Was The Death of Barbara Colby "Phyllis'" Jump The Shark Moment?

[Brian Damage]

I know she only appeared in 3 episodes before her brutal murder, but did her death signify the beginning of the end of the spinoff 'Phyllis?' Was it ever really the same after?

[scotsguy]

The character of Julie was certainly a lot more bad tempered than Barbara Colby's version.

The first appearance and the eventual joining of the cast of Judith Lowry,as Mother Dexter really gave the show,someone to put Phyllis in her place,the show wasn't the same after Ms Lowry's death and didn't last long after.

[gttiene]

I think the show would have lasted a lot longer if Barbara Colby wasn't killed. She was good in that character with Phyllis. The format wouldn't have changed in S2 either, most likely. I still believe that since Phyllis was a top 10 show in S1, they should have kept in on the air for a third season to see if it could regain an audience. CBS probably gave up on it because of the deaths of the real life actors and unnecesary format change in S2

[McGillicuddy]

Why would you call the death of an actress a "Jump-the-Shark" moment? That doesn't make any sense!

I do agree the loss of Barbara Colby really hurt the show.

[bliss]

Don't know never seen it but would buy the season sets if it was ever released on DVD.

There was a male actor that was murdered with Barbara Colby on that fatal night. I believe he appeared on "Phyllis" too. Too bad the murder was never solved and to this day remains a cold case decades later.

[Vahan]

Not to turn this into a race issue, but it should be noted that the only thing known about the two people who killed her is that they were two black men.

http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/c...rbaraColby.htm

Also, it may have been linked to the murder of a woman named Gloria Witte, as she, too, was killed on the same day.

[Leslie Eckhardt]

Originally Posted by Brian Damage

I know she only appeared in 3 episodes before her brutal murder, but did her death signify the beginning of the end of the spinoff 'Phyllis?' Was it ever really the same after?

The murder of Barbara Colby was certainly tragic and put a pall on the premiere of the show. It was to the producer's credit to run the first three episodes as filmed rather than re-film or insert Liz Torres into Barbara's scenes. I don't think the replacement was fatal to the series however. To me the basic problem with Phyllis was the fact that the writers were basically trying to make a likeable protagonist out of what was basically a funny, sometimes exasperating supporting character. Phyllis as a sympathetic widow trying to start over was just not as funny as Phyllis as Mary Richards' brittle landlady. The shift in format for the second season didn't work any better than the first season and probably put an indifferent audience off even more. Without Judith Lowery and Burt Mustin, the show probably wouldn't have lasted through the second season. They were the best things about Phyllis (aside from a terrific main title sequence and theme song.)

[scotsguy]

Barbara's death was both shocking and horribel and yes it did affect the show but they carried on and I thought season one was really good.

I think it may have been a better idea to have had Liz Torres play a brand new character,instead of taking on the role of Julie but one of Liz's first episodes was meant to be a flashback to Phyllis' first day at the studio,related in a letter to Mary Richards,so they were stuck,I guess.

I just felt there were too many new characters in season2,Harriet and Dan would have been enough without the terminally unfunny,Leonard.

The illness of Jane Rose in season2 made the writers bring back Bess and although I missed Mother Dexter and the show wasn't the same without her,did enjoy the last few episodes of Phyllis as Bess eloped,then was pregnant to Mark.

[TMC]

http://thiswastv.com/2012/11/05/1970...flops-phyllis/

What the producers relied on to give structure and depth to the show was Barbara Colby, an actress Weinberger and Daniels had been very impressed by in the fifth season premiere of Mary Tyler Moore. Colby, a distinctively unconventional-looking actress with an amazing throaty voice, had played a hooker Mary befriends in jail; the producers liked her so much that they brought her back in another episode. For Phyllis, she played a key role, probably the key role in the conception of the series: Phyllis’s boss, the only person in the world who is willing to give a job to someone so massively unqualified, and—incidentally—the woman Lars originally wanted to marry. Every Mary Tyler Moore rip-off had given the heroine a crusty Lou Grant type of boss; with Colby’s Julie Erskine, Weinberger and Daniels hit on a new approach to the obligatory lovable-boss character. She would talk sense to Phyllis, she’d provide a down-to-earth perspective on things, and we would have to like Phyllis because such a likable person thought she was worth helping.

And then Barbara Colby was murdered.

The murder of Barbara Colby has never been solved, and it’s such a tragic and senseless story that it makes an article like this seem even more trivial than it already is. But briefly, she and another actor were shot in a parking lot by two men they had never met; the police pronounced it a drive-by shooting and never found the men who did it. Colby was only 36.

Colby had already shot two episodes and the pilot. Leachman and the writers, stunned and demoralized, conferred about how to handle the show after her death. They decided that the part would have to be re-cast. Leachman also recorded a special message explaining what had happened, but in the first of what would be several publicized conflicts between the show and CBS, the network refused to air the message, leaving the re-casting completely unaddressed in the show. Weinberger or somebody leaked the text of the message to TV Guide; it would have gone like this:

CBS’s refusal to let the show remember Colby probably had the effect of souring their relations with the producers, though Weinberger chose his words carefully in telling TV Guide what he thought of the decision: “It’s a delicate, sensitive issue and the network does have its prerogative. We objected but we were all so disconsolate about Barbara that we had no stomach to fight for what we thought was just and proper.”

The replacement Julie was Liz Torres, a good actress but without the personality to match Leachman. The writers didn’t emphasize the character as much as they were probably intending, and their scenes together lacked the spark that Leachman and Colby displayed in the first three episodes. Now, even though the ratings were good (following the successful Rhoda) and the show was often very funny, there was a big hole in it: the cast was much weaker than it would have been had Colby lived. Henry Jones and Jane Rose as the eccentric old couple—both of whom, in different ways, treated Phyllis with contempt—were okay, nothing great. (Rose’s Audrey was a ditz character; so was Julie’s assistant played by Richard Schaal, and two ditzes is probably too many for one show.) Lisa Gerritsen was, as usual, very charming and real, but it wasn’t enough.