Come that fall, everybody but a couple of peripheral characters survived, and the sheer enormity of the stupidity marked the beginning of the end. Compounded by a horrible, dragged out Season 6 plotline in which Krystle was replaced by a look-alike (also played by Evans) and a big slowdown in the plotlines as ABC used "Dynasty" to launch a spinoff ("The Colbys"), the show never recovered. It lasted four more seasons — by which point most of the original cast had decamped — but it was never the same.

It didn't exactly go into orbit, but it came close. In the 1987 series finale of "Dynasty" spinoff "The Colbys," a big ol' spaceship appeared, and Fallon (at that point played by Emma Samms) was abducted by aliens.

It's wasn't a dream or hallucination. In the "Dynasty" reality it was real, and it played a part in the, ahem, mothership's continuing storylines when Fallon and Jeff (John James) returned to "Dynasty" the following season.

Really.

Oh, but when "Dynasty" was fun it was great fun!

"DYNASTY" DEBUTED on Jan. 12, 1981 and aired its 220th and final episode on May 10, 1989.

The two-part, four-hour miniseries "Dynasty: The Reunion" aired on October 20 and 22, 1991, reuniting much of the original cast and tying up most of the loose ends left when the series went off the air without a "final' episode.

The spinoff series "The Colbys" (originally titled "Dynasty II: The Colbys") debuted on Nov. 20, 1985, and aired its 49th and final episode on March 26, 1987. (That fall, several characters from "The Colbys" migrated to "Dynasty" — including some who had migrated from "Dynasty" to "The Colbys" in the first place.)

On Jan. 2, 2005, ABC aired the made-for-TV movie "Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure" — a two-hour retelling of the behind-the-scenes machinations that went on at ABC and on the set of the prime-time soap.

BEFORE IT ENDED, all four of Blake and Alexis' adult children were played by two different actors.

Pamela Sue Martin was Fallon from 1981-84; Emma Samms from 1985-89.

Catherine Oxenberg was Amanda from 1984-86; Karen Cellini from 1986-87.

Gordon Thomson was Adam from 1982-89; Robin Sachs assumed the role for the 1991 reunion movie.

Al Corley was Steven from 1981-82; Jack Coleman from 1982-88 — and then Corley resumed the role in that 1991 reunion.

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com