Let's Discuss Falcon Crest

I love you for starting this, OP. Has season 4 been released on dvd or were you watching it on an oldies channel?

[quote] Apollonia?

Babylonia.

I was the REAL star of that show.

It was an awesome show until Jane Wyman got sick and took about a season off. They really, really screwed things up in her absence.

My favs were the omnipotent Angela Channing and the above board Maggie Gioberti. I preferred the first Vicky Gioberti. Her brother, played by Billy Moses, was so hot at the time.

Lets not

R1 No, it hasn't been released on DVD - I got it off a torrent site awhile back. Someone recorded reruns from SoapNet and uploaded them.

I always enjoyed how Angela refused to use the French pronunciation of R3's name and would only pronounce it as "Jackwellin."

Falcon Crest was able to save a TON of dough by canning Ana Alicia and replacing her with Kristian Alfonso

And Pilar was a giant step down from Melissa, R8. BIG mistake.

I hate chinks.

My 2 favorite memories of that show:

1. Mariska Hargitay's Carly calling Angela Channing "Angie". Instead of the expected putdown, Angela looked taken aback and then amused.

2. Lance's comment to Melissa's infant son in his crib "If I were you, I'd sleep with one eye open."

R9 what does Ana Alicia got that Kristian Alfonso doesn't have?

[R9] Talent?

The last season was unwatchable while Jane was off the show. They killed off Maggie and brought in these new characters who were uninteresting. When Jane returned, it was a happy day. Jane's scene with her son Richard Channing were the best!

Kristian Alfonso happens to be an Emmy nominated actress

[quote] They killed off Maggie

Susan Sullivan was actually fired due to budget cuts

She was replaced by Wendy Phillips

I liked Wendy better

Kristian Alfonso on Falcone Crest was HORRIBLE. Fuck her DAYTIME emmy nomination.

But you have to admit that Wendy Phillips was an okay replacement for Susan Sullivan

btw Michael Swan (Duncan ATWT) originated the role of Richard Channing

I loved RIchard Channing

Funny how cutting characters works ........killing off Chase rejuvenated the show ..... killing off Melissa and Maggie ruined I. And bringing back Ana Alicia as a lookalike ? UGH.

Anyone else ONLY tune in for Falcon Crest ? Could never be bothered to watch Dallas, but was pretty faithful to Falcon Crest. The season with Wendy Phillips and her crazy husband was not so great. At the end, they were throwing a million cast members onto the show and none of them were sticking ........... I remember Gregory Harrison towards the end and others.

[quote] killing off Melissa and Maggie ruined

Well that was due to budget cuts

Kristian Alfonso and Wendy Phillips were cheaper alternatives

Wikipedia on Falcon Crest .........

Full cast list from imdb.com .........

It looks like a big part of the problem became that they didn't stick with many of the characters for more than a season (besides the original core ones)

Carla Gugino was on the show in 1989 ............. she played Sydney ........what was Sydney's storyline ? Something with Lance or Cole ??

Apparently Sydney was the sister in law of Emma's fiancé Charley St James .....was married to Charley's brother Ian and then involved with Chris Agretti and Danny Sharpe (Channing) ....final season dreck, I guess.

Ana Alicia was excellent as Melissa. Great presence, a troublemaker, a worthy foe for Angela.

AA still looks great today.

No one twirled like Susan Sullivan.

Emma was such a unique character.

I remember this exchange between her and Angela:

"How's tricks, mother?"

"Emma, I will not tolerate that kind of talk!"

"How's tricks, mother?"

Her sister Julia was always enjoyable when she was crazy.

[quote] She was replaced by Wendy Phillips I liked Wendy better

She didn't swirl like Susan Sullivan, right R26?

I always hated Chase, Cole and Maggie - they were so self-righteous.

Angela and Richard were the best! Also enjoyed Melissa, Julia, Emma, Miss Lynch.

Greg Reardon was sexy.

