50 Fun Facts About Dynasty

In which American city do the wealthy Carringtons of the 1980s soap Dynasty live in a 48-room mansion?

Denver is the family's home on screen, but the mansion in the opening credits is really an estate in Woodside, California.

Which hit CBS series was ABC trying to rival when it commissioned Dynasty, first broadcast in January 1981?

Dallas was the target, and catching it took four years: Dynasty finally became America's most-watched show in the 1984–85 season.

Which exaggerated 1980s fashion feature is the Dynasty wardrobe widely credited with turning into a mainstream trend?

Shoulder pads had been pushed by designers since 1978, and the show's glamorous women helped make the public want to wear them.

The best-remembered Dynasty catfight between Krystle and Alexis has the two rivals brawling in which water feature?

A lily pond at a Pasadena villa hosted the fight, a rematch after the pair's first brawl in Alexis's studio.

Which Hollywood leading man made his final screen appearances as Daniel Reece, an admirer of Krystle on Dynasty?

Rock Hudson's kissing scenes with Krystle, shown before his AIDS diagnosis became public, led the actors' union to require advance notice of open-mouth kisses.

Which Republican statesman played himself in a 1983 episode of Dynasty that also featured Henry Kissinger?

Gerald Ford appeared with his wife Betty, a sign of the show's pull: it was then the third most-watched programme in America.

Which future Disney chief executive cancelled Dynasty in 1989, soon after becoming ABC's entertainment president?

Bob Iger pulled the plug when the show had sunk to 69th in the ratings, so its last episode ended on a cliffhanger never meant to be final.

Which Best Actor Oscar winner played tycoon Jason Colby in The Colbys, the Dynasty spin-off launched in 1985?

Charlton Heston was reportedly paid $85,000 an episode, yet the spin-off drew poor ratings and lasted only two seasons.

What happens to a stranded Fallon in the desert in the 1987 finale of the Dynasty spin-off The Colbys?

A UFO abduction closed the series: Fallon boards the craft and it takes off, and back on Dynasty her husband refuses to believe her story.

Which British actress joined Dynasty in its second season as Blake Carrington's scheming former wife Alexis?

Joan Collins took a part the creators had planned to give Sophia Loren for only four to six episodes.

Which actor, already the unseen voice of Charlie in Charlie's Angels, played patriarch Blake Carrington on Dynasty?

John Forsythe was the only cast member to appear in all 220 episodes, despite joining as a last-minute replacement for the first choice.

Which actress, once Audra Barkley in the Western series The Big Valley, played Blake's wife Krystle on Dynasty?

Linda Evans also played Rita, a lookalike who replaces the kidnapped Krystle in a 1985–86 storyline, so she ended up fighting herself on screen.

Which actress played Krystle's gold-digging niece on Dynasty while co-starring with William Shatner in a police drama?

Heather Locklear shuffled between the two shows until 1986, then stayed with the Carringtons full time until the 1989 finale.

Which singer and actress joined Dynasty in 1984 as jet-set diva Dominique Deveraux, Blake Carrington's half-sister?

Diahann Carroll made Dominique the first prominently featured African-American character on a prime-time soap, a role she had sought out herself.

What one-word working title did Dynasty carry in development, a title kept for its three-hour opening episode?

Oil was the working title, but the oil plots soon faded: the creators found that audiences only wanted to be in the mansion, not out in the drilling fields.

What job had Krystle held under Blake Carrington before becoming his bride at the start of Dynasty?

His secretary became the lady of the house, and both the household staff and her new stepdaughter Fallon made sure she felt unwelcome.

Which US network launched a Dynasty reboot in 2017, developed by the creators of its earlier hit Gossip Girl?

The CW kept the reboot going for five seasons, and every episode takes its title from a line of dialogue in the 1980s original.

How did Dynasty explain Steven Carrington's new face when a different actor took over the role in the third season?

Plastic surgery after an accident in Indonesia was the excuse: the family is first told Steven is dead, then he comes home with a new face.

Which prolific producer of The Love Boat and Fantasy Island brought Dynasty to the screen for ABC?

Aaron Spelling later outdid the Carringtons' 48-room mansion in real life by building himself a 123-room home in Los Angeles.

Where does Alexis make her first Dynasty appearance, veiled and wearing sunglasses, in the first-season finale?

A courtroom was the stage, but the veiled witness at Blake's murder trial was played by an uncredited actress, Maggie Wickman, not the star who took over.

Which Hollywood designer created about 3,000 outfits for Dynasty and vowed never to dress its stars the same way twice?

Nolan Miller had $35,000 a week to spend on the wardrobe, and his designs proved so popular that they were sold as a clothing line.

Which composer, famous for the Rocky film scores, also wrote the theme music for Dynasty and its spin-off The Colbys?

Bill Conti was on a hot streak: he scored a James Bond film the year the soap began and won an Oscar for The Right Stuff soon after.

What kind of licensed Dynasty product was sold to the show's fans under the name Forever Krystle?

A perfume carried Krystle's name while men got a cologne called Carrington, part of a licensed range that stretched to sheets, towels and furs.

The 2017 reboot of Dynasty relocated the Carringtons and their fortune to which city in the American South?

Atlanta was chosen partly for its diversity, and the reboot's producers noted that the original setting had been picked arbitrarily.

Which English actress took over the role of Fallon on Dynasty in 1985 after Pamela Sue Martin left?

