OVER DEZE AFLEVERING
Shoulder pads, champagne, catfights and a royal wedding that ends in a bloodbath.
Hello Gazers!
This week we're heading back to the gloriously excessive 1980s for Dynasty, the American primetime soap that gave us Joan Collins, spectacular wealth, magnificent bitchiness and one of the most outrageous cliffhangers in television history.
And naturally, we're asking: Could you get away with it today?
Created by Richard and Esther Shapiro and produced by Aaron Spelling, Dynasty ran from 1981 to 1989, turning the fabulously wealthy Carrington family into an international television phenomenon.
We revisit John Forsythe as Blake Carrington, Linda Evans as Krystle and the incomparable Joan Collins as Alexis, whose arrival helped transform the show's fortunes and made shoulder pads practically compulsory.
We also share our own memories of watching Dynasty, its extraordinary appeal to gay audiences and why all that glamour, melodrama and barely disguised hostility became such irresistible camp entertainment.
Over in Culture Corner, it's time to get rich.
We're exploring the world of Ronald Reagan's America, the rise of the yuppie, conspicuous consumption and the fascination with money, status and designer everything.
Was Dynasty celebrating the excesses of 1980s capitalism, or quietly revealing the greed, misery and dysfunction beneath all that fabulous wealth?
We also revisit the show's extraordinary commercial success, from merchandise and spin-offs to The Colbys.
Then it's time for our main event.
The Moldavian Massacre.
We're concentrating on the infamous 1985 royal wedding cliffhanger, when a celebration in the fictional kingdom of Moldavia takes a rather unexpected turn.
It's one of the most memorable endings in soap history — but does the episode itself live up to its reputation?
Along the way, we're discussing:
- Alexis versus Krystle: the catfights, rivalries and changing expectations of women on television.
- Steven Carrington: homosexuality in mainstream American television during the 1980s.
- Dominique Deveraux: Diahann Carroll's arrival and the significance of a powerful Black character in the Carrington universe.
- Mental illness and melodrama: the show's more questionable portrayals of psychological distress.
- Rock Hudson and AIDS: the controversy surrounding his appearance on Dynasty and the tabloid hysteria of the era.
- The Moldavian Massacre: a royal wedding, armed attackers and a cliffhanger that left audiences wondering who had survived.
We also ask whether the show's endless displays of wealth, gender stereotypes and wildly implausible storylines make it hopelessly dated — or whether that's precisely why it's still so entertaining.
Because underneath the diamonds, designer dresses and enormous hair, Dynasty tells us rather a lot about the decade that created it.
And despite its many problematic moments, we both have enormous affection for this wonderfully ridiculous television institution.
So pour yourself something expensive, adjust your shoulder pads and join us for a trip back to Denver.
It's time to get Dynasty-fied.
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