Thank you very much, Alexis. That was full of great behind-the-scenes tidbits.
No, Bill and I were planning on leaving the show. Two seasons working as show-runners were quite enough! We were exhausted.
After all these years, we can still learn something new. So, the show could've significantly changed - not necessarily for the better - had ABC renewed it for season 3.
Is it true that Esther Shapiro called up The Colbys writing team and told them about the proposed idea and said, "Anyone who laughs will be fired!"?
If I'm not mistaken, this rumor came from Gordon Thomson's 2009 radio interview, which I recall being discussed on the board at the time. Perhaps someone with an axe to grind made it up and spread among the cast back in the day?
I never felt Channing had enough going for her to justify Miles interest in her.
I think Channing was supposed to have been a poor man's Fallon that a petulant Miles married on a whim just to spite the real Fallon whom he was still unhappily in love with. I disliked her myself in the beginning, but grew to feel sorry for her, her manipulations notwithstanding. She was essentially a tragic character.
Where there any other famous actresses that were considered at first?
According to my own research from digital newspaper archives for that Colbys Development thread of mine I posted way back in 2008:
One of the frontrunners for the role of Jason Colby was
Burt Lancaster. Charlton Heston was the producers' second choice after the negotiations with Lancaster failed in June 1985. Meanwhile, they were also talking to Hollywood superstars
Faye Dunnaway and
Elizabeth Taylor to play regulars on THE COLBYS. It was then reported
Doris Day was also in negotiations to join THE COLBYS as was
James Coburn, who would play - Blake Carrington's brother Ben. By early July, negotiations with Heston had almost been completed and the producers began talking to
Angie Dickinson to play his wife Sable. The casting of Charlton Heston was officially confirmed on July 9, 1985. By July 29, it was reported that Angie Dickinson might not join the new series and that
Susannah York and
Elizabeth Ashley were next in line to take on the role of Sable Colby. The casting of Katherine Ross as Francesca was announced on August 5. Three days later it was reported that Stephanie Beacham "a household name in Britain, has beaten out Angie Dickinson for the role of Charlton Heston's wife on ABC's DYNASTY II: THE COLBYS.
Too bad I forgot to re-read that whole thread before coming up with my questions. Perhaps there would've been a doozy that Paul could've confirmed or denied. Oh, well.
How did you feel about Joan Collins and Linda Evans refusing to do episodes of The Colbys? Were you disappointed in that? Disappointed yes, because we would have had fun with the characters. I didn't know Evans had refused. Collins refusal just struck me as spiteful at the time, though I'm sure she had her professional reasons.
Yes, where did that Evans part come from anyway? Though she never appeared on
The Colbys like Collins, I never read anywhere (except here) that she explicitly refused to do it or heard her say it in an interview -- unlike Joan Collins who was very vocal about her disdain for The Colbys, for her personal reasons, viewing it as a threat for her golden goose. In fact, by 1986 Evans seemed simply more focused on leaving Dynasty as a whole and had to be persuaded to renew her contract a couple more times through 1988. It just doesn't seem like Evans to follow suit with Collins on that one.
I'm afraid I only caught a glimpse of it and what I saw did not delight me. I felt our finely nuanced Colby characters were being bent into an arch, "Dynasty" mold.
One could of course somewhat patronizingly suggest if he had caught more than a glimpse and got fully immersed in the brilliant fictional universe of Dynasty's season 9, he might have actually liked what they did with his characters.
Or one might be very glad Huson said that, re-affirming one's own feelings about the liberties taken with the Colbys characters, e.g. Jason turning his back on Miles & Monica (as grateful as one may have been Beacham had re-appeared on Dynasty).
You'd have to ask the Shapiros.
LOL, there's your next interview, Alexis. The ultimate villains here at the lily pond.