Fallon Carrington

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"Fallon (Dynasty)" redirects here. For the episode, see
Fallon (Dynasty episode)
.
Fallon Carrington
Dynasty character
Pamela Sue Martin as Fallon Carrington
Portrayed by
Duration1981–1989, 1991
First appearance
  • "
    Oil
    " (1981)
Last appearance
  • "
    Catch 22
    " (1989)
Created byRichard and Esther Shapiro
Spin-off
appearances
In-universe information
Other namesRandall Adams
Occupation
  • Interior designer
    (1987)
  • Manager of La Mirage hotel (1982–1984)
  • Denver-Carrington
    Board of Directors (1987–1989)
Parents
Stepparents
Brothers
Sisters
Krystina Carrington
Spouse
Children
  • L.B. Colby
  • Lauren Colby
Grandparents
  • Tom Carrington
  • Ellen Carrington
  • Steven Morell
Aunts and uncles
Nieces and nephews
Danny Carrington
First cousins
  • Leslie Carrington
  • Jackie Deveraux

Fallon Carrington is a fictional character from the ABC television series Dynasty and its spin-off The Colbys. Created by Richard and Esther Shapiro, the role of Fallon was originated by Pamela Sue Martin in the show's first episode in 1981, and Martin left at the end of the fourth season in 1984. Fallon was recast with Emma Samms in 1985, and the character was spun off onto a companion series called The Colbys. After the cancellation of the second series, Fallon (portrayed by Samms) returned to Dynasty in 1987, and remained on the series until its finale in 1989. Samms later reprised the role for the 1991 miniseries Dynasty: The Reunion. Elizabeth Gillies plays Fallon in The CW's 2017 reboot series Dynasty.

Fallon is the daughter of

Miles Colby (Maxwell Caulfield
).

Original series

Characterization

Fallon is introduced in 1981 as a fiery heiress as intelligent and business savvy as her millionaire father Blake Carrington, but not taken seriously by him because she is a woman.

Denver-Carrington unavailable to her, Fallon instead indulges herself with multiple lovers and torturing her new stepmother Krystle (Linda Evans).[1][2] David Hofstede described Martin's Fallon as "a spoiled bitch with an acid tongue whose idea of fun was to sleep with her father's chauffeur".[3] Martin told People in 1982, "Fallon has lovers, but they don't mean anything to her".[4] Actor John James said of the relationship between Fallon and his character, her "loving-but-unloved" husband Jeff Colby, "There's an attraction there in two people who know they're wrong for each other".[4]

Alex Mar wrote for Slate:

The idea of Fallon as a stifled modern woman had no place in the series once Joan Collins joined the cast. With the introduction of Collins as Blake's exuberantly wicked, two-faced ex-wife Alexis, potentially nuanced female characters were reduced to a Madonna/whore dichotomy: You can either be a Krystle (gentle, soft-spoken, essentially good) or an Alexis (scheming, sexual, essentially evil).[1]

Emma Samms said at the time of her hiring, "I'm always going for the sympathetic aspect of a character."[3] She also noted, "I'm not going to sit and watch hours of Pamela Sue so I can reproduce the kind of performance she gave. I want to be accepted as me."[5] According to Samms, before Dynasty's final season, producer David Paulsen asked her what she would like to do with Fallon. She explained in 1989, "I said, 'I'd like to do more humorous stuff and be a bit more realistic character, not always the victim.' And that`s what he did. This year I was allowed to be a more real character."[6]

Casting

Emma Samms replaced Pamela Sue Martin as Fallon in 1985.

