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Bitch-Slapping the Competition: 'Dynasty' Revival Is Coming to the CW this Year

Get out the best china and pop open the champagne, because the Carringtons and the Colbys are coming back in style for the next TV season.

By Tom ChapmanPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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'Dynasty' [Credit: ABC]

Shut the front door, #Dynasty is returning to #TV. While The CW may have cancelled its shows like No Tomorrow and Beauty and the Beast, it also crashed the party with the surprise revival of the popular '80s melodrama.

Get out the best china and pop open the champagne, because the Carringtons and the Colbys are coming back in style for the next TV season. Once seen as the No. 1 show on American network television, Dynasty has all the class and decorum of an episode of Real Housewives of Atlanta.

Coming Back In Style

Deadline reports that Gossip Girl and The O.C. alumni Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage are behind the reboot, joined by Revenge writer-producer Sallie Patrick and Dynasty's original creators Esther and Richard Shapiro. Sure to have more catfights, ridiculous demises, and dramatic returns than any other show on television, The CW is pitching Dynasty as "one to watch" in the 2017–2018 season.

With its influence spanning the decades, Dynasty is the grandmother you would still like to f*ck that spawned the likes of Desperate Housewives, Revenge, and pretty much any other bitch-fest show out there.

The writing's on the wall for how the latest "let's milk it" idea from the network will go, but here's hoping it is a faithful continuation of the show's legacy. The CW successfully relaunched 90210 in 2008, but failed to work its magic on Melrose Place.

Running for 220 episodes from 1981–1989, Dynasty was a gloriously camp stroll through Texas and the flashy rival to Dallas on CBS. Basically, if your storyline didn't revolve around a rich family of oil magnates in the '80s, it wasn't worth watching.

Joan Is Where The Heart Is

Famous for its legendary slanging matches, when you think of Dynasty, you immediately think of #JoanCollins as the OTT Alexis Colby — one of the greatest TV villains of all time. How Schwartz and Savage could possibly top the venomous vixen remains to be seen, but I say don't even try.

Although Collins didn't appear until the second season, the arrival of Alexis ushered in a whole new era of Dynasty. The is of course one simple way to make the revival succeed, get Joan or go home. Just imagine them saving her arrival until the Season 2 premiere and "Enter Alexis - Part 2."

Although Alexis represented the show at its peak, even Collins couldn't save a waning interest in Dynasty. Sadly, there are only so many doppelgängers and Moldavian Massacres we can handle, and a decline in ratings led to the series being cancelled in 1988 during Season 9. We did limp onto the maligned Dynasty: The Reunion in 1991, and although the two-parter attempted to resolve the various cliffhangers from Season 9 and pulled in 43 million viewers over two nights, many felt it was a cheap cash-in on the series.

New Blood

The new era of Dynasty seems to have been fast-tracked, although the revival was first announced in 2016 with The CW giving us the following synopsis:

The Rolls Royce of all primetime soaps, returns in a modernized reboot that follows two of America's wealthiest families, the Carringtons and the Colbys, as they feud for control over their fortune and their children. The series will be told primarily through the perspectives of two women at odds: Fallon Carrington—daughter of billionaire Blake Carrington—and her soon-to-be stepmother, Cristal—a Hispanic woman marrying into this WASP family and America's most powerful class. In an age where dynasties appear everywhere—from reality TV to the polling booths—this epic drama features the one percent in all its glitz and gloss, while exposing the dark underbelly: a corrupt world built on backroom deals, betrayal, and, in some cases, murder.

Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll's Elizabeth Gillies will play Fallon and will be going up against The Vampire Diaries star Nathalie Kelley as Cristal. Presumably the women will now just cyber bully or tweet insults rather than wrestle each other off the side of a balcony, however, we will have to wait and see.

There is no news on which of the previous stars will/could return, but sadly lead actor John Forsythe passed away in 2010, meaning that Blake Carrington will be absent from the rival. However, big stars from the past like #LindaEvans, #DiahannCarroll, and Collins could definitely return and we are stirring our midday martinis in anticipation that Alexis and Krystle could once again share some barbs. It would certainly take some serious network dollars to bring the duo back, but worth every penny!

The news has prompted me to change my name to Thomas Colby-Morell-Carrington-Dexter-Rowan, so, if you need me, I will be rummaging through old episodes and practicing my evil laugh. We'd better get the red carpet ready.

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About the Creator

Tom Chapman

Tom is a Manchester-based writer with square eyes and the love of a good pun. Raised on a diet of Jurassic Park, this ’90s boy has VHS flowing in his blood. No topic is too big for this freelancer by day, crime-fighting vigilante by night.

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