Designer Double-Dip: To "Dynasty" with "Love!"

Many of my readers love posts of this sort, wherein costume re-usage is highlighted, and I like to think I have an eye for such a thing. But in this case I can't claim credit for the discovery... A faithful reader went and dug up the bones, bringing them to me with an ear-to-ear grin so that I can share them with you! This one is a bit of a giggle and I hope you enjoy it as I did.  

For those who may not be fully up on it, Dynasty premiered in January of 1981 with an abbreviated first season. While its ratings were middle of the road (though the type that would make any network exec salivate now!), it really didn't take off until the fall when the highly manipulative character of Alexis arrived (in the form of Dame Joan Collins.) Another key cast addition that year was Heather Locklear.

Locklear was brought on as leading lady Linda ("Krystle") Evans' niece from the wrong side of the tracks, Sammy Jo. Her short-shorts-wearing, banister-sliding, junk-food-eating tart was a thorn in the side to many of the wealthy inhabitants at the Carrington mansion. This became even more of an issue when she up and married Steven Carrington (played by Al Corley) who had heretofore been gay except for a brief foray with a married lady (Pamela Bellwood's "Claudia.")

For Lockear's first big party at the mansion, she was given a fluffy, demure confection, appropriate for a young newlywed making her social debut.

Trouble was, this look was more of what her Auntie Krystle wanted for her than what she'd have preferred. And a glass or two (or three!) of bubbly wasn't likely to soothe the pain.

So instead, when it's time for her to emerge and join the fun, she's had a full-on makeover!

She's sporting sultrier hair, a far more revealing gown and her sister-in-law Fallon's (played by Pamela Sue Martin) necklace, borrowed without permission! Aunt Krystle looks on in stunned shock.

Then she sidles up to the orchestra leader and makes a special request, which he soon begins. It's a hooty, disco riff on the theme from Peter Gunn!

This hilarious moment has become the stuff of legend. There's a clip on YT of the sequence, there's a music video for "Get The Party Started" (!) using footage of it and at least one .gif of Locklear's gyrating.

Work it, girl!

This whole scene does NOT sit well with Locklear's new mother-in-law La Collins.

So the impromptu performance is brought to an immediate close. (For those who may be interested, Joan's stand-in and good friend, Judy Bryer, can be spotted over Locklear's shoulder on the right. She often appeared in group scenes after her duties for lighting purposes were taken care of.)

Locklear is left humiliated in front of the guests. Note the hilarious braids that she'd somehow managed to work into her "Farrah" 'do in the short amount of time between switching looks! But I know... You're wondering. When in the hell is he going to get to the point of the post??!

Well, here is part of it, finally. Locklear's sexy dress is a reworking of one that The Love Boat's cruise director Julie McCoy (played by Lauren Tewes) wore over three years earlier in a 1978 episode.

I say reworking because while it may not the very same dress, it's the same pattern. On Tewes, the decolletage is more understated, the slit is far lower and the material looks a shinier, truer white. Locklear's has low cleavage, a thigh-high slit and seems made from a clingy, off-white jersey knit. But the overall design is the same. (I say this with the caveat that it may very well be the same dress because, as you'll see, the fabric in question changes hue somewhat based on the lighting. Someone may have just snipped some of the stitching and altered it to make it more revealing.)

And it stands to reason, since Dynasty and The Love Boat, like many Aaron Spelling productions, shared the same head costume designer, Nolan Miller. But this isn't the end.

A year and a half after Locklear did her little number on the dance floor, this dress appeared back on The Love Boat! And it was worn by a different "Krystle," Crystal Bernard!

This time, Bernard is the one with the big slit and expanded neckline as her man Dean Butler salivates.

Bernard also seems to have borrowed Locklear's hairstyle and perhaps a pose or two of hers. But, wait, there's more!

If the sisterhood of the traveling gown wasn't doing it for you as a Designer Double-Dip, consider this. Even Locklear's first dress, the one gifted to her by Auntie Krystle, was :::gasp::: second hand!

The Love Boat guest star Berlinda Tolbert (of The Jeffersons) had been seen wearing that one only six months prior! Tolbert was spotted in the confection walking with the ship's bartender Ted ("Isaac") Lange. Lockler didn't inherit the hair baubles to go with, however.

So there you have it, a trip through Nolan Miller's closet, though I'm sure that many other such examples exist. Special shout out to my pal Timothy for his expert detective work for this installment.

Fond Farewell: Great Scott!

In the 1980s, a rush of handsome actors with thick, dark wavy hair and big, brawny mustaches began to flood TV's airwaves. Tom Selleck was far and away the most popular on Magnum, P.I., but hunky Lee Horsley gave him a run for his money on Matt Houston. Another, who made a brief splash as opportunistic tennis pro Mark Jennings on Dynasty, was Geoffrey Scott. Scott passed away one day after his 79th birthday on February 23rd. We take a moment now to glance at his career and hirsute physique.

