CATFIGHTS, kidnapping, bouts of amnesia . . . it was all in a day’s work on Dynasty.
The Eighties super-soap was a global smash hit and viewers couldn’t get enough of the shoulder pads, huge hair and outrageous storylines.
It is 40 years since Dynasty arrived on screens this side of the Atlantic and now some of the cast have gathered to celebrate.
Scott Mills welcomes stars including Joan Collins, Heather Locklear, Linda Evans and Maxwell Caulfield to a Dynasty Reunion special on Radio 2 and BBC Sounds on Monday at 2pm.
Deputy TV Editor Felicity Cross exclusively shares some of the secrets they spill.
JOAN came to Dynasty for its second season with a string of film, telly and theatre roles to her name – and some feared she had made a misstep in getting on board.
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She says: “When I joined it was about to be cancelled. Within six weeks we were number one in the ratings!”
She was captivating as Alexis, the vengeful, bitchy and scheming ex-wife of oil tycoon Blake Carrington. Her turn soon helped the soap outrank rival Dallas.
Joan, 88, won Golden Globe and Emmy awards for the part – and in one acceptance speech thanked Italian actress Sophia Loren for turning it down.
Joan added: “Dynasty was enormous. When I went into it, it had been on for 12 or 16 weeks in the first season. I got on with some of the cast – and some of the cast really didn’t like me.”
A key adversary was love rival Krystle Carrington – and some of their best-loved scenes involved one slapping the other across the face.
Joan said: “One of the first scenes I had with Linda, when I yelled at her, said something like, ‘You little secretary!’
“At the end of it, Linda said ‘My god, did you really mean it?’ I said, ‘No darling – it’s acting’. And she said, ‘But it felt so real!’
“I think she found it difficult to summon up the hatred for me that she had to have. But we coasted along. We had our ups and downs.”
AS Blake Carrington’s new wife, Krystle was Alexis Colby’s arch rival.
That made for many electric scenes between Joan Collins and Linda, who played the former secretary and bride of the oil tycoon from the very first episode.
The role won her a Golden Globe, among other gongs, and she remained on Dynasty almost until its end.
Linda, 79, says: “My fond memories were being on the set with everyone. The other part of it, the glitz and the glamour, that was not my thing. I couldn’t have cared less.”
It is a good job Linda wasn’t obsessed with the glamour. Her fights with Alexis often left her looking decidedly hot and bothered.
Linda went on: “I love stunts. To me it was just a joy when I would get the script and I said, ‘Oh good, we’re going to do this’.
“Joan, on the other hand, didn’t like it at all. However, she was really great at verbally fighting.
“I wasn’t as great at that and I loved the physical. So we would get together and there would always be a bit of a struggle — and she was a good sport because she was in the moment.”
THE character of Sable began on Dynasty spin-off show The Colbys before producers switched her to the main event.
And her bitchy scenes as the Colbys’ devious matriarch established the character as a firm favourite with viewers.
Stephanie – alongside Joan Collins and Emma Samms, one of several Brits to bag juicy parts on the series – said of those scenes: “I completely and utterly love comedy and I love timing . . . having to really wrap your tongue around something and make it effective.”
Of the extravagant outfits and more-is-more Eighties styling, Stephanie, 75, said: “We seemed to be having to do lots of hair and make-up.
“A major tragedy on that set was if you broke a nail. Then you had to go dashing off and have it mended! It was quite a visually important set-up.
“The hair did take an awfully long time. Mind you, it’s never looked as good since. I think there was probably a can of Elnett hairspray a day.”
JACK’S arrival was one of many bonkers storylines on the show.
He took over the role of Steven Carrington in the third season, with the change in appearance attributed to plastic surgery after a blast on an oil rig.
Jack said: “Ah yes, the classic ‘South China Sea oil-rig explosion reconstructive surgery’!”
His brother Adam also had a bizarre back story, having been kidnapped as a baby and brought up as someone else’s son.
Gordon, 77, joked: “I love the very first scene I ever shot, where I discover my real name was Adam Carrington. That, to this day, haunts me because it was so powerful.”
