@Dynastiefr2 Actually, MacGyver was the lead-in to Dynasty just for a short time in the latter part of season 6 (i.e. spring of 1986). When the season began in the fall of 1985, ABC aired "The Insiders" in that timeslot. And of course, for a couple of years before that ABC's hit Wednesday night line-up (1983-1985) was: "The Fall Guy" at 8, "Dynasty" at 9 and "Hotel" at 10. "MacGyver" also aired INSTEAD of "Dynasty" on Wednesdays at 9pm during the summer of 1986, when they axed Dynasty reruns.
Yes, I wanted to say thursdays, sorry. As for "Our World", I think I've read somewhere that it had the littlest audience for a primetime program in 1986-1987. Nothing to compare with "Dynasty" which had "MacGyver" as lead-in!
@Dynastiefr2 Yes, "Our World" did very badly in the ratings, so "The Colbys" actually grew a little out of its lead-in (always a plus). And, they did better than anything else ABC put in that difficult timeslot (for a long time). By the way, "Our World" was "The Colbys'" lead-in only in the 2nd season, by which time "Dynasty's" lead-in on Wednesdays were sitcoms "Perfect Strangers" & "Head of the Class." In 1985/86 ABC aired "Shadow Chasers" & "Ripley's Believe it Or Not" before "Colbys."
4bis) The executives of ABC eventually thought of putting Hotel instead of The Colbys on tuesdays and putting The Colbys after Dynasty but with Dynasty loosing itself a lot of viewers (mainly because of the competition with Magnum which damaged both shows) , it was decided to cancel The Colbys for good and putting Dynasty at 10 PM instead of 9 PM...
4) The show was renewed at the end of its 1st season because the ratings increased by the end of it (the wedding episode was even in the top 20)! For years, that season remained the strongest season ever did by ABC on tuesdays (I think only the 1st season of "Twin Peaks" did better). But in season 2, the competition with Knots Landing proved to be mortal, even KL was back in his original timeslot after 2 months.
@Dynastiefr2 Yes, exactly. But you meant Thursdays, right? Plus, the show competed with "Cheers" and it was sandwiched between two newsmagazines on ABC ("Our World" at 8pm and "20/20") at 10pm. And that's a poor lead-in for a soap opera. By the way, I read the show was originally supposed to compete with Dallas on Friday nights. That was their plan in the early days of development, in the winter and spring of 1985, before they announced the schedule for 1985/86 in May of 1985.
3) Barbara Stanwyck was dreadful with everyone on the set, including the main writers (Paul Huson and William Bast) and no one missed her when she left.
But it's clear that she wasn't given the material she deserved. The attempts of Sable to let the family believe that Connie was insane was not appropriate for such a strong woman, any old actress could have played that role. Fortunately, she was later given funny lines and her scenes with Stephanie Beacham and Ricardo Montalban were memorable.
1) The sets of Dynasty and The Colbys were not in the same studio at all so it was impossible for Stanwyck to work near Evans! Dynasty was in Warner Hollywood (now called "the Lot") along with The Love Boat whereas The Colbys was at Paramount.
2) I agree that Tracy Scoggins would have been a better Fallon. That said, no recast would have been better. Jeff could have found a new wife and Emma Samms in that new role would have gained better reviews.
@ijohnnyturtle I would imagine she was sick of the show by this point in March 1986. Contrary to what TV critics expected, the show had just been renewed for a 2nd season and she was looking for ways to get out. Originally it was reported she would appear in 7 episodes. By late June, the news came out she would not be coming back and insisted her character Connie be killed off to eliminate pressure to ever return. Stanwyck was not very happy with the way her character was written.
@LBColby: Thanks for the information. I was unhappy with the way it was written too. What a waste of undeniable talent. She added gravitas and dignitas to the show on an order that is rarely seen on TV. I think it's about time that even more veterans and deep actors get on TV. And, of course, it pays to have beautifully written scripts.
