The Colby's
1 9 8 5 - 1 9 8 7 (USA)
49 x 60 minute episodes
The Colbys of California, cousins of the Carrington's, proved
that as far as super-rich soap families are concerned, there is no
such thing as viewer fatigue.
This show was subtitled Dynasty II - similar enough to
the hugely rating series, but different enough they hoped, to have
a style of its own.
They reasoned that if Dynasty was making them pots of
money (and it was - over $200 million a year), why not go for it
and be greedy? They were soon to find out why not . . .
First came the stupendous hype. Then came the starry cast. Then
came the stupid plots.
The hype was that The Colbys would be more exotic and
more explicit. We were talking serious, delirious sex and serious
designer sportswear here.
This fabulous family would be more outgoing than those
stay-at-home types in Denver. The established darlings of Dynasty
- Blake, Krystle, Alexis - would "visit". Jeff and
Fallon (who would arise from the ashes of her plane crash) would
move to California to stay.
 Half
of Hollywood was clamouring to take part. Burt Lancaster,
Katherine Hepburn, Angie Dickinson, Gregory Peck, Faye Dunaway . .
. Susannah York and Diana Rigg were tested for Sable but were
turned down. In the end, Charlton Heston signed for the part of
Jason for $90,000 a week.
Barbara Stanwyck (then aged 78) took the role of his sister,
Constance and English actress Stephanie Beacham won the part of
Sable, the superbitch. The children were to be played by Maxwell
Caulfield, Tracy Scoggins and Claire Yarlett. Who? Who? And who?
Never mind.
The show debuted in the US in November 1985. The first episode
rated only 50th in the American lists, the second 37th and the
third 39th.
Over on NBC, the comedy Cheers was kicking The Colbys
ass. Reviewers showed little enthusiasm for early plots revolving
around Jason's fatal illness, Sable's fury that Constance gave
half the Colby company stock to her nephew Jeff, and the two Colby
daughters' boyfriends, one a blind folk singer, the other a
save-the-Earth activist.
Emma Samms, rushed in as the new Fallon, brought flak from
critics. By April 1986, Barbara Stanwyck had freed herself from
her contract, declaring that The Colbys was "the
biggest piece of garbage I ever did".
 The
cliff-hanger for the summer of 1987 finally sealed the fate of the
show. In what may have been seen as a way to rocket the show to
the top, the genius behind the Star Wars films, John
Dykstra, was hired to mastermind the effects of an alien spaceship
landing in the desert where Fallon was lurking.
An alien (an extra in a body-stocking with bloodshot eyes)
appeared in a haze of smoke and beckoned Fallon aboard. She
clambered aboard in her high heels, stood bosom to chest with her
new friend as light bulbs revolved around their head as they began
to take off. The five minute scene cost a million dollars . . .
The scene was not received with enthusiasm and the decision to
drop The Colbys was announced soon after. Only John James
and Emma Samms returned to Dynasty.
The UFO scene was repeated as a flashback in Dynasty two
years later . . . now that was living dangerously!
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