Dynasty

Dynasty was a huge favorite of myself and my friends, and I have many memories of discussing the show with them either over the phone as it was happening or the next day. The Carringtons were created to compete with the highly successful Dallas and Ewings of South Fork, but Dynasty was never a copycat show. While Dallas certainly focused on the soap opera elements common to all these programs, J.R.'s sliminess in business was a focal point. Dynasty was about obvious, over the top luxury and family with some camp elements included that made it special. What I loved about Dynasty was that, at least in the beginning, it was never camp for camp's sake - the camp was part of the show. For instance, when the casting of Fallon changed, the portrait of the old Fallon that hung over the fireplace was quietly replaced with a painting of the new one, Emma Samms, that looked like a paint by the numbers from Woolworth's. And of course, Joan Collins' Alexis had camp built right into the character. And there was Steven's plastic surgery...so many happy moments.

And no other show could boast the wardrobe of Dynasty, or the beauty of Linda Evans. I can still see her, bedecked in diamonds, walking toward Blake in a blue gown slit all the way up her thigh.

For me, once they had Alexis disguised as a nun and the whole Moldavian thing started, the show became self-conscious camp, as these shows often do, and I lost interest. But certainly Dynasty was a bright spot in the '80s and for a time, you couldn't beat it.

My name is Goran Markovic, I'm a 35 years old professor from Serbia. My life consists of various activities but through out the years I kept a special place in my heart for Dynasty. It is my connection to the past, time when I was growing up, finding out about the facts of life, when I was exchanging impressions on Dynasty with some great people, and today, we still share memories of our favorite characters and events. I hope you learned a lot about me, my thoughts about Dynasty through Ultimate Dynasty site. But memories are something personal, hidden deep within us, and I wanna share a part of it with Dynasty fans world wide.

In 1984, when the news of broadcasting Dynasty in Serbia was announced, there was a lot of commotion because the communist government thought the show will have a negative influence on the nation by spreading capitalistic ideas with the story about wealth and luxury and this way destabilize the communist regime. It only made the nation more intrigues and with a lot of dust, Dynasty began airing. I remember sitting with my parents and my sister at our home when the first episode was on. No one said a word until its end. It was a beginning of a ferry tale in my the live of my family but also, the beginning of incredible euphoria in all country. It was the most popular show for years, and I couldn't face missing an episode.

Years went by and my country and the surrounding area was struck by war, bombarding and terror, communists fell, now my country lives in freedom with hope of a better life ahead, and all this time Dynasty was a refuge from problems, difficulties of every day's life. The show especially marks the period when I went to school to another city. Season 4 was on, I was in the dorm. We stayed awake even after our bad time because the show aired in late hours and my roomies and I watched it in secrecy sop that our teachers wouldn't catch us. We stayed awake 'till morning, talking about events and characters.

My imagination went wild, I pretended to be one of the characters, I imagined I was in the Filoli mansion, checking its every corner. The world of Carrington's was my world. It is still my great wish to visit America, meet some of the actors, visit the Filoli mansion. I spend years collecting pictures and episodes of the show. I almost have all Dynasty and the Colbys episodes taped, and it was time to create and present this site to you which is my all time wish coming through.

The memories today are still very much vivid and alive, I share them with my family, friends, fans. Dynasty is my dream and my reality.

Sincerely, Goran Markovic

Dynasty concerned the goings-on of a wealthy Denver, Colorado family, the Carringtons. While it was surreal, campy, and wayyyy out to the left of reality, it was still FUN. It still caught and kept your attention and left you wanting much more. John Forsythe's Blake Carrington was the family's patriarch, always seeming a little bit confused about what was going on. His lovely young wife, Linda Evan's Crystal, was always getting stuck in some kind of trouble. Joan Collins as Alexis was sheer delight! A campy witch who was always causing trouble. The cast was large and the stories grand and fun. I never missed an episode of Dynasty during it's original run. Not until I went to college during the 1987-88 season... What I wouldn't give to see it all again!

I watched Dynasty from episode one and very rarely ever missed the Wednesday night saga of the Carringtons. Having recently purchased the DVD set of the first season, I've been giving the show a lot of thought... Like many other TV shows both past and present, Dynasty started without a clear focus and eventually matured into something unique and far removed from what the producers originally intended. The show had two distinct eras: pre-Alexis and post-Alexis. No, Joan Collins didn't make or break Dynasty, but she gave it a heck of a fun "flavor." At its inception, Dynasty was a serious, almost somber account of the lives of the super rich Carringtons of Denver, CO. There was patriarch Blake, confused son Steven, spoiled brat Fallon, and Blake's new and very overwhelmed wife, Krystle. Having now watched a little of that first season, I find myself eagerly waiting for Alexis to turn the family on its collective ear! Dynasty's ultimate strength, and also its downfall, was in its becoming campy and larger than life. While some of us may expect the super-wealthy to act crazy, Dynasty added plot lines and characters that were the traditional soap-opera themes magnified with a huge budget, and beautiful people... illicit affairs, long-lost children, traumatic pregnancies, murders, trials, etc... There were frequent mis-steps (the Moldavian Prince, Michael, comes to mind as well as the entire 'The Colbys' series) and there were truly fun characters like Alexis and son Adam whom we loved to hate. But to me, the bottom line will always be that Dynasty was campy and much larger-than-life. It was a lot of fun those eight years, always wondering what would happen next...

When it was in production, I only began to watch Dynasty in the middle of the second season, the night of the big pillow fight, and I was hooked. VCR's were only a week away at that time and there was nothing like this sort of availability. Anyway, I later viewed the first season on FX in the mid 90's (I think) and wasn't very impressed with it at first, but I was taping them and decided to go back and see the occasional episode. May I say the first season not only grew on me, but it was its very best. No outlandish plots, both rich and "getting-by" classes were depicted as actual human beings. No suspension of disbelief, this was a very credible drama, only to later become a very INcredible circus! I was very well addicted to this circus, and it was very amusing and there were a lot of great lines, etc., not to mention the actors and actresses. I didn't like it when we were pummeled by the cast revolving door, so to speak, and upon Pamela Sue Martin's departure, I didn't think I was going to watch it anymore, but I thought, "what the hay! I didn't have anything special to do on Wednesday nights, anyway, so.....".

Very happy to hear there will be interviews with my two favorite Dynasty-ites, Pamela Sue Martin and Al Corley.

Fallon and Steven aren't number 1 and number 2 favorites, more like 1-A and 1-B Can't wait to get this - the digital transfer ought to be a stunner - I'm sure my two-year-old videos from SoapNet are fading just a little. Did I mention I taped all of these in slow speed?