@LBColby Have you that quote from Barbara who said, "The Colbys was the biggest pile of bullshit I've ever done!" And then there were the rumors that she "hated" working with Heston. Someone said that the only reason Barbara took the role was to be near Linda Evans who was shooting Dynasty in a set nearby. She and Evans were close friends. I saw Maxwell Caulfield in Soap Talk a couple of years back and he said they were about to hit their stride when they got canceled.
@Oreon207 I also read that Heston was beginning to like the show creatively in the second season. He referred to early episodes as being "too baroque." I don't mind their baroque quality, but they made some critical errors in terms of plot and character development. Also, the timeslot in which it aired was bad and finally, perhaps most importantly - the show was launched at the time when "Dynasty" itself (as well as the whole prime time soap opera genre) began to lose interest of mass audiences.
@LBColby And a big part of the problem was that fans howled bloody oaths when Emma Samms was cast as Fallon. She was totally wrong for Fallon and though Samms said in an interview that the producers wanted a different Fallon than the highly spirited portrayal of Fallon by Pamela Sue Martin, her Fallon just wasn't as entertaining. They did waste time with Fallon thinking that Adam had raped her and all that bs. Samms was pretty, but Pamela Sue was hotter.
@LBColby I don't know if it was just me, but Emma Samms looked kind of like Sable, while Tracy Scoggins could have played Fallon. She had that fiery thing going there. And in Dynasty season 9 proves to me, at least, that Scoggins would have been great as Fallon. And let's face it she had some of Alexis colorings, like the green eyes and similar features, though not as close as PSM. I thought it was weird that Sable and Alexis ended up with daughters that looked like they were switched at birth.
@LBColby In an interview Stephanie Beacham said The Colbys being canceled was like save the mother (Dynasty) or save the child (The Colbys). Dynasty was beginning to loose steam as the writers' efforts were aimed at The Colbys. Thursday night was also the wrong night to air it, they should have air it on Saturdays since Dynasty ran on Wednesday. Maybe it was too much dose of glamour in subsequent nights.
Another thing that went wrong with The Colbys was that Sable and Jason had a beautiful marriage and it was destroyed. It would have seem interesting to see Jason married to a bitch and loving it. When they were first introduced Jason was all over Sable basically in ever scene. Then 6 episodes into the series he's never loved her, despite being married for 28 years, and was drooling for goody two shoes bland and boring Frankie. They were beginning too look too much like Dynasty
@Oreon207 Actually, if I was the ABC programmer in charge, I would have left it on Wednesdays at 10pm (after Dynasty) and moved Hotel (another Spelling show which did air in that timeslot) to 8pm (although I guess 'Hotel' was not family friendly enough for the 8pm hour). "Colbys" always did best in the ratings when they aired immediately after 'Dynasty' (like "Private Practice" today airs out of "Grey's Anatomy"). I'm afraid Saturdays would have killed it just like they killed "Hotel".
@LBColby True. You know, now that I think of it that Wednesday night time would have been great for The Colbys. Dynasty was still doing well, though superficially had it's problems, so The Colbys would have been a great follow up since some of the Dynasty characters often showed up on The Colbys.
Pity that the powers that be did not support the show as should have been! Sigh! I would love have seen more seasons then the two they made! At least we got those to review again and again!
Oh so "MacGyver" was the lead-in of "Dynasty" in 1985-1986 but no more in 1986-1987, that's right?
Dynastiefr2 1 year ago
@Dynastiefr2 Actually, MacGyver was the lead-in to Dynasty just for a short time in the latter part of season 6 (i.e. spring of 1986). When the season began in the fall of 1985, ABC aired "The Insiders" in that timeslot. And of course, for a couple of years before that ABC's hit Wednesday night line-up (1983-1985) was: "The Fall Guy" at 8, "Dynasty" at 9 and "Hotel" at 10. "MacGyver" also aired INSTEAD of "Dynasty" on Wednesdays at 9pm during the summer of 1986, when they axed Dynasty reruns.