Born in Hollywood, California on February 22nd, 1942, Scott would actually make his mark in New York City (and a rather late one at that.) Having toiled in a wide array of commercials and theatre productions, he caught a break in 1970 when he was cast in the unusual daytime soap opera Dark Shadows.

The handsome 28 year-old was lover interest to one of the show's chief female performers, Lara Parker. A neophyte actor more obsessed with his lines than with things like subtext and intent, he didn't wind up making a profound impression and was ultimately let go. He landed on another soap Where the Heart Is and proceeded to a variety of prime time TV appearances, often in roles that merely called for a handsome, all-purpose presence.

He continued to toil as a guest on shows such as Kojak, Harry O and Barnaby Jones until catching another break. This time, he was part of a new concept in prime time programming. The NBC series Cliffhangers was an hour-long broadcast that featured three completely separate stories playing out in serial-like installments. Each week ended with, you guessed it, a cliffhanger.

Scott's portion of the show concerned a western cowboy who is tossed into a subterranean world of futuristic aliens and beastly monsters. (This certainly predated the later Cowboys & Aliens, 2011, with Daniel Craig.) Michael Nouri and Miss Susan Anton figured into the other tales to be presented each week.

This rather nondescript photo was given heavy rotation in print, but revealed little other than the fact that he was playing a marshal... Cliffhangers was clobbered by Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley in the ratings and fell off the radar after 10 episodes.

Singer-actor Jerry Reed's role in Smokey and the Bandit (1977) and its sequel had garnered him enough attention that he was given a shot at his own TV series. A pilot telefilm called The Concrete Cowboys had him opposite Tom Selleck. But by the time the series was picked up in 1981 (following a writer's strike), Selleck was out and Scott was in. (Selleck had to reason to worry. He'd landed his role on Magnum, P.I. in 1980!)

The series, sometimes called Ramblin' Man, wound up doing even worse than Cliffhangers did, and was kaput after 7 episodes. All was not lost though...

The actor, now pushing 40 and facing either career inertia or decline, soon found himself in the most high profile part he would ever know.

Dynasty, a prime time soap in its third season and now picking up serious steam in the ratings, was on the hunt for a charismatic scoundrel to portray the ne'er do well ex-husband of its leading heroine Krystle, played by Linda Evans. With a newly-grown "porn stache" in place, he won the role.

Any new addition to Dynasty at this juncture was greeted with enormous press and publicity. He took his place among the series' stars Evans, John Forsythe and Joan Collins and prepared to ride the wave. As Jennings, he also got the chance to take Collins for a spin as she connived to mess up her enemy Evans' life!

He also, in a notorious series of events, wound up bedding Collins' daughter on the show Pamela Sue Martin, all the while still carrying an unrequited torch for Evans!

Everything about Dynasty was focused on the visual (along with some verbal fireworks.) Scott was presented shirtless on as many occasions as possible. Good Lord... this shot may even make me a fan of V-neck T-shirts!

By now a far more seasoned, comfortable actor than he'd been in his early days, Scott's innate charm came across, making the potentially unlikable character rather charming in his own way. And he wasn't hard on the eyes, either.

Unfortunately, as happened to many an actor and actress signed to the series, once his chief story line had wound up, the writers had little idea what to do with him. He emerged as a sort of belittled Man Friday/bodyguard for Collins and his importance diminished until he was eliminated in 1984.

During Scott's two seasons on Dynasty, he was called upon to participate in a couple of editions of Battle of the Network Stars, in which television's top names were coerced into competing with one another, often in tiny li'l Speedo swimsuits! By his second turn at the event, the mustache was gone as he had moved on to a new project. (The female with him was his then-girlfriend, a Danish fashion designer.)

Scott was hired by HBO to costar in its new football comedy show, the boob-obsessed (in more ways than one!) 1st & Ten. He played the veteran quarterback of a team recently acquired by divorcee Delta Burke. In 1984, Scott's legs were crushed when he was standing with his bike in a parking lot and one car pressed him into another one and plowed him forward for 12 feet! Despite horrible injury, he made a full recovery.

Fortunately, this role required no walking. Apart from some clips on a TV screen, he wasn't required to do anything but lie very still.

You see, in The Morning After (1986), Jane Fonda (and her hair) wakes up to find a corpse in bed next to her! And Scott played that part.

Later, Fonda (who was Oscar-nominated for this) comes back to clean up the mess and Scott is seen in some leopard-print bikini briefs.

Scott had been appearing as a guest star on such Aaron Spelling productions as Hotel, The Love Boat and even Matt Houston. In 1987, he popped up on the first season of Married... with Children as the playboy owner of a shoe store in which Ed O'Neill works.

Scott returned to daytime TV with roles on General Hospital and Guiding Light. In time, he'd be fondly remembered for his work on Dark Shadows, for which he filmed the candid interview depicted above. He also worked on Murder, She Wrote, Murphy Brown and Baywatch among others. But eventually the married father of two moved to Colorado and slowed down his work on screen.

