TV… Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure (2005)

#2000s #AllPosts

 

Bursting the Dynasty soap bubble…

 

TV heaven or hell, you decide in a TV movie that tells the story about the making of Dallas’s rival soap Dynasty.

 

The “Shapiros”

“Blake” with “Alexis” and “Krystle”

Dynasty Behind the Scenes. Za kulisami Dynastii, sinsrun

 

So with all my Dallas (1978-91) references, you will now understand why Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure (2005) is a guilty pleasure… Firstly it’s about its then-rival Dynasty of which I was also an avid viewer – but not as obsessed –  and secondly it’s a really bad TV movie.

However, if you include The Sound of Music (1965) in your list of guilty pleasures, Kurt Frederich aka Nicholas Hammond plays Aaron Spelling to give you three reasons. But like me, you will probably be drawn into this total train wreck of a movie from start to finish as it’s strangely watchable and addictive.

Not for the performances which are enthusiastic from the lesser-known stars as they get to play an actor or actress playing a 1980s soap character in a double whammy. But for the million and one ways in which we meet and are introduced to the film characters of Joan Collins and the rest of the Dynasty cast just for those of us who didn’t recognise them from their hair or outfits from the show as tbh that’s all that will remind you of them.

This film firstly introduces us to the writers in the show played by the recognisable supporting star of Kindergarten Cop (1990), Pamela Reed – who played Arnie Schwarzenegger’s sidekick – Esther Shapiro who created the series with her husband. The husband, Richard as Dynasty‘s writer is a likeable man played by Ritchie Singer.

They pitch their idea to Spiderman Kurt  Frederich Aaron Spelling (Hammond) the famous TV producer of the 1980s of everything from The Love Boat (1977-87) to Hart to Hart (1979) to Charlie’s Angels (1976-81) – and any I’ve not said is listed in the film as Spelling points them out to his wife ad nauseam in this movie. Following this it is a fans-only zone as we are introduced to some of the actors and actresses of Dynasty with a mini-bio first before we get the reveal of an actor or actress who looks as much like them as I do with Mila Kunis (ie sadly not one iota).

As for the bio, I’m sure the writer of this movie merely consulted IMDb’s facts page on Dynasty to glean all the information they needed. So as it’s more fun, I’ll let you guess who is who before you get told to make this film more interesting.

I will tell you however about “Heather Locklear”‘s appearance as it’s probably one of the most amusing. In this, we are introduced to “Locklear” (Holly Brisley) in her Daisy Duke shorts leaning over a car Megan Fox style with a raised eyebrow from “John Forsyth” (Bartholomew John). Locklear turns around who sadly for you guys out there wasn’t the real McCoy as the actress playing Locklear who looked more like a demented chipmunk (to me anyway but I’m sure many in the male population watching this would disagree).

A further example of this could have been,  the Shapiros discussing the Fallon role, “Do you think Pamela Sue Martin would be right for the part of Fallon?” ponders the husband with his wife saying “Well she’s been starring as Nancy Drew recently but I don’t know if she would be recognised from her time in The Poseidon Adventure as to be fair she was only x years old then”. Cue Fallon’s “lookalike”.

We are also subjected to watching how the cast, storyline and Dynasty‘s audience were faring throughout the various seasons. The storyline of the TV series shows and talks about the more talked about storylines such as the extremes between the innovative first series and the later ones. Stephen Carrington was controversially one of the first openly gay characters on prime time telly to the diabolical Moldavian wedding massacre storyline. The audience is seen from the viewpoint of a hillbilly type with a young wife and some Joan Collins and Linda Evans attired transvestites in a bar.

The ending scenes, however, are hysterical as we have a what happened to the cast post Dynasty montage and we are shown Collins returning to London as she misses the rain (as all ex-pats do. a friend confirmed it does rain in the US), Linda Evans falling in love (aaaaw) and John Forsythe playing tennis.

Anyway, to sum up, if you are going to make a film about an established cast playing well-known characters, I feel I should make it Krystal – clear this should only be done if proper lookalikes are judged as an accurate lookalike first by a panel of die-hard fans and if they scream “Good ‘Evans is that supposed to be Linda” when the actress trying for the part of Mrs Carrington the second appears, you know they’re a no go.

 

Weeper Rating: :-(  /10

Handsqueeze Rating:  :-)  :-)  :-) /10

Hulk Rating: ‎ ‎           ‎/10

 

---

The Small Screen Blogathon, 2018 No 6

This film was added to Maddie Loves her Classic Films’ Small Screen Blogathon. Reviews with this cast include Pamela Reed is reviewed in Eli Stone, Kindergarten Cop and Savannah Sunrise. Nicholas Hammond stars in The Sound of Music, Murder She Wrote, Dallas, Magnum PI  and The Love Boat. He also starred in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. 

---

 

Related