Dynasty debuted in January 1981, with Pamela Sue Martin portraying Fallon.[7] In 2006, she said of Forsythe, "He really was like a father to me. I asked John to walk me down the aisle when I got married in real life, but he said, 'I think maybe you should ask your real dad.' I was just so attached to him."[8] Martin left the series at the end of the fourth season in May 1984.[7] In the storyline, a troubled Fallon leaves Jeff at the altar, and is later presumed dead in an offscreen plane crash.[5] At the time, New York quoted Martin as calling television "limiting".[9] USA Today reported in 2006 that Martin "left Dynasty and acting when she felt her 'glib' character ... had been reduced to 'a victim'."[8] In 2011, she said "I became extremely famous during that time, and it was a little discomforting".[10] Executive producer Aaron Spelling wrote in his 1996 autobiography, "After three seasons, Pamela Sue Martin wanted to leave Dynasty to get married and we didn't stand in her way."[11]

The role was later recast with British actress Emma Samms, and Fallon reappears with amnesia at the end of the fifth season in the April 1985 episode "

The Siege".[13] Screening old episodes while developing the ninth season, new executive producer Paulsen felt that Samms was beautiful, but came across as "stiff".[14] He considered trying to bring back Martin, but wanted to first meet with Samms.[14]
He said in 2008:

[Samms] came into my office and I said, "My God, this is a beautiful, charming young woman. Bright, intelligent, funny. But none of that's on the screen." ... I asked her why. She said she didn't have anything to work with. And I thought she was right. I thought "If we can capture who Emma really is, then we have a character people will like." So I made some changes in her wardrobe, brought in a coach to get rid of her accent. And decided to give her a love interest who would kind of bring her character down to earth ... So we created the character of [New York cop] Zorelli who came in to investigate the murder of Roger Grimes ... it brought her to a reality that the audience had not seen ... It wasn't very long before she started getting some terrific fan mail. People were starting to love her.[14]

At the end of that 1988–1989 season, Paulsen told a shocked Samms his original plan.[14] He said, "I'm so glad I didn't replace her ... Emma worked out superbly."[14] That season ended up as Dynasty's last.[6][15] Samms later reprised the role for the 1991 miniseries Dynasty: The Reunion.[16]

In the 1989 episode "

Blasts from the Past
", Cheyenne Fitch portrayed Fallon as a child.

Storylines

Dynasty (1981–1985)

Season 1

As Dynasty begins, spoiled

Ted Dinard
from contacting him but is unable to keep them apart. When Blake comes upon the two men in an embrace, he pushes Ted away from Steven. Ted falls, hits his head, and dies. Blake is arrested and charged with murder. Fallon lies about her father's mental state on the witness stand, in an attempt to protect him. When a mysterious woman is called into the courtroom, Fallon recognizes the witness as her mother.

Season 2

The surprise witness for the prosecution is Fallon's long-absent mother,

The Cliff
", Fallon discovers that the baby has been kidnapped.

Season 3

The Dinner
", however, Alexis arranges for Fallon to discover her in Mark's bed. Fallon learns that Jeff's odd behavior was caused by inhaling toxic chemicals in the paint used in his office, and comes to suspect Adam of deliberately causing it.

Season 4

Fallon and Jeff travel to Billings, Montana to investigate Adam's past and wind up sleeping together. They learn that Adam once tried a case in which a worker was poisoned by toxic paint fumes. She reveals the truth to Blake, but Adam has framed Alexis for the crime. Fallon becomes romantically involved with European tycoon

The Nightmare
", Fallon suffers a particularly severe headache. After she fails to appear at the altar, Jeff goes to her room to investigate, only to find her wedding dress crumpled in the corner and the room empty. He glances out the window in time to see Fallon's car speeding off into the night. As Fallon speeds down the rainy highway, she screams as she barrels toward an oncoming truck.

Season 5

Jeff discovers the wreckage of Fallon's car, but no sign of her. He finds a trucker who gave her a ride to Portland and continues to search for her, suspecting that she is traveling with Peter. In "

Kidnapped
", an amnesiac Fallon appears at a Los Angeles police station, calling herself Randall Adams. Desperately trying to learn her identity, she asks about missing person reports and disheartened to learn that no one is looking for her. In the season finale, "Randall" decides to leave Los Angeles, telling a sympathetic police detective that she feels drawn to the mountains—perhaps Denver.

