Quotations from Esther Shapiro's book "The Authorized Biography of the Carringtons", 1984

My husband Richard Shapiro and I are asked often these days - by friends, by press, by serious students of the media - what we think the phenomenal appeal of "Dynasty" is based on. Are we dealing here with a broadcasting happenstance, a fortune confluence of elements? Or are there built - in and predictable - not to mention replicable - components at work?

Our answer is usually a shrug and a secret smile, as if to suggest that we know and we're just not telling. We are obviously thrilled, as are our partners and the ABC network, that people around the world enjoy "Dynasty". The why of it we have been content to leave to the media phenomenologists and the examiners of the history of television. However, the time may have come to say out loud why we think "Dynasty" works.

Certainly the vasting contributes immeasurably. John Forsythe, Linda Evans and Joan Collins are stars of great personal magnetism. Audiences like to watch them. And we are fortunate to be partnered with Aaron Spelling, who is the most creative and successful producer in all of television. Yet seems to be more. Maybe, finally, it all comes down to this: there was an abiding purpose when we set out, which was to write and produce something we would enjoy watching, a continuing story of a fascinating - and purposefully not typical - American family to which we, like an audience, could become addicted.

And so we set out to create the ultimate American fantasy family. It would be a larger-then-life family. Rich, powerful, glamorous, living in Denver, whose principal business is oil. It would own mega-corporations - a football team, horses, airplanes, limousines and fine motorcars. The Carringtons would live in a forty-eight-room mansion. A majordomo would run the household.

The men would buy and sell empires. They would be men who would enjoy being men. But they would also wear tuxedos and drink champagne. They would give expensive gifts and send flowers. And tell women - without having to mumble or scratch - how much they loved them.

The women would be extraordinarily beautiful and they would wear the prettiest clothes imaginable. But they would not be window dressing. Not furniture for men to use, not doormats. And never victims. The women of "Dynasty" would have lives and purposes. They would engage men competitively in business and with equal passion in bed. They too would be strong and goal-oriented within the context of the show.

The head of this family would be Blake Carrington, an attractive - sometimes imperious - man who deals brilliantly in business but fights equally hard to communicate with his children and keep his family united. Blake Carrington would be able to do, to say what most every man in the audience would like to do and say if he were strong enough, articulate enough, romantic enough. We gave Blake grown children who might have caused King Solomon to wish he had paid more attention at a family planning seminar.

Son Steven would be honest and brave and manly. And openly - if not exclusively - homosexual; not ashamed of it, not defensive about it. His search for his sexual identity is ongoing, as are his problems with his father, whose notions about gayness are less than liberal, It was our intention here to present both sides of a controversial subject as fairly and straightforwardly as the format would allow. 

Daughter Fallon would have great beauty, and charm, wit, education, in short, everything that money can buy, and yet all of that money and privilege would not have bought her happiness. Her life, her liaisons, her marriage are shambles.

Steven and Fallon's mother, when she rejoined the family she was forced by Blake to abandon, would be Alexis Carrington Colby, calculating and diabolical, who would swear, however speciously, to give up all her devious ways if Blake would only take her back. Should he fail to do that, Alexis would set out to destroy the Carrington empire.

We were frankly concerned at the onset, what with all the intrigue women into the fabric of "Dynasty", about who our viewers would find to care for and identify with. However much women might wish to be as self-possessed or, in their secret hearts, as acquisitive as Alexis or as free-spirited as Fallon, would they watch week after week this mythic American enclave of super-rich, outrageous, controversial, and sometimes unsympathetic characters? A bridge was needed to lead the audience from the real world to the fantasy world of the Carringtons. That bridge was, it turned out, felicitously easy to come by; she almost created herself.

Her name would be Krystle Grant Jennings, Blake's secretary, whom he would wed in the opening episode. An American Aphrodite, good as she is beautiful, Krystle maintains an abiding, charming - sometimes infuriating - disregard for Blake's wealth and a disconcerting propensity for keeping her head screwed on straight in spite of the opulence she has married into. She would epitomize everything women to be and men want to love. It would be Blake Carrington's adoration of Krystle and young Jeff Colby's near worship of Fallon that would provide the audience with that long-neglected fantasy, the finding and nurturing of romantic love.