Huge Susan Sullivan fan here. Loved her in this, Rich Man, Poor Man II and that awful Dharma and Greg!

Her death on FC was so shocking, I stopped watching on a regular basis after that. Only Shelby and Wyman kept it going from then on.

R30 Susan Sullivan was FIRED due to budget cuts and replaced by Wendy Phillips.

R30 - I can still remember that - Richard had given her an enormous engagement ring. Maggie went swimming and somehow got her ring caught on something on the bottom of the pool and drowned.

My mom swore off the show at that point - saying it was too ridiculous.

I hated that they made Angela and Richard mother and son. They originally asked Angie Dickinson to join the show as a long-lost daughter Angela thought had died; Dickinson declined and they rewrote the entire show's structure to make Richard her son.

I absolutely loved the first three seasons - it had its own individual identity and was soil-rich in tangled relationships and complex interfamilial dynamics. Its Italian ancestry and the Gothic undertones to its plot and characters made it a particular favorite of mine. Then they tried to outdo DYNASTY with big hats and big hair and big shoulder pads and the stories became superficially soapy. It lost its way. By the time they retooled the show and tried to get as many big name guest stars as they could in short story arcs, I lost interest.

I do have to say the season Kim Novak starred as a mystery lady running from the mob was a lot of fun.

But there was nothing better than season two when the entire season centered around Carlo Agretti's murder. The season finale with Julia unveiled as his killer and the subsequent mystery funeral was and is one of prime-time's best all-time cliffhangers.

Season One was not quite right. Too much focus on the Gioberti family as fish out of water. It didn't really kick into high gear until Richard showed up in Season 2. Then it hit a peak which lasted for 3 or 4 years.

The three way struggle between Angela, Chase and Richard for control of Falcon Crest was great. Alliances were occasionally formed but did not last because none of them could trust the others.

Remember me?

Kim Novak worked. Lana Turner didn't. OK granted Novak was playing virtually the same role she's played many times over, but Turner felt forced and contrived.

We STILL haven't figured out why Lorenzo Lamas is so CHEESY!

Falcon Crest always promoted Lamas as "the hunk", but they had a bunch of others who I thought were hotter over all the seasons. Off the top of my head: Billy Moses, Gregory Harrison, David Beecroft, Brett Cullen, and Simon MacCorkindale (RIP).

Hell, David Selby was hotter than Lamas!

Lamas had an almost Hasslehoff-y douchiness about him. I never found him at all appealing. William R. Moses, on the other hand---dayum! That tight body and an ass you could eat lunch of off, plus sweet. And the late Simon Mc and those beef thighs. I always liked Lana as "Jackwellin Purralt", but her sudden metamorphosis into a Nazi collaborator just to kill her off to keep Wyman happy was forced. And a mistake.

The actress who played Emma Channing, Margaret Ladd, lives in my building. She's married to the playwright Lyle Kessler.

Love your Nicole Sauget reference, R40. Leslie Caron was so deliciously bitchy for a few eps in Season 7. The show jumped the shark around that time, but she was fun to watch.

So I am a little further into Season 4 and now Reena Dekker from Texas is there!

And Anne Archer and Jonathan Frakes. They are up to no good, and have some sort of vendetta against Angela.

The last two seasons were huge disappointments, killing off two beloved characters (Melissa and Maggie) was a huge mistake. Their replacements proved you get what you pay for. Gregory Harrison was fantastic but nobody was watching; his girlfriend Genelle was amazing, too.

I visited Spring Mountain Vineyard in St. Helena when the show was still in production; the guide said they had to put a back brace on Jane just to get her to stand up straight. The mansion looks much different now. The stained glass window near the front door actually features a parrot, not a falcon.

Parrot Crest just doesn't convey the right feeling does it?

