When the death knell rang out in Hollywood last month for the demise of The Colbys Of California, only sounds heard were sighs of relief - from everyone from producer Aaron Spelling to the stars and writers.

Aaron Spelling's audacious bid to cash in on the success of Dynasty turned into a $125 million disaster.

Two of the stars who are relieved about the axing of the show are Emma Samms and Stephanie Beacham.

So far, only Emma (Fallon) and John James (Jeff) have definitely been invited back into the Carrington family fold on Dynasty - and that in itself poses a tricky problem for the show's writers.

The final episode of The Colbys has Fallon kidnapped by aliens in a flying saucer, which leaves endless possibilities - most of them outlandish - for her re-emergence.

For the time being, Emma, 26, is just glad to be rid of the curse of The Colbys.

"The unreality of the show has creeped into my private life too," she says.

"I seem unable to form any sort of lasting relationship."

Four love affairs have foundered since Emma started on the show two years ago, and all she can hope for now is that The Colbys' demise will take the pressure off her current relationship with actor Jonathan Prince.

Stephanie Beacham's character Sable also may be written into the Dynasty plotlines.

However, that move - one which Stephanie would welcome - is up against the formidable barrier of Joan Collins, who plays Alexis.

Stephanie says: "There has been a lot of talk about Sable transferring to Dynasty. It would have been fun, because then we could have had a clash between two power-mad women.

"But Joan doesn't want to do it. I've heard she is not happy at the thought of me cropping up on her show.

"In fact, I'm led to believe she won't be seen on the screen with me. I don't know why. There's supposed to be a good deal of rivalry between Joan and me, but whenever I've met her, she's been terribly sweet."

Like Emma Samms, Stephanie can count her time on The Colbys as a professional success but a personal failure.

She fell out with co-star Maxwell Caulfield, mainly through complaints of "lack of respect" on The Colbys' set.

"I told him that if he didn't behave himself, I'd knock him into shape - in front of the cameras," Stephanie says.

But it was the British star's private life which took most of the knocks. Her long stints in Hollywood finished her relationship with actor Martyn Stanbridge, whose work kept him in London.

"I couldn't leave my job and he couldn't leave his, so I suppose you could say that The Colbys wrecked my romance," Stephanie says.

"But we are still friendly. In fact, we went to see a film together recently. We are both mature enough to laugh off the rubbish written about us."

At present, Stephanie is back in London, putting the final touches to her part as Therese, a flashing-eyed Frenchwoman in the new television series Napoleon And Josephine: A Love Story - and she's in a similar predicament with the new man in her life to the one she was in with Martyn.

"He's a Hollywood cameraman and I can't wait to get back to Los Angeles to be with him."

Stephanie says: "We haven't been together very long and I'm desperately trying to keep his identity a secret. The exposure poor Martyn had to suffer because of his relationship with me was horrendous."

Stephanie is still coming to terms with the axing of The Colbys - she was paid almost $40,000 an episode - and the fact that she will no longer play the scheming Sable.

"I thought there was plenty of steam left in Sable," she says. "She wouldn't have grown nicer - that's for sure, but there were plenty of directions she could go in."

She is quick to admit that there are aspects of The Colbys she will miss - such as not having Sable's incredible wardrobe to dip into off-screen. But she has no regrets at being freed from her role as the wicked matriarch.

"Sable had really got under my skin," says Stephanie. "She was a difficult lady to live with, and I had to draw on all my reserves to play someone as high-powered, ruthless and single-minded as her.

"I am told that when I heard the news that The Colbys had been scrapped, I lost 10 years from my face overnight."

One thing about The Colbys that Stephanie will never regret is the glitter and glamor that goes with being a celebrity.

"It has been marvellous being accepted in Hollywood as a star," she says.

"It puts you on an equal footing with people you once could only admire from afar.

"I think one of the highlights was when I had to present an acting award to Olivia de Havilland. I could hardly believe that I was standing on the same stage as she was, let alone handing an award to her.

"I am not an ambitious person in the sense that I'm desperately keen to make lots of money or achieve fame as a movie actress. What I want from life is to do things well, and being in California has made me a much more positive, confident sort of person.

"At the moment, I don't spend too much time in Britain because of the tax situation. However, my daughters Chloe and Phoebe are at school here and I have so many friends here that I would never want to sever my links with Britain."

So, while his stars sort out their priorities for the future after The Colbys was pulled out from underneath them, Aaron Spelling has been trying to learn a few lessons from the $125 million disaster.

Despite a last-ditch effort to save the series - he scrapped all unused scripts, hired new writers and ordered them to produce "zippier plots with more sex, intrigue and betrayal" - he had enough sense to realise finally that the spin-off from his successful Dynasty was a case of overkill.

The shooting was beset by constant bickering between the stars, and even seasoned professional Barbara Stanwyck threw in her $70,000-a-week contract because of clashes with other actors on the show.

As Aaron Spelling told his senior executives when he announced the show's axing: "Who knows, if we'd thought of the flying saucer earlier and put some of our so-called big stars into it, we might have been top of the ratings today."