ALL IN A LATHER '80S SOAPS SHOULDER-PAD INTO MARKET.

Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer

You don't have to be a rabid ``Dallas'' fan to know who shot J.R. or that Bobby Ewing's death was just a bad dream. And even casual viewers of ``Dynasty'' remember the juicy catfights between Linda Evans' saintly Krystle and Joan Collins' evil Alexis.

While these and other 1980s television classics have secured their places in pop culture history, the cliffhanger now is whether there remains enough interest in them to establish the prime-time soap opera as a permanent genre in the booming TV-on-DVD market.

``They all have a core audience but it may take us a while to figure out whether it's commercial or not,'' said Ralph Tribbey, editor of DVD Release Report, a home-video industry newsletter. ``Do soaps work in this market?''

The TV-on-DVD category, with up to 400 titles released each year, accounted for approximately $2.3 billion in sales last year, a jump from $1.4 billion in 2003. Sales figures are projected to increase by about 30 percent each year through 2008, according to the Digital Entertainment Group, an industry trade association.

Current one-hour prime-time dramas such as ``24,'' ``The West Wing'' and the ``CSI'' and ``Law & Order'' franchises are already firmly entrenched at retail and fans of these shows can expect to see other seasons eventually out on DVD.

The April 19 release of ``Dynasty: Season 1'' should shed further light on whether these long-running sudsers will also have boxed sets of subsequent seasons available. The first two seasons of ``Dallas'' are already on store shelves and have sold well enough for Warner Home Video to tentatively schedule the third season for late 2005.

The show ran for 13 seasons on CBS from 1978 to 1991 and interest seems to have remained high with the highly rated prime-time special ``Dallas Reunion: Return to Southfork'' airing last November on CBS during the ratings sweeps period.

``Dallas'' spinoff ``Knots Landing,'' the most suburban of the '80s soaps, which had the longest run of all (14 seasons), may also come out on DVD this year. But a Warners spokeswoman said there are no specific plans as of yet. There are also online petitions with fans clamoring for DVD sets of CBS's ``Falcon Crest'' and ABC's ``Dynasty'' spinoff ``The Colbys.''

Of the current prime-time soaps, the first season of Fox's ``The O.C.'' has done well on DVD and Paramount Home Video has had talks about releasing boxed sets of '90s hits ``Beverly Hills, 90210'' and ``Melrose Place'' later this year.

Gord Lacey, president of the Web site TV Shows on DVD, wonders whether the fan loyalty will be enough to make ``Dynasty'' and other similar shows of its era viable in today's DVD marketplace.

``The problem with older shows, not everyone has seen them,'' Lacey said. ``Everyone 18 and over has had the opportunity to see 'The OC' when it aired. You can't say the same for 'Dynasty,' 'Dallas' and 'Knots Landing.' Right there, you are cutting your market. It will be very interesting to see how well these do.''

But Steve Feldstein, senior vice president of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, points out that reruns of ``Dynasty'' have kept the show in the public consciousness, resulting in new generations of fans.

``Dynasty'' ran on ABC for nine seasons (1981 to 1989) and in January, the network aired the satirical TV movie ``Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure.''

```Dynasty' was all the glamour, all the wealth, all the bitchiness. It just doesn't get any better,'' Feldstein said. ``It's true escapist fare and that's clearly the attraction.''

The current continued exposure can largely be attributed to the SOAPnet cable channel, which airs ``Dallas,'' ``Dynasty,'' ``Knots Landing,'' ``90210'' and ``Melrose Place'' in a five-hour block every weekday afternoon, then under the banner ``Dysfunctional Family Night'' on Saturday evenings.

``These shows are iconic and these characters are iconic,'' said Deborah Blackwell, SOAPnet's senior vice president and general manager. ``But I don't think pure nostalgia can account for the audience fascination with these shows. There's this mix of good and evil and the great cliffhanger moments. Even when we know who shot J.R., it's still a fantastic story line to watch play out.''

Blackwell said ``Dynasty'' might be helped by the presence of Heather Locklear, who shot to stardom on the show in the early 1980s as the conniving Sammy Jo and has remained a television mainstay ever since.

Feldstein said Fox isn't expecting ``Dynasty'' to reach the level of top sellers such as ``Seinfeld,'' ``Friends'' or ``Sex and the City,'' but he believes that the show and others in the genre will become a bigger fixture in the DVD world.

``It's the evolution of the marketplace,'' he said. ``A release like this will reach its own level of success.''

Greg Hernandez, [phone]

greg.hernandez(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) A new generation may be wondering who shot J.R. Ewing; the first seasons of ``Dallas'' are on shelves now.

(2 -- color) The Southfork clan has been seen in the recent DVD release of ``Dallas'' episodes from seasons one and two. The prime-time soap ran from 1978 to 1991.

(3 -- color) Prime-time '80s hit ``Dynasty,'' being released on DVD, pitted stars Linda Evans, right, as Krystle, and Joan Collins, left, as Alexis, against one another in classic soap-opera catfights.