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I'm going in...my first ever full watch of The Colbys

Tony

Telly Talk Fan
So i have discovered the voice of Gary Morris through The Colbys! LOVE his voice! Had never heard of him before this, have downloaded some of his stuff and managed to get the main song he sings on The Colbys onto my I-pod so I'm happy!

I agree I think Gary’s voice is memorable and I’m not even into country music.
Try gettin’ over you and First Kiss are great songs and better than much of which Diahann Carroll or Audrey Landers sang in Dynasty or Dallas.
 
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Alison Carr

Telly Talk Active Member
I have completed the first season of The Colbys... so sum up time before diving into season 2.

Wow! Love it! it's such a treat having not watched it all before, discovering the joys of this for the first time is wonderful. I truly adore Emma Samms, due to my age she was the first person I saw play the part of Fallon so for me she IS Fallon years later when I watched repeats of Dynasty and Pamela Sue Martin appeared she felt liked an imposter, I am sure the total opposite of how many fans felt. Stephanie Beacham can also do no wrong, incidentally I am reading her autobiography at the moment too and she seems lovely.

Bliss - you could add her scenes up and may just about fill 5 minutes, I like the character but don't feel in anyway connected to the character. Outside of Sable, Jason, Miles, Fallon and Jeff the other characters all seem a bit lost to be honest and very much secondary players.

I like the character of Connie although I am guessing problems behind the cameras came into play quite early on as past the first half of season 1 Barbara Stanwyck is criminally underused. My favourite line of the show so far.... OVER.......MY.....DEAD......BODY.

I find Ricardo Motalban hard work to watch, I don't rate him as an actor and find him in no way believable.

The Miles, Fallon, Jeff triangle was done really well and there was a great dynamic. I always found Jeff to be so boring in Dynasty, he is equally as boring in The Colbys so at least he is consistent but Miles brings something else to the party...maybe it's the phwoar factor.

Dominique works so well on The Colbys, she should have been a regular, I believe that was a season 3 possibility. I would have liked a cameo from Krystle alongside Blake in season 1 but I can forgive that. I also feel Caress Morrell could have been a good addition, she was cousin to Sable and Frankie after all.

So, being creative again as I reach this milestone...we celebrate with this video...The Colbys Today!

 

DallasFanForever

Telly Talk Supreme
@Darren Chivers its nice to know that someone else besides me preferred Emma Samms as Fallon. I always thought I was the only one. When I started watching PSM had already left the show so Emma was the only Fallon I ever knew. But having said that, and having gone back and seen PSM in the role now, I can definitely see why people did prefer her as well
 

Alison Carr

Telly Talk Active Member
and that is the Colbys completed and ticked off the list. I loved this! I do wish this had lived on, series 3 would have been very interesting, it was different enough form Dynasty to continue and at times compliment it with a crossover. The days of the power soaps were awesome! (Dynasty, Dallas, Falco Crest, Colbys). Thank goodness for DVDs allowing us to dip back into that world whenever we want. I am all for a show focussed around Sable and Alexis in today's world, both actresses are up for it so someone needs to make it happen quickly whilst they still can - I see the pair of cousins both living in London now and trying to to live the same lavish lifestyle they once did and outdo each other whilst to the outside world they are aged has beens and a bit of a joke, to them the fight is alive and real.
 

Piggyrella Sanderson

Maximum Member
Bliss could have been the vixen that was missing in The Colbys. She was feeling talentless and directionless, and then there was the superior sister Monica. It shouldn't be too difficult to combine that and it would keep her close to the mansion.

But if I have to be honest I'm just glad that the others got more screen time. When she was on screen she neither bothered nor excited me.
"Superior Sister" and "Monica" are two things I can´t see in the same sentence. They mix worse than water and oil!
 

Brian Kinney

Telly Talk Addict
I also liked Ricardo Montalban on The Colbys. He brought something special to his role, his affection for Sable was real. Sable, Miles and Zach were my favourite characters (and then Monica when she wasn't crying over her lousy politician , which is a reason I enjoyed her so much on Dynasty). Everything I remember about Bliss is her affair with the hot Russian dancer in the second season, but I didn't mind seeing her. In contrast to Jason and Connie whom I both found extremely boring. In the beginning I liked Frankie but couldn't stand her with Jason. That was like watching my grandfather doing it with my mother (she had similar hair then).
 

Count Jockula

Telly Talk TV Fanatic
It was a pity about Bliss. TPTB didn't really give the character anything worthwhile storyline wise, until season 2 and I'm sure Claire would have been just as peeved off as Barbara in season 1. Alison what did you thought think of the infamous U.F.O cliffhanger? Your 'The Colbys The Reunion' opening credits are something else and also a thumbs up for your eighties gathering 'The Saga' under one roof. Nice work!
 

Alison Carr

Telly Talk Active Member
It's very daytime soapish!

It was a pity about Bliss. TPTB didn't really give the character anything worthwhile storyline wise, until season 2 and I'm sure Claire would have been just as peeved off as Barbara in season 1. Alison what did you thought think of the infamous U.F.O cliffhanger? Your 'The Colbys The Reunion' opening credits are something else and also a thumbs up for your eighties gathering 'The Saga' under one roof. Nice work!

