Had Barbara enough or could Connie have been a powerhouse with Hutch?

[Jock Og]

Barbara Stanwyck died circa five years after THE COLBYS commenced and a while after her departure said that the show was trash, when she threw the script at the producer's feet. Did you miss Connie in the second season? Could she have been a powerhouse if written better, with cowboy boyfriend Hutch Corrigan? Sable might have developed feelings for Joseph Campanella's character and then Connie would've declared WW3. SURELY NOT!

A cowboy rides into the zone of THE COLBYS.

THE COLBYS of California. Who has the most power in the gas pipe line deal?


The sister in laws exchange barbs for the umpteenth time about the family fortune; (a scene from season 1, 1985-'86):

Sable: "And what am I supposed to say? Dear Constance; I wish I had half your integrity, half your wisdom, half your sense of honor."

Connie: "But you do; Sable, you do. Almost exactly half!"

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Stanwyck liked Campenella a lot and wanted him for the part.

Not to get sidetracked right away, but over the last couple of days I've been watching those DVD promos and interviews from 2015, and it still pains me to see how much more polished -- and better-looking -- THE COLBYS was in comparison to its drab, stilted parent series.

It kills me.

I have this alternative reality where The Colbys are brought on for the first half of Season 6 of DYNASTY before being spun off, with Huson & Bass in tow, utilizing the early THE COLBYS' plots to establish it. (Surely, Krystle-in-the-attic could be cut back a bit).

Hutch & Connie seemed a good couple. You don't catch much geriatric passion on TV.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

And I would never have named her "Constance" -- that's too PEYTON PLACE.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

Did you miss Connie in the second season?

Yes! Her scenes with Sable were the high point of season one, which was a bit of a mess that took time to find its footing.

Could she have been a powerhouse if written better, with cowboy boyfriend Hutch Corrigan?

One of the reasons that she wasn’t better written for was allegedly because she was already struggling to memorise the lines that she had. If you rewatch season one, Connie is prominent enough in the early episodes but is then noticeably sidelined as the season progresses (reduced to one scene per episode or I think, not appearing in some episodes at all). So, as much as we’d have liked to have seen more of her, it doesn’t seem to have been doable.

On a side note, Stanwyck apparently fought to have Campanella cast, as producers wanted an actor the same age as her whereas Stanwyck wanted a younger lover (Campanella was 17 years her junior).