Barbara Fan
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from Follies of God
She doesnt miss and hit the wall either!!
She doesnt miss and hit the wall either!!
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Barbara Stanwyck's Thoughts on The Colbys
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TaranofPrydain
Telly Talk Fan
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.
Spooky Owl!
Telly Talk Supreme
Her scenes with Sable really crackled. But the producers were unhappy with Missy's public complaints about the "junk" writing.
Carrie Fairchild
Telly Talk Star
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.
Luke_Krebbs_Ewing
Telly Talk Champion
I've heard elsewhere that she suffered from a bad back and this was also a factor in her leaving.
Tony
Telly Talk Fan
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.
Luke_Krebbs_Ewing
Telly Talk Champion
Carrie Fairchild
Telly Talk Star
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:
The Colbys
Interestingly, one of the stipulations of her contract was that she apparently didn’t have to do any press for the show.
Spooky Owl!
Telly Talk Supreme
Ricardo talks about Stanwyck...
The fact that they only had one scene together during that whole first year is pretty startling. Why wouldn't the writers exploit that potential, even just a little bit? (But Linda didn't really have any with her either on DYNASTY).
I always want Zach Powers' character combined with the Moldavian king, who spins off to THE COLBYS once Alexis divorces him shortly after they're de-posed and Coup'd midway through Season 6 and sent packing back to Denver. I like the idea of Costance (the name is way too PEYTON PLACE-y for my taste, by the way) having played a role in funding the massacre in Europe, possibly due to unrequited love-ish-ness for Zach/Galen (who had briefly made Alexis his queen, and slept with her mother, Minx Morell, years before -- both of whom Stanwyck naturally hates). But then that threatens to get too THORNBIRDS-y...
Speaking of doing "crap," Frank Langella -- who did a ZORO made-for-TV movie circa 1974 with Montalban -- ran into his old co-star sometime in the '80s; Frank asked what he was up to, and Montalban responded, "Just crap."
The fact that they only had one scene together during that whole first year is pretty startling. Why wouldn't the writers exploit that potential, even just a little bit? (But Linda didn't really have any with her either on DYNASTY).
I always want Zach Powers' character combined with the Moldavian king, who spins off to THE COLBYS once Alexis divorces him shortly after they're de-posed and Coup'd midway through Season 6 and sent packing back to Denver. I like the idea of Costance (the name is way too PEYTON PLACE-y for my taste, by the way) having played a role in funding the massacre in Europe, possibly due to unrequited love-ish-ness for Zach/Galen (who had briefly made Alexis his queen, and slept with her mother, Minx Morell, years before -- both of whom Stanwyck naturally hates). But then that threatens to get too THORNBIRDS-y...
Speaking of doing "crap," Frank Langella -- who did a ZORO made-for-TV movie circa 1974 with Montalban -- ran into his old co-star sometime in the '80s; Frank asked what he was up to, and Montalban responded, "Just crap."
Matthew Blaisdel
Telly Talk Star
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.
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.
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Carrie Fairchild
Telly Talk Star
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.
Piggyrella Sanderson
Maximum Member
Caress did deserve her own spinoff!!
Alexis
Telly Talk Superhero
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.
Luke_Krebbs_Ewing
Telly Talk Champion
Kate actually missed being back in the UK and found Dynasty a grind. I remember reading this in one of my Doctor Who Magazine's years ago. Apparently she sent John Nathan-Turner (the then Doctor Who Producer) a postcard about how she missed working on the show and would love to come back. Kate starred as the Rani alongside Colin Baker's Doctor in the 1985 story The Mark of the Rani. She did return to Doctor Who in the 1987 series opener Time and the Rani.
Spooky Owl!
Telly Talk Supreme
I want her in Season 10.
RandallAdams
Telly Talk Active Member
Compared to what passes for dialogue today, The Colbys was Shakespeare.
Sarah Danner
Telly Talk Active Member
And that theme music.........ELECTRIC! A grand composition.
Matthew Blaisdel
Telly Talk Star
Absolutely, bombastic and epic and my alltime favorite theme, a masterpiece!
Artur
Telly Talk Active Member
Constance is the missed opportunity of normalizing age gap relationships. They should have used Barbara Stanwyck’s infamous quote from „The Thorn Birds’:
„Inside that stupid body I am still young. I still feel, I still want, I still dream”… and let Connie do what many wealthy senior ladies do nowadays- hooking up with young jocks. They could have been the gym buddies of Miles or Bliss’ hunky boyfriends.
„Inside that stupid body I am still young. I still feel, I still want, I still dream”… and let Connie do what many wealthy senior ladies do nowadays- hooking up with young jocks. They could have been the gym buddies of Miles or Bliss’ hunky boyfriends.
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