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List Price: $39.98 | | Label: 20th Century Fox
Salesrank: 46063
Released: April 19, 2005 |
| Our Price: $22.50 |
| Used Price: $8.99 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
The saga of a wealthy Denver family in the oil business: Blake Carrington, the patriarch; Krystle, his former secretary and wife; his children: Adam, lost in childhood after a kidnapping; Fallon, pampered and spoiled; Steven, openly gay; and Amanda, hidden from him by his ex-wife, the conniving Alexis. Most of the show features the conflict between 2 large corporations, Blake's Denver Carrington and Alexis' Colby Co. Passion, glamour, catfights, and the biggest shoulder pads in Denver. Dynasty, was the primetime soap fueled by an all-star cast and "sexsational" storylines. Relive the wrestling matches between Alexis and Krystle, Steven's scandalous romances, Fallon's affairs with practically everybody, and of course, the power struggles at Denver-Carrington, led by the magnetic Blake Carrington.
Description of Dynasty - The Complete First Season:
Aaron Spelling's addictive primetime soap opera, Dynasty, ran for nine seasons on ABC, a saga of the rich and super-rich, family feuds and betrayals, class conflicts, revenge, corruption, and power. The 13 episodes included in this first-season boxed set introduce a wide range of characters (quite a few dispensed by season 2) in the orbit of oil empire Denver Carrington and its acquisitive, stop-at-nothing CEO, Blake Carrington (John Forsythe, who was simultaneously providing the off-screen voice of Charlie in Spelling's Charlie's Angels). Of particular interest is the way Blake and Denver Carrington's business problems--a groundswell of anti-American sentiment in oil-rich Arab nations, the recent energy shortage in the U.S., disagreement about developing alternative fuel sources with tax dollars--are a window onto real-world events when Dynasty debuted in 1981.
But drama ripped from yesterday's headlines is not what the show is about, and it isn't long before Blake's conflicts with, well, just about everyone move to center stage. Above all is his pending marriage to former secretary Krystle Grant Jennings (Linda Evans), who loves Blake but worries that he sees her as a possession to be charmed or bullied into compliance with his tyrannical worldview. Complicating matters is Krsytle's old romance with a Denver Carrington geologist, Matthew Blaisdel (Bo Hopkins, leaning hard on his soulful, James Dean impression), who is struggling to make his marriage to the mentally ill Claudia (Pamela Bellwood) work out. Meanwhile, two of Blake's grownup kids, Fallon (Pamela Sue Martin) and Steven (Al Corley), are home for the wedding but at serious odds with dear old dad. (Blake wants Fallon to marry a competitor's son in the interest of preserving Denver Carrington. He also refuses to speak with Steven after discovering the latter has been in a gay relationship.) On the horizon is Blake's troublesome former wife, Alexis, who wasn't cast yet (she's eventually portrayed by Joan Collins in season 2), but who makes a veiled appearance (played by another actress) at a particularly inauspicious moment for poor Blake in the season finale. There's more: industrial sabotage, Fallon's affair with a chauffeur, an unexpected bond between Steven and Claudia. Dynasty wouldn't be as much fun without its endless cascade of broken hearts and dire circumstances, and it reminds us that wealth can sometimes be a peculiar kind of hell. --Tom Keogh
Dynasty - The Complete First Season Reviews:
Dynasty (dinastija) 
2009-02-08 - i ordered the 1 - 3 season pack
and i wrote my opinion there
they just dont make soaps like dynasty anymore :(
hope paramount will hurry with other seasons ...
season 1 by fox
packing is not great (paper pack)
but its ok (will get damaged with more use thow)
the 4 discs are double sided
there are some extras
the picture q is 10/10 superb
sound as well
i say paramount pack from s 2 to 3 is better
but thats my opinion :)
The season that started the Dynasty phenomenom
2008-11-10 - DYNASTY was an awesome nighttime soap opera that my mother and I used to watch every Wednesday night on ABC that was in competition with CBS's DALLAS, but I think DYNASTY was more sexual than DALLAS was, even though DALLAS got better ratings than DYNASTY did along with the fact that DALLAS lasted longer than DYNASTY did.
In addition, DYNASTY seemed almost like a carbon copy of MELROSE PLACE too, since DYNASTY was pretty much a soap opera about a bunch of rich snobs humping around and back stabbing each other along with the fact that every other co-star slept with one another on DYNASTY as well, just like they did on MELROSE PLACE and BEVERLY HILLS 90210, plus I distinctly recall all the hasty catfights that Crystal(Linda Evans) and Alexis(Joan Collins) frequently got into.
DYNASTY is also the show that helped launch Heather Locklear's acting career and made Heather Locklear(Sammy Jo) famous, especially while she was doing TJ HOOKER at the same time at one point.
Therefore, Heather Locklear being a successful co-star on DYNASTY perhaps inspired creator(Aaron Spelling) to hire Heather Locklear for the Amanda Woodward role on MELROSE PLACE, especially since MELROSE PLACE was a prime time soap opera that was quite similar to DYNASTY.
The 1st Season of DYNASTY also takes me all the way back to memory lane when DYNASTY was part of ABC's Wednesday night line-up starting with THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO at 8PM followed by THE FALL GUY at 9PM, and then topped off with DYNASTY at 10PM, which also takes me back to when Ronald Reagan was president and when we had all those budget cuts going on from the recession we had back in 1981-1982.
