Dynasty

Network: ABC
Episodes: 220 (hour)
Seasons: Nine

TV show dates: January 12, 1981 — May 11, 1989
Series status: Cancelled

Performers include: John Forsythe, Linda Evans, Joan Collins, Gordon Thomson, John James, Michael Nader, Jack Coleman, Heather Locklear, Pamela Bellwood, Pamela Sue Martin, Diahann Carroll, Emma Samms, Catherine Oxenberg, Lee Bergere, Leann Hunley, Kathleen Beller, Geoffrey Scott, Christopher Cazenove, Terri Garber, Wayne Northrop, Al Corley, Ted McGinley, Michael Praed, Lloyd Bochner, Peter Mark Richman, and Paul Burke.

TV show description:      
A glitzy and campy primetime soap opera that centers around the Carrington and Colby oil families in Denver, Colorado.

Wealthy patriarch Blake Carrington (John Forsythe) marries his younger secretary Krystle Jennings (Linda Evans), much to the consternation of Blake’s adult children; spoiled Fallon (Pamela Sue Martin, later Emma Samms) and gay Steven (Al Corley, later Jack Coleman).

Fallon was frequently unfaithful to her husband Jeff Colby (John James), whom she only marries as part of a business deal with Jeff’s Uncle Cecil (Lloyd Bochner). Things get even more complicated once Blake’s venomous first wife Alexis (Joan Collins) returns.

Other characters include Matthew (Bo Hopkins) and Claudia Blaisdel (Pamela Bellwood); previously unseen children Adam (Gordon Thomson) and Amanda Carrington (Catherine Oxenberg, later Karen Cellini); Krystle’s niece, Samantha Josephine “Sammy Jo” Dean Reece (Heather Locklear); Blake’s African-American half-sister, Dominique Deveraux (Diahann Carroll); and the dashing Farnsworth “Dex” Dexter (Michael Nader).

The series inspired a Los Angeles-based spin-off called The Colbys.