BETWEEN THE COVERS : JOAN'S A PRIME TIME STAR FOR AARON!

This week's book exerpt is from the highly enjoyable 1996 autobiography 'A Prime Time Life', by legendary producer Aaron Spelling, published by St Martins Press. The producer of such tv classics as 'The Love Boat', 'Fantasy Island', 'Charlie's Angels', 'Hotel', Starsky & Hutch', 'Hart To Hart', 'Vegas' and of course 'Dynasty', Aaron was also a good friend of Joan's and one of her biggest admirers.. Joan equally full of praise for Aaron called him 'The P.T.Barnum of television.' This exerpt is edited...
'I've been blessed with at least one smash hit for every decade. In the 1960's it was The Mod Squad.. Charlie's Angels in the 1970's and of course nothing was bigger for me than Dynasty in the 1980's.. The story of greed, lust and unhappiness amongst the rich in Colorado. It all started on the three hour Dynasty pilot, created and written by the very talented Esther and Richard Shapiro. Dynasty was a big hit because it showed that rich people have as many problems as poor folks and there is nothing TV viewers love more than to see rich people skewered. Like Charlie's Angels, Dynasty was pure camp. Women wore fashionable hats and designer gowns and fought continuously with each other. There were long lost sons and mothers, lost babies, kings and queens of foreign lands, illegitimate offsprings, divorces, secret pasts, insatiable sex lives, beautiful mansions and sleek cars.

Dynasty was responsible for showing that people over forty still fall in love and have sex. We had a terrific cast, headed by John Forsythe, Joan Collins and Linda Evans. The show was developed as our answer to CBS' Dallas. Prime time serials were in then and ABC wanted one of their own. Esther Shapiro, a former vice-president of programming of ABC, left the network with a commitment to get a show on the air and she came to us to do the show with her. Originally it was titled, Oil, we hired George Peppard to play Blake Carrington. But after a few days of filming, it was clear we had made a mistake and had to let George go. He was a fine actor, but just wasn't right for the part. He played Blake much softer than we envisioned him. I called my friend John Forsythe, who had been the voice of Charlie for me on Charlie's Angels. John was better known for movies and his role in the sitcom Bachelor Father. John's a real trouper and got to the set for us within days, he flew in from Arizona without even reading the script. I had not seen Linda since The Big Valley days. Like Farrah and Jackie on Angels, Linda started out in commercials and did guest spots on many 1960's shows, like My Favourite Martian, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and Bachelor Father, where she played a girlfriend of John Forsythe's niece! Her big break was being cast as Audra, Barbara Stanwyck's daughter on The Big Valley. When Linda came into my office to read for the part, we all knew instantly she was Krystle Carrington. She brought a vulnerability to the role that could have easily became bland, compared to others. Krystle was the heroine of Dynasty, in other words, an angel in flowing, broad-shouldered gowns! The show that Dynasty was in the beginning bore no relation to what it became. Audiences just didn't care until we realised we needed to shift gears and become a glossy soap about the rich and focus more on the women. What really turned it around was the introduction of our J.R, super bitch Alexis Colby, Blake's former wife. Viewers love a good villain and Esther and Richard wrote her brilliantly. We originally had our eyes set on Italian legend Sophia Loren for a role on Dynasty and in fact spent many weeks negotiating with her husband. But we couldn't work things out. I don't think Sophia was ready to do television, which operates at a different speed than movies. Sophia was still a big movie star, it didn't make any sense for her to plunge into TV at that time. I hit upon the idea of British actress Joan Collins as Alexis after she played Cleopatra on an episode of Fantasy Island. She camped up the role so beautifully that I was blown away. Others, however didn't agree with me about Joan as Alexis. We finally convinced ABC, luckily for them and us!

JOAN AS CLEO ON FANTASY ISLAND

Joan was best known as the sexy British movie star of the 1960's who had also appeared on such shows as Batman, as The Siren, Star Trek and Space 1999. When she joined Dynasty, she made a smashing entrance in our second season premiere as the surprise new villainess. Our only problem, once we hired Joan, was that she wouldn't be available for four months, as she was contracted to do the play 'Murder in Mind' in England. But we believed so strongly in her that we agreed and on the first season cliffhanger we had an extra in dark glasses, standing in as Alexis. If anyone ever proved that life began at 40, it was Joan. In 1983, at the age of 50, she posed seminude for Playboy and the issue was an instant sellout. In 1985, TV Guide named her the most beautiful woman on television.

Some observations on Joan... She's a real character, very funny and carefree. The press always reported that she was tough to deal with. The truth is that if a man says something, he's strong, but if it comes from a woman, she's a bitch, that's just not fair. Joan was a real trouper for the show, but she's also a character, that's the fun of Joan. She has an attitude that if you don't know her may come off as haughty, but it's all an act. She puts people on beautifully. I think Joan carries some of Alexis with her when she goes out and who wouldn't! It's a great, campy character. People confuse Alexis with Joan because she's so damn good at it. When we created Models Inc, we narrowed our choices down to two actresses to play the head of the modeling agency, Joan and Linda Gray. Fox said we could go with either one, but Joan made the decision for us. She was unavailable when we wanted to start.

Another major star of the show was Nolan Miller and his incredible clothes. We spent a fortune just on the costumes alone and no one had ever seen extravagent clothes like that on television. The principal actors would change clothes sometimes as often as six or seven times per episode. After nine great years it was time to sign off. Thanks to the efforts of Esther and Richard Shapiro, who had the original idea and stayed with us all the way. Dynasty had a fantastic run. It is still playing all over the world and just recently it debuted in Russia. I can't wait to hear John, Joan, Linda and Heather dubbed in Russian!
(c) AARON SPELLING 1996...