What do people think of Franchesca Colby and Katherine Ross' portrail of her?

[alexis]

I see her as a bad person, a selfish bitch but not even a good out and out selfish bitch like Alexis. More weak and sneaky. No matter what her feelings for Jason may have been Sable is her sister. That is the ultimate betrail and suggests total greed and deviousness. Then to have the gaul to insist that Jason keep the Colby mansion in his family. Meaning get rid of Sable is so disgustingly horride.

She manipuled Jason and others by pretending to be this sweet victim whos been dealt a bad hand by life, widowed young and then having her child taken away from her. While all the while knowing that Jason was Jeffs father. All those years. She in my eyes gave up Jeff too easily perhaps due to her guilt. How could she look at the child fatherd by her sisters husband? Knowing how totally in love and devoted Sable was to Jason. Its easy to say "yea well Alexis abandoned her children too" But in my eyes she didnt. Blake in season one and two is more vengeful and hard. Thats the Blake that actually banished her from her children. Sending her packing with a small allowance to live on each year. Hardly enough to launch a custoday battle against a multi millionaire ex husband who could prove her unfaithfulness and paint her as the ultimate bad mother in court.

For me Frankie is much, much worse than Alexis. Frankie is a snake slithering around in the grass unseen. Alexis is a dinosour stomping around bold as brass. What you see is what you get with Alexis. Frankie has more faces than a high school class photo!
After all Frankie cheated on her new husband with his brother, she screwed her sisters husband.
I do not like the character at all and even Katherine Ross' performance seems uneasy. She seems to not know how to play her role or is unsure of her motivation as a character. She is too ambiguous and undefined, the goody goody whos actually a devil woman but nobody brings it up.
I think that Monica should have had more destain for Frankie and Miles too.
But nobody brought up what a spiteful bitch she was. The closest to anyone even mentioning it except Sable was Bliss weirdly.

What are all you guys thoughts on Frankie?

[edwardr42000]

When I first watched The Colbys as a teensager I thought in very simple terms; Sable was the Bitch and Frankie the goodie. Now I've totally changed my opinion. Watching it this time round I sympathise more for Sable and understand her motives; apart from the horse saddle incident in S1 which was just downright irresponsible. Now I think Frankie is quite weak; she abandoned Jeff and had relations with two brothers.

[DynastyTreeNat89]

With Alexis and Sable you knew where you stood they were consistent, I would compare the Alexis & Frankie situations regarding their children, as more or Less similar Frankie could revealed that Jason was Jeffs father earlier on so she could keep him, Alexis had no choice for her first 3 children as Adam was kidnapped, and Fallon & Steven remained with Blake on his insistence, with Amanda however she was born after her divorce from Blake, Alexis didn't have to give her to Rosalind, she could've raised Amanda in a similar fashion to how Blake raised Fallon & Steven

Frankie was a snake in the grass, a weak willed watered down bitch who wanted Sable's life in every aspect but went about in the sneaky, conniving way if she had gone ahead just being an out and out bitch then I wouldve respected her more

[alexis]

Thanks to you both for your posts. It seems you both feel pretty much as I do. Though I think that on the The Colbys TPTB tried to show Frankie in a sympathetic way. I am not sure if that was due to Katherine Ross' acting or the direction that was given. It all seems very weak and watered down. There are scenes where Sable plots somthing and we see her motivation, we know why she does everything. She has little scenes where she actually speaks to herself so we know her thoughts. A classic soap opera device. But very effective. Though with Frankie we never get to know what shes planning or thinking really and as I have said she manipulates everyone into feeling sory for her, most of all Jason. Playing everything as nice.

In my eyes she was insanely jealous of her sisters life and decided to go after getting it for herself. Total greed and selfishness.
Theres a scene somewhere in the first season where Sable, afraid of what may be going on between Jason and Frankie basically begs Frankie to leave without saying it exactly. Its a great scene and it shows the vulnerable afraid side of Sable struggeling to keep her family together. Frankie I think leaves for a short time then returns. After seeing her sister degrade herself by basically asking her not to destroy her marriage. Frankie really is a monster of a person. Theres not even any twee bitchiness. Its more strategic, cold, calculated chess moves.

[edwardr42000]

In addition I've changed my opinion of Connie. I now see her as a manipulating matriarch. There is a scene in S1 where she shouts at Jeff that Miles has lost everything when SHE is the one who instigated it all!

[alexis]

I have been thinking about Connie too and she is a complicated character. She seems to have a problem with Sable unrelated to what she did to miles. And ploting with Frankie to get her to come back was just evil. Maybe Connie was actually Barmy like Sable was tryin to make out. .

