Spring of ´85. When this season´s shooting begins,
DALLAS producers haven´t decided yet who would be
replacing great BBG as miss ELLIE. Her substitute would
appear 7 eps. later: venerable, ever-elegant DONNA REED,
main and ONLY star on the EWINGS´ series this season.
Meanwhile, the other soaps would feature, among others, AVA
GARDNER, ALEC BALDWIN, ANNE ARCHER, GINA LOLLOBRIGIDA,
ROCK HUDSON, ALI MCGRAW, CELESTE HOLM and others, lesser known.
- DYNASTY: A. Spelling resisted PAMELA
SUE MARTIN´s runaway with another secret daughter,
AMANDA (played by wooden C. OXENBERG) who, on the
season´s last scene, she married the Prince of then
nonexistent country Moldavia. A revolutionary and scandalously
antimonarchy massacre ended with a last sequence crowded of
(presumed) corpses, including those belonging to BLAKE,
KRYSTLE, JEFF, ASHLEY (A.MCGRAW), the just married,
CLAUDIA, ADAM, STEVEN and his new boyfriend LUKE
(B.CAMPBELL), the King of Moldavia (J.FABIANI, ALEX from DALLAS)
and a few more...Meanwhile, far from there, FALLON
reappeared with the face and exuberant body of EMMA SAMMS,
with amnesia...
- FALCON CREST: On their best
cliffhanger, LORIMAR ended the season with another violent plot: a
bomb attempt against RICHARD CHANNING that also put in
danger MAGGIE´s life. Unexpectedly, in the last minute, a
very profitable twist was made: the attraction between
the goody-goody and the baddie, brother and
sister-in-laws too. The responsible for the blast would be
RICHARD´s ex secre-lover, PAMELA (S. DOUGLAS), despite the
Fact that a scenario very likely to Who Shot JR?
was set up around RC. At the same time, ANGELA became
the victim of a revenge by glamorous but ruthless
CASSANDRA (A. ARCHER) who came up with her mother ANNA, fine
C. HOLM. MELISSA was sent to prison for having caused
ANGELA´s car accident and her cousin ROBIN (B. HOWARD)
stayed home, pregnant with COLE´s baby (W.R. MOSES). LANCE
allowed the doctors to make euthanasia to wife LORRAINE
(K. VERNON) and MAGGIE surprised CHASE in the arms of
passionate CONNIE, considering their marriage
finished...
- KNOTS LANDING: Fully into the
glitter and ruthlessness of DALLAS & DYNASTY, KL
presented as a cliffhanger VAL being parted of her twin
babies once again, presumably stillborn but given in
adoption illegally...This embroiled, endless plot put the
DALLAS spin-off to the edge of nonsense, though good
characters (and actors) like GREG, LAURA, KAREN & MACK
always saved the show with the additional asset of guest
star AVA GARDNER...
Spectacular ABBY pressed
LORIMAR into improving the series´ look and even promoted
TRAVILLA as a new costume designer...However, on that
season´s end, the plot about JOSHUA (BALDWIN) & CATHY
(L. HARTMAN) was getting flat...
- DALLAS: THE END (Or
what should have been the end). BOBBY´s hit-and-run
killing by his psychosister-in-law KATHERINE before
desperate PAM. The couple was planning to remarry and he
left not one but two widows (JENNA never knew about
his change of mind).
If you think this
wasn´t enough, SUE ELLEN went back to the bottle because
of JR, who wanted to get model MANDY (D. SHELTON)
into Southfork, as CLIFF unsuccessfully tried to get a
divorce from wife JAMIE EWING (J. HARRISON), saying he´d had
a vasectomy done, after she lost her share of
E. Oil. LUCY quit the series (or was asked to...) after
remarrying MITCH, and DONNA refused to make up with RAY,
though she was carrying his baby...A certain
absent-looking lady used to walk around, posing as miss
ELLIE...Before "dying", BOBBY begged to his family: "Be good to
each other..."
But this final moral dose and,
especially, the suspense-less cliffhanger and the feeling the
themes were tired out, meant a little big advantage for
DYNASTY which, thru its bloody Moldavia massacre
cliffhanger, achieved the top in the ratings.
DALLAS
had a very powerful factor against it: P. DUFFY
leaving, and a very worthy one in the opposite: the return
of the EWINGS´ true mama, BBG. Besides, they would
counter-attack with B. CARRERA, D. RAMBO, M. VAN KAMP, S. FORREST,
M. SINGER, J. MARTIN & J. BECK, and a new exec producer and
writing team who would try to give a new twist to the
show: more realistic, glamorous though very bad
accepted by the audience...
Next year DYNASTY
would hire G. HAMILTON, C. CAZENOVE & L. EVANS for an
obnoxious second part, as they created a spin-off called THE
COLBYS, even more surrealistic.
F .CREST would
feature M. FAIRCHILD, K. OLIN, E. ALBERT & C. ROMERO, and the
K. LANDING gang, hitchcockian RUTH ROMAN and, from the last
episode on, N. SHERIDAN.