Dynasty (TV series)

Dynasty was an American primetime television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 1981 to May 1989. The series revolved around the Carringtons, a wealthy oil family living in Denver, Colorado.

Cliffhangers and the "Moldavian Massacre"

The most memorable aspects of the series, outside the high camp scripts from writer/creators Richard and Esther Shapiro and writers Robert Mason Pollock and Eileen Pollock, were a stream of infamous cliffhanger storylines.

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These included Blake left for dead on a mountain after a fight with Nick Toscanni, Alexis and Krystle being lured to Steven's cabin one night, and locked inside while the cabin was set ablaze, and another where the hotel La Mirage burned down, killing Claudia, as Blake was strangling Alexis to death back at the Carrington mansion.

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The most famous cliffhanger is the so-called "wedding massacre", when Blake's daughter Amanda (Catherine Oxenberg) married Prince Michael of Moldavia (Michael Praed) on the eve of a military revolution in his country. It is largely remembered for its disappointing resolution.

Related Topics:
Catherine Oxenberg - Michael Praed

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In the final scene of the episode, aired in May 1985, revolutionaries gunned down everyone in the palace chapel. The scene gave the impression that anyone and everyone could have died and in the summer that followed, many magazines published stories speculating which characters would survive the massacre.

Related Topics:
May - 1985

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In the end, however, fans learned that fall that only two minor characters perished - unpopular guest character Lady Ashley Mitchell (Ali MacGraw) and Steven's gay lover Luke Fuller. The underwhelming resolution disenfranchised fans who felt the storyline had built to nothing.

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Aside from the glamour and campy drama, the show's later years were remembered for the controversy surrounding a storyline involving former matinee idol Rock Hudson. Hudson's scenes required him to kiss Linda Evans and, as news that he had contracted AIDS broke, there was speculation Evans would be at risk.

Related Topics:
Rock Hudson - AIDS

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