January 12, 1981: Dynasty premieres, ABC's Aaron Spelling-created-and-produced attempt at a nighttime soap opera to compete with CBS' Dallas.
John Forsythe stars as Denver oilman Blake Carrington. Linda Evans played his new wife, Krystle Jennings. But stealing the show was Joan Collins as Blake's 1st wife, Alexis Colby.
Many other stars, including Rock Hudson and Diahann Carroll, aere brought in during the show's run, and other stars were born, including Heather Locklear (as Sammy Jo Dean, Krystle's money-hungry and man-hungry niece) and Emma Samms (who, in Season 3, replaced Pamela Sue Martin as Blake and Alexis' daughter Fallon). Locklear and Samms made lots of teenage boys Dynasty viewers.
A weird twist of fate: The house that stood in for the Carrington mansion was owned by hotel and credit card magnate, and founding owner of the NFL's San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers, Barron Hilton. His granddaughter, model-turned-actress Paris Hilton, eventually dated Brandon Davis, the grandson of Marvin Davis, on whom Blake was (very loosely) based. The mansion is in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, a short drive from the houses that stood in for Wayne Manor on Batman and the Governor's Mansion on Benson.
On May 15, 1985, the show concluded its 5th season with the Carrington family going to the European nation of Moldavia, where Amanda Bedford, daughter of Blake and Alexis, was to marry that country's Prince Michael. But the episode ended with terrorists launching a military coup, and shooting up the chapel.
(In real life, Moldavia was then a "republic" within the Soviet Union. Since independence, it has called itself Moldova. And Amanda was played by Catherine Oxenberg, who actually is a Princess, a grandniece of Peter II, the last King of Yugoslavia. Michael was played by Michael Praed.)
As with Dallas' 1980 "Who Shot J.R.?" storyline, the show's fans waited all Summer to find out who lived and who died as a result of "The Moldavian Massacre." As it turned out, in the Season 6 premiere on September 25, only 2 minor characters died: Luke Fuller (Billy Campbell), boyfriend of Steve Carrington (originally played by Al Corley, then from Season 3 onward by Jack Coleman), gay son of Blake and Alexis; and Lady Ashley Mitchell (Ali McGraw), girlfriend of Jeff Colby (John James), who had previously been married to Fallon. (The marriage failed along with the spinoff they starred in, The Colbys.) Jeff was the son of Cecil Colby (Lloyd Bochner), a business rival of Blake's, and later married Alexis, making her both his mother-in-law and his stepmother.
(This is one reason I don't like soap operas: Too much to keep track of.)
The Moldavian Massacre was the moment Dynasty left it all out on the field, and the aftermath felt a bit hollow. It was later considered the show's "Jump the Shark Moment." The show made it through 8 seasons, concluding on May 11, 1989. The 2-part miniseries Dynasty: The Reunion aired on October 20 and 22, 1991.
Dynasty was rebooted by The CW in 2017. It wasn't a continuation like the recent 2012-14 Dallas reboot. They didn't skimp on the stars, either. But there were some twists. The show was set in Atlanta, and the house that stood in for its Carrington Manor is in the Atlanta suburbs.
The show was centered not on Blake, but on Fallon. The WASPy Krystle is now the Hispanic Cristal. And Sammy Jo, the Heather Locklear character, is now a man, and a gay love interest for Blake's son Steven, and Steven's homosexuality is no longer a barrier between him and his father.
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January 12, 1981 was a Monday. Hockey star Niklas Kronwall was born.
Baseball was out of season. The NFL was between the Conference Championship Games and Super Bowl XVI, which the San Francisco 49ers would win over the Cincinnati Bengals. No NBA games were scheduled. There were 4 games in the NHL:
* The Montreal Canadiens, on their way down from their dynasty, beat the Edmonton Oilers, not yet ready to begin theirs, 5-0 at the Montreal Forum.
* The Boston Bruins beat the Minnesota North Stars, 4-3 at the Boston Garden.
* The St. Louis Blues beat the Hartford Whalers, 5-2 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena).
* And in the fictional Carringtons' real hometown, the Washington Capitals beat the Colorado Rockies, 2-1 at the McNichols Arena in Denver.
