Attention 80s Gays: Falcon Crest Streams on FreeVee

Does FreeVee have Savannah (1996)?

Great, I’ve never seen it. I didn’t watch television in the 1980’s.

What is FreeVee and how do you access it?

R2, why didn’t you watch television in the 1980s?

I didn’t watch it when it new but I watched it here. It is a lot of fun-it is sort of a cross between Dallas and Dynasty. Watching that vinegary old bitch Jane Wyman cunt her way through a scene is entertaining.

Lorenzo Lamas and William Moses were incredibly sexy.

There are so many old actresses and actors to which Jane Wyman gave work in guest roles. Some I didn't even know who they were. Eve Arden is even in one episode.

I misread the heading as Falcon cum streams 🤷🏻‍♂️

This was one of the nighttime soaps I never got into. Dallas, Dynasty, and Knots Landing were my favorite, Knots Landing especially, thanks to Ted Shackleford.

I lusted for Billy and Lorenzo, but really loved the bitchy Ana-Alicia and Laura Johnson. They were great to watch, and Wyman doing Nancy Reagan Red was priceless.

Jane Wyman was a nasty old bitch!

I’ll only watch the Babylonia scenes.

R11 = Prince’s corpse

Angela was evil in a way that Alexis, Abby and JR weren’t. She had no problem throwing her kids and grandkids to the wolves to get money and power.

Remember when she forced Melissa to give up custody of her baby son if she wanted to be named heir of Falcon Crest?

[quote]What is FreeVee and how do you access it?

Formerly known as IMDb TV, it's like Amazon's answer to Tubi (and actually carries much of the same content as Tubi). It has some original programming but offers a lot of old TV shows, films and TV movies. You can access it via Amazon if you're in the US (or if you use a VPN elsewhere). It's free with ad breaks.

FreeVee also has all 14 seasons of Dallas.

Dynasty is on Amazon Prime.

Knots doesn’t appear to be anywhere.

We probably don’t get Knots because of stupid Ciji/Cathy and her singing. Ciji was trashy fun but Cathy was an annoying asshole.

Someone uploaded every "Knots Landing" episode, including bonus content (interviews, TV specials), to YouTube a year or two ago and posted about it here but I'm not sure that particular thread exists anymore (nor can I find the YT channel now).

FC was at its best IMO when the storylines revolved around the range wars/rivalries between the vintners--Angela vs. Chase, Angela vs. Richard, Angela vs. Melissa. The later seasons really dragged, but I did enjoy when Melissa was really crazy. Angela was so effective at tormenting crazy Melissa.

Also, points to Maggie for a particularly gruesome death.

Also, I respect the hell out of Jane Wyman's work ethic. Despite health problems, she found the strength to make it back for the final episodes, and wrote Angela's final speech herself.

I hope I don’t regret this, but I’m feeling generous. Knots Landing is on daily motion. Every episode.

What season does the good music start on knots?

The scenes between Jane Badler and Jane W. were electric with humor. It brought out a funny side of Angie. Unfortunately they got rid of Jane B way too soon. She was an incredible addition to the show. A fan favorite too. A huge misstep.

R2, I’d moved to San Francisco and was busy with work and socializing. I also preferred reading and listening to music so I didn’t own a television set. However, the television is on as I type this. My husband of 27 years lines told watch and I like being in the same room!!

[quote] I misread the heading as Falcon cum streams 🤷🏻‍♂️

That was the name of one of Jane Wyman's other starring vehicles for CBS.

Surprisingly, it never caught on.

Jane Wyman was buried as a Dominican lay nun.

One last lay for the old dame, eh?

I love the scenes between Jane Wyman and Lana Turner, they hated each other so much they couldn’t film the same scene together and would shoot their lines separately.

They are in the same scene, right there^^

Lana’s dentures keep slipping there

They may have been in the same scene but they didn’t film it together-see how you never see them next to each other or side by sifet, and how the camera goes back and forth between the two of them?

When Jane heard that Lana was going to be hired, she urged Earl Hamner not to do so because “she is not a lady.”

