- Awards
- 28
from Follies of God
She doesnt miss and hit the wall either!!
She doesnt miss and hit the wall either!!
I’d imagine it was a combination of things. The scripts being one but in the Paul Huson interview on here, I think he mentions that there were issues with Barbara memorising lines and so, her screen time was reduced. On rewatching, you can see from around a third of the way into the season, her appearances become less and less (I may be wrong but I think there were some episodes where she had a single scene). You can appreciate why she got pissed with the reduced prominence on the show and moved on. Ricardo Montalban had similar complaints about the writing, where he said he was basically doing the same script over and over, week after week.So, it was the scripts that made her leave. I had heard some rumors indicating it was something else, but now we have the proof. Still, she did a valiant job with the material she was given that season.
So, it was the scripts that made her leave. I had heard some rumors indicating it was something else, but now we have the proof. Still, she did a valiant job with the material she was given that season.
Although Barbara seems very sharp and lucid in the 1986 letter she wrote, Paul Huson's claims about memory loss are backed up by Kate O'Mara's recollections in her autobiography. At the 1985 Dynasty/Colbys launch party, Nolan Miller was introducing Babs around, and she didn't seem to know who most of the stars/characters were. I imagine the scripts would have been a challenge for her.
I've heard elsewhere that she suffered from a bad back and this was also a factor in her leaving.
There’s a few other tidbits floating around online from either interviews or press coverage, as to why she joined the series in the first place and why she left. Paul Huson or William Bast mention in one of the interviews that they thought she’d only planned to do one season anyway as she needed the money. This ties in with another story that she only did the show because she needed the money after her house was damaged in a fire. The fire happened in June 1985 and her signing to the show was announced in July. There was also talk that she’d only agreed to do 13 episodes in the first season but then agreed to do more as she was enjoying the work. In hindsight, this may have been a cover to explain her sporadic appearances as the season wore on. Around March 1986, she’s quoted as saying she didn’t enjoy getting up at 4am every day, so had asked to only be included in 7 episodes of season two. However, by the summer, it was announced that she wouldn’t be back for season two as she didn’t like how her character had been developed and wanted producers to kill Connie off, so that there’d be no pressure on her to return. I’m sure we’ve discussed all of this before but that’s it in a nutshell. A lot of the above info, I’ve gleaned from here:Although Barbara seems very sharp and lucid in the 1986 letter she wrote, Paul Huson's claims about memory loss are backed up by Kate O'Mara's recollections in her autobiography. At the 1985 Dynasty/Colbys launch party, Nolan Miller was introducing Babs around, and she didn't seem to know who most of the stars/characters were. I imagine the scripts would have been a challenge for her.
Kate told a similar story to Ricardo re: Dynasty when she was on Gloria Hunniford’s show. Gloria said something about “looking good and knowing your lines” and Kate joked that she didn’t think it mattered whether you knew your lines or not. The most important thing was to look good.That fits right onto what Kate O'Mara said, that they were making things up as they went along.
Caress did deserve her own spinoff!!Kate told a similar story to Ricardo re: Dynasty when she was on Gloria Hunniford’s show. Gloria said something about “looking good and knowing your lines” and Kate joked that she didn’t think it mattered whether you knew your lines or not. The most important thing was to look good.
Oh that interview is too funny! Maybelle is out of jail!Here he is on Letterman in April 87, talking quite nicely about the Colbys and says the complete opposite, that every script is different and a huge surprise.
At the end of the interview he says that he doesn't know if it's renewed yet (for season 3) and maybe still hoped it would continue... we all know how that turned out.
But he does do some Dynasty bashing instead, about his scene with Alexis. That fits right onto what Kate O'Mara said, that they were making things up as they went along.
Kate told a similar story to Ricardo re: Dynasty when she was on Gloria Hunniford’s show. Gloria said something about “looking good and knowing your lines” and Kate joked that she didn’t think it mattered whether you knew your lines or not. The most important thing was to look good.
Caress did deserve her own spinoff!!
And that theme music.........ELECTRIC! A grand composition.Compared to what passes for dialogue today, The Colbys was Shakespeare.