I was cast as Geneva Gioberti, the third sassy, sexy daughter of Chase and Maggie. However, EIGHT wouldn't let me out of my contract. They ended up cutting the character. Also Jane Wyman and I didn't get along. Like most actresses, Jane was jealous of me and kicked me at a Boston concert in 1980. She was a cruel, petty woman.

Jane Wyman Kicked me at a Boston Concert in 1980.

J'adore TV's Sweetheart!

I am known as AND Susan Sullivan, cunts!

I loved Ana-Alicia as Melissa. Talented actress. But she wanted a different life, one of being a mom, and ended her acting career at some point during the mid- or late-1990s.

What about me? Didn't any of you love me? Hate me? NOTICE me?

God, I forgot you were even on Falcon Crest, R51!

I remember you as Savannah Wilder on Days of Our Lives - and you were very enjoyable.

So now I'm in season 5. Morgan Fairchild! Celeste Holm!

[R31]"Susan Sullivan was FIRED due to budget cuts and replaced by Wendy Phillips." Except according to a former Lorimer employee who posted at hillplace.blogspot.com, in the season where Susan Sullivan only appeared in one episode and then died, they had to pay her for the entire season. They were STUPID. They also had to pay Ana Alicia a double salary - she's on youtube talking about it. They got rid of her despite being contractually obligated to pay her for the season, and then decided to bring her back as Samantha, not Melissa, so had to pay her double. For the balance of her contract as Melissa, and then her role as Samantha. They got rid of highly paid actors of even though they still had to pay them. Then they hired cheapies on top of that. The story goes Michael Filerman, producer, was part of the first season and ever after got a credit and a cut, so Lorimer made him get off his ass after 6 seasons and work on the show. He hadn't watched it in all that time, didn't catch up, had no idea what he was doing and didn't care. I love them adding what he called a "nice Hispanic flavor" by firing a real Latina actress, Ana Alicia, and hiring an Italian American caucasian actress from Boston. Alfonso SUCKED on that show, and the way they forced her into the starring position instantly just tripled the impact of how bad she was.

Following on r54, they were trying to revamp the show (after the lurch toward Dynasty-like camp in seasons 5-7) and so they cut Ana-Alicia as part of the storyline move focus on the Ortega family (which was given insta-position after Kristian Alfonso's Pilar married Lance). They saved no money on that firing or Susan Sullivan; both were eliminated for storyline purposes, and disastrously so.

You could argue that the integral core of the show was Angela, Richard, Maggie, Melissa, and Emma (you might argue Lance, too, but I won't); getting rid of Melissa in Season 8 damaged it, but getting rid of Maggie in Season 9, while writing out Angela after two episodes and Emma after 10 absolutely massacred the show's identity. That's no slight against Wendy Phillips and Gregory Harrison, who were interesting performers (Harrison and Andrea Thompson, as kinky sexpot Genele Ericsson, were a lot of fun in their scenes together), but the show no longer resembled the Falcon Crest we'd loved.

I was actually a big fan of Jeff Freilich's Falcon Crest (Seasons 6 and 7). I loved the formula of bringing in guest stars like Leslie Caron and Lauren Hutton and Roscoe Lee Browne for four episode runs to do the (metaphorically) heavy lifting, which preserved the relationships among the core, maintaining some tension, but having it both ways with the core group being mostly the good guys in the end, and protecting each other in weird ways. I was a giant fangurl of Maggie/Richard but I also loved Angela and Richard's whole love/hate thing after they discovered they were mother/son, and the ways Angela came around and showed she cared in a sort of underhanded style. I also think Angela was at her wittiest and most powerful in those seasons.

However, the Lorimer employee says Frielich spent a fortune trying to do practically a movie a week in a 48 minute episodic television formula. But I bet he could have cut some of his favorite stuff and still had a good show, which was the characters relationships to each other and the characters' individuality. I enjoyed the action/adventure stuff, but mostly for the finales, so would have loved the show anyway if it were less spectacular in the weekly episodes. Other than money the Lorimer employee didn't say anything bad about the "Falcon Crest-ness" of Frielich's Falcon Crest. I liked it best because Chase was gone - couldn't stand him - Maggie and Richard were together, and Angela was the best version of Angela of the entire run. Those three were the core that made watching everybody else fun.

