September and fall of '86 was a major "Sophie's Choice" for 14-year-old me, who had no VCR...

The previous tv season - I had no issues watching Colbys Season 1, Thursdays at 9, and then Knots Landing Season 8, right after that at 10.

But then the scheduling idiots at CBS moved KL Season 9 to Thursdays at 9, in direct competition with Colbys season 2! 😫

I had to prioritize my beloved KL, and I would literally just change the channel during commercials to catch brief glimpses of the Colbys 🤣

IIRC KL's ratings took a big hit, and the show was moved back to 10. But by then Colbys was nearing cancellation...

21 hours ago, yrfan1983 said:

IIRC KL's ratings took a big hit, and the show was moved back to 10.

I think so.  Whenever CBS tinkered with KL's time slot, the ratings always took a big hit.  They didn't understand how important its' time slot was to its' success.  

22 hours ago, FrenchBug82 said:

And I'd add that while they considerably softened Sable during her Dynasty run, the bitch vs bitch dynamic was the only saving grace of that last season. So I don't think it is necessarily true a bad girl vs bad girl framework cannot work.

But were Alexis and Sable fighting over the same man?  I didn't consider Dex/Alexis/Sable or Blake/Alexis/Sable to be romantic triangles in the traditional sense.

45 minutes ago, Khan said:

But were Alexis and Sable fighting over the same man?  I didn't consider Dex/Alexis/Sable or Blake/Alexis/Sable to be romantic triangles in the traditional sense.

Well, let's just say that men were not the point of the feud, I agree with that.

Do you think that (whether it is about a man) plays a part into whether those stories work? Interesting. I hadn't thought of it that way.

I generally hate when smart female characters are written to fight like cats and dog over a man, good or bad girls. Not that it doesn't happen in real life but it is demeaning both IRL and in fiction.
I prefer when the dislike comes from some other place and vying for the same men happen to be a piece of the rivalry. So in that way, maybe you are right.
Which brings us back to The Colbys: maybe they should have given the Frankie/Sable thing more layers than being just about Jason.

Edited January 4, 20223 yr by FrenchBug82

4 minutes ago, FrenchBug82 said:

I generally hate when smart female characters are written to fight like cats and dog over a man, good or bad girls. Not that it doesn't happen in real life but it is demeaning both IRL and in fiction.

I prefer when the dislike comes from some other place and vying for the same men happen to be a piece of the rivalry.

Same.

Honestly, Alexis seemed more bemused about Sable and Dex boinking. She cared, obviously, but not in the way that she was going to fight Sable to get him back.

Speaking of Sable, I think we never got to see what attracted Jason to her as a wife.  By the time the series began he had some serious animosity toward her, he yearned for Francesca as soon as she came back to town, and his sister despised her.  By contrast, we knew what drew Blake to Alexis, they were both on the come-up, and he appreciated her tenacity and loyalty, until she betrayed him, and his ego no longer allowed them to stay together.  I believe that a little backstory about why Jason married Sable would have filled out the drama, and made for a more interesting triangle.  Maybe she brought some class into his life, taught him how to spend money on luxury goods, or allowed him to appreciate art?  As it stood, Sable was just a second choice when Francesca was unavailable because she was attached to Jason's brother, which was a crappy descriptor for such an interesting character.

Edited January 4, 20223 yr by j swift

10 minutes ago, te. said:

Honestly, Alexis seemed more bemused about Sable and Dex boinking. She cared, obviously, but not in the way that she was going to fight Sable to get him back.

Exactly.  I felt that that ship (Dex/Alexis) had long sailed.  And as for Sable defending Blake against the allegations that he had murdered Roger Grimes, Alexis was right: Sable was only defending Blake, because she hoped to get into Blake's bed.

2 minutes ago, j swift said:

Speaking of Sable, I think we never got to see what attracted Jason to her as a wife.  By the time the series began he had some serious animosity toward her, he yearned for Francesca as soon as she came back to town, and his sister despised her.  By contrast, we knew what drew Blake to Alexis, they were both on the come-up, and he appreciated her tenacity and loyalty, until she betrayed him, and his ego no longer allowed them to stay together.  I believe that a little backstory about why Jason married Sable would have filled out the drama, and made for a more interesting triangle.  Maybe she brought some class into his life, taught him how to spend money on luxury goods, or allowed him to appreciate art?  As it stood, Sable was just a second choice when Francesca was unavailable because she was attached to Jason's brother, which was a crappy descriptor for such an interesting character.

By the time THE COLBYS came around, it seemed like the Shapiros had dispensed with most rules of storytelling.  All they cared about was showcasing well-dressed characters behaving abominably.

15 minutes ago, Khan said:

And as for Sable defending Blake against the allegations that he had murdered Roger Grimes, Alexis was right: Sable was only defending Blake, because she hoped to get into Blake's bed.

Really? Coz they never even wrote her as trying to seduce him in any way or even flirting and I always took her denegations to be very sincere. 
And talking about the Shapiros and their neglect of proper storytelling I always thought it was a glaring loophole in the last season that they never explained why Sable immediately felt so intensely loyal to Blake and Kristen, other maybe than to annoy Alexis.
But it seems to me that as the possibility she might be after him was lampshaded by other characters so much and yet never even began to play out at all, that would be an indication that that was sincerely not her agenda.
 