Season 6

In "

The Decision
", Jeff vows to find Fallon and never let her go.

The Colbys (1985–1987)

Season 1

A newly married Miles and Fallon arrive at the Colby mansion in the

Checkmate
", Fallon tells Jeff that she is pregnant, but is soon alarmed to realize that the baby may have been fathered by Miles during the rape.

Season 2

Jeff and Fallon tell Miles about their baby in the season 2 premiere "

UFO
, which she boards before it takes off with her inside.

Dynasty (1987–1989)

Season 8

In the Dynasty season premiere "

Colorado Roulette
", after which Sammy Jo arrives with champagne to accept Jeff's proposal.

Season 9

Jeff moves forward with his engagement to Sammy Jo but is conflicted over his feelings for Fallon. A body is discovered in a lake on the Carrington property, which turns out to be the decades-old corpse of Alexis' lover, Roger Grimes. In "

Krystina are trapped in a cave-in inside the mine.[6][15]

The Reunion (1991)

Three years later in Dynasty: The Reunion, Fallon is living in California with Miles. After Jeff helps the Carringtons defeat the insidious Consortium, he and Fallon reconcile.

Reception

People praised Samms as a successful replacement in 1985,[5] but David Hofstede called her the "Worst. Recast. Ever." in 2004, blaming the producers rather than Samms.[3] A 1985 article in The Hollywood Reporter criticized the recast, and a spokesman for the show told Redbook, "People have gotten hung up on the fact that Emma doesn't look anything like Pamela Sue. But the creators said, 'Look, that's not what we wanted to do. We needed someone who could capture the character.'"[3] Hofstede wrote that "Samms never settled into the role, and could only make the best of a bad situation as her character was dropped into one ridiculous plotline after another."[3]

Reboot

Fallon Carrington
Dynasty character
Catch 22"
September 16, 2022
Created byRichard and Esther Shapiro
In-universe information
Occupation
  • Head of Acquisitions at Carrington Atlantic
  • CEO of Morell Green Energy Corp
  • CEO of Carrington Atlantic
  • CEO of Femperial Publishing
  • CEO of Carrington United
Parents
Stepparents
BrothersAdam Carrington
SistersAmanda Carrington
Half-brothersSteven Carrington
Spouse
​
(m. 2021)​
ChildrenLauren Morell Carrington Ridley
Grandparents
  • Thomas Carrington
  • Evelyn Carrington
Aunts and uncles
First cousins

A

Cristal, a rival employee at the family company.[21] The reboot establishes the character's full name as Fallon Morell Carrington.[22]

Characterization and development

Executive producer Josh Schwartz said of Fallon:

Even when you watch the original, Fallon is a character who feels as if she can exist in 2017. She just pops off the screen, and she can take on Krystle, who, in the original, was pure and the moral center of the show. With this new Cristal, we liked the idea of not letting her be quite as pure and raising some questions about her past and having her stir the pot—making her more formidable. That really let us lean into this rivalry between Fallon and Cristal.[23]

Alexandra Jacobs of

season two, Executive producer Sallie Patrick said, "Pamela Sue Martin was fantastic on the original series, and I always loved her character, but at the same time there wasn’t much there [for her to do]. She was promiscuous, and Daddy's girl, and a troublemaker for sure, but we've really enjoyed adding layers to that character in our first season, and this season, especially, she's become more complex and flawed, and the glue of the family."[27]

Gillies received the script for Dynasty while in the hospital having her appendix removed, and was offered the role of Fallon Carrington during her screen test.[28] Gillies said of her character in an interview with Euphoria, "Fallon is almost like a caricature, and I play her really big, and I don't think I get to do that on any other show. I'm aware of what show I'm on. I'm hyper-aware of it."[28]

Storylines

Season one

In the premiere episode "

I Answer to No Man
", and a captive Cristal helps Fallon escape.