Importantly, Steven was one of the first gay main characters on US telly.
Jack, 64, said: “It was a big deal. It set a precedent which has been built on year after year.”
COUSINS Jeff and Miles were pin-ups in their day, with girls swooning over their chiselled jawlines and glossy quiffs. But it wasn’t all romantic moments and adulation.
John, 66, who played Jeff, remembered of his favourite scene: “When one is poisoned with toxic paint, frankly, you don’t forget that. I think that was probably the most outrageous and my favourite.”
That storyline, in which Jeff’s nemesis Adam Carrington tried to kill him by having Jeff’s office decorated with toxic paint, was classic Dynasty.
Maxwell, 62 – yet another Brit in a cast packed with them – added: “There was that sort of unspoken comradery the British actors all felt when they’re lucky to be in an exotic part of the world all working.”
But despite the show focusing on a super-rich family, the cast got their lunch at an icky catering van they dubbed the Roach Coach.
JOHN was a big name in US telly before Dynasty as the voice behind unseen millionaire Charles Townsend in Charlie’s Angels.
As patriarch Blake, he was the only actor to appear in every episode – winning two Golden Globes in his time.
John worked until his death in 2020, aged 92. And his legacy remains.
Co-star and on-screen wife Linda Evans said: “Just love that man! I was so thrilled when John was hired because he was the joy for me because we had so many scenes.
“Everything was so dramatic most of the time. He always came in with a wonderful corny joke that we all laughed at. John would do something, he’d be off camera, take my earrings off, my long, chandelier diamond ear- rings, and put them on when the person is talking to him and trying to do their scene.
“It was just lovely the way he tried to amuse us.”
BRIT Emma took over the role of feisty heiress Fallon for the fifth season, replacing Pamela Sue Martin.
She starred in both seasons of spin-off The Colbys and returned to Dynasty until it ended in 1989. Before that she played Holly Sutton in medical soap General Hospital.
Emma, 61, said: “(Show creator) Aaron Spelling’s daughter Tori was a fan of General Hospital. She nudged her dad and said, ‘One of the actresses on General Hospital is really good, you should meet her’. Thanks, Tori!”
Fans will remember an infamous mud-fight scene between Emma and Heather Locklear.
She said: “Women catfights were a big part of Dynasty and it was inevitable I’d get mine. But why did mine have to be in mud?
“Also, why with Heather? She’s really strong! At one point she had to push my face into the mud and mud went up both nostrils!”
Emma, married to newsreader Simon McCoy, has since appeared in UK medical dramas Holby City, Casualty and Doctors.
HEATHER only had a few bit parts under her belt when she was cast for Dynasty’s second series.
But the memories of her time on the show – and her first appearance, when she slid down a bannister – are joyous.
Heather said: “I loved the bannister. When I first got on, where I slid down the bannister and ran into . . . I believe it was Joan. It was super-fun and silly. Like, who would ever do that? But I thought it was fun.”
And some of the scripts blew her mind. Sammy Jo was a schemer who married Steven Carrington for his money – and at one point tried to seduce his brother Adam. Heather said: “I’m like, really? Do we just keep it all in the family? What’s going on?
“I don’t think we ever had a scene together before. Suddenly Sammy’s like, ‘Woah! You’re sort of cute!’”
Heather, 60, starred in Melrose Place for several years and had roles in sitcoms Spin City and Two And A Half Men. But her career was often overshadowed by her personal life.
She was married to Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee from 1986 to 1993, divorcing him just before he met Pamela Anderson.
Heather married Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora in 1994, then had daughter Ava in 1997. She divorced in April 2007 and in that same month began dating fellow Melrose Place actor Jack Wagner.
In 2008 a 911 call was made that suggested Heather had tried to take her own life, but her publicist later said she did not require any medical attention. That same year she checked into a mental health clinic then she was in trouble with the law for alleged drink driving.
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Accidental overdoses followed in 2012 and again in 2018, when she was also arrested for battery of a police officer.
Heather is now engaged to her high school sweetheart, Chris Heisser, and seems to be steering clear of further drama.