No, in that scene Lana literally walks past Jane in a medium shot… this wasn’t like Hayley Mills in The Parent Trap…🙃

Loved the show. And some of the seasons are still my favorite TV experience. And some others are so not. Overall the seasons were very different in tone. If I remember correctly the show had (at least) five different showrunners and they all left very distinctive marks. The last season alone had two retools, one at the beginning, one in the middle.

I miss SoapNet. There's so many hours of bad primetime soap operas that aren't streamed.

The last episode really is the best where they decide the future of FC for the next gen and Angela says that despite all the legalities at the end of the day whoever is the toughest will have it.

Maggie’s death was the best!

[quote] Maggie’s death was the best!

It had me spinning.

Kim Novak is so creepy and campy as Kit Marlowe, and it makes me laugh when she breathlessly says, “OH FATHER” to that old queen Cesar Romero while heaving her tits forward.

Jane Wyman in that fright wig always made me think of someone but I can't quite place it...

I wish Daily Motion had an app for Roku.

Unpopular opinion: I loved FC’s last, synthesizer heavy, mix of the theme and the crazy wine glass visuals.

I also loved (in one of the early/middle seasons) that when they showed Emma they also featured hot air balloons.

What I didn’t love was the original pilot with Michael Swan, Dorkas, and Jane Wyman in that ridiculous wig.

Jane looked like the world’s bitchiest poodle.

Weren’t they planning to bring Chase back from the dead?

I think they left it open deliberately when they drowned him in the bay. There was that cliffhanger where they played with the viewers. Angela asks a character in the dark when he would tell Maggie that he was still alive. The audience was supposed to wonder if it was Chase or Richard. But I doubt that Foxworth or the producers of the penultimate season ever considered his return. At that point the budget was already severely constraint and they couldn't have afforded Foxworth and Selby on the show at the same time.

What's the backstory regarding changing the name from The Vintage Years to Falcon Crest?

[quote]I love the scenes between Jane Wyman and Lana Turner, they hated each other so much they couldn’t film the same scene together and would shoot their lines separately.

I remember some bitchy critic in some magazine referred to their scenes together as "Little Orphan Annie meets E. T."

R42 - I don't recall all the details, but the show was sued by a writer who claimed they stole her idea (from a novel). I remember it went to trial but not who prevailed. If memory serves, the book was called The Vintage Years. This would've been early 80s.

I watched Apollonia’s first episode the other day and a flood of memories came back. She played a cocktail waitress/aspiring singer who met Lance when he fended two rude guys off from her. Lorenzo really was fine as fuck. Watching him mime the words to Sting’s “If You Love Someone Set Them Free” in that scene was hilarious. Ditto William Moses is the fine department. I’d forgotten what a great ass he had.

Both of the Moses brothers were hot as fuck. William (Falcon Crest, Melrose Place) and Rick (General Hospital). The latter did not age well (think Randy Quaid level crazy), but William still looks good. Coincidentally, William recently appeared on GH as the recast Jeff Webber. Rick had been on the show 40 years earlier as the sexy prison fugitive "Hutch".

I wish Simon had presented hole. He's dead now.

Simon was sexy. Greg and Terry never should have been written out. I love what an unapologetic slut Terry was.

Well, thank you Datalounge! Thanks to you I started watching Falcon Crest again. And thoroughly enjoying it. The show could be so funny, especially Angela. "It's all Chase's fault." "Was there ever a time when it wasn't my fault?"

[quote]Both of the Moses brothers were hot as fuck. William (Falcon Crest, Melrose Place) and Rick (General Hospital). The latter did not age well (think Randy Quaid level crazy), but William still looks good. Coincidentally, William recently appeared on GH as the recast Jeff Webber. Rick had been on the show 40 years earlier as the sexy prison fugitive

BOTH?

That old fairy Cesar Romero must have needed 4 cold showers a day during his first season-young William Moses; young Ken Olin; young Lorenzo Lamas and young John Callahan running around the set in tight jeans or speedos.

Chao-Li stood by with a fainting divan, R51

R50 - That's a different set of hot Moses brothers. Or is that Mosi? Gift of the Mosi? I digress...

Broadway hottie Burke is brother to Desperate Housewives "dad-bod" hottie Mark Moses. Mark's pic is below.

And yes, I'd do all four although Rick is not looking so good these days. A little on the Duck Dynasty side...