I knew the UFO was coming, apart from having seen the resolve over on Dynasty many years ago I can remember clearly that finale episode of The Colbys going out on BBC1 in 1987, I was then 8 years old but the sight of the UFO captivated me as it arrived on a Friday night on BBC1 to lift Fallon off into outer space. I was looking forward to seeing it again, yes it was bizarre, bonkers and to many ridiculous but that is because we all saw it out of context due to it not getting a full resolve that would have come with a third series that I believe wold have explained it as Fallon having some kind of breakdown, what we were seeing was not supposed to be real., in reality (fake Cobys reality) Fallon never left Diamond Back Road where her car had broken down and she had maybe had an extreme panic attack. I therefore did not mind that ending at all and where would the Colbys be without the UFO? I do not think it would be as remembered as it is, you ask most people about the Colbys and the UFO will be mentioned, it's like the Moldevia massacre on Dynasty, bonkers but memorable. I was a tad bored with Frankie by the end of season 2 so would have been happy with her dying form her injuries and seeing Jason stick to his promise to reunite with Sable.
 

DallasFanForever

Telly Talk Supreme
I like the UFO scene a lot more now than I did then as it has grown on me. I agree with @Alison Carr that we were probably looking at something that wasn’t real. Fallon having a nervous breakdown was more likely but I guess we’ll never know. I find it interesting that here we are still talking about that UFO almost 35 years later! It definitely had its impact for a scene most people don’t like.
 

Monzo

Telly Talk Enthusiast
I'm also watching Colbys once more. I remember most of it, but I was surprised to see Monica and Neil spending the night in St Gregory. I had no idea they did that. Of course Monica praised how great St Gregory is.
 

Carrie Fairchild

Telly Talk Star
I'm currently up to episode 10 of my rewatch / first time watch. I can't actually recall if I've seen the series in full before as I've watched edited down episodes before plus so many out of sequence complete episodes as they aired or became available online. Anyway, this is the first time I've watched episodes properly back to back and my main takeaway is that most of the men are all awful. Really really awful. I know it's been discussed before that Zack was a bit creepy but he is a full on stalker. Miles is a rapist sociopath. Then you have Jason - male chauvinist, cheat and international stalker of his wife's sister. The love triangles and romance that are supposed to drive the show just feel really seedy. On the plus side, Stephanie Beacham is even more outstanding than I remember.
 

rayray

Telly Talk Active Member
"my main takeaway is that most of the men are all awful. Really really awful. I know it's been discussed before that Zack was a bit creepy but he is a full on stalker. Miles is a rapist sociopath. Then you have Jason - male chauvinist, cheat and international stalker of his wife's sister. The love triangles and romance that are supposed to drive the show just feel really seedy. On the plus side, Stephanie Beacham is even more outstanding than I remember.
This! This! This! I stopped watching the Colbys during its initial run because I felt that we were somehow supposed to identify with patriarch Jason in a positive way, and be okay with the "Fallon imagined her Adam rape memory/made it up/poor deluded girl". It was such a marked misogynistic downslide from what might have been had the series been based on earlier, more powerful and nuanced versions of Fallon or The Patriarch (Season 1 Blake.) If only we had a Charlton Heston who was depicted as a philanderer/user, or a Fallon who was strong in ways other than "She survives tragedy."

In the nuanced character category, they got Sable essentially correct in Season 2, but that was due to Stephanie Beacham's acting finesse, not the writers' initial instincts.
 

Werewillie Oleson

Telly Talk Schemer
Anyway, this is the first time I've watched episodes properly back to back
I am shocked! I mean, what took you so long? It's not just any soap, it's DYNASTY II.
and my main takeaway is that most of the men are all awful
Everything feels a bit upside down in The Colbys but I think the men also have their surprisingly vulnerable moments.
Zack was a bit creepy but he is a full on stalker
But it will be a hollow victory because Sable will never ever stop loving Jason. So that also makes him a loser.
 

colbyco

Telly Talk Well-Known Member
I enjoyed The Colbys. Just watch it for Stephanie Beacham alone. She practically steals every scene she’s in. It’s a shame it ended quickly but it’s still talked about today so it’s had some impact. Maybe they were hoping it would go on longer than Dynasty. At least we got more of Stephanie Beavcham when she moved to Denver.
- Maxwell said in 1992 he thought the spin-off was build up to replace "Dynasty" ... he didn´t think the network could hold both shows ...

- I loved Sable and Miles! And Zach was nice to watch like Dominique. Bliss was pretty and had handsome boys ... but the others didn´t impress me and like someone wrote before did the audience really wanted to see old Heston & even older Stanwyck in a prime time glamour drama?
 

DallasFanForever

Telly Talk Supreme
I think most viewers were happy to have Barbara Stanwyck and Charlton Heston as apart of the show. Even at a very young age when the show debuted I knew they were both Hollywood legends. I think they gave the show class and credibility.
 
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