When you heard that there would be a spinoff of Dynasty what were you expecting and did it live up to your expectation?

[lbf522]

I expecting it would be like comparing the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts. The Colbys would be more old money and the Carringtons be new money types and seeing how they were similar and different. I liked it at the beginning until they tried that old triangle storyline and wanting us to root for Jason and Frankie. I liked Jason and Sable but understand that soaps are about drama but to want us to root for Frankie who was not a sympathetic character.

Anyway what were you expecting and did the series live up to it?

 

[Daniel Avery]

I saw the early stories about casting and the Los Angeles/Hollywood setting and assumed it would be more about "Hollywood glamour" rather than the generic sort of wealth and opulence we were getting on OG Dynasty. Everything was speculation of course, but the early "Dynasty II" billing made it sound like it would actively copy more of the original which....I was glad they did not go that route. I recall looking forward to its premiere since I had not watched OG Dynasty from the beginning, and this was a chance to see the spinoff from day one.

Alas, that all went out the window once CBS made the boneheaded decision to move Knots Landing into a timeslot to air directly against The Colbys. I had a VCR so I could record one (The Colbys) and watch the other (Knots Landing) as it aired, but I know I would have held TC in higher regard if CBS would have kept KL at 10pm and allowed viewers to watch both shows "live" in sequence (TC at 9pm on ABC, KL at 10pm on CBS). By the time CBS made that adjustment (moving KL to 10pm), I'd lost a lot of my initial enthusiasm for TC. It's hard for some modern viewers to understand, but our viewing habits back then were much more geared toward "appointment viewing," and time-shifted material like The Colbys on tape was seen as less urgent viewing.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I expecting it would be like comparing the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts.

I was already very cynical about DYNASTY by 1985 (Season 3 and beyond frustrated me out the wazoo) and I felt the creative frustrations were so rigid that the spinoff, THE COLBYS, couldn't me much better.

As it turned out, although THE COLBYS had less innate potential, it was slightly better, because Huson & Bast were the de facto show-runners. So, the issues that so suffocated DYNASTY (and I'm still bitching about 40 years later) via The Pollocks, the show-runners for the parent series, weren't really there. (Yes, the Pollocks technically worked on both shows, but Heston's refusal to allow S.A.D. to infect his own show may have saved it -- even if the dreadful timeslot doomed it anyway).

For those reasons, I didn't expect THE COLBYS to work. Dreams of the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts were highly unlikely, as DYNASTY'S campy, "Hollywood-rich" tone seemed inevitably the pattern that THE COLBYS would follow.... And that "dumbish" flavor so many Aaron Spelling shows have.

I even foolishly hoped that Spelling's HOTEL might have a slightly gothic tone, befitting the plush lobby set and the presence of Bette Davis in the 1983 pilot. And I was disabused of that fantasy in seconds.

I've said before that the Fallmont family from Season 6 & 7 was a nice opportunity to introduce a more genuinely blue-blooded, Old Money, high society brood into DYNASTY -- but, of course, that wasn't on anybody's agenda behind the camera.

As John Forsythe once said, "the producers didn't know what they wanted (for the series)". And it's true. They wanted it to be All Things to All Viewers, and thus seemed conflicted over every frame. So why would THE COLBYS be any better (although it was, slightly, and perhaps the neglect helped -- just as it helped Season 8 of DYNASTY somewhat)?

Too many cooks spoil the cuisine, especially when it's been sitting out under the lights for hours.

DYNASTY itself should have been a Rockefellers & Vanderbilts kind of show -- a show about Old Rich having to deal with the nouveau riche. But it was a bad sign when one of the most resonant-if-oblique references in all of DYNASTY ("that Greek tycoon and his wife, that wretchedly unhappy woman.." an obvious tip of the yachtsman's cap to Onassis & Jackie) was downgraded on THE COLBYS to merely Zach Powers and his lady.

Or, as Alexis might claim, "There were lots of Greek tycoons."

 

[Monzo]

Since people of color were en vogue on US TV at the time thanks to The Cosby Show, and Aaron Spelling always knew a trend, I expected Dominique to be the star of the spin-off. She and Brady would have reconciled and moved to New York, and the spin-off would have been a kind of "Empire" of the 80s in the music business. Another actress would have played Jackie, and Brady could have had children from previous marriages... But instead, The Colbys came along, still thanks to Titania Records, there was some music there, too.

 

[Ked]

Since people of color were en vogue on US TV at the time thanks to The Cosby Show, and Aaron Spelling always knew a trend, I expected Dominique to be the star of the spin-off. She and Brady would have reconciled and moved to New York, and the spin-off would have been a kind of "Empire" of the 80s in the music business. Another actress would have played Jackie, and Brady could have had children from previous marriages... But instead, The Colbys came along, still thanks to Titania Records, there was some music there, too.

Yes, Dominique would have made MUCH more sense to be the star of the new spinoff, not Jeff and Fallon. The latter two belonged on DYNASTY, with Jeff acting as a bridge between the two shows.

I still say Dominique's daughter should have been the romantic interest for Miles Colby. Imagine Dominique and Sable butting heads as meddling mother-in-laws, each convinced that their respective child's spouse isn't good enough for their precious baby.

 

[Willie Oleson]

I heard/read about The Colbys when it was already shown on American TV. And then I fainted.

 

[lbf522]

Since people of color were en vogue on US TV at the time thanks to The Cosby Show, and Aaron Spelling always knew a trend, I expected Dominique to be the star of the spin-off. She and Brady would have reconciled and moved to New York, and the spin-off would have been a kind of "Empire" of the 80s in the music business. Another actress would have played Jackie, and Brady could have had children from previous marriages... But instead, The Colbys came along, still thanks to Titania Records, there was some music there, too.

I would have loved that as well. Diahanne Carroll was wasted on Dynasty. Putting her on her own spinoff would have been great. I liked Dominique and hated that they could not give her a decent storyline.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Since people of color were en vogue on US TV at the time thanks to The Cosby Show, and Aaron Spelling always knew a trend, I expected Dominique to be the star of the spin-off. She and Brady would have reconciled and moved to New York, and the spin-off would have been a kind of "Empire" of the 80s in the music business. Another actress would have played Jackie, and Brady could have had children from previous marriages... But instead, The Colbys came along, still thanks to Titania Records, there was some music there, too.

I'd thought of this, too, after DYNASTY ended, ideally: Dominique and Brady (or twin brother, Grady, in case Brady is dead) go off into their own sequel/spin-off series -- but I placed it in New Orleans.

 

[Jock Og]

I liked THE COLBYS initially and thought the show was better at the time than DYNASTY. However the compilation and narrative took a nosedive, before too long. The brass should've written better for Barbara Stanwyck; as the show lost a lot of what it was about, without Connie in the battles. Imho TC to this day had an amazing series cliffhanger. In fact a highlight of eighties T.V.

The first ever scene of THE COLBYS.


Zach is to the point, with Jason (1986):

Zach Powers: "I don't know anything about these murders or why your boys have been charged. But I admit I'm enjoying this. Perhaps it's the fisherman in me. The great Jason Colby squirming like a worm on a hook."

Jason Colby: "Whatever happened, it wasn't in my time."

Zach Powers: "In your father's. And the father's sins are visited on his sons. Phillip is dead, so is Cecil. There is only you, Jason. Only you to pay for it."