I liked Burke Moses as Sean Baxter on ATWT. I think he was on another soap as well.

Burke was also on loving as one of the Curtis Aldens.

Let’s discuss that waste of space, Vicki2. She was a such a nasty spoiled bitch.. I loved when Maggie would yell at her or shake her or slap her.

way off course but OMG I was in 7th grade when Loving premiered. I still think about the original Curtis Alden.

Burke Moses was the original Gaston in BATB on Broadway. Mark Moses was George Deveraux's illegitimate son on "Golden Girls."

Simon Greg was once considered to be James Bond. Esther Williams once walked in on a young Lorenzo Llamas, her stepson, masturbating by the family pool. Robert Foxworth was like Mike Brady wanting to rewrite all the scripts thinking they were doing Shakespeare. The last two seasons they stopped doing any shooting in Northern California wine country due to budget cuts.

[quote] Esther Williams once walked in on a young Lorenzo Llamas, her stepson, masturbating by the family pool.

Link to source please.

I loved Falcon Crest as a teen. It would come on after Dallas on CBS (Friday nights).....Nancy Reagans "signature" color was RED....And as the gossip went, Angela Channing (Jane Wyman) would make a point of wearing it a lot on FC to piss off Nancy Davis Reagan.. Jane would also never comment or insult her ex husband Ronald Reagan. That was her line when giving interviews and more than once she walked out on reporters who tried it. A class act.

Jane Wyman winning her Golden Globe for Best Actress for Falcon Crest. She calls herself a bitch.

[quote]Lorenzo Llamas

Oh, dear.

Susan Sullivan is close to being my all time favorite. Simply because of her role as Kitty on Dharma and Greg. She ran away with the show. Both Elfman and Gibson ended up hating her because it became the Kitty show for a while and treated her very badly. She can do it all from the grittiest of drama to comedy.

"Oh, you want to SAVE the birds"

[quote] Lorenzo Llamas

I tried to lure him to my animal sanctuary, but he said I was like an old Rhonda Fleming!

I remember The Village Voice critique of It's A Living, and their love for Susan Sullivan, and their head scratching at the casting of Wendy Schaal. I think the same edition had their review of the last season of Charlie's Angels, and how Gary Frank appeared as a villain on CA, because of course he used to be Willie on Family, and wear sweaters and act sensitive. LOL.

I’m watching season 6 and Vicki2 is such an obnoxious cunt, like she was trying to steal the “Nastiest Ginger on TV” award from Ann Romano.

Agreed. Vicky2 was not interesting enough to be just entitled. I hated her, but not in a love hate way. I'm not sure Dana Sparks was gifted, but she certainly wasn't given much good material. The was a short arc where Angela tried to develop her to a true Gioberti, and I thought that could go somewhere. But it was aborted very quickly.

Vicky2 could have been such a good character if it was based at least somewhat on Vicky1. Two totally different people.

If anyone knows the answer to this question a DLer will. Were any of the songs Babylonia sang on the show , in whole or part, did any of them appear in any album. I had her one solo album which I liked but nothing from FC rang a bell.

According to this they weren’t, r69

Thanks R70!

[quote]Were any of the songs Babylonia sang on the show ,

First, you should be strung up for calling her Babylonia. Second, Red Light Romeo and Look Into The Fire In My Eyes weren’t on any of her output.

R72, Jane Wyman would call her Babylonia.

I am starting season 5 later today. Yesterday poor Lorraine died in the hospital. Cassandra Wilder got two thirds of Falcon Crest. Chase kissed Connie Giannini which drove Maggie right into Richard's arms - and on top of a bomb. Anne Archer as Cassandra is dull as a rock. Did anybody back then seriously believe that she can keep Falcon Crest?

I loved Carla Borelli as Connie. She was great on daytime too-she played horny rich bitches well.

One of the soaps (daytime or prime time) should have snapped her up for a long term role .

As a naive underage gayling in the 80s I was always fearful about Angela losing Falcon Crest. I seriously thought she could lose it to Cassandra or whoever was trying to take it from her that week. She made it what it was and she deserved all of it.

[quote]As a naive underage gayling in the 80s I was always fearful about Angela losing Falcon Crest. I seriously thought she could lose it to Cassandra or whoever was trying to take it from her that week. She made it what it was and she deserved all of it.