In "

Dead Scratch
", Fallon is named Carrington Atlantic's CEO, while Jeff and Monica reveal their Carrington heritage as the children of Blake's half-sister, and declare their intention to force a sale of the company. The Carringtons are trapped in the burning stable house during Steven and Sam's wedding, but Michael rescues Blake, Fallon, and Sam.

Season two

In the season two premiere episode, "

Ship of Vipers
", but he dies during a tryst with a prostitute Fallon hires to impersonate her. Meanwhile, Michael retrieves a signed document of the sale of Carrington Atlantic. The only copy Max Van Kirk signed before his death. Unbeknownst to Fallon, Michael has put himself on the line to get that copy for her. Liam, seeing that he may not have any chance with Fallon anymore, now that the company has been sold, releases photos of Fallon and Michael to the media. This does not look good on Fallon's image as she is supposedly married to Liam to the world. Fallon then plans a divorce party for herself and Liam, claiming it would stop the rumors. Liam confessed that he leaked the pictures because he is fighting for her. He gives a speech about how he hates (loves) her, and Fallon kisses him. She flees the scene and Liam goes after her. They are making out when Fallon sees Michael on the CCTV. Colby walks in on them. Liam storms out. Fallon tells Colby that she is confused because Michael is keeping secrets. Jeff Colby tells Fallon that Michael is doing right by her. Because he knows that Michael decided to work with Ada just to save Fallon and get her the document signed by Max Van Kirk. Fallon decides to tell Liam off. She tells him that what she has with Culhane is real. Liam tells her not to call him again.

Reception

James Poniewozik of The New York Times wrote that "Gillies seizes the screen as the lusty, ambitious Fallon."[30] Darren Franich of Entertainment Weekly noted that "Elizabeth Gillies channels [Joan] Collins' carnivorous ambition and Leighton Meester's imperial pout."[31]

Hedy Phillips of Euphoria wrote, "Though the whole cast has come together to put a new spin on this campy classic, it's star Liz Gillies who has brought Fallon Carrington to life and made this reboot into something truly special."[28]