From the beginning the plan was for the show to grow and change through personal and business confrontations. As long as dangerous business rivals, former husbands, lost children, poor or forgotten relatives continued to emerge, some pretenders, some real, all wanting to cross the moat to the Carrington castle, the dynasty - and "Dynasty" - would flourish.

Excerpts from Richard Hack's article published in the special edition of "The Hollywood Reporter" 

For Aaron Spelling and Douglas S. Cramer, the series has been more than their most famous hit. As executive producers (with creators Richard and Esther Shapiro), the pair have watched "Dynasty" rise and fall and rise again in popularity — all the while marveling at its international appeal.

"It all started as this serious show we were calling 'Oil,' " say Spelling and Cramer, their voices combining into one. "Of course, we eventually changed the title to 'Dynasty,' but still had no idea that it would expand as it went along and become something bigger than life. We always thought that audiences would like to see rich people have problems just like the poor. But we never, ever expected this show to be the 'Dynasty' it's become — from an international hit to dresses to perfume to lingerie and lunch boxes."

Perhaps their first clue should have been the set. Modeled after the Filoli estate in Northern California, the "Dynasty" set became the largest ever constructed by Aaron Spelling Prods., and could stake a legitimate claim as the largest ever built in network television without too many complaints. And their next clue might have been their stars - John Forsythe, Linda Evans, Joan Collins and John James. A stellar cast which continues still.

"It's interesting to look back and remember what these performers were doing before 'Dynasty,' " say Spelling/Cramer. "John Forsythe was, of course, already a big star. But what's interesting is that we called him in to replace another actor (George Peppard), who not only was cast, but had already shot six days on the pilot. It was only then that we realized that George just wasn't playing the role the way Blake Carrington was written. He saw him as softer. But the Shapiros had constructed this character as gritty and strong. And that's what we wanted. As a former president of the Screen Actors Guild, John wasn't eager to replace another actor in a role, and we really had to sell him on the part. Now it's tough to imagine anyone else being able to play the character."

Linda Evans was another story. "We really hadn't worked with Linda or even seen her since she starred in 'The Big Valley' in the '60s. She had been married and didn't want to work that much. Yet, when she walked into my office, I'll never forget, we all looked at one another and knew she was Krystle Carrington. Linda has brought a vulnerability to a role that could have easily become bland compared to the others."

Perhaps the most glamorous cast addition was Joan Collins. And, as could be expected, her story is the most involved. "Joan was not our first choice for the role," according to Spelling. "In fact, we never would have even thought of her had it not been for the fact that her agent called and said she was in town and wanted to do something with us. At the time, we were shooting 'Fantasy Island,' and we needed somebody to play Cleopatra. Joan came in and camped up the role so beautifully that I asked Doug and Esther to see her. And we all agreed that this was our Alexis Carrington.

"We never dreamed that we would ever use an English actress to play the part. In fact, at one point, we met for hours and hours with Carlo Ponti and were seriously considering his wife, Sophia Loren. Once we decided on Joan, our next task was convincing the network. It was not an easy sell. They wanted a very straight, good actress."

"With a slight Bronx accent," adds Cramer, with a look of disdain. "Without Joan, this character would never have grown into the larger-than-life villainess we love. When we finally offered her the part, she was on an island somewhere, and was about to tour in a play. We had to buy her out of 'The Last of Mrs. Chaney' before she could do the role."

"Our most difficult casting task actually centered on the role of Jeff Colby," says Spelling. "We had looked and looked at dozens of actors and didn't really feel right with any of them. But it was getting to that point where we had to make a decision, and we would have made the wrong one if it hadn't been for (then senior VP for talent at ABC) Gary Pudney. Gary called to tell us that he had just put someone under contract that he wanted us to see. That guy was John James. I remember we had him read one scene, and we literally led him by the hand directly to wardrobe."

John Forsythe

"I see Blake Carrington of Dynasty as the quintessential American tycoon. He may be cold, ruthless and all-powerful in the marketplace, but he could also be loving and sensitive at home."

