Dynasty: Part IV

FILMED April-November 1980

Esther Shapiro in her commentary on the DVD of the DYNASTY pilot related an interesting fact that I didn’t know. I had directed John James when he tested for the role of Steven Carrington. When that role went to Al Corley, John did something unusual and inspired. He arranged a meeting with co-creators Richard and Esther Shapiro, went to their home and spent three hours as a champion of the idea that the role of Jeff Colby, at that point not planned to continue beyond the pilot, would be valuable as an integral member of the continuing series. Furthermore he convinced them that he should be cast in the role. As a result one of the added scenes written to extend the pilot to three hours was a scene between John James as Jeff and Al Corley’s Steven Carrington.

By the time we returned from Filoli in November, very impressive sets for the interior of the Carrington mansion had been erected at 20^th Century Fox Studio. For the main floor of the home, Blake‘s library was reproduced to the minutest detail on Stage 8. The connecting long main floor corridor as reproduced was remarkably similar to the one in the mansion in Woodside, as was the high curving stairway, although it had been flopped and curved to the right instead of to the left. I selected a living room set for the added scene between the two men. We blocked the scene, and while the crew was lighting, Al, James and I retreated to the set of Blake’s library to rehearse. We closed the door to keep out the noise of the nearby working crew. Now in designing the sets, changes had been made in the relative locations of the rooms. At Filoli when you came out of the library, directly in front of you was the imposing curving stairway. At the studio when you came out of the library, directly in front of you was the doorway to the living room set we were going to film. When we rose to return for the filming, as I opened the library door, I had a weird moment of complete disorientation. I was standing in the Filoli library. As I crossed through the doorway, to my right was the Filoli long corridor, but there was no curving Filoli stairway in front of me. There was an unfamiliar doorway into a totally unfamiliar room. It took me a moment to reorient and realize that sitting comfortably as we rehearsed in the familiar library, I had transported back to Filoli.

I thought the scene was charming, finely written and very well acted. It added interesting facets to both of the men. But I also thought that if things were reversed. If the scene had been included in the original script, and if the script had been long – it would have been cut without a tear. It did nothing to advance the plot. I knew the scene would be more effective if it could be filmed in a different setting, and I knew what that setting was. The scene would have resonated with added emotional meanings if it was staged in the empty ballroom where the wedding had recently taken place, but that room was in Woodside, and we would have had to stay over Sunday and film it on Monday, which of course was an impossibility. I never even discussed this with producer Phil Parslow. I thought if things went exceptionally well, and I completed the scheduled work more quickly, I could add it at the end of our sixth day. But that was just fantasizing. We filmed it in the living room at the studio, and I added it to the short list of scenes that I wished I could have filmed differently.

The original plan for DYNASTY (or for OIL as it was then known) was to present the two sides of the oil industry – the boardrooms and bedrooms of oil baron Blake Carrington and his family and the oil rigs and kitchen of Matthew Blaisdell and his family. That plan was scuttled after the first season, and it is understandable why. That would have been an impressive panoply to cover in a weekly one-hour television series but difficult to accomplish, But its loss was unfortunate. There was a lot of meaningful drama in the Blaisdell home, and the three actors comprising the Blaisdell family (Bo Hopkins, Pamela Bellwood and Katy Kurtzman) were forty carat gold performers. Isn’t it a shame that their story was not spun off into another series rather than being sent to the dead pilots’ graveyard. Why couldn’t they have had their own show? It could have been called THE BLAISDELLS or FORTY SOMETHING or ALL IN THE BLAISDELL FAMILY.

We left Walter leaving the hospital with a loaded gun. I didn’t have time to follow and film him to keep him in the story, but a second unit took Walter and his Jeep out on the highway and filmed shots that were inserted into the script to keep the plot pulsating and his character alive …

… until he arrived at Filoli.

That sequence was comprised of film shot in both April and November. Obviously the November footage with John Forsythe as Blake was used as was the coverage of the wedding guests and Walter. Walter crashing through the gate was filmed in April, as was the attack by the dogs. I needed to be sure that in the shot immediately preceding the attack by the dogs that Walter looked in the correct direction for a match to bridge from his close-up in November to the April dog attack …

… so in November I made sure that at the end of his close-up, Walter was looking camera right to see the dogs leaping at him.

Even with the replacement of John Forsythe, there continued to be drama behind the cameras. There was a moment in the scene in the carriage house when Blake told his attorney to write a check …

… and the attorney (Peter Mark Richman) continued the business of writing a check as the scene continued. After I called “Cut and print,” John came to me. He said, “Did you see what Richman was doing during that scene?” If that scene had continued to be played in the master shot, it would have been a no-no for that activity to be performed while the main actor in the scene was speaking. I assured John I had seen it and was not concerned, because the coverage as the scene continued would be Blake’s close-up with the check writing occurring off-camera.

When I signed in early March to direct OIL, I was also contracted to direct four episodes if the project continued into series. If George Peppard had not been replaced, filming on the pilot would have wrapped on May 24. When the pilot was extended to three hours, the extra hour became the first of my four-episode commitment, and the remaining three episodes would have been completed long before the end of the year. But that was not the way it worked out. We completed filming the pilot on December 1. I was supposed to start prepping the first of my three remaining commitments the following day. I asked to be relieved of that assignment so I could work with the film editor on my director’s cut of the pilot. That was no problem. I then was assigned to what became known as Episode #5. During filming, I received an offer from Norman Rosemont Productions to direct a pilot. I had my agents request that I be released from the additional two commitments, so that I could accept. That was not an unusual request. Years before Michael Anderson Jr. had been cast in an episode I was to direct of 12 O’CLOCK HIGH, when he received an offer to appear in a John Wayne movie. We willingly released him and recast. Later that year Geraldine Brooks had been cast in an episode I was to direct of THE FUGITIVE, when she received an offer to star in a movie, JOHNNY TIGER. We willingly released her and recast. That also happened with director assignments, but in reverse order. Earlier director Jack Shea was contracted to direct an episode of ARREST AND TRIAL, when he received an offer to direct a feature film. He was released, and I replaced him. The DYNASTY release was given to me, but I don’t think happily. I never worked again with the Shapiro’s. I did work again for Aaron Spelling on HART TO HART, but it was the fifth and last season of the show, which had been bought and was then a presentation of Columbia Pictures. It was filmed at the Burbank Studio (formerly the Warner Bros. Studio, which was now jointly owned by Columbia and Warner Bros.). There was no contact then or in the future with Aaron Spelling. And that’s what can be summed up in those famous words, “That’s Show Biz!”

The journey continues