[Benny JR]

I quite like Katharine Ross, but Francesca was a bit of a step-down for her, but I always thought Katharine and Stephanie were a beautiful pair of TV Sisters!

[KL UK]

I haven't seen Katherine Ross in anything else, but I have to say her portrayal of Frankie was poor. she was my least favorite character and could have done so much more. I agree with pretty much everything that has been said above. When i watched the show i knew she was supposed to be the character that you sympathize with and Sable the bitch, but your right Frankie came across as the bitch and I understood sable motives, however drastic or melodramatic. Katherine Ross' acting itself wasn't on par with the rest of the cast, but having not seen her in anything else I don't know whether that was her acting or just the way she decided to play Frankie, but overall a weak character.

Connie however, as you've stated was a complex character and maybe a little bit barmy, but she was great and her scenes with Sable were so much fun

[bybr]

I haven't seen Katherine Ross in anything else, but I have to say her portrayal of Frankie was poor. she was my least favorite character and could have done so much more. I agree with pretty much everything that has been said above. When i watched the show i knew she was supposed to be the character that you sympathize with and Sable the bitch, but your right Frankie came across as the bitch and I understood sable motives, however drastic or melodramatic. Katherine Ross' acting itself wasn't on par with the rest of the cast, but having not seen her in anything else I don't know whether that was her acting or just the way she decided to play Frankie, but overall a weak character.

Connie however, as you've stated was a complex character and maybe a little bit barmy, but she was great and her scenes with Sable were so much fun

Hello Present, Goodbye Past.

Ross was terrible. Period.
I have seen her on the first adaptation of The Stepford Wives from 197-something. She played the lead. She was not bad. But when they stepforded her character in the end of the movie (Oh, no! What a spoiler! As if, you care. hehe) Ross took the role way to seriously. The result you have on the Colbys.




Though, I think that Ross' most famous role was on that movie with Dustin Hoffman, the Graduate.

[KL UK]

Thanks for your post. I need to catch The Graduate at some point, but i'll be fully expecting some terrible acting skills from Ross. And your completely right, she took her role as 'Frankie' way to seriously, unlike Stephanie who knew exactly how and when to play Sable seriously or comically.

[Jason!]

The name is KATHARINE.

Ross was perfect as the sex kitten in 70s flicks. She was wonderful in the 1979 thriller The Legacy. It's very similar to Frankie and her homecoming (but going off into a horror film sort of way). But the producers failed to give Frankie a definitive role. They tried to reproduce the triangle from the parent show and failed miserably. Sable was definitely to be the bitch but where everyone loved to hate Alexis, Sable won everyone's sympathy ... and in doing so make Frankie the unintended bitch of the series. As much as I love The Colbys, the show did some major damage to the characters ... Miles was Prince Charming in Dynasty, but became the stalking rapist on The Colbys; Jeff was the good boy then he copped an attitude; Fallon went from spitfire to wimp. And they could never decide what to do with Ross (or her hair). Unlike the failure with Ali Mac Graw, Ross was a decent actress.

[alexis]

The name is KATHARINE.

Ooops! My bad.

[Jason!]

No big deal.

[grant jennings]

The producers were trying to recreate the dynamic that existed within the triangle of Blake, Krystle and Alexis. The problem is that Sable isn't Jason's ex-wife, she's his wife. This makes "good girl" Frankie an adultress - on multiple counts! She slept with her husband's brother who was also her sister's husband thus betraying the people closest to her. She abandoned her son and went onverseas to live the high life. She eventually returns to destroy Jason and Sable's marriage.

Frankie wasn't the only interloper: Jeff had little contact with his California relatives but this "good guy" (who had already inherited a large chunk of Colbyco) didn't seem too uncomfortable shaking up the lives of his cousins. Though Miles may have been assumed to be the likely succesor to Jason at Coby Enterprises, I always felt Monica was best suited to eventually become CEO.

And who set all of this in motion? Connie. A protective matriarch? I think not. I think Connie was a manipulative old shrew. Connie had been married and probably had her own home but now she was back at Jason's home acting as "lady of the manor" (is it any wonder Sable resented her?) and meddling in the lives of everyone who lived there.

[lbf522]

Frankie was not a sympathetic character for the reasons stated in this thread but the writers and producers wanted us to root for her and Jason which was impossible.

[witchboy]

I always rooted for Sable and found Frankie to be more morally shady. I also didn't care much for disloyal Jason or meddling Connie. I liked Jeff on Dynasty but he really didn't fit into Colbys, there he was the interloper in a family he barely knew.
It was pretty poor planning on tptb to expect people to root for Frankie with the way everyone was written.

[lbf522]

I also rooted for Sable who was the only one of the three who was a sympathetic person.