THE COLBYS meets FALCON CREST.

Jock Og

Telly Talk Addict
LV
10
 
Messages
1,153
Reaction score
5,403
Awards
28
Location
Ireland
Member Since
18th November 2000
Some 'THE COLBYS' devotees may know of the video below. It is basically the initial main cast in the opening credits style of competitor soap FALCON CREST, specifically season five. What is your opinion of the arrangement?

 

Gioberti84

Telly Talk Fan
LV
2
 
Messages
477
Reaction score
1,354
Awards
7
Location
Sweden
I suppose The Colbys should have had a different opening style to the parent show. I actually prefer the theme tune to the show of Jason, Jeff, Sable, Miles, Frankie, Fallon, Bliss, Monica, Hutch and Connie. It is like what you would hear in a cinema film.
 

Mel O'Drama

Admin
LV
12
 
Messages
13,297
Solutions
1
Reaction score
27,036
Awards
29
Member Since
28th September 2008
I'm not sure it had ever really occurred to me just how similar the two Conti themes are. They both have that frenetic string thing going on, of course. But even the middle section of The Colbys' theme - where it changes melody and becomes more sweeping - sounds very Falconesque.

The mash-up above works well and to me feels just a tad more mellow, elegant and Californian thanThe Colbys' theme (much as I like it). It also makes me wonder how The Colbys might have been viewed if its image had - like Knots and Dallas - been more unique and less generically lifted from the parent show. As Gilles said above, The Colbys' opening twinkle, fountain wipe-ons and yellow Dynasty text all made it harder to ignore that it's part of a branded franchise.
 

Willie Oleson

Telly Talk Schemer
LV
8
 
Messages
18,829
Reaction score
32,268
Awards
22
Location
Plotville, Shenanigan
Member Since
April 2002
and to me feels just a tad more mellow, elegant and Californian thanThe Colbys' theme
Somehow I usually associate California with "aspiration", and the Falcon Crest theme captures that combination of prosperity & doom (with its middle section informing "be aware!").
The Colbys, its characters and premise, have no real beginning - it's all very established and their goal and challenge is to maintain that status quo.
Apart from the obvious sci-fi element I also find The Colbys theme kinda WASP and Ivy League, the kind of Other Family the parent show needed in their Dynasty universe, but couldn't handle without the risk of diminishing the Number One family.
Cecil and Jeff were Carrington sidekicks, good sidekicks, but nothing more than that. Dynasty invented the Fallmonts only to demolish them a.s.a.p. so obviously there was something about it that didn't work.
Personally I think there's something delightfully perverse about the blatant Dynasty Extra Time. It's the same, but it's not. A distorted mirror version with very similar yet very different characters, and a pompous, exhibitionist theme that challenges and taunts The Believers who think that this show really shouldn't exist at all.
 

James from London

International Treasure
Top Poster Of Month
LV
5
 
Messages
8,200
Reaction score
15,807
Awards
16
Location
Brixton
Member Since
Time immemorial
What is your opinion of the arrangement?
Gosh, it's very trippy! It makes The Colbys seem smaller, tighter, more urgent, maybe even a bit sinister, whereas the vibe of the original titles is grandiose and celebratory.
 

Willie Oleson

Telly Talk Schemer
LV
8
 
Messages
18,829
Reaction score
32,268
Awards
22
Location
Plotville, Shenanigan
Member Since
April 2002
The Colbys, its characters and premise, have no real beginning
Ironically, the little premise The Colbys did have was exactly the same as Falcon Crest i.e. the battle between the rich aunt and her trespassing nephew.
Except that Jeff and Sable's feud didn't play out between the characters themselves, and had more to do with status and loyalty instead of money, which added a dash of "royalty" to the series.
 

Jock Og

Telly Talk Addict
LV
10
 
Messages
1,153
Reaction score
5,403
Awards
28
Location
Ireland
Member Since
18th November 2000
Here are THE COLBYS introducing themselves in all their glory, with Bill Conti's November 1985 - March 1987 theme. A plethora of the DYNASTY cast are tagged on, in the latter part. Somewhere in THE COLBYS theme tune there are some overtones of SUPERMAN and STAR WARS, imho.

 

Falcon Crest I

Telly Talk Well-Known Member
LV
2
 
Messages
526
Reaction score
1,600
Awards
9
Location
Glasgow, Scotland
The Colbys and Falcon Crest work good together. However a slight critique Babs Stanwyck should be opening her French doors, like The Colbys proper.
 

Chris2

Telly Talk TV Fanatic
LV
0
 
Messages
1,453
Reaction score
4,144
Awards
5
Location
United States
Definitely agreed that Conti’s Falcon Crest and Colbys themes are very similar in the way they’re structured. He also wrote a similarly-structured theme for Emerald Point, NAS.
 
Top