In all seriousness, R76, that's adorable.

Dare I ask what you dialed the phone with?

Instead of Diff’rent Strokes. Nancy Reagan should have done a recurring role on Falcon Crest, as Melissa’s stepmother, who is secretly a drug kingpin trying to gobble up Falcon Crest and the Agretti vineyards to use both to grow weed and move cocaine.

Nancy could’ve snorted coke off Lance’s speedo and said, “Mama Like,” while Angela came upon the scene in her poodle wig , with a disapproving look on her face, as Chao-Li gasps.

FreeVee isn't free.

Pluto is free.

I found Falcon Crest 2 nights ago when I was looking for a movie on FreeVee.

I LOVE FALCON CREST AND ANGELA CHANNING-Today is TCM day Carole Lombard!!

Summer Under the Stars-unless I don't like the person.

Sorry Angela but Saturday is Fred Astaire and Sunday is the Goddess, Miss Barbara Stanwyck.

My weekend is all Fred and Barbara, plus friends and the food, and of course, the animals (and Shaun too)

I caught the first episode on Prime. Satisfied that I don’t have to watch anymore of them.

R82 - Agreed. I always thought it was the worst of the "hit" primetime soaps of the 80s -- even if its ratings were often decent. But that was mainly due to having little competition for fraus on a Friday night, and having Dallas as a lead in.

While not "great" by any means, I enjoyed the failed soaps "Flamingo Road" and "Secrets of Midland Heights" better than Falcon Crap.

Like all the primetime soaps the first season is terrible. It statts getting interesting in season 2, with the arrival of Richard Channing.

Season 2 perks up with Carlo Agretti's murder, and the camp/vamp fest of Jane and Lana. And lots of Lorenzo in a bathing suit.

To me the show is all fun from season 2 to 6, from Carlo Aggretti's murder to Chase vanishing in the bay. After that it deteriorates rapidly with old writers fleeing the show in droves and no showrunner lasting beyond the season ending. It still has lots of highlights, but overall the seasons become quite grim and tedious.

Watching that pillowcase Anne Archer try to match Jane Wyman’s cuntery is fun camp, especially when Celeste Holm hobbles into Falcon Crest as Anne’s cunt mother.

There's only one thing that Nancy gobbled. It wasn't grapes.

Ken Olin was so hot when he was on Falcon Crest. Allegedly Jane Wyman had producers abandon his story line because she didn't want a priest leave the church. Not sure that's an urban myth though. Even the lead doesn't usually have enough clout to kill an already ongoing story line. But why else did they let him go? Clearly he was an asset to the show.

I’ve been watching the Apollonia episodes and Ken really did have quite a bubble butt.

Now it’s a fat yet saggy ass…

Lorenzo Lamas was threatened by Ken Olin, period. Olin detested the scripts, and said so publically, which probably made him Public Enemy no. 1 to Wyman.

Jane also put the kibosh on a lesbian relationship between the murderous Miss Jones and Richard’s nanny Meredith.

Miss Jones was a fun character-a murderous bimbo.

Tuscany Valley was also having a humongous death toll. There was hardly a character who left the valley alive.

R89 I agree. There could have been so many good storylines for him in addition to questioning tempted hot young social justice warrior priest.

A priest being tempted to leave the Church for a woman? What's next, a baby possessed by the Devil?

R61 Jane actually looks much prettier in that hair than the style she wore on the show.

Her Golden Globe acceptance speech is amusing but she doesn't thank anyone. And obviously gave it no thought beforehand.

I just learned that Chase Gioberti was originally cast as JR Ewing.

R99 - Was Patty Duke the first choice for Sue Ellen?

R99 Mary Frann was!

Funny that both of them went on to other primetime soaps. Frann played the long-suffering house frau on the short-lived "King's Crossing" before she moved to Vermont and married her father.

I am currently watching the fifth season, the one with Morgan Fairchild. I once read that Fairchild left after one season because she didn't find her role very challenging and wanted her to be a more central character than it was. I call b/s on that. I am guessing she was let go. She was actually quite effective in her one season. Fairchild's acting was pretty good, imo.

