Post by Ben on Oct 13, 2006 10:13:04 GMT
I think this show deserves a thread of its own because it's too often regarded as a mere footnote in the history of its big sister show Dynasty.
Now I started off on Dallas, but moved on the harder stuff (Dynasty) and finally came to love The Colbys most of all. If Dynasty's sole raison d'etre after a while was to knock Dallas off the number one spot in the ratings by being glossier, sharper and wilder, then The Colbys was in turn intended to be Bigger, Brasher and Bolder than its sister show, and for that reason works so much better as a time capsule of sheer empty-headed 1980's greed.
What makes The Colbys so great is its insanely operatic back story - Jeff Colby moves to California and learns that he is the lovechild of Moses - that years before billionaire patriarch Jason (Charlton "Get off me, you damned dirty ape!" Heston) had shagged his brother's wife, who also happened to his wife's sister!
Katharine Ross was a bit of a lightweight as Frankie - Jeff's mother and the true love of Jason's life, the Krystle of The Colbys if you like - but the breakout star of The Colbys was undeniably the glorious Stephanie Beacham, twisting and seething magnificently as Jason's scheming wife Sable, who was, when you think about it, the wronged third in a love triangle, with the "sympathetic" couple Jason and Frankie being adulterors. For this reason, the characters of The Colbys actually come across as more human and complex than their Dynasty equivalents. And there's something simultaneously risible and exhiliarating about this show's high octane ridiculousness.
Sable of course reappeared in the final season of Dynasty as a foil to Alexis and frankly Stephanie Beacham wiped the floor with Joan Collins. I always found Sable to be far classier, smoother, sexier, more contained, more credible yet just as effective as a "bitch".
And the alien abduction of Fallon in the last episode was utter genius.
Now I started off on Dallas, but moved on the harder stuff (Dynasty) and finally came to love The Colbys most of all. If Dynasty's sole raison d'etre after a while was to knock Dallas off the number one spot in the ratings by being glossier, sharper and wilder, then The Colbys was in turn intended to be Bigger, Brasher and Bolder than its sister show, and for that reason works so much better as a time capsule of sheer empty-headed 1980's greed.
What makes The Colbys so great is its insanely operatic back story - Jeff Colby moves to California and learns that he is the lovechild of Moses - that years before billionaire patriarch Jason (Charlton "Get off me, you damned dirty ape!" Heston) had shagged his brother's wife, who also happened to his wife's sister!
Katharine Ross was a bit of a lightweight as Frankie - Jeff's mother and the true love of Jason's life, the Krystle of The Colbys if you like - but the breakout star of The Colbys was undeniably the glorious Stephanie Beacham, twisting and seething magnificently as Jason's scheming wife Sable, who was, when you think about it, the wronged third in a love triangle, with the "sympathetic" couple Jason and Frankie being adulterors. For this reason, the characters of The Colbys actually come across as more human and complex than their Dynasty equivalents. And there's something simultaneously risible and exhiliarating about this show's high octane ridiculousness.
Sable of course reappeared in the final season of Dynasty as a foil to Alexis and frankly Stephanie Beacham wiped the floor with Joan Collins. I always found Sable to be far classier, smoother, sexier, more contained, more credible yet just as effective as a "bitch".
And the alien abduction of Fallon in the last episode was utter genius.