The Middle East is in turmoil. Oil prices have frayed the
nation’s economic nerves. A powerful corporate fat cat stands trial
for a scandal that could bring him and his whole company down.
A story ripped from today’s headlines? No, they are the plot
points for perhaps the most emblematic of 1980s television shows:
Dynasty. And now, sixteen years after the show went off
the air, Dynasty: The Complete First Season is
available on DVD.
Just as the original series was a ratings boom for ABC (it
reached number one during the 1984-85 season), the release of the
first season on DVD is an important personal development for me.
Between work, the baby, and the general gimcrack of today’s
television programming, I don’t watch any current-running
television programs. My wife and I canceled our cable, so I can’t
catch any of the truly great shows in syndication. The DVD player
is all I have left.
The first episode of Dynasty aired on January 12, 1981,
eight days before Ronald Wilson Reagan swore his oath to the U.S.
Constitution. The '80s as we know them now hadn’t kicked in yet.
But tax cuts for the rich danced in our heads. And Esther and
Richard Shapiro, two Hollywood producers, had the prescience to
create a television show that would come to encapsulate all that is
cartoonist about the “decade of greed.”
Dynasty is commonly classified as a “primetime soap
opera,” but it is indeed more like a cartoon. Most of the
characters in this serial drama are avowed Republicans. As such
they are greedy, lustful, and hateful of minorities. (Not much has
changed there, eh?) The angry Middle Easterners look more like
bronzed beatniks. Most of them are played by extras with Italian
last names. And, of course, the rich lead shiftless lives of
exaggerated extravagance while the poorer characters are wholly
sympathetic saints.
There are other problems. The acting is atrocious (with the
noticeable exception of the stately John Forsythe). The fight
scenes are choreographed with all the precision of an elementary
school dance recital. The wardrobes are absurd. And as for the
continuity well, what continuity? But who cares? This is a story
about power, lust, and greed and you will enjoy every phony-bologna
minute of it.
THE STORY ITSELF IS conventional. One-time receptionist Krystle
Jennings has fallen in love with oil tycoon Blake Carrington. She
is beautiful in a down-home way, but uncomfortable in high society.
He is a debonair silver fox worth $200 million (I know, it seems
paltry by the standards of today’s oil tycoons). But unlike your
average Prince Charming, Blake Carrington is a ruthless businessman
with an evil streak. And his children, household staff, and
business partners are either slippery eels or dysfunctional lay
bouts.
Plus there is an intriguing back story that slowly unravels
throughout the first season. Matthew Blaisdel, Carrington’s top
geologist, has returned home from the Middle East just in time for
Blake and Krystle’s wedding. Only Matthew and Krystle were once
lovers. Blaisdel, the disgruntled employee and jilted ex-lover,
goes into business against Carrington who, despite appearances,
faces a severe cash crisis that could bring down his oil empire.
The crisis forces Carrington into a devil’s bargain with his best
friend, oil magnate Cecil Colby. He sells his rebellious daughter
Fallon into marriage with Colby’s nephew.
Meanwhile, Matthew’s wife has just returned from a mental
institution, but shows signs of needing to go back for more
medicine. Upon learning of her husband’s past with Krystle, she
begins an ill-fated affair with Blake’s homosexual son Steven.
There’s plenty of discomfort and confusion when Steven’s
ex-boyfriend resurfaces, looking to rekindle their old flame.
Blake, being a perfectly stereotypical Republican, will have
none of it and accidentally kills Steven’s ex in an argument.
Facing a murder charge and standing trial, all of Blake’s financial
holdings and business deals are in jeopardy. Indeed, they are in
the hands of one woman. A woman from his past; the prosecution’s
star witness.
You know who.
CASUAL FANS OF THE LONG-running show will be disappointed to learn
the Joan Collins character Alexis Carrington plays no significant
role in the first season until the last episode, and even then only
in the final cliffhanging frames. But to the aficionado, her
absence is elemental. We need time to learn the back story and
absorb all the delicious dysfunction of this family before downing
a shot of hundred proof bitch. Moreover, the joy of campy soap
operas rests in the way they string the viewer along. If tomorrow’s
episode doesn’t promise to be even juicier than today’s, what’s the
point?
In another 25 years or so there will be another television show
in which all the villains are greedy, lecherous Republicans and the
heroes are simple folk with progressive values. That much is
certain, the entertainment business being what it is. We can only
hope that the story surrounding these stock characters is as juicy
as Dynasty was. And still is.