"Blake is much more human than he had been conceived by the authors and by the producer, at the beginning. They meant to make of him the rough copy of J.R in Dallas. A complete blackguard, heartless and with no scruples. Worse than Alexis. But I rebelled. And even if  that role meant life for me, in that moment, I felt it would be a catastrophe, also for the play itself, if my character had looked so odious. People would be disgusted by that. So, after long, exhausting discussions with the producers and the authors, who would have to do everything over again, I obtained to have him different. Now, Blake Carrington is more tormented, he has many problems, he stirs up sympathy and he is credible. He is not a saint, but not a devil either."

"There's a great deal of difference between Blake Carrington and me. First of all, he's a fantastic businessman, and I'm not. Second, I have a much easier attitude that he does about women, homosexuality and politics. I supported ERA, see homosexuality as an alternative life-style and am a liberal independent. Also, one of his weaknesses is that he likes to control his family, and I think you can't follow kids around and dictate what they do."

Linda Evans

"When I read the script for the pilot, I said I'll kill myself if somebody else did the part of Krystle! I could just feel it."

"Playing Krystle is like playing out the fantasy of my life, as a woman who is loved by a man and is more important to him than life itself. He's there, he's supportive through everything, and nothing separates us. Also, Krystle is a woman who in the beginning of the show was powerless, and now she's really learned to speak up for herself and do her own thing. She's fulfilling her dream. In real life, I'm much more independent than she is, but still it's been a joy for me to play her."

"Krystle represents the woman I was 10 or 15 years ago. She's a woman whose whole life was centered around a man, a woman who lived to love and be loved, a woman who wanted a child more than anything. Like me, she was forced to get stronger, grow up, speak for herself and find out who she was. These are all things I've done. And there are so many women who are going through that same agony. They find themselves having to make adjustments in a world they weren't geared for. When you're young, you just go right along. When you're older, you think, 'They've switched the rules on me'. Krystie and Linda get mixed up. It's both our lives."

Joan Collins

"The reason Alexis was popular for so long is because I was good at it. And the character was not so one dimensional. They showed her being evil, but they also showed her fun side and her loving side with her children and with her particular man in her life."

"There are a great deal of similarities between me and Alexis. She looks exactly like me, and she sounds exactly like me, but Alexis is much harder and tougher, much more of a dedicated businesswoman than I am."

" If I were Alexis, I would have been a star 25 years ago, believe me, because I would have slept my way to the top.  And that would have been very easy to do, because I have been asked by some of the most important men in the business, who promised me the best roles and all sorts of goodies if I did. Had I been as clever as Alexis, there's no question that that's what would have happened."

Stephanie Beacham

"It's great fun swishing around the Carrington mansion. And I do love Sable, you know. She's as much fun as any other character I've played. Sable interferes with absolutely everything. She's so touchy and vindictive and loving, and she's so very full. She's terribly different from me. She's my neurotic friend and I love her. In 20 years, when I look back and explain to people what I did with my life, I'll say I worked on the last of the great soaps."

John James

"One day the ABC guy calls me up and says 'John, I have some good news and some bad news for you.' I told him to hit me with the bad news first. He said I didn't get the part of Steven, but I got the part of Jeff Colby. I said, I know the script—there's no such part. He said: There is now. So I found myself sitting over Saturday-morning breakfast with the show's creators, Esther and Richard Shapiro, hammering out my character, actually helping create my character. That's a rare opportunity. Sort of like being your own father."

Pamela Sue Martin

"As I play Fallon, I can see she has a method to her madness. She's strong-willed and she has her own reasons for doing what she does."

Al Corley

"I had to judge my happiness as a person first and my ability to make this character believable and what attracted me was playing a gay character. The only gay television character I knew about at the time was Billy Crystal's gay character Jodie Campbell on ABC's Soap, which was a dark comedy."

Gordon Thomson

"My greatest challenge is keeping Adam human. But people are fascinated by him, and I like him, too, reluctantly though. People are often pretty sour, and they're bitter, and they're ambitious, and they're driven. I'm driven at times, I can be as unpleasant as he can be, and I can sometimes be as intelligent — but then we all can. There's a true amorality that runs through some people and, of course, Adam, having been abandoned at the age of two, has a good springboard for all that."