THE COLBYS

[Sapounopera]

The Nikolai "Kolya" Rostov would have been a much better Prince Michael.
(You probably don't get this from this gif)

[Joseph]

he was a great Jeremiah on The DS reboot, BTW does anyone now where i could find any Promos with Frankie? i wonder how they were "selling" her

[DRW50]

Poor Stephanie Beacham having to deal with this very awkward interview setup, and Regis pushing her Playboy in her face as soon as she walked out.

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[DRW50]

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[DRW50]

Hadn't heard this anecdote about Barbara Stanwyck on The Colbys before. 

https://people.com/archive/barbara-stanwyck-a-stand-up-dame-vol-33-no-5/

[slick jones]

Nice article @DRW50!

 

[te.]

Wonder who the actress was?

[Soapsuds]

Thanks for sharing it!  A nice read!!

I'll say Claire Yarlett who played Bliss Colby. She was awful in the role and seemed like an actress to do something like that. 

[Soaplovers]

Sable was sympathetic even when she was doing something wrong...because her heart was in the right place.

I always wondered how season 3 of The Colby's would have fared.

Most likely Jeff/Fallon would have had issues due to the UFO situation..which Miles would take advantage of in order to worm his way back in with Fallon..while dealing with his wife Channing.

And I imagine Sable would have been caught..and a possible custody battle would occur.  And I do think the adopted mom Adrienne would have aligned with Zachary to keep custody.  She was almost the Claudia of the show.

[Soapsuds]

It was continued in the following season of Dynasty. 

[adrnyc]

 

I've so often wondered what Season 3 would look like. I agree with all of your takes except Jeff/Fallon. Fallon would never have gone up in a UFO had Aaron Spelling not had the show killed. Catherine Oxenberg got fired from Dynasty which means there was no Carrington daughter. Both Joan Collins and Aaron Spelling had used The Colbys as a scapegoat for Dynasty's falling ratings. When Spelling made it clear he needed Fallon (and Jeff) back on Dynasty, the writers ended the entire series with Fallon going up in the UFO as a giant middle finger to Spelling if he cancelled it. "You want your precious Fallon back? There you go. Take her!" And they knew Dynasty couldn't say it was "a dream" because Dallas had just done it.

[j swift]

I'm surprised to read that Charlton Heston was in support of the show.

Per the TV Academic Interview of Aaron Spelling:  In 1986, Barbara Stanwyck opted to end her contract and leave the series after its first season, reportedly calling it "a turkey" and telling co-creator Esther Shapiro "This is the biggest pile of garbage I ever did" and that "It's one thing to know you're making a lot of money off vulgarity, but when you don't know it's vulgar - it's plain stupid." On the contrary, Charlton Heston always had supported the show and stated its cancellation "was premature" as "we were coming closer to being a creative production team that could make the kind of show we'd planned on from the beginning." 

Because I assumed that he might opt out of a season 3.  And if Jeff went back to Denver, it would leave very few of the titular Colby's on the show.  But, I guess we learn the lesson every day to never assume.

[Soapsuds]

Didn't Charlton not get along with Maxwell Caufield? 

There was a lot of backstage drama and the stories were very poorly written. 

Emma Samms was awful as Fallon. Terrible recast.

Low ratings in season 2 didn't help either

Edited March 28, 2023 by Soapsuds

[kalbir]

The Colbys was a spin off done wrong. It did not carve its own identity apart from its parent show Dynasty and was basically a second hour of Dynasty in a different setting. The Colbys was also doomed once it was in its regular time slot Thursday 9 pm head-to-head w/ Cheers and Night Court.

At least Aaron Spelling learned his lesson by the time the Fox shows came around. Melrose Place successfully carved its own identity apart from Beverly Hills 90210.

 

[te.]

Spelling wasn't the one to cancel The Colby's - ABC was. If they had wanted another season, it would've happened. They had already replaced Fallon / Amanda on Dynasty with cousin Leslie.

It's funny because one of the suggestions (besides the Fallon-runs-a-hotel idea) was to just expand the show into two hours per week a la Peyton Place, but logistically it would've been too hard and I assume the Dynasty cast didn't want to produce 60+ episodes per season. 

 

Edited March 28, 2023 by te.