iPads and flat white coffee may have replaced shoulder pads and big hair but high camp eighties designer soap opera Dynasty is set to make a comeback later this year on US television.
The decadent drama aired for nine seasons on US network ABC between 1981 and 1989 and now, just in time for the Trump era, "the Rolls Royce of prime-time soaps," will roll off the production line to pick up on the fortunes of two of America's wealthiest fictional families, the Carringtons and the Colbys.
The Hollywood Reporter says that the warring clans will continue to battle for control over their fortunes and their children. The Dynasty reboot will faithfully explore similar terrain, a corrupt world "built on backroom deals, betrayal, and, in some cases, murder."
The new series will be seen from the perspectives of two women, Fallon Carrington, the daughter of billionaire oil magnate Blake Carrington, who was played in the original series by the late John Forsythe.
The other woman of the piece is Fallon’s soon-to-be stepmother (apparently spelt Cristal, this time around), the Hispanic woman who marries into a family who are quite her opposite, being paragons of WASP America. The full cast has yet to be announced.
Dynasty became a TV phenomenon in the 1980s and was a massive hit in eighties Ireland when it was screened by RTÉ. ABC feverishly dreamed up the show in response to CBS Television’s mega hit series Dallas, which always seemed to have the edge in popularity with Irish viewers.
Dynasty was the most-watched show on American TV in 1985 and the drama inspired a raft of fashion and luxury products, and successful spin-off series The Colbys.
Set in Denver, Colorado its stars included the icy, calculating Joan Collins. Emanating real froideur, she surely had her finest hour as oil magnate Blake Carrington’s former wife, Alexis. Linda Evans played his saintly, platinum-coiffed new wife Krystle.
The series was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best TV Drama Series every year from 1981 to 1986, winning a Golden Globe in 1984.
John Forsythe died at the age of 92 in 2010, while Evans (74) toured America with her co-star Collins toured in a show called Legends! ten years ago.
