Did "The Colbys" have to compete with the parent show?

[Willie Oleson]

I don't find it strange that people watch Knots Landing without watching Dallas, but the very idea that someone would watch The Colbys without really knowing Dynasty, well I think that's fascinating (in a positive way).

 

[Daniel Avery]

I had picked up Dynasty shortly before The Colbys was proposed, and continued to watch Dynasty until it ended...but y'know, I never did watch a complete episode of Dallas.

The oft-repeated dig of the critics, that The Colbys was too much a rip-off of its parent show, meant very little to me, since I'd not seen what they were ripping off!

 

[Willie Oleson]

I could recommend the first 3 seasons of Dynasty. It's great soap, and season 1 is even better than that.
Did you watch Falcon Crest?

 

[Willie Oleson]

This picture says: it feels good to be a Colby

 

[Daniel Avery]

That photo says "wardrobe wasn't alerted that it was a photo shoot day."
Jeff: "I'm going to the country club."
Monica: "I'm going to work."
Jason: "I'm going to work out."
Fallon: "I'm going to bed."
Miles: "I was going to swim, but on second thought I'll go with Fallon."

Did you watch Falcon Crest?

I loved Falcon Crest. THAT one I watched from beginning to (awful) end.

 

[lbf522]

I liked the Colbys at first until they made it a carbon copy of Dynasty. The Sable/Jason/Francesca triangle was awful. I liked Monica and Miles.

 

[ArchieLucasCarringtonEwing1989]

I liked the Colbys at first until they made it a carbon copy of Dynasty. The Sable/Jason/Francesca triangle was awful. I liked Monica and Miles.

The Colby's I admit did borrow some Dynasty's earlier storylines and gave it a few differences, the Jeff/Fallon/Miles triangle was more or less a repeat of the Jeff/Kirby/Adam triangle for instances.

What bothered me about The Colby's itself was that in the years leading up to the shows premiere, Jeff's then nameless mother, was Implied to have been a multiple married socialite who basically dumped Jeff on Cecil willingly when he was a child (remember, Jeff described his mother as being this person as this before Alexis was even thought of!) yet when we finally meet Frankie, years later, she's anything but the Alexis prototype, she's a wet lettuce, who allegedly was forced to give up Jeff because Cecil was blackmailing her something, TPTB clearly forgot their Dynasty season 1 description of her.

 

[Willie Oleson]

TPTB clearly forgot their Dynasty season 1 description of her

I can forgive The Colbys for ignoring the Dynasty history. But Jeff was still mad with her at the beginning of TC season 1, wasn't he?

I believe Francesca was a very young widow, afraid about the future as a single mother, and Cecil took advantage of the situation and persuaded her to let Jeff live with him so he would be raised as a Colby heir.
Her situation was based on insecurity and ignorance, and she thought she was doing the right thing.

 

[ArchieLucasCarringtonEwing1989]

I don't find it strange that people watch Knots Landing without watching Dallas, but the very idea that someone would watch The Colbys without really knowing Dynasty, well I think that's fascinating (in a positive way).

With Knots Landing and Dallas there wasn't really a strong link between the shows, with the exception of Gary and Val, but even then neither character had lived in Texas for years by the time 1979 rolls around, and they never started out as Dallas regulars in the first place, after Gary's attendance to
Bobby's "funeral" in 1985 there aren't anymore crossovers until the Dallas series finale six years later in 1991, and in both instances they took place in a characters dream, Pam and JR's respectively, so I could watch Knots Landing before I could watch Dallas as the storylines, the setting, the type of characters are so far removed from each other they could well be different shows

With The Colby's however both Fallon and Jeff were so ingrained into the Dynasty-verse from the very beginning that you had to watch Dynasty in order to catch up with the Colby's in a way, the whole premise of The Colby's was Jeff trying to find Fallon in LA and to get to know his Colby relatives, the set up of both shows were so similar, I could almost class both seasons of The Colby's as two extra Dynasty seasons, the only difference was that The Colby's was probably better written than Dynasty, which at the time was going through its worst years.

 

[Zable]

I believe Francesca was a very young widow, afraid about the future as a single mother, and Cecil took advantage of the situation and persuaded her to let Jeff live with him so he would be raised as a Colby heir.
Her situation was based on insecurity and ignorance, and she thought she was doing the right thing.

Frankie... Acording to The Colbys story if memory serves:

1. Frankie told Jeff that she left the Colby family home while pregnant -- because she felt so ashamed of herself. She doesn't say what the circumstances were specific to that occassion. We don't know where she was going.(Jeff is the only one of Jason's children not born in the Colby family home; we don't know where he was born.) We don't even know if the household knew she was pregnant then. Nor do we know Cecil's whereabouts then; if he were still living at the Colby family home or not. At that time seemingly no one knew Jason & Frankie had slept together (but it happened when Jason was still single).