References

  1. ^ a b c Mar, Alex (May 25, 2011). "The Dynasty That Could Have Been". Slate. Archived from the original on September 6, 2011. Retrieved May 28, 2017.
  2. ^ Buckley, Tom (January 12, 1981). "TV: Premiere of Dynasty, a Series on an Oil Family". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 6, 2017. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
  3. ^
    ISBN 0-8230-8441-8
    . Retrieved May 28, 2017 – via Google Books.
  4. ^ a b Lardine, Bob; Wallace, David; Mackay, Kathy (May 10, 1982). "Dynasty Cleans House". People. Archived from the original on July 1, 2017. Retrieved May 28, 2017.
  5. ^ a b c d e "Who's the New Dish on the Dynasty Soap? Her Name Is Emma Samms". People. May 6, 1985. Archived from the original on July 6, 2019. Retrieved May 28, 2017.
  6. ^ a b c Szul, Barbara (May 21, 1989). "The Real-life Fallon: Emma Samms Of Dynasty Is A Star On A Mission". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on November 7, 2017. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  7. ^
    ISBN 0-345-32459-5
    .
  8. ^ a b Keck, William (April 24, 2006). "Forsythe rules his Dynasty". USA Today. Archived from the original on November 7, 2015. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
  9. ^ Churcher, Sharon (February 13, 1984). "Fallon Ankling Dynasty". New York. p. 13. Archived from the original on December 12, 2023. Retrieved June 1, 2017 – via Google Books.
  10. ^ "Pamela Sue Martin" (Interview). ABC Chicago. 2011. Archived from the original on 2021-12-15. Retrieved June 1, 2017.
  11. ISBN 978-0-312-14268-1. Archived
    from the original on 2023-12-12. Retrieved 2020-10-02.
  12. ^ a b c "Emma Samms: From Daytime Soaps to Dynasty". Orange Coast. January 9, 1986. Archived from the original on December 12, 2023. Retrieved December 10, 2019 – via Google Books.
  13. ^ a b "The Colbys". Soap Opera Digest. October 19, 2019. Archived from the original on December 8, 2019. Retrieved November 19, 2019 – via PressReader.com.
  14. ^ a b c d e Massey-Goldlion, David (February 26, 2008). "Exclusive Dallas interview with David Paulsen, Dallas producer". UltimateDallas.com. Archived from the original on December 11, 2018. Retrieved October 31, 2017.
  15. ^ a b Walker, Joseph (May 24, 1989). "Dynasty Cliffhanger is Just That". Deseret News. Archived from the original on October 19, 2012. Retrieved September 25, 2010.
  16. ^ Gliatto, Tom; Sheff, Vicki (August 5, 1991). "Alexis Strikes Again!". People. Vol. 36, no. 4. pp. 66–68. Archived from the original on March 18, 2009. Retrieved May 28, 2017.
  17. ^ Goldberg, Lesley; O'Connell, Michael (September 30, 2016). "Dynasty Reboot in the Works at The CW". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on May 17, 2019. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  18. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (September 30, 2016). "Dynasty Reboot Set At the CW With Josh Schwartz & Stephanie Savage". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on October 1, 2016. Retrieved October 2, 2016.
  19. ^ Petski, Denise (February 10, 2017). "Elizabeth Gillies Joins The CW's Dynasty Reboot; William Miller Cast In Searchers". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on February 10, 2017. Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  20. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (June 8, 2017). "The CW Sets Fall 2017 Premiere Dates For Dynasty & Valor And Returning Series". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on June 11, 2017. Retrieved June 8, 2017.
  21. ^ Mitovich, Matt Webb (May 31, 2017). "Fall TV First Impression: Dynasty". TVLine. Archived from the original on June 1, 2017. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
  22. ^ Wilson, Samantha (November 1, 2017). "Dynasty Recap: Cristal's 'Kardashian' Sex Tape With Matthew Leaks Online". Hollywoodlife.com. Archived from the original on December 25, 2018. Retrieved December 25, 2018.
  23. Emmy. 39 (7). Archived
    from the original on August 23, 2017. Retrieved September 13, 2017.
  24. ^ a b Jacobs, Alexandra (October 6, 2017). "A Dynasty for Generation Gossip Girl (Mom Can Watch, Too)". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 27, 2019. Retrieved November 6, 2017.
  25. ^ Wagmeister, Elizabeth (August 2, 2017). "10 Ways CW's Dynasty Reboot Will Be Different From the Original". Variety. Archived from the original on August 2, 2017. Retrieved September 23, 2017.
  26. ^ Morrison, Mark (September 14, 2017). "Faces of Fall". Emmy. 39 (8). Archived from the original on September 19, 2017. Retrieved September 23, 2017.
  27. ^ Byrne, Craig (October 12, 2018). "Dynasty EP Sallie Patrick Previews Season 2". Archived from the original on February 7, 2019. Retrieved January 30, 2019 – via KsiteTV.com.
  28. ^ a b c Phillips, Hedy (September 10, 2021). "Liz Gillies". Euphoria. Archived from the original on December 11, 2022. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  29. ^ Harrington, Delia (October 13, 2018). " Dynasty Season 2 Episode 1 Review: '23 Skiddoo'". Den of Geek. Archived from the original on October 13, 2018. Retrieved December 28, 2018.
  30. ^ Poniewozik, James (October 10, 2017). "Review: Money Can't Buy the New Dynasty Excitement". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 8, 2017. Retrieved November 6, 2017.
  31. ^ Franich, Darren (October 11, 2017). "The Dynasty reboot needs to get crazier ASAP". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on November 11, 2017. Retrieved November 8, 2017.
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