Robert Foxworth always had that "just smelled a fart" look on his face.

There's also Bill Conti's theme song, which remains one of the all-time greats. Between Falcon Crest, Dynasty, and Cagney and Lacey, he did pretty damned well in the 80s.

Who was the muscular guy who played the handyman or gardener and married the daughter.

He was sort of oafish and quite frankly a horrid actor.

I loved most of the characters, especially Laura Johnson's Terry.

After Michael died in the plane crash, Chase told Terry she'd be a wealthy woman. Yes, she did care about Michael, but the Terry I watched I figured would not be able to contain her glee over all the money. She tearfully excused herself from Chase and Maggie's (silly) castle and drove home. But the look on her face when she was alone was 'honey, I'm RICH!'

Classic.

Did they have any babies?

I think Robert Foxworth just wasn't good-looking enough to make Chase not insufferable. He often played Chase like a pissy little bitch, particularly in conflict scenes with Sullivan. "Contempt" and "distaste" shouldn't be default settings for a role like his. He was also too short. When I watch re-runs I've checked to see what facial features were masked by his beard, and they weren't too wonderful. Funny, I saw him on a Cagney and Lacey where he played a guy who made both women swoon and he was no better looking there. In Falcon Crest he does have a voice that sounds remarkably like Christopher Plummer's speaking voice in Sound of Music, but that's about it. Towards the end he got a new love interest and was more relaxed/semi-charming with her, but still in a scene with Susan Sullivan's Maggie (over who was more entitled to their feelings over HER rape), the scene ended with him actually FLICKING the door slammed shut behind her, like he couldn't even be bothered to close it. Who told him to play "pissy" about his wife's rape? Sure, the scenario was icky but a good actor could have played it as coming from caring.

What really pissed me off was the message the producers sent. "All the leading ladies are expendable. As long as we keep the leading men, we have a show." The two male leads - Selby and Lamas - were never remotely considered on the chopping block. The leading ladies were tossed over board. The Maggie/Richard story had been developing almost since S2, when they became friends. The friendship grew over the seasons and led to romance and marriage in Seasons 6 and 7. In Season 9, they fire Sullivan (still have to pay her!), give her a gruesome death, and marry Richard off to a nobody wannabe Maggie-lite for the show's finale, like it makes no difference which "good" woman with maternal instincts he marries, one is the same as the other. Same with Alfonso - here's some insta-history with everybody on the show! Marry her off to Lance! I don't think any show could get away today with ditching truly popular leading ladies on the theory only the leading men count. Falcon Crest's ratings wobbled in S8 when they fired Ana Alicia, but they completely tanked in S9, all the way down to the high eighties - after they fired Sullivan.

Sorry to talk back, but I don't think that Lorenzo Lamas was considered a leading man on the show. I'd say the only real leading characters, the anchors of the show, were Angela, (Chase), Maggie and RIchard. And I don't think that Susan Sullivan was paid for the ninth season. Ana Alicia was paid for the eighth season, yes. But Susan Sullivan did not get any freebie. In fact I remember in an interview one of the producers of the last season was calculating why it made financial sense to let Sullivan go. He said for the price of one he was able to hire three new regulars, the guy playing Michael Sharpe, his sister (Richard's later wife) and Andrea Whatshername playing that scary sister-in-law of Rod Taylor. So it was merely a business decision to let Sullivan go.

