Trivia for
"Dynasty" (1981)

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• Angie Dickinson was offered the role of Krystal Carrington.
  
  
• Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor, and Raquel Welch were all considered for the role of Alexis.
  
  
• Michael Nader beat out 400 other actors for the role of Dex Dexter.
  
  

• This was the very last acting role for Rock Hudson' who played Daniel Reese from December 1984 to April 1985. (Hudson's last appearance as "himself" was with longtime pal Doris Day on the premiere episode of her series "Doris Day's Best Friends" (1985).) Hudson passed away of AIDS on October 2, 1985. Incredibly, so little was known about AIDS at the time of this series that it was thought to be transmissible by casual contact, and many feared for the health of Linda Evans because she had kissed Rock Hudson in a scene on the show. Even more incredibly, a minor panic broke out in Hollywood about kissing scenes in films and TV. The "National Enquirer" gossip tabloid carried a picture of Rock Hudson kissing Linda Evans', and carried a story which further fueled the rampant paranoia at the time.
  
  
• Many cast members were fired from this show, some for simply asking for more screen time for their characters.
  
  
• Despite popular belief that Alexis Carrington was designed as a rip-off of JR Ewing of "Dallas" (1978), the character was originally conceived as being a low key passive-aggressive villainess. Joan Collins, who was a fan of "Dallas" (1978) and the JR Ewing character, suggested that the writers portray Alexis as an all-out female version of JR Ewing. Collins' suggestion was backed by ABC executives, who felt that "Dynasty" needed a JR-type character to go head-to-head with "Dallas" (1978).
  
  
• George Peppard originally was offered the role of "Blake Carrington" but Peppard's refusal to play Blake with the shades of moral ambiguity that the writers wrote for Blake caused them to go with their second choice, John Forsythe.
  
  
• The original plans after the infamous Moldavian Massacre were for Alexis to marry King Galen and become Queen of Moldavia, and Blake would develop amnesia and fall in love with Alexis. However, this was changed for several reasons. Joan Collins refused to show up for filming in an attempt to renegotiate her contract. John Forsythe routinely vetoed any storyline involving adultery. Most importantly, viewer response to the entire Moldavian storyline was highly unfavorable.
  
  
• Al Corley, who took the controversial role of Steven Carrington in order to exploit the social impact of playing the first openly gay main character in a prime-time series, quit when the show's producers caved into network demands that Steven Carrington be cured of his homosexuality. Jack Coleman was hired to replace Corley and in order to explain away the change in actors, a storyline was written where Steven was in an oil rig explosion that required extensive plastic surgery to fix, resulting in Steven being given a brand new face as a result of numerous surgeries to rebuild his face.
  
  
• The character Alexis Carrington ranked #1 in a survey by German network RTL searching "the 10 greatest TV villains" (2005).
  
  
• Heather Locklear was a regular in season two, and left to join another Aaron Spelling program, "T.J. Hooker" (1982), but continued to make appearances on "Dynasty". She rejoined the series as a regular in season six.
  
  
• Other ideas for the true identity of Dominique Devereaux that were considered by the writers included Cecil Colby's real widow and Kirby Ander's long-lost mother.
  
  
• In season five, Blake says his mother's name was Ellen Carrington. However, in an earlier season, Fallon stated that she was named after Blake's mother
  
  
• Originally, the name of Blake's ex-wife was supposed to be Madeleine, not Alexis.
  
  
• Alexis and Sable are cousins, which would make Fallon and her second husband Miles second cousins. It also makes Fallon and her first husband Jeff second cousins, since Jeff's mother is Sable's sister.
  
  
• In the original draft of the early scripts for Dynasty, the two main families - the Carringtons and the Colbys - were named the Parkhursts and the Corbys respectively.
  
  
• Most popular TV series in ex-Yugoslavia at the and of 80's. It was broadcast every Monday at 9pm and streets were empty.
  
  
• Diahann Carroll had planned to rejoin the cast during the show's tenth season, but it was taken off the air after the ninth season.
  
  
• Richard Chamberlain was approached for the role of Daniel Reece. Rock Hudson accepted when Chamberlain declined.
  
  
• Raquel Welch was asked to play Lady Ashley Marshall.
  
  
• John James originally tested for the role of Steven.
  
  
• Wayne Rogers was tapped to play Krystle's first husband, Mark Jennings.
  
  
• When Alexis was introduced for the cliff-hanger finale of season one, the character had not yet been cast. Joan Collins was cast during the break between season one and two. In the season one cliff-hanger, Alexis was introduced during a trial as a surprise witness to testify against Blake. A friend of the producers played the part of the yet-uncast Alexis, who made a dramatic entrance wearing dark glasses and a wide-brimmed hat with a veil covering most of her face.
  
  
• Nolan Miller designed all of the jewelry and clothes for the show. To the shock of many fans, Miller admitted that all of the jewelry was fake.
  
  
• Jon-Erik Hexum, who had starred with Joan Collins in Making of a Male Model (1983) (TV), lost the role of Dex Dexter to Michael Nader.
  
  
• In an interview on "Larry King Live" (1985) in 2002, Joan Collins said that Jessica Walter was one of the top considerations for the role of Alexis before it was given to her.
  
  

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