Barbara Esensten Dead at 75

James Harmon Brown and Barbara Esensten

Former news reporter and soap opera writer Barbara Esensten passed away on Wednesday, November 14.  She was 75.

In 1987 DYNASTY producers Esther and Richard Shapiro hired two ex-news reporters to write several scripts for the new season. Esensten, who worked for an all-news radio station in Los Angeles, and James Harmon Brown, a former reporter for the Los Angeles Times, signed on to make the show more vital and realistic.