LBColby 1 year ago
Yes, I wanted to say thursdays, sorry. As for "Our World", I think I've read somewhere that it had the littlest audience for a primetime program in 1986-1987. Nothing to compare with "Dynasty" which had "MacGyver" as lead-in!
Dynastiefr2 1 year ago
@Dynastiefr2 Yes, "Our World" did very badly in the ratings, so "The Colbys" actually grew a little out of its lead-in (always a plus). And, they did better than anything else ABC put in that difficult timeslot (for a long time). By the way, "Our World" was "The Colbys'" lead-in only in the 2nd season, by which time "Dynasty's" lead-in on Wednesdays were sitcoms "Perfect Strangers" & "Head of the Class." In 1985/86 ABC aired "Shadow Chasers" & "Ripley's Believe it Or Not" before "Colbys."
LBColby 1 year ago
4bis) The executives of ABC eventually thought of putting Hotel instead of The Colbys on tuesdays and putting The Colbys after Dynasty but with Dynasty loosing itself a lot of viewers (mainly because of the competition with Magnum which damaged both shows) , it was decided to cancel The Colbys for good and putting Dynasty at 10 PM instead of 9 PM...
Dynastiefr2 1 year ago
4) The show was renewed at the end of its 1st season because the ratings increased by the end of it (the wedding episode was even in the top 20)! For years, that season remained the strongest season ever did by ABC on tuesdays (I think only the 1st season of "Twin Peaks" did better). But in season 2, the competition with Knots Landing proved to be mortal, even KL was back in his original timeslot after 2 months.
Dynastiefr2 1 year ago
@Dynastiefr2 Yes, exactly. But you meant Thursdays, right? Plus, the show competed with "Cheers" and it was sandwiched between two newsmagazines on ABC ("Our World" at 8pm and "20/20") at 10pm. And that's a poor lead-in for a soap opera. By the way, I read the show was originally supposed to compete with Dallas on Friday nights. That was their plan in the early days of development, in the winter and spring of 1985, before they announced the schedule for 1985/86 in May of 1985.
LBColby 1 year ago
3) Barbara Stanwyck was dreadful with everyone on the set, including the main writers (Paul Huson and William Bast) and no one missed her when she left.
But it's clear that she wasn't given the material she deserved. The attempts of Sable to let the family believe that Connie was insane was not appropriate for such a strong woman, any old actress could have played that role. Fortunately, she was later given funny lines and her scenes with Stephanie Beacham and Ricardo Montalban were memorable.
Dynastiefr2 1 year ago
1) The sets of Dynasty and The Colbys were not in the same studio at all so it was impossible for Stanwyck to work near Evans! Dynasty was in Warner Hollywood (now called "the Lot") along with The Love Boat whereas The Colbys was at Paramount.
2) I agree that Tracy Scoggins would have been a better Fallon. That said, no recast would have been better. Jeff could have found a new wife and Emma Samms in that new role would have gained better reviews.
Dynastiefr2 1 year ago
Where was Barbara Stanwyck?
ijohnnyturtle 1 year ago
@ijohnnyturtle I would imagine she was sick of the show by this point in March 1986. Contrary to what TV critics expected, the show had just been renewed for a 2nd season and she was looking for ways to get out. Originally it was reported she would appear in 7 episodes. By late June, the news came out she would not be coming back and insisted her character Connie be killed off to eliminate pressure to ever return. Stanwyck was not very happy with the way her character was written.