16 minutes ago, j swift said:

Speaking of Sable, I think we never got to see what attracted Jason to her as a wife.  By the time the series began he had some serious animosity toward her, he yearned for Francesca as soon as she came back to town, and his sister despised her.  By contrast, we knew what drew Blake to Alexis, they were both on the come-up, and he appreciated her tenacity and loyalty, until she betrayed him, and his ego no longer allowed them to stay together.  I believe that a little backstory about why Jason married Sable would have filled out the drama, and made for a more interesting triangle.  Maybe she brought some class into his life, taught him how to spend money on luxury goods, or allowed him to appreciate art?  As it stood, Sable was just a second choice when Francesca was unavailable because she was attached to Jason's brother, which was a crappy descriptor for such an interesting character.

That is indeed a very very good point.
I did the mental work myself: I mean Sable was gorgeous, glamorous and above all in control. Jason always came off to me as a sad sap. Connie seemed quite domineering too so I always figured that energy was what he had settled for: someone who would hold the castle for him, be the wife, the mother, take care of things with taste and let him be a "man". She had the right image and the right attitude and she was there and she took control and one thing led to another.
The entire Connie/Sable hatred was about who got to control Jason and was a much more interesting triangle, if not romantic, than Frankie/Sable. 
But I will grant you this is all stuff that I developed in my head by "reading between the lines". They never tried to explain any of it which is made even worse by the Dynasty retcon that the kids weren't even Jason's.

Edited January 4, 20223 yr by FrenchBug82

4 minutes ago, FrenchBug82 said:

Sable was gorgeous, glamorous and above all in control. Jason always came off to me as a sad sap. Connie seemed quite domineering too so I always figured that energy was what he had settled for:

I am amused by your Freudian analysis of whatever the sisterly version of the Oedipal complex would be called.

I think if Sable was allowed at least one memorable monologue about not settling for being second best to Alexis after being betrayed by Francesca, it would have gone a long way to explain her motives with Blake.

Edited January 4, 20223 yr by j swift

As for what Jason initially found attractive about Sable besides her physical beauty, Connie has a line in one of her and Sable's many quarrels. She asks something to the effect of, "What happened to that sweet girl, Sabella Scott, that Jason brought home?" I think Los Angeles happened to her. I think the '80s happened to her. Sable is fiercely loving, loyal, and protective of her children and feels like she can't be any of these things unless she's ensured them with money and power. And to her, there is never enough of that. The Colbys are richer than G-d, yet Sable's royally pissed that Connie is leaving her money and shares to (presumed) fatherless Jeff and not spreading things out to include her and Jason's children. Jeff is her nephew and she has not a shred of warmth for the man, she calls her own sister's child "an outsider". Her love doesn't appear to extend beyond Jason and the kids. I'm guessing this love for her family was pure and unwarped in the beginning and slowly developed into something sinister.

On 1/4/2022 at 5:14 AM, yrfan1983 said:

September and fall of '86 was a major "Sophie's Choice" for 14-year-old me, who had no VCR...

The previous tv season - I had no issues watching Colbys Season 1, Thursdays at 9, and then Knots Landing Season 8, right after that at 10.

But then the scheduling idiots at CBS moved KL Season 9 to Thursdays at 9, in direct competition with Colbys season 2! 😫

I had to prioritize my beloved KL, and I would literally just change the channel during commercials to catch brief glimpses of the Colbys 🤣

IIRC KL's ratings took a big hit, and the show was moved back to 10. But by then Colbys was nearing cancellation...

ABC aired 2 eps of The Colbys in Wk 1 of the 86-87 season.

The first Wed @ 10 following Dynasty

Dynasty #15 20.1/31

The Colbys #28 16.6/26

The next day The Colbys went head to head with Knots Landing

Knots #38 14.8/23

Colbys #56 10.2/16

So Knots was the winner but it's numbers were down from it's 10 o'clock rating. And the new CBS 10 o'clock show came third in it's slot.

Luckily Knots survived, but I get the feeling ABC had already given up on The Colbys.

 

we all know the whole thing is on youtube right?

On 2/23/2022 at 5:37 PM, Joseph said:

we all know the whole thing is on youtube right?

 

It's also available for purchase on DVD via Shout! Factory in much better quality.

On 2/23/2022 at 4:37 PM, Joseph said:

we all know the whole thing is on youtube right?

I did not know this. Thanks for the heads up. I do have the entire series on DVD.

The premiere episode was so bad. You knew it wasn't going to last. Charleton Heston was horrible in it. And why is Constance with a cowboy? The casting for this show for the most part was awful.

The show did debut at #8 tied with Dynasty with a 22.3 rating. The following week it aired twice. The first episode was right after Dynasty again and got a 19.3 rating finishing 19th for the week. The second episode aired at its new and permanent Thursday timeslot and the episode got a 13.0 rating and ranked #50 for the week.

Edited February 25, 20223 yr by Soapsuds