The Rather Non Glitzy Beginning To Television's Most Glamourous And Outrageous 1980's Prime Time Soap
2008-04-27 - When was the last time you can recall your home life literally stopping when the hour arrived when a favourite night time program aired on prime time television? During the 1980's the big budget soaps like "Dallas", and "Dynasty" succeeded in doing just that all over the world. I know in my household at 8.30pm on Monday nights the phone was taken off the hook, the dishes were already washed and put away, and the popcorn was at the ready so that we could sit back and enjoy uninterrupted the latest larger than life traumas and heartbreaks encountered by television's most outrageously dysfunctional family, the hugely rich Carringtons. We didn't tune in expecting to see nice people like in "The Waltons", instead we, like people everwhere, tuned in to lap up the glamour, double dealings, infidelities and memorable bitchy cat fights that made "Dynasty" such totally great fun to watch.
Reliving the at times rather unglamourous beginnings of "Dynasty" in the "Complete First Series", has been a great joy for me over this last month and has been highly interesting viewing especially when one considers what the series became after the dramatic second season entry of the unforgettable villianess Alexis, Blake Carrington's long absent first wife, played to perfection by Joan Collins. Immediately a very different series was born however I have to give this first, (half) season its due in that while lacking the later season's glamour and over the top storylines and excitement, it still sustains great interest and sets up the scenario of the oil rich Carringtons and the Colbys. It also allows many of the performers such as the wickedly wonderful Pamela Sue Martin, Al Corley, and Pamela Bellwood the opportunity to really shine in their own storylines before the arrival of the "Alexis Juggernaut" changed the series forever.
Another series known for latecomers, good storylines, writing 
2007-09-28 - I'd only started collecting TV shows on DVD this year. I realized just about any show is now available in this format, which has been the highlight of '07 for me. I wondered what show I'd like to have, and Dynasty came to mind. Imagine my delight when I realized the first season has been released. However, I didn't buy it yet as I remembered Dynasty started late in its first season, like Dallas, Fantasy Island, Grey's Anatomy, to name some. I decided to wait until Season 2 is released, to see if 2-packs for both seasons might be available. You know the rest; someone else here stated it's cheaper and I finally ordered the 2-pack. They arrived within a week and a half in good condition. I really appreciate the company for bundling them together; that's what I'd do for every show that starts late if I'm in charge of DVD releases.
Some actors had yet to appear that'd put this series on the map, like Joan Collins and Heather Locklear, to name two. If Dynasty did fare well at any time in the ratings during the first season, it must've been strictly by an episode or two as the series didn't make the top 25 overall for the season. Those expecting to see the aforementioned actors here will be disappointed as they didn't arrive until the sophomore season; if good writing is expected or if you'd like to know what started it all that got us Dynasty fans yakking about at the water cooler on Thursdays, then do check this one out. I'd say it's worth a look.
Actually, I'd never watched Dynasty until its 6th season when I was in college. Some friends told me how great it was and they kept telling me I should check it out. I didn't care but decided to give it a try, but sure enough I got hooked. Wednesday nights became Dynasty nights for me. One friend told me she's practically dead to the world when it's on--she ignores the phone, the door, etc. everything and everyone that breathes until the closing credits roll. I also remember this show being described as larger than life. Anyway, I'd watch the show for a while until I had to focus some more on my studies, when I'd lost interest in it altogether, or when I noticed the catfights seemed to finally become a thing of the past. What a time we had to enjoy the beauties that defined devastatingly wealthy excess for us.
I'd already finished watching Season 1. I had mixed feelings about this one at first given its early storylines but told myself to hang in there until the hiss-worthy Alexis finally charms her way into our DVD players, to put it somewhat questionably. It's been a wait but worth it. Enjoy...
Oil 
2007-08-20 - Before this past month, I had seen "Dynasty" only once: at the age of 9 in September of 1981 when I was in the hospital recovering from an appendectomy. It was the rebroadcast of the episode when Blake attacks Steven's ex, Ted. While watching the episode on DVD, I was surprised at how much of it I remembered and was also struck by how seminal that episode ended up being.
There are some slow moments in the first season, notably in the early episodes. Once Fallon marries Jeff, things start to take off. The cast is good. I had reservations about Pamela Sue Martin at first, but she won me over as Fallon. Martin has a wonderful command of Fallon and her scenes with Al Corley as her brother Steve are well done. John James as Jeff Colby seems to be having a great time and his eyebrows are as demonstrative as the rest of him. I'm surprised at how unsympathetic the character of Blake is, but he's counterbalanced by the radiant Linda Evans as Krystle.
The first season of "Dynasty" was a show trying to find its legs. After this season, major characters were written out and the show felt less like a Denver version of "Dallas.". Joan Collins was brought in and the oil rig story was phased out entirely though thankfully Pamela Bellwood was retained as Claudia. The show's ratings rose and it became must watch TV for many on Wednesday nights, so many may be surprised by the first season's different pace and tone.
I'm struck by how excellent the picture quality is of this DVD. There's barely an imperfect frame. These episodes could have been broadcast yesterday for all the age they show. Also, don't be fooled by the teaser photo of Alexis on the box; she appears in the last 30 seconds of the final episode.
