Life continues to get in the way of my working on this blog, but it's always a goal of mine to get to it, trust me! In the meantime, here's a quickie. Actually a quickie in two ways! Ha ha!
During season eight of
Dynasty, Jeff Colby (played by John James), having burnt through almost every available female on the show except for Krystle and Alexis, turned his attentions to Sammy Jo (played by Heather Locklear.) What was initially a ski trip with their two boys, who were cousins, started to flicker into more.
James and Locklear later found themselves on a little trip to L.A., ostensibly part-business but with time for a seaside stroll. This stroll then turned playful, then romantic.
And... before you know it they've done the deed (according to the episode, at The Beverly Hills Hotel!)
The next day, James has to leave in a hurry back to Denver to help with Blake Carrington's campaign for governor along with other interests, but Locklear speaks to him on the phone.
So why do we give a shit? LOL Well, it's just that this room at the "Beverly Hills Hotel" seemed to have some remarkably familiar wallpaper. In fact, it was so familiar that we just HAD to do some digging and see if it was the same as another famed boudoir...
Turns out it is practically identical to that of Miss Blanche Devereaux's on
The Golden Girls! In Blanche's room (as played by
Rue McClanahan), the wallpaper is cut out and formed as a mural of sorts above the hotbed of action.
She scores points, though, (or is that the wrong term when referring to something so putrid?!) for having coordinating bedding and draperies, something the "Beverly Hills Hotel" wasn't able to accomplish!
It's a toss-up which bedroom saw more action over the years, the California hotel room or the bedroom of one of Miami's most eligible middle-aged widows!
Of course, die-hard
Golden Girls devotees will immediately recall the Christmas episode in which McClanahan's Blanche gave each of her three roomies a homemade present for the ages... "The Men of Blanche's Boudoir!"
As an in-joke, the calendars contained semi-clad photos of real crew members who worked on the series and
Betty White,
Bea Arthur and Estelle Getty weren't given the actual props to view until the filmed dress rehearsal in order to record their true, amusingly-startled reactions to the photos. This one, for example, is of two guys who wrote: "To Rue, We wanted to take the towels off for you, but we didn't know how the others would react. Sooooo use your imagination!"
Too bad John James wasn't able to "check in" to Blanche's boudoir, but in this particular episode of
Dynasty, he came close!
This is a funny tie-in, what an eye you have. That pattern, if not the real thing, is called "Martinique" and was used at The Beverly Hills Hotel. There is a restaurant I went to recently called "Indochine" that's covered with it. Iconic! Hilarious you picked it out. Though on Dynasty it's more like The Beverly Mauve Hotel. Geesh, that's one color I hope to never see again (but I know I will). Heather and James look like the Prom King and Queen together. Don't remember them hooking up at all but they both got around. The calendar is a riot. I would never know these things if not for the Underworld!
ReplyDeletePoseidon,
ReplyDeleteThough they are not dead ringers, every time I see today's golden boy, Armie Hammer, I think of John James!
Cheers, Rick
Nit-picking here, but Blanche's last name is spelled Devereaux. I should know, as it is my user last name also!! lol
ReplyDeleteGingerguy, don't sell yourself short. There is plenty that you fill ME in on with your thoughtful and apt comments here. I'm quite stunned that the designers on "Dynasty" actually replicated the look of the wallpaper in the rooms of the BHH at that time! This period in "Dynasty's" history was odd. Jeff and Fallon were freshly returned from "The Colbys" where they'd been deeply in love. Then here Jeff turned snarky over Fallon's ride in the UFO (!), then he cheated on her with her cousin Leslie (Teri Garber) and then they divorced and he proposed to Sammy Jo only to sleep with Fallon again the night Sammy Jo decided to accept his proposal! Lots of "out of character" behavior. The following year he was close to bedding down his own half-sister Monica Colby, though that was a bit of a mix-up. Anyway, the show went off the air with Jeff and Fallon divorced, but two years later, the reunion had her awaiting divorce papers from Jeff!! Jesus............ no one kept anything straight.
ReplyDeleteRick, I feel like JJ was in his prime during the two seasons he headlined "The Colbys" and he was indeed handsome, but I had no choice but to fall hard for Armie after "The Man From UNCLE" and think he's even better! :-)
Skippy, my bad. My only defense is the hectic pace (and endless distractions) I alluded to in the first paragraph. It's fixed now. I was going to check it and didn't remember to. Oddly enough, "Dynasty" had Dominique Deveraux (Diahann Carroll) spelled still another way. We never saw either Skippy or Blanche's other son on TGG, did we? :-)
You guys blew my mind, I kept thinking Armie Hammer looked 80's and was a throwback to my youth, when all the while he's a (sexier) ringer for JJ!
ReplyDeleteThey DO look alike! How interesting.
ReplyDeleteAlso, thank you to the Casting Gods of the 80's for all of that chest hair that stayed unclothed throughout "Dynasty". Has anyone tried the new version on the "CW"?
I loved that show so much!
I link you at BoyCulture.com. Love your site. I have a nostalgia site Gr8erDays.com. Check it out, and say hi if you'd like to contribute sometime — good for cross-traffic. It's not quite as intense as yours, so plenty of room on the 'Net for both. Thanks! Matt
ReplyDeleteHey guys,
ReplyDeleteI also met John James once! He was doing summer theater back during his Dynasty days, and he was performing at the hotel I was working at.
John was very nice, very handsome, and asked me if I could get him some Dijon mustard!
My brush with celebrity greatness : )
Cheers,
Rick
Forever1267, I didn't really care for the way the "Dynasty" reboot was being handled, but I still wanted to at least see the pilot just out of morbid curiosity (and I actually really enjoyed the "Dallas" update, but that was a continuation, not an overhauled retread.) However, I record two shows on Thursdays and - hopelessly out of touch person that I am - my DVR couldn't record it that night. And I have yet to see any eps available On Demand. So I haven't seen it. But the way EW talks, it won't be on for very long....
ReplyDeleteRick, how neat that you actually MET J.J.! Somehow I always admired the way he was only supposed to appear in the 3-hour pilot, but convinced the producers to include him as a regular and then he outstayed every single regular cast member except for John Forsythe! By the last season, he'd achieved second billing.