Blondes vs. Brunettes #4 - Alexis and Krystle

The 80’s were a busy part of my life, saddled with all of the normal responsibilities that we both endure and enjoy.  But there was little time left for some types of enjoyment and as a result of that, missed what may have been some of the greatest blond vs. brunette battles in history. Of course, I’m talking about Alexis and Krystle on the ABC TV soap opera, Dynasty.  A few years back, one of the morning news shows featured the 25^th anniversary of Dynasty and, as part of the story, interviewed the blond haired Linda Evans who played Krystle (not Krystal) on the show.  Not surprisingly the interview quickly turned to the rolling, rollicking catfights she had with brunette Joan Collins. 

In her book, Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media, cultural historian and critic, Susan Douglas included a chapter on catfights and noted Dynasty’s fights, in particular. Discussing the rise of catfights in popular culture, Douglas wrote that by the 1970s, catfights

"...had evolved into various forms of especially sloppy faux combat between women, like female mud wrestling or Jell-O wrestling. In its purest form, it features two women, one usually a traditional wife (blond), the other a grasping, craven careerist (brunette), who slug it out on a veranda, in a lily pond, or during a mudslide. Usually they fight over men or children. Sometimes, as in The Turning Point, they just hit each other with their little purses. Other times, as in the incessant catfights in Dynasty, Krystle got to slop a big, gushy glob of cold cream in Alexis’s face, or Alexis got to thrown pond scum down Krystle’s blouse. "

Of course, a blond and a brunette, what else?

Watch: Krystle and Alexis in their first Dynasty fight

Curious note:  In Evans' autobiography, Recipes for Life: My Memories, she claimed that the "blueprint" for her first catfight with Joan Collins was the "outrageous catfight" she had with Stephanie Powers in McCloud (see the October 20th blog entry).