they came up with on the Colbys had already been done on Dynasty (except for that stupid UFO). Fans didn't really need a spin-off that ended up being more or less the exact same show they were already enjoying.

Dynasty was already suffering from far-fetched scenarios like Moldavia and Joel Abrigore. That show had jumped its shark in season 6 and I believe the fans looked at it with more scrutiny, didn't like what they were seeing and turned away.

Then you get to Season 8 and Sean Rowan is there and supposedly he's Joseph's son and yet nobody recognizes him. Okay...interesting. And he wants revenge on Alexis for causing his dad's suicide five years earlier and instead of shooting her from a distance, goes and marries her. Okay... And let's talk about Joseph's suicide in the first place. He killed himself because Alexis threatened to expose the fact that his wife was in a mental institution? Did I get that right? Lord have mercy, the shame of it! I want to kill myself--just thinking of it.

All these stupid stories, along with declining ratings and an astronomical price tag are what made ABC dislike Dynasty in its later years. I feel they deliberately snubbed the show and couldn't wait to cancel it. As for season ten--forget it. The show wouldn't have lasted six months without Alexis and Krystle both. The best thing they could have done was make 9 the final season, asked the writers to wrap it up nicely and that way both ABC and the fans could look back fondly on what was once the #1 show on television. That's what the networks generally try to do nowadays--maybe they learned the lesson from Dynasty--what happens when you trash a long-lived beloved classic show towards its end.

Anyway, I finally have all nine season on dvd and I want to marathon them, but I'm loathe to try and do so without the Colbys and the Reunion on dvd. I have delicate old vhs versions that I made in 1985...I try not to touch them! So I may be holding out for a couple of years to see if the Colbys pops out somehow, miraculously. Even better--a blu-ray version of Dynasty. I would double-dip, especially if the Reunion is on there. People keep telling me no no no--you'll never see the Colbys on dvd. They also told me no no no about:

The Wonder Years
Batman
Mama's Family
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman
Saturday Night Live seasons 1-5
...and lord knows what else.

 

[FoxyMulder]

With the Colbys, I don't think it was the ratings. It was creative burn-out. Everything they came up with on the Colbys had already been done on Dynasty

What they needed on The Colby's was Tracy Scoggins wearing a bikini in every episode. I watched an episode of Renegade where she comes out of the house wearing a skimpy bikini and i gotta say it was the best thing since sliced bread, a great episode. It had one helluva opening music score but i think it came at a time when that type of soap opera was dying.

 

[jcroy]

It had one helluva opening music score but i think it came at a time when that type of soap opera was dying.

What exactly was happening at the time, which led to this type of soap opera dying? (Dallas seemed to hang on slightly longer than Dynasty).

 

[FoxyMulder]

What exactly was happening at the time, which led to this type of soap opera dying? (Dallas seemed to hang on slightly longer than Dynasty).

The nineties, the glitzy evening soap opera seemed dead, at least in the UK, sure we had and still have soap's running but i can't think of any soap's like Dallas or Dynasty doing well in an evening slot in the mid nineties, was there one. ?

 

[jcroy]

The nineties.

Anything specific to the television landscape?

Or is it more of a general societal thing? (ie. First Persian Gulf war, early-1990's recession, Smells Like Teen Spirit, etc ...)

 

[jcroy]

I was completely ignorant of 1990's era televison.

(I didn't really watch television from the late-1980's to the mid-2000's, other than Star Trek TOS reruns).

 

[FoxyMulder]

They had Melrose Place in the nineties but other than that i can't think of any evening ones that did really well.

 

[jcroy]

Was there a general fatigue/burnout on 1980's era "decadence" being portrayed on television?

 

[FoxyMulder]

Was there a general fatigue/burnout on 1980's era "decadence" being portrayed on television?

I watched Dallas and Dynasty from the start, i think near the end of their respective runs the plots were starting to wear thin and they began to outstay their welcome, i certainly felt the quality dropped on both, especially Dallas, i think television has come a long way since then, now we have movie type production values on our TV shows and fantastic camerawork, i think every show has a sell by date, Dynasty and Dallas did well to last as long as they did.

 

[jcroy]

Back in the day, I only really watched Dynasty with my then-gfs. (I didn't watch Dallas much). In spite of the declining writing quality.

