THE COLBYS meets FALCON CREST.

[Count Jockula]

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?

 

[GillesDenver]

That gives "The Colbys" a different look than "Dynasty", which is interesting.

 

[Gioberti84]

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.

 

[Spells & Karma]

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.

 

[Werewillie Oleson]

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]

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.

 

[Werewillie Oleson]

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.

 

[Alexis Colby Carrington]

I always thought The Colbys should have had a different opening to Dynasty

 

[Count Jockula]

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]

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]

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.