Other notable cast members included Pamela Sue Martin, Lloyd Bochner, Heather Locklear, Catherine Oxenberg, Michael Nader, Diahann Carroll, Emma Samms, Rock Hudson, Kate O'Mara, and Stephanie Beacham.

George Peppard was cast as series patriarch Blake Carrington, but ultimately had difficulties dealing with the somewhat unsympathetic role,[8][9] and was quickly replaced with John Forsythe.

"[5] As Dynasty begins, powerful oil tycoon Blake Carrington (John Forsythe) is about to marry the younger Krystle Jennings (Linda Evans), his former secretary.

At the end of the three-hour premiere episode "Oil", Steven finally confronts his father, criticizing Blake's capitalistic values and seemingly amoral business practices.

[12][13] In counterpoint to the Carringtons are the Blaisdels; Denver-Carrington geologist Matthew (Bo Hopkins)—unhappily married to the emotionally fragile Claudia (Pamela Bellwood)—is Krystle's ex-lover.

"[3][13] The series' first 13 episodes have been seen in retrospect to be Dynasty's "arthouse" era, a brief period before its characters were flattened into the caricatures that came to define the prime-time soap genre thanks to "ratings pressures and the introduction of diva Joan Collins...[which] put an end to challenging story lines".

[15] In the first episode of the second season, titled "Enter Alexis", the mysterious witness removes her sunglasses to reveal British actress Joan Collins as a new arrival to the series.

[3] The Pollocks "soft-pedaled the business angle" of the show and "bombarded viewers with every soap opera staple in the book, presented at such a fast clip that a new tragedy seemed to befall the Carrington family every five minutes.

In the meantime, Adam Carrington (Gordon Thomson), the long-lost son of Alexis and Blake who had been kidnapped in infancy, reappears in Denver and almost starts an affair with Fallon before they discover they are siblings.

Also introduced are Krystle's ex-husband, tennis pro Mark Jennings (Geoffrey Scott), and Kirby Anders (Kathleen Beller), the daughter of longtime Carrington majordomo Joseph (Lee Bergere).

In the middle of the season, news that Steven has been killed in an accident in Indonesia comes to the Carringtons; he survives, but undergoes plastic surgery and returns to Denver (portrayed by Jack Coleman).

With the show's popularity soaring in the fourth season (now the third-most-watched program of 1983–1984), former President Gerald Ford guest-starred as himself in 1983, along with his wife Betty and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

[18] New characters included the charming and ambitious Farnsworth "Dex" Dexter (Michael Nader), the scheming public relations assistant Tracy Kendall (Deborah Adair), the unscrupulous playboy Peter De Vilbis (Helmut Berger), and Blake's illegitimate African American half-sister, Dominique Deveraux (Diahann Carroll).

In the season finale, Fallon disappears just before her second wedding to Jeff (now divorced from Kirby) as her car seemingly collides with a truck on a stormy night (to accommodate the departure of Pamela Sue Martin from the series), while Alexis is arrested for the murder of Mark Jennings.

The marriage of Blake and Krystle is in crisis after the birth of their daughter Krystina, Dominique struggles to be accepted as a Carrington and loses her husband Brady Lloyd (Billy Dee Williams) in the process, and Sammy Jo discovers she is the heiress to a huge fortune.

During the season, Dynasty attracted controversy when Rock Hudson's real-life HIV-positive status was revealed after a romantic storyline between his character Daniel Reece and Evans's Krystle.

Krystle's niece Sammy Jo (Heather Locklear) also has her fair share of catfights, as she first engages in a slap fight with Claudia (Pamela Bellwood) before taking on Amanda (Catherine Oxenberg) in a brawl in a swimming pool.

Amanda and Prince Michael's royal wedding is interrupted by terrorists during a military coup in Moldavia, riddling the chapel with bullets and leaving all of the major characters lying seemingly lifeless.

[37] When the series resumed on September 25, 1985, it was revealed that only two minor characters had died: Steven's boyfriend Luke Fuller (Billy Campbell), who was mortally wounded saving Claudia's life, and Jeff's love interest Lady Ashley Mitchell (Ali MacGraw).

The May 21, 1986, season finale finds Blake strangling Alexis while the rest of the cast is in peril at the La Mirage hotel, which has been accidentally set afire by Claudia.

Adam's season-long romance with Blake's secretary Dana Waring (Leann Hunley) culminates in a wedding, which is punctuated in the May 6, 1987, season finale by Alexis's car plunging off a bridge into a river and the violent return of a vengeful Matthew Blaisdel.

Although the first episode of season seven premiered with a high Nielsen rating of a 20.1, the competition with Magnum, P.I., now in the same time slot,[44] and the constant storyline changes led to Dynasty falling out of the top 20 to No.

[45] In a money-saving move, Evans appeared in only six episodes early in the season as an ailing Krystle seeks brain surgery in Switzerland but is left in an offscreen coma.

[41] A storyline involving a murder and an old secret tying the Carrington, Colby, and Dexter families together spanned the season as Alexis and Sable sparred first over business and then over Dex.

[18] Gordon Thomson also originally agreed to appear in the film but ABC refused to align the shooting schedule with his work on the daytime series Santa Barbara, and replaced him with Robin Sachs.

[16][20] Dynasty was initially syndicated in reruns by Metromedia Producers Corporation in September 1985, on stations such as KTTV in Los Angeles, and WNEW-TV 5 in New York City, while season 6 began airing on ABC.

In January 2004, creator Esther Shapiro participated in a marathon of the show's episodes, called "Serial Bowl: Alexis vs. Krystle", giving behind-the-scenes tidbits and factoids.

[78] It assembled former cast members from the series in John Forsythe, Joan Collins and Linda Evans, as well as the four original actors who played the Carrington children (Pamela Sue Martin, Al Corley, Gordon Thomson and Catherine Oxenberg).

Heather Locklear, John James, and Diahann Carroll declined to participate,[79] but cast members Pamela Bellwood, Jack Coleman and Emma Samms were included in prerecorded interviews.

The reunion episode also featured a new opening of the show's iconic theme song, which included Home & Family hosts Mark Steines and Christina Ferrare.