2. Twenty-eight years later, Adam came across a letter to Cecil from Philip in Cecil's Logan Rhinewood files. In it, Philip told Cecil that he knew that the child Frankie was carrying was not his. A handwriting expert later authenticated the letter as being written by Philip. Did Cecil get this letter before or after Frankie left the Colby family home, we don't know. Did Cecil ever know that it was Jason that Frankie slept with, we don't know. He may just have thought her a sluttish sister-in-law who was a fallen woman in his eyes and not fit to bring up a 'Colby' child -- given the mores of the time, he might have thought it better to let the world think Jeff was a Colby than let it be known that a Colby woman (even by marriage) was a harlot.

3. We do know that one of the things Jeff was mad about with Frankie was that she didn't bother to come get him from Cecil when she learnt that Philip had died. So, Frankie wasn't a widow when she'd first left Jeff with Cecil.

Frankie's response was that Cecil had promised that Jeff would get his share of the Colby fortune if she stayed out of their lives.

Connie says that Frankie didn't know that Philip had been disinherited -- and we know that happened before he joined the army. But Cecil did.

What if Cecil had confronted Frankie over Philip's letter, and told her Philip had been disinherited. Could he have wanted her out of their lives, but felt it wasn't fair to 'penalise' the innocent unborn baby and let the baby face an uncertain future, especially if Frankie hadn't much money of her own? And so he agreed to raise her unborn child as a Colby. What if Cecil got it out of her that it was Jason she'd slept with. What if for some peverse reason, it pleased him to raise Jason's child without Jason ever knowing he'd had a child by Frankie. So he 'bought' Frankie's silence in exchange for raising her child. ....Basically, there was enough left unsaid by various TC characters for the TC writers to fill in the blanks any way they wished in later seasons.

4. Frankie was young. A mother before 20. She was 18 when Philip went off to war. She would have had no reason to fear the future as the Colby household, unaware of anything amiss, would have looked after her as a member of the family.

I think it was Philip's realisation that her unborn child wasn't his, and possibly her learning that Cecil knew too, which shook her and made her afraid of what the (social) repecussions would be. Her secret affair/ONS while a married woman wasn't a secret. The s*** would hit the fan sooner or later. Might have thought it was better to be thought of as a bad mother & wife than be in disgrace as a scarlet woman. And have Jason, Andrew's heir, possibly dragged in. ....A lot of it boils down to the mores of the time, and the social circles she was accustomed to being in. I agree Francesca thought she was doing the right thing.

 

[Zable]

@StrangerDynastyTreeNat89 Would love to respond to some of your posts (here & elsewhere) but am pressed for time. Will be away for awhile.

 

[lbf522]

We were suppose to feel sorry for Fancesca who deserts her son and bed her sister's husband who is also her husband's brother while her husband is serving in the Korean War.

I liked Zach Powers except for his silly revenge on the Colbys for what their father did which reminded me of Cliff Barnes declaring war on the Ewing Family.

 

[ArchieLucasCarringtonEwing1989]

And that's the other thing about The Colby's, and a Dynasty as a whole, the entire history and timeline are completely out of sync, Phillip was serving in the Vietnam war which was the 60s, yet Jeff who was born in 1956, implied that Phillip was declared dead before he was born, I don't think America was at war with any nation or faction in 1956, it was after the Korean War and years before the Vietnam war.

I was confused with Phillip's backstory if I'm honest, but I'm also confused by the ages of Sable and Francesca, Sable is the oldest yet Katherine Ross is older than Stephanie Beacham by several years,

By season 9 Sable's age is moved closer to that of Stephanie Beacham age at the time, pushing back the birth years of Miles and Monica from 1958 to at the latest 1963, I could live with this but Frankie was still younger than Sable by let's say two years, so Frankie was born in 1949 yet still able to get married, give birth and widowed by 1956, the year Jeff was born, it would've made more sense if Frankie was the eldest daughter born in 1940 or 1941, that way she could still get married and have Jeff in 1956, only just though.

In that sense casting Kate O'Mara as the younger sister of Joan Collins was better as in real life JC was older than O'Mara.

 

[Willie Oleson]

he might have thought it better to let the world think Jeff was a Colby than let it be known that a Colby woman (even by marriage) was a harlot.

Gosh, I didn't know Cecil had such high moral standards, or cared for his family (let alone their kids) that much.

So, Frankie wasn't a widow when she'd first left Jeff with Cecil.

But that means she was also giving Phillip's son away (at that time she thought he was the father, and still alive eventhough she did't know when he'd come back).

Connie says that Frankie didn't know that Philip had been disinherited

Aha, so money wasn't an issue either. Because she was supposed to inherit Phillip's share of the Colby fortune (she wasn't aware of the fact that that wouldn't happen).

I think it was Philip's realisation that her unborn child wasn't his, and possibly her learning that Cecil knew too

But did she know this before the trial?

 

[Willie Oleson]

I liked Zach Powers except for his silly revenge on the Colbys for what their father did which reminded me of Cliff Barnes declaring war on the Ewing Family

Oh I think it's reason enough to hate somebody. He's fighting the Colbys because his father couldn't.
But I agree it was a bit corny.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

The Carrington mansion set would have looked better with the beige walls The Colbys' home enjoyed. Not as cold.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

And when did any routine exchange on DYNASTY look this effortlessly good?

Nevah!