LBColby 1 year ago
@LBColby: Thanks for the information. I was unhappy with the way it was written too. What a waste of undeniable talent. She added gravitas and dignitas to the show on an order that is rarely seen on TV. I think it's about time that even more veterans and deep actors get on TV. And, of course, it pays to have beautifully written scripts.
ijohnnyturtle 1 year ago
@LBColby Have you that quote from Barbara who said, "The Colbys was the biggest pile of bullshit I've ever done!" And then there were the rumors that she "hated" working with Heston. Someone said that the only reason Barbara took the role was to be near Linda Evans who was shooting Dynasty in a set nearby. She and Evans were close friends. I saw Maxwell Caulfield in Soap Talk a couple of years back and he said they were about to hit their stride when they got canceled.
Oreon207 1 year ago
@Oreon207 I also read that Heston was beginning to like the show creatively in the second season. He referred to early episodes as being "too baroque." I don't mind their baroque quality, but they made some critical errors in terms of plot and character development. Also, the timeslot in which it aired was bad and finally, perhaps most importantly - the show was launched at the time when "Dynasty" itself (as well as the whole prime time soap opera genre) began to lose interest of mass audiences.
LBColby 1 year ago
@LBColby And a big part of the problem was that fans howled bloody oaths when Emma Samms was cast as Fallon. She was totally wrong for Fallon and though Samms said in an interview that the producers wanted a different Fallon than the highly spirited portrayal of Fallon by Pamela Sue Martin, her Fallon just wasn't as entertaining. They did waste time with Fallon thinking that Adam had raped her and all that bs. Samms was pretty, but Pamela Sue was hotter.
Oreon207 1 year ago
@LBColby I don't know if it was just me, but Emma Samms looked kind of like Sable, while Tracy Scoggins could have played Fallon. She had that fiery thing going there. And in Dynasty season 9 proves to me, at least, that Scoggins would have been great as Fallon. And let's face it she had some of Alexis colorings, like the green eyes and similar features, though not as close as PSM. I thought it was weird that Sable and Alexis ended up with daughters that looked like they were switched at birth.
Oreon207 1 year ago
@LBColby In an interview Stephanie Beacham said The Colbys being canceled was like save the mother (Dynasty) or save the child (The Colbys). Dynasty was beginning to loose steam as the writers' efforts were aimed at The Colbys. Thursday night was also the wrong night to air it, they should have air it on Saturdays since Dynasty ran on Wednesday. Maybe it was too much dose of glamour in subsequent nights.
Oreon207 1 year ago
Another thing that went wrong with The Colbys was that Sable and Jason had a beautiful marriage and it was destroyed. It would have seem interesting to see Jason married to a bitch and loving it. When they were first introduced Jason was all over Sable basically in ever scene. Then 6 episodes into the series he's never loved her, despite being married for 28 years, and was drooling for goody two shoes bland and boring Frankie. They were beginning too look too much like Dynasty
Oreon207 1 year ago
@Oreon207 Actually, if I was the ABC programmer in charge, I would have left it on Wednesdays at 10pm (after Dynasty) and moved Hotel (another Spelling show which did air in that timeslot) to 8pm (although I guess 'Hotel' was not family friendly enough for the 8pm hour). "Colbys" always did best in the ratings when they aired immediately after 'Dynasty' (like "Private Practice" today airs out of "Grey's Anatomy"). I'm afraid Saturdays would have killed it just like they killed "Hotel".
LBColby 1 year ago
@LBColby True. You know, now that I think of it that Wednesday night time would have been great for The Colbys. Dynasty was still doing well, though superficially had it's problems, so The Colbys would have been a great follow up since some of the Dynasty characters often showed up on The Colbys.
Oreon207 1 year ago
Thank you so much for uploading this; i love stephanie..she seems so shy in this clip, she is beautiful like ever..gorgeous
I can't wait to see more interviews with her.. so please post more of this wonderful lady
IrisMcKay 1 year ago
@IrisMcKay I'll indeed post more clips with Stephanie in the weeks to come.
LBColby 1 year ago
Pity that the powers that be did not support the show as should have been! Sigh! I would love have seen more seasons then the two they made! At least we got those to review again and again!
MirkodiWallenberg 1 year ago