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 In the 80’s the hottest hit show, Dallas,
belonged to ABC’s competitor, CBS. With more than 300,000-million fans
worldwide, it’s no wonder Dallas was a thorn in the side of ABC. Of
course, the only thing ABC could do was find some way to compete. Their
ace in the hole turned out to be CBS’s own hit show, Dynasty.
If you were familiar with both of the shows, it didn’t take too long to
figure out |
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that CBS decided
not to reinvent the wheel. There were quite a few similarities between
Dynasty and Dallas.
The Ewings owed their fortune to oil and the Carringtons owed their
fortune to oil as well. Dallas featured the
horrible J.R. Ewing and Dynasty featured the despicable Alexis
Carrington (played by Joan Collins).
Maybe the biggest difference between Dynasty and
Dallas was that Dynasty was even more outlandish than its competition.
After all, Fallon did see a UFO and Adam did use poisonous paint on Jeff’s
wall. And let’s not forget when Congressman McVane dressed up as a woman
(Alexis to be exact) in case someone saw him trying to kill Mark by
throwing him off a balcony.
And then of course there was the 80’s commercialization of the Dynasty
experience. Lingerie, flatware, china, perfume, even carpeting for your
home. You could literally drape yourself in the Dynasty lifestyle – for a
price. Nothing about the Dynasty name came cheap. If you wanted the
Carrington House Carpet, you’d have to pay almost $18 a square foot (yes,
foot – not yard) and a Krystal or Alexis doll with a real fur stole and
diamond necklace would run you about $10,000 (no, we didn’t put in too
many zeros).
All good things come to an end, and so did Dynasty. When the 80’s ended,
so ended the show. In 1989, Dynasty aired its last episode and we said
goodbye to the Carringtons and the dynasty of Dynasty.