I am guessing that Lamas was affordable enough to keep him on the show. Maybe Lamas was smart enough to ask for too much money throughout the course of the show. I agree that Lance was a lot more expandable than Maggie. As much as I loved RIchard I rather could have done without him than Maggie. Maggie could have fought Michael Sharpe while Richard was incarcerated. That could have been quite interesting too. And I don't know what the hell prompted Sullivan to do that one more episode in the season 9 opener. They could have shipped off Maggie, off-screen, back to New York getting a distance from all the misery in Tuscanny Valley and be done with her. Why kill her off. They could have Richard divorce and get remarried just fine. Didn't like the tone of the ninth season... It was truly disgusting.

To me the last great season was the one that ended with the earthquake cliffhanger (and Emma shouting "We are all going to die!"). Then Kim Novak came up and it became the Kim Novak show.

For me the high point was the season about the Nazi treasure.

I liked Andrea Thompson as Genele Ericson. She made a great bitch.

I've always loved the Nazi treasure season as well, R65. Then the addition of Cesar Romero as Peter Stavros. He and Wyman had chemistry that was great fun to watch. I'm in the minority, but I really enjoyed Novak's arc. And the way she and Romero flew off together. Other than most of the last season, I found the season with the 13 almost unwatchable. It was too dark and oppressive.

It puzzles me to this day that Falcon Crest was barely about wine at all. Brothers and Sisters had more wine in it than Falcon Crest!

Just start watching season 3, they buried Jacqueline. One thing I just noticed how good Margaret Ladd was. She played a very quirky and almost comical character most of the times. But she was very good too when Emma was serious and deep. Emma was so well written. Funny thing is that she was written all over the place, but that gave Ladd so much range for her acting. Very under-appreciated character and actress.

R16 Didn't know she was fired, I thought she wanted to leave. Wendy was not enough for me. Maggie was my favorite. Susan had shockingly short hair cut for her final episode!

I love this majestic theme from season 8.

I thought season 9 intro was the best

Season 8 was indeed majestic - and for my taste missed the mark. It was not very subtle and catered to the über - rich feel that came with Dynasty. Problem was that Falcon Crest originally wasn't like that at all. It developed to the glitzy feel around the Kim NovK year, +/- 1 year. By the time this majestic theme was used FC already returned to the more grounded approach, introducing that (boring) hispanic family.

That season 9 theme matched the tone of its season a lot better. To me it was actually a highlight of that last season because it was incorporating the sex and crime approach so well. The season, or rather its first half, was an utter failure. But its theme made very clear that we were dealing with a reboot of the show not just with another season.

R72 I liked the new theme music, too. Season 9 was a mess.

This show was the first time I ever heard "goddamn" on TV twice in one episode, then never again.

I wish I had more details. I remember once was by Richard and once was (possibly) by Maggie. The first time I thought I'd misheard, then later they said it again. Since it happened twice, it couldn't have been an actor's slip.

I eventually concluded it must have been some experiment by CBS to see how many complaints, if any, they'd get. I'm guessing it was a lot since they didn't use the term again.

On another site there was someone who said they worked at Lorimor, and talked a bit about Michael Frelich and the free money he got from Falcon Crest until Lorimer made him actually work for it. And how Jeff Frelich (whose two seasons I loved) spent a fortune. There was other stuff. Anyway despite whatever the producer may have claimed, they did have to pay Susan Sullivan for the entire season 9, not just the one episode she appeared in "alive" and the other dead. So that "I could pay three people for her salary" is bogus. Not to mention, she was the show's leading lady, and was paid less than Selby (whom I also love). You don't just ditch your leading lady because you can hire three nobodies. You don't have a show. And they didn't. Falcon Crest ended the same season they fired Sullivan. I wonder if they'd have done that if they knew they'd be without Wyman all season too. I'd like to think not, but I bet they would have anyway. Season 9 producers are like a lot of show runners - only one show in their head, and whatever show they're hired for, they turn it into the show in their head. I was looking at a bit of Season 8 and Season 9, and what they turned the show into was ridiculous. They never bothered warming people up to the newcomers. Suddenly the few remaining vets were props to a bunch of nobodies. I think the show was produced and written by remote control.

The show died the instant they killed of Sullivan.

