The soap opera focused primarily on the lives and loves of Blake Carrington (John Forsythe), a wealthy Denver, Colorado, oil tycoon; his wife Krystle (Linda Evans); ex-wife Alexis (Joan Collins); daughter Fallon (Pamella Sue Martin, Emma Samms); sons Steven (Al Corley and Jack Coleman); and Adam (Gordon Thomson), as well as numerous extended family members and associates, including Fallon’s husband/ex-husband Jeff Colby ( John James) and Krystle’s niece and Steven’s wife/ex-wife Sammy Jo (Heather Locklear).

The program relied on both camp and excess for its appeal. Its characters and plotlines were sometimes absurd and broadly drawn, but it was the trappings of wealth, glamor, and fashion that drew viewers in some 70 countries to the program. With a weekly budget of $1.2 million ($10,000 of which went for clothing alone, including at least ten Nolan Miller creations per episode), Dynasty placed more emphasis on style than on plot.

The plotline of this Primetime soap opera often resembled those of its daytime counterparts: kidnapped babies, amnesia, pregnancy, infidelity, and treachery. In fact, Dynasty made extensive use of one soap opera staple; the return to life of characters presumed dead. Both Fallon and Steve Carrington were killed off, only to return in later seasons played by different actors. 

Just as often, however, Dynasty’s plots leaned toward the campy and absurd. One of the most talked about and ridiculed plots was the 1985 season-ending cliffhanger, which saw the Carringtons gathered for a wedding in the country of Moldavia. Terrorists stormed the ceremony in a hail of machine-gun fire, but when the smoke cleared (at the start of the next season, of course), all the primary characters were alive and basically unscathed.

While often criticized for its weak and at times absurd plots, Dynasty did provide juicy rules for women, notably Joan Collins's character of Alexis. Her character–scheming, conniving, and ruthless– was often referred to as a “superbitch” and was the quintessential “character you love to hate.” Alexis was set in opposition to Krystle, who was more of a “good girl”--sweet, loyal, and loving. One of the best known scenes in Dynasty’s history was the 1983 “cat fight” between Alexis and Krystle, in which they literally fought it out in a lily pond. Alexis met her match in the character of wealthy singer and a nightclub owner Dominique Devereaux (Diahann Carroll), the first prominently featured African-American character on a prime-time soap opera.

During its nearly nine-year run, Dynasty spawned the short-lived spinoff Dynasty II: The Colbys (1985-87) and gave rise to numerous licensed luxury products, including perfume, clothing, and bedding. Never before had television product licensing been so targeted to upscale adults. 

When Dynasty left the air in 1989, it also marked the demise of the prime time soap opera, which had been a staple of television programming through the 1980s. Produced in part by Aaron Spelling, whose programs (such as Charlie’s Angels; The Love Boat; Beverly Hills, 90210; and Melrose Place) have emphasized beauty, wealth, and glamor, Dynasty had proved the perfect metaphor for 1980s greed and excess. In declaring Dynasty  the best prime-time soap of the decade, TV Guide asserted that the program’s “campy opulence gave it a superb, ironic quality– in other words, it was great trash.”