It's also Terry's last season. Allegedly, she was fired/laid off and didn't leave voluntarily. She was asked if she wanted to stay on for the first six episodes of the following season, but she declined. Bad mistake. Since she didn't want to come back for this episodes, they had her to kill off in the earthquake. Otherwise she could have come back at a later time.

Terry and Greg should have stayed on the show. I liked both of them.

I’d rather have another season of them , and Cole, than annoying Vicky 2.

At the time Laura Johnson was killed off as Terry, her then real life husband Harry Hamlin was about to star in L.A. Law, and stupid FC could have benefited from the p.r. of their blonde bitch being married to him. Apparently to lure Hamlin, they offered the part of Grace to Laura Johnson, but Hamlin (wisely as it turned out) didn't think that was a great idea, and Susan Dey waltzed right in. But yes, killing off Terry was very stupid.

I find FreeVee lacking. It certainly doesn't carry OUR show.

I’m watching season five for Apollonia and I have two more episodes to go before I’ve watched all of her episodes (haven’t seen them in years). A pleasant surprise in these episodes is buff hottie Daniel Greene, who is as big as an ox and has an ass that I would feast on for hours.

In the show he is clearly just a plot device. But yeah, he looks great. And Dwayne is exactly who we all wanted for poor Emma.

I thought Terri had run her course. She was pretty one dimensional. I liked the character and her acting but her best if used by date expired at some point. I'm starting to watch Dallas. Why doesn't Freevee have season one?

[quote] I'm starting to watch Dallas. Why doesn't Freevee have season one?

Because that bitch Tina Louise refuses to sign off on their using her image.

Miss Jones has just been brought on to the show. She and Richard are the perfect match from hell - for everybody else.

What is Ms. Jones' first name?

Erin. But for some reason Richard (and everybody else) only called her Miss Jones.

R113 - Did she have the devil inside her, or were those just the long, manicured fingers of Chao-Li

The Ewings were the trashiest. The Gioberti Channings the classiest. The Carrington the most ostentatious. The cul de sac the most domestic.

[quote] The Gioberti Channings the classiest.

Angela Channing was downright regal.

The Ewings, sitting down in formal clothing, in a formal dining room, drinking red wine out of crystal goblets, eating Miss Ellie’s world famous….chili.

And you just know Jock Ewing was involved in the JFK assassination.

LOL R117. They should have had the Kristin did it reveal, on the Grassy Knoll.

What I always found funny about the Ewings at Southranch is how often they ate breakfast outside by the pool. There's a fucking horse corral not 50 feet away... ain't nobody gonna have an appetite smelling that. They probably all assumed it was Pam's gas from Miss Ellie's world-famous chili con huevos.

And in general, these soap families (especially the Ewings and the Carringtons) had more money than the Pope and yet insisted on all living inside the same God damn house when they hated each other's guts. Gary was the only one with any sense having moved FAR away.

Poor Sue Ellen had to drive a station wagon early on, while Pam, Bobby, Lucy and JR all drove luxury/or sports cars with personalized plates. Guess Sue Ellen did the marketing for Theresa, then picked up the girls for the Daughters of the Alamo meeting.

Sue Ellen was not a main character in the miniseries-she’s not in the credits.

In the pilot she drives up in the wagon with Miss Ellie and Lucy.

I always assumed the wagon was Miss Ellie’s, not Sue Ellen’s, which is why the license plate is Ewing 2.

R121 - Oh darlin', is was Sue Ellen's car and that's not what the #2 meant.

I just found out that little Joseph grew up to marry Punky Brewster and have five kids with her and become Ashton Kutchers main producing partner!

They’re not married any longer.

I never understood what happened to Lana Turner's looks as she got older (and please don't tell me "smoking"). She looked so gaunt. I think she tried to stay thin, but it didn't suit her. She could have put on 5 or 10 pounds. Between the way she looked and her lack of any dynamism on this show, she seemed like a sleepwalker.

Her dentures didn't seem to fit too well, either.

The booze oozed…from her pores.

Ugly ugly hair on wyman! Ugly bitch ass hair!

Broadway doesn't go for cheap dentures and frizzy wigs!