At the time, I was wondering why the writing was rather lackluster in the then-current mid-1980's seasons. (Years later I realized season 2 was the best season, after watching the dvd set. Previously I never watched season 2 back in the day)

 

[Brian Himes]

All these stupid stories, along with declining ratings and an astronomical price tag are what made ABC dislike Dynasty in its later years. I feel they deliberately snubbed the show and couldn't wait to cancel it. As for season ten--forget it. The show wouldn't have lasted six months without Alexis and Krystle both. The best thing they could have done was make 9 the final season, asked the writers to wrap it up nicely and that way both ABC and the fans could look back fondly on what was once the #1 show on television. That's what the networks generally try to do nowadays--maybe they learned the lesson from Dynasty--what happens when you trash a long-lived beloved classic show towards its end.

I totally agree. Season 9 should have been the last and the writers should have been told that from the beginning. However, if the show had been left in its original Wednesday night time slot, I don't think the ratings would have been as bad. It might have been enough to get the show renewed for another season, but that should have been the last. I'm sure that if the show had lasted a 10th season, Joan and Linda could have been persuaded to stay/return to the show for a final season. They did in fact come back for the Reunion.

 

[Ethan Riley]

I've heard more than one version of the "Season Ten" thing. One has it that Alexis was going to die after her fall over the balcony therefore--Joan was out regardless. Obviously, Krystle was gone for good. Linda wanted out. The fact is, that with declining ratings, ABC was offering Spelling less money; that's why many of the standing sets from seasons 1-8 were gone in season 9. Couldn't afford them, couldn't afford Linda and Joan both. Joan didn't want to leave the show and has gone on the record stating she was pissed that Alexis wasn't only in half the season 9 episodes.

As for the genre--it had burned out simply because the point had already been proven--that rich people have the same ridiculous problems as the rest of us. If you combine all the storylines from Dynasty, add to that Dallas, Falcon Crest and even the Colbys, you're going to realize that by 1986--all the stories had been told. That's why the genre was burning out. There was no way to refresh the genre of rich people in mansions in a serialized, weekly basis. They'd done it all by then. Dallas was running on steam for its last four years or so. But name one show that was really still fresh after it passed its 100th episode? If any show continues to be popular past episode #100 it's usually a confluence of continued good writing, great, engaging actors and a terrific timeslot and demographics. The glittering 80s soaps never enjoyed that kind of staying power, even if they did manage to get past ep #200 or even #300 in Dallas' sake. Fresh they were not. Primetime soaps were designed to remain on the air indefinitely, like their daytime brethren, but there's something more immediately familiar about them in that you can't simply recast new actors in someone else's role and expect the fans to go with it, nor can you simply fire a popular actor and expect little negative feedback. You CAN do that in daytime; you CANNOT in primetime. And that's another reason why Dynasty--especially--suffered. Because by then they'd recast the Carrington children and rid the cast of other popular characters--and the tabloids back then would go bananas whenever that happened. Believe me on one thing: Emma Samms was one of the most popular ladies on daytime as Holly Scorpio--but the fans howled bloody murder that she left THAT role to replace Pamela Sue Martin. It was a bad, bad situation! And ratings dropped. There was no way for Dynasty to win that one.

It's kind of okay now that shows like "Revenge" can be popular because a generation has gone by and that show is almost unique for people who weren't even born while Dallas and Dynasty reigned. I've seen it--it's the same exact show you would have been getting in the 80s, but comes across now as entirely fresh. Conversely, the new Dallas survives based on the sentiment of older fans and the fact that it was able to hook newer fans along the way.

The writing in "Dynasty" faltered in the mid-80s because again---they'd run through all the stories and also because the more literate scripts from the early days came from a time when the Shapiros were more hands-on with the show.

 

[Brian Himes]

I agree with much of what you said. The genre had pretty much run its course. I just don't like that they left the series with probably one of the best cliffhangers since the earliest seasons (pre Moldavia). I like even less that the supposed closure was very, very weak at best and probably one of the poorest written four hours ever to air on TV.

Since I liked Sable so much on Dynasty, I'd love to see more of her character. I would love to have seen all of The Colbys when it was on or even when Soapnet reran it. Sadly, I managed to only catch the silly UFO ending.

If, the Reunion and The Colbys are ever released on DVD I'll have to pick them up. The only reason I'll pick up The Reunion is to get the last gasp the series ever got and to have the 100% complete run of the show.

 

[Ethan Riley]

I always say that the Reunion is worth it solely because of the final two scenes which give everyone a happy ending. You never saw Sable on the Colbys? Just Dynasty? We'll you're in for some good times then, if they ever release it!