SCANDAL
Thursday, 10 p.m., ABC (ABC)
REVENGE
Tonight, 9 p.m., ABC (ABC)
NASHVILLE
Wednesday, 10 p.m., ABC (ABC)
The ghost of “Dynasty” thrives at ABC, rubbing its crusty shoulder pads with the new shows on its lineup. Three current network series — “Revenge,” “Nashville” and “Scandal” — borrow heavily from the Esther and Richard Shapiro melodrama that pretended to be about Denver’s Carrington family, but was really about two women fighting over the same man. It was a classic case of the ex-wife being jealous of the new wife. Rapacious mascara queen Alexis Colby (Joan Collins) plotted and schemed against her replacement, frosted blonde Krystle Carrington (Linda Evans), for debonair silver-haired tycoon, Blake (John Forsythe). Their rivalry culminated in a now-classic, hair-pulling fight in the Carrington estate lily pond.
Other prime-time soaps had their heyday while “Dynasty” aired in the 1980s — most notably “Dallas” — but the glitzy series always had the edge and a rabid following. Now that ABC has almost given over its slate to soap staples such as “Grey’s Anatomy,” the “Dynasty” model serves them well. Pick a glamorous backdrop, hopefully with a business orientation, hook your main characters into that scheme and then set them against each other, with lots of ancillary ingénues and hunks.
SCANDAL
Thursday, 10 p.m., ABC
The Shonda Rhimes drama is the ABC show that comes closest to “Dynasty.” The setting is Washington, D. C. and the ultimate power corridor—the White House. The man being fought over is none other than the president of the United States, Fitzgerald Grant (Tony Goldwyn, above left). Rhimes cleverly updates the “Dynasty” template by having one of the warring women be a public relations crisis manager, Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington, above center), instead of the standard ex-wife. Although there is an Oval Office here, advisers up the ying-yang and the president has actually committed murder, but the real subject of “Scandal” is how will Mellie, the first lady (Bellamy Young, above right) win back her man or crucify him if he ultimately chooses the Other Woman. Olivia and Mellie may wind up in the Potomac or the reflecting pond in front of the Lincoln Memorial, as a nod to Alexis and Krystle, before the season finale, but we expect their tussles to last for years to come.
REVENGE
Tonight, 9 p.m., ABC
The kinkiest of the three “Dynasty” ripoffs, “Revenge” pits another young woman against a middle-aged woman — but this time, it’s over a dead man. Emily Thorne (Emily Van Camp, left) has come to the Hamptons to get even with the Grayson family, headed by Victoria (Madeleine Stowe, right), a waxen-faced socialite whom Emily despises for causing her father to go to prison and die. Although the show is called “Revenge,” the story is one drawn-out catfight — without claws. Victoria and her frozen forehead are still standing, even after she was supposed to die in a plane crash. Emily tries to be like Alexis but is missing her crisp imperiousness and she’s no match for the obviously twisted Victoria. With viewers disappearing as “Revenge” drags on, perhaps the creators could have called this one “Grudge.”
NASHVILLE
Wednesday, 10 p.m., ABC
Callie Khouri once won an Oscar for her “Thelma & Louise” screenplay. In that iconic film, two vivacious women who were actually friends and did not fight over the stud — Brad Pitt — when he showed up like tumbleweed on their cross-country trip. Louise never interfered with Thelma’s one-night stand with the thief. On “Nashville,” Khouri has learned the lesson that women on ABC shows must be rivals and ready for a catfight at the drop of a hat, or in the case of this country-music soap, a chord change. Our women are down-home aging star, Rayna Jaymes (Connie Britton, above right) — the Krystle of the piece — and her rival for the spotlight, petulant rising star Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere, above left), a white-trash version of Alexis. The man they are fighting over is no Blake Carrington, but weather-beaten lead guitarist Deacon Claybourne (Charles Esten, inset). Rayna’s former lover — and possibly the father of one of her children — Deacon is the kind of low-key lover a woman finds so unforgettable that she’d be willing to finance his many trips to rehab. Juliette, trapped in a musical demographic that makes her tons of money with teenyboppers but earns her zilch musical credibility, resented Rayna’s rapport with Deacon from the time she saw them do a duet at The Bluebird Café. Before you could say “Y’all about Eve,” Khouri played up that resentment with several blistering encounters, but no catfights — yet. These country divas are not evenly matched. Juliette is about half the size of Rayna so it’s no contest in the strength department. Again, just like “Dynasty,” the backdrop of the country music scene and its winners and losers never overshadows the show’s central romantic triangle.