I agree. It would have been like killing off Karen on Knots Landing.

Has the entire show been released on DVD?

It would have been better with less Wyman, more Lana Turner.

Can you link to the website you're referring to, r76? Curious to read what else the guy from Lorimar had to say.

It would have been better with more Wyman vs. Lana Turner.

One of my favorite Angela lines from Falcon Crest, said with a smile:

Well Melissa, if you don't sign your vineyards over to me, you'll be the raisin queen of the Tuscany Valley!

Favorite exchanges from Falcon Crest:

Angela and Emma exchange heated words. Exit Emma. Angela-I knew I should have kept that girl locked in the attic! Emma off camera- I heard that!

Chase is looking through the mail. Maggie-Anything interesting? Chase- An invitation to Lance and Melissa's wedding. Maggie-Should we go? Chase-Sure. it's become an annual event.

Lance is in trouble with the law but won't flee the country because his current wife is pregnant. Angela expresses her frustration to Chao LI. Angela-I'll get that boy out of the country if I have to Shanghai him. No offense, Chao Li. Chao Li- None taken, Mrs, Channing.

Just watched the episode where Richard fucks his aunt. Can't believe I forgot about this little tidbit.

Love Falcon Crest but not sure I can watch the last two seasons. Maybe when I'm getting too annoyed I just jump ahead to the second half of the last season. If I remember correctly those episodes turned the ship at least a bit back to the right direction.

[quote]No one twirled like Susan Sullivan.

Excuse me?

What was Emma's disability? Why did Angela deny her access to psychiatric care? Because Emma would blab about Jason's death? Speaking of, why did they roll him down a hill in an exploding car? Why wasn't his actual death sufficient?

Cars don't explode anymore.

Watching Season one.

Of the great credit twirlers (Susan Sullivan, Pamela Sue Martin, Barrie Goodfellow), I loved them all but adored Pamela Sue Martin the most because of her "Oh it's you!" facial expression after she finishes twirling.

Loved Laura Johnson as sassy Terry. Her wedding to Richard in his office in Season 5 was a riot.

In the beginning, Falcon Crest was a lot of fun. Angela: wicked. Chase: earnest. Lance: horny. Maggie: homespun. Emma: wacky. Melissa: Spicy. Then they added Richard: wounded. The later years were less fun and the last year was downright twisted. Who let those shows air? What were the producers thinking?

Maggie's openings

R89, one of my favorite moments was after Michael Ranson died in the plane crash, making Terry a widow; she's just left the Giobertis, where she was all sorrow and sadness, but in the car, she starts grinning, thinking of all the money - and sexual independence - she's inherited.

U like that old shit?

Ha! I see r60 already mentioned it! Cool.

I rewatched the show and re-assessed mt opinions on the seasons a bit. Obviously I wasn't that fond of seasons 8 and 9, the last two one. But I've become also less enthusiastic about the two seasons before those, the so called tounge in cheek years. Those were the seasons where Chase and Maggie separated and then the next year when he left her with nothing. I thought the show lost some warmth then that it still had before, you know, the cheesy but cosy Gioberti family. I missed that aspect of the show.

I'm pissed that CBS All Access doesn't have on Falcon Crest and all CBS' other soaps Dallas and Knots Landing.

loved Falcon Crest; it was its own show, it didn't try to be dallas or dynasty; it'd often win best primetime serial in soap digest's year end issue.

Ana Alicia was the best. Lance comes in after taking Chao Li's daughter on a date; she says we went into the city; Melissa looks at Lance: Oh? Chinatown?

Never had racism been so deft and cutting.

I spent my pimply, sad teenage years watching these show with my mom. My sisters had married and gone off; my dad travelled for work. We watched all those glorious night-time soaps, as well as Love Boat, Fantasy Island, TV movies, mini-series...

I don't watch any TV anymore.

Why did the writers kill off Linda Caproni, played by Mary Kate McGeehan?