Emma Samms came straight from the daytime soap General Hospital, and her Fallon first reappeared with amnesia to cover the change of face.

Which Carrington daughter was played by Catherine Oxenberg, whose own mother is Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia?

Amanda marries a prince on screen, which suited an actress who twice played Diana, Princess of Wales, in television films.

Which 1970s British historical drama did co-creator Esther Shapiro name as an inspiration for the family in Dynasty?

I, Claudius follows the scheming imperial family of ancient Rome, and Shapiro wanted an American fantasy with a clan that still loved one another.

Which award did Dynasty win as best drama series in 1984, having been nominated every year since 1981?

Golden Globe voters honoured the leads too: the actors playing Blake, Krystle and Alexis each took an acting prize between 1982 and 1984.

Dynasty won only one Emmy from 24 nominations across its run; which area of the production earned it in 1984?

Costumes won where the acting never did: both lead actresses lost their Emmy races to Tyne Daly of Cagney and Lacey.

Which former star of Nickelodeon's Victorious leads the 2017 Dynasty reboot as businesswoman Fallon Carrington?

Elizabeth Gillies even doubled as Fallon's mother Alexis for part of the second season, filling in between two other actresses in the role.

Which former Melrose Place star plays billionaire Blake Carrington in the 2017 reboot of Dynasty?

Grant Show played Jake Hanson from 1992 to 1997 on a soap made by the same producer as the original Carrington saga.

Which woman from the original Dynasty was reimagined as a gay man, the nephew of Blake's bride, in the 2017 reboot?

Sammy Jo became Sam Jones, played by Rafael de la Fuente, in a reboot that also made Blake's new wife and her family Latin American.

Alexis startles Krystle's horse and causes her miscarriage in Dynasty's second season by using what?

A gunshot did it, and once Krystle learned the shot had been deliberate, Alexis was her sworn enemy for the rest of the series.

Which Carrington son, kidnapped as a baby and raised in Montana, arrives in Dynasty's third season as a lawyer?

Adam was taken by a grieving woman whose own grandson had died in a crash, and he nearly romances Fallon before the two learn they are siblings.

Which businessman, played by Michael Nader, marries Alexis on Dynasty and remains her on-off lover to the end?

Dex Dexter even ends up in a physical brawl with Alexis, and the final episode's cliffhanger leaves the two of them in mortal peril together.

Which operation does Krystina, the young daughter of Blake and Krystle, undergo in Dynasty's seventh season?

A heart transplant saves the girl, but the grieving mother of the dead donor then kidnaps Krystina for a time.

To which country does the ailing Krystle travel for a brain operation in Dynasty's final season, ending up in a coma?

Switzerland was a budget exit: to save money the actress appeared in only six episodes that season, and Krystle's coma stayed off screen.

Which 1970s film star played Lady Ashley Mitchell, one of only two characters to die in Dynasty's wedding massacre?

Ali MacGraw, the star of Love Story, later admitted she had taken the part for the money.

Which Star Wars actor played Brady Lloyd, the husband of Dominique Deveraux, during Dynasty's fifth season?

Billy Dee Williams had once been a schoolmate of the actress playing his wife, and the soap reunited the pair as a married couple.

Which actor, later the long-serving voice of Batman, played closeted lawyer Bart Fallmont on Dynasty in the mid-1980s?

Kevin Conroy played a love interest for Steven whose secret is exposed in the press, for business reasons, by Steven's own brother.

Which European kingdom hosts the royal wedding that gunmen turn into a bloodbath in Dynasty's 1985 season finale?

Moldavia's massacre left every major character lying apparently lifeless, yet when the show returned only two minor figures had died.

Which 1960s film star was first cast as Blake Carrington but replaced before Dynasty reached the screen?

George Peppard struggled with how unsympathetic the tycoon was, and losing the part left him free to lead The A-Team instead.

Which political office does Blake Carrington campaign for and fail to win during the eighth season of Dynasty?

Governor was the prize he lost, and he then comes home to find Krystle missing and their bedroom in a shambles as the season ends.

Which sport does Mark Jennings, Krystle's first husband, play professionally when he turns up in Dynasty's third season?

Tennis pro Mark Jennings later ends up dead, and Alexis is arrested for his murder as the fourth season closes.

Which Dynasty hotel goes up in flames in the 1986 season finale after Claudia accidentally starts a fire?

La Mirage burns with much of the cast inside, and the next season reveals that Claudia herself died in the blaze she started.

Which actor played Jeff Colby, Fallon's on-off husband, in both Dynasty and its spin-off The Colbys?

John James was one of only two original cast members still on screen for the final episode in 1989.

Which California estate, now open to the public, appears as the Carrington mansion in Dynasty's opening credits?

Filoli stands about 25 miles south of San Francisco, and the leading cast went back there to film a reunion special in 2006.

Which Colby schemer, played by Stephanie Beacham, joins Dynasty for its final season as a rival to her cousin Alexis?

Sable arrives from the cancelled spin-off, befriends Blake, and spars with Alexis first over business and then over a man.

Which French couturier said in 1985 that the modern glamour of Dynasty was on his mind as he designed his collections?

Christian Lacroix named a rival soap in the same breath, a sign of how far the look had travelled from television to the catwalk.

Which Carrington servant set the cabin fire that traps Krystle and Alexis in Dynasty's third-season cliffhanger?

The majordomo, Joseph, meant the blaze to kill only Alexis, not the woman locked inside the cabin with her.