Pride and Prejudice
Abigail Reynolds is the author of seven Regency-set variations on "Pride and Prejudice". Her Pemberley Variations series includes "Mr. Darcy's Obsession", "To Conquer Mr. Darcy", "What Would Mr. Darcy Do" and "Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy: The Last Man in the World". Her modern adaptation, "The Man Who Loved Pride and Prejudice", is set on Cape Cod.
Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure
In 1980, ABC development executive Vince Peterson (John Terry) meets with producer Aaron Spelling (Nicholas Hammond), looking for a series featuring "greed and manipulation and sex and power and vanity" to battle against CBS' hit nighttime serial "Dallas" and make it "look like "Sesame Street"." Writers Richard and Esther Shapiro (Ritchie Singer and Pamela Reed) are already developing their own modern take on "I, Claudius", and "Dynasty" is conceived. From the beginning, Esther's intent to explore "real social issues" and not have the show be an "inane soap with beautiful people and beautiful clothes" clashes with the network and advertisers' squeamishness with homosexual character Steven, "the first openly gay character on a prime time drama series." John Forsythe (Bartholomew John)—the voice of "Charlie's Angels" Charlie—and Linda Evans (Melora Hardin) are cast as Blake and Krystle Carrington. With the new series at #40 in the ratings, ABC pushes for Steven to be "cured," and Richard conceives a female J. R. Ewing: Blake's bitter ex-wife Alexis. Soon "Dynasty" welcomes Heather Locklear (Holly Brisley) as sexpot Sammy Jo, and Joan Collins (Alice Krige) as villainess Alexis.