Dynasty - Season Three, Vol. 1

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This hugely popular prime-time soap opera follows the exploits of the Carringtons and Colbys, both "oilrich" family dynasties in Denver, CO, as they accrue and manipulate power and wealth. .com ---- Say what you will about Alexis Carrington (the inimitable Joan Collins in her signature role), but not even she at her greedy, manipulative, and scheming worst would have sanctioned the splitting of Dynasty's third season into two volumes. And this, mind you, is the woman hell bent on ruining the lives of ex-husband Blake Carrington (John Forsythe) and his "sweet" wife of two years, Krystle (Linda Evans), whom Alexis disdainfully calls, "the once and future secretary." To attain the money and power she needs to put her best laid plans into action, she compels a hospital bed wedding to her barely conscious fiancé, Cecil Colby (Lloyd Bochner), who has suffered a massive coronary ("We have to get back at Blake," she pleads). Later, she will uproot the life of Mark Jennings (Geoffrey Scott), Krystle's former husband, from whom—surprise, surprise—she is not legally divorced. Alexis is the straw that stirs this intoxicating cocktail, but Season Three of this era-defining prime time soap is its most intoxicating yet (and marked the show's emergence for the first time in the Nielsen ratings' Top Five). Dynasty distinguished itself from Dallas by putting business on the back burner, and turning up the heat on its characters' outrageous private lives. As the season begins, Jeff (John James) and Fallon's (Pamela Sue Martin) baby is still missing, leading to one of the series' all-time great OMG moments, as the undone Claudia (Pamela Bellwood) clutching what is apparently the baby, accidentally sends it plummeting off a rooftop. The biggest development this season is the introduction of Michael Torrence (Gordon Thomson), a Billings, Montana lawyer, who learns on his grandmother's deathbed that he is actually Blake and Alexis's first-born son, Adam Carrington, who was kipped as an infant. Turns out that as the tree is bent, so are the twigs. No sooner does Alexis set Adam up at ColbyCo then he pits himself against the good and decent Jeff and has his office redone with toxic paint. On the homefront, Fallon wants a divorce and, in a bid for self-actualization, takes over the "white elephant" La Miranda Hotel, where she meets and flirts with "Michael," not realizing he is her long lost sibling. Her discovery of his identity when Alexis introduces them is just another priceless moment that makes this season, and this set, essential for Dynasty fans. Too bad it tops out at 12 episodes, right about the time that Heather Locklear re-appears as Sammy Jo (that's Samantha to you), with the missing and presumed dead Steven's baby. Damn you, Para; just when things are really getting good. --Donald Liebenson