He filmed his final role in 2003, and it's doubtful that very many people even realized who it was they were seeing. He played the President in Eric Bana's rendition of Hulk.

That was the last time most of us ever saw Geoffrey Scott as he retired to a quiet, rustic life in Colorado (where Dynasty happened to be set, but was never filmed.) It wasn't just retirement for Scott, however. In time, he became plagued with Parkinson's disease and that is ultimately what claimed him on February 23rd of 2021.

We salute the hunk who set hearts aflutter in the early-1980s. This was not when Dynasty's ratings were at their very highest, but it was when the show's overall quality was at its peak. Though he only had that mustache for a small portion of his long career, it made quite an impact at the time. And his charming personality made an impact long beyond that.

PRE-United: Dynasty's Blake & Cecil

Check out this very early scene from the prime-time super soap Dynasty. A typical corporate showdown with John Forsythe's Blake Carrington taking on frenemy Cecil Colby (played by Lloyd Bochner) in his spacious, well-appointed office. Only... surprise! This isn't a scene from Dynasty at all!

While watching the first season of (the truly exemplary) anthology series Police Story, I came upon this episode which features Forsythe as the chief of police butting heads with Bochner as the mayor. It's fascinating to see these actors in 1974 interacting in ways that would later be similar to the rival oil barons they would portray in 1981.

On Police Story, Forsythe played a heavily put-upon police chief, juggling all his regular duties while also contending with a married police detective (Pernell Roberts) whose girlfriend has just shot herself, a politician (Michael Ansara) who is antagonistic towards the force and a concerned wife at home (played by Barbara Rush.) All this and an assassination attempt!

Bochner is a mayor with an eye on the governor's seat who will stop at almost nothing to get there. He basically blackmails Forsythe into helping him, though Forsythe is highly reluctant to alter his principles. It's quite a foreshadowing of the dynamic that the two men would play out in their later parts on Dynasty.

Of course, Forsythe was never meant to be Blake Carrington. The three-hour pilot was already in the can with George Peppard playing the lead until he and the producers clashed to the point where he was let go and all the scenes with Blake were re-shot with new hire Forsythe (who already had a solid working relationship with Aaron Spelling from a string of TV-movies and his participation on Charlie's Angels as the voice of Charlie.)

What passed for glitz in 1981... Blake's contemporary office at Denver Carrington.

The series limped along moderately that first abbreviated season and then swiftly became a hit (with no small thanks to the addition of Joan Collins to the cast as Forsythe's vengeful ex-wife Alexis.) As one can already see in this photo of the ever-expanding cast, original member Bochner was being edged into the shadows, despite having a considerable story line. Soon, he'd be killed off (despite being told point blank by producers that he was not going to be!) with his character's wealth and power going to Alexis. Cecil's name would be mentioned for years after, though that hardly did Bochner any good. Take a good look at this picture in which everyone really looks terrific!

Initially playing friends who occasionally did business favors for one another, things began to get sticky when Cecil wanted his nephew Jeff (John James) to marry Blake's daughter Fallon (Pamela Sue Martin), even though she - as a dyed-in-the-wool Daddy's girl - actually preferred the uncle more.

Then when Alexis suggested that Cecil might actually be Fallon's father, requiring dual blood tests amongst the men in question, the friendship was over. This scene ends with Blake punching Cecil in the mouth, bloodying it.

The wheels really came off the friendship when Cecil created a false entity known as "Logan Rhinewood" who was supposedly helping Blake out of a financial crisis, but in reality was draining him of any hope for recovery. The final nail was, of course, Cecil dying of a heart attack moments after marrying Alexis and leaving her his empire with which to destroy Blake (which she tried to do up until the series conclusion in 1989!)

For the next minute or two... til death do us part!

Bochner did continue to act with regularity after being written out of the show and was even pegged to headline his own daytime soap Santa Barbara in the role of C.C. Capwell, but he had a real life heart attack and had to be replaced before the show debuted. He figured in two episodes of The Golden Girls, memorably as ham actor Patrick Vaughn who is sleeping with practically the whole cast (and crew!) of a production of Picnic and later as a fey hairdresser. He died of cancer in 2005 at the age of eighty-one.

Forsythe, who was already over seventy by the time Dynasty ended, surely didn't need the work, but proceeded to star in a barely-remembered 1992 sitcom called The Powers That Be, as a harried senator. The show actually has more than a few deeply appreciative fans who bemoaned its cancellation after 21 episodes, but I doubt that one of the cast members fretted over it too much. When Powers was cancelled, David Hyde Piece was free to do Frasier, on which he appeared 263 times and became a household name! And the show's creators proceeded to come up with a little something called Friends! Forsythe was called upon the provide the familiar voice of Charlie for the first two movie reboots of that franchise, but passed away in 2010 at age ninety-two.