Yesterday I watched the cliffhanger of the fifth season, the earthquake. The production value was surprisingly low. I remembered it being much bigger. It was the house's hallway, the winery and Richard's bedroom. All shaky for about a minute, but all confined to these three locations. I guess a shaky areal view could have made it look more epic. But in the 80s, special effects could only do so much.

Lucy's tits were the trashiest thing on any nighttime soap.

The 5th season FC lost ground to the then hot Miami Vice, ratings dipped and the budget was high, paying ridiculous amounts for Appollonia and Morgan Fairchild. Production values were reduced, hence the tepid earthquake.

Morgan Fairchild was quite effective on FC in my opinion. She usually doesn't get much high regard as actress, but I thought she very much held her own against David Selby and her 'Monica' escapades were a hoot.

Why didn’t they keep Ken Olin? It would have bern interesting to see him leave the priesthood and pursue Melissa or did Wyman nix that too?

Terry was my favorite-all she wanted to do is spend money and fuck, shipping Morgan Fairchild off to the nuthouse, and marrying off Terry to. Lance would have been entertaining.

Morgan was great in the scene where she confronts her shitty mother about her father’s abuse. I didn’t know she had the chops.

Ken Olin got a show, 30 Something

Ken Olin’s ass was magnifique.

Ken Olin left FC in the winter of 1986, Thirtysomething didn’t premier until the fall of 1987.

Le Olin’s ass is now très gras.

Terry marrying Lance and living at FC would've made for a fun storyline. Angela's reactions to Terry's snide remarks around the breakfast table would've been a hoot.

R119 - you’re spot-on about the Ewings eating outdoors by the pool! The horses, and it was often SO windy.

If they shot it at a real ranch, wasn't the corral by the pool? If it didn't bother the owners, why would it bother the fake TV owners?

I went to Southfork on a tour years ago when I was in Dallas for work. It is really just a McMansion. It is a lot smaller than it appeared on television, and it looks a lot like the 2012 revival inside-not like the original show.

I seem to recall the patio at the house faced the (small) swimming pool and away from the horses, although it was definitely close enough to the horses that you would be aware of their presence .

The barn where they stored stupid souvenirs from the show like Jock’s Lincoln seemed bigger than the house.

This is the interior they used as template for the interior set of Southfork. It's not the interior from the Southfork Ranch they used for the exterior shots as R143 mentioned. Looks pretty elegant, much more so than the interior sets of the show.

Contrast that to the original Falcon Crest interior, in the Villa Miravalle. he producers made quite an effort to match the original interior.

Why did they bring Rosalind Chao on for a few episodes then dump her. It seemed like they were considering pairing her with Lance or Cole.

r146 wasn't she Chao Li's daughter? She was a seismatologist....she predicted the earthquake. I guess that was her sole function. Producers knew Billy Moses was leaving and they'd already decided to have Lance and Melissa re-marry, so yeah, I guess she could have been meant as a romantic interest for Father Bob.

I thought she was just a story device to prepare for the cliffhanger. Having a scientist about earthquakes coming over for an episode or two made the earthquake in the cliffhanger more plausible, less 'out of the blue'.

More plausible? More than before?

WE never had to resort to anything as silly as an earthquake, and certainly NOT by our fifth season. Fuck, not even in all 14 years. Falcon Crap is more like it.

[quote] The 5th season FC lost ground to the then hot Miami Vice, ratings dipped and the budget was high, paying ridiculous amounts for Appollonia and Morgan Fairchild. Production values were reduced, hence the tepid earthquake.

The producers could have at least TRIED to lure all those straight boys watching Miami Vice by having the earthquake wholly represented by 10 minutes of Ana Alicia shaking her tits.

Yes, exactly. More than before.

Vicky 2 should have died in the damn earthquake or in that car in the Bay, not Dwayne or Chase.

I just realized that Chase and Maggie had a guest house all of a sudden and then it disappeared. I guess production costs and writing reasons.

Chase was such an asshole to Maggie after she was raped and knocked up. So was Vicky 2-which made the two times Maggie smacked the shit out of her bitch daughter that season more satisfying.

Maggie’s pregnancy and crap family also led to the writers softening Richard, which I didn’t like. The show was at its best when Richard was trying to fuck over Angela or Chase.

The show totally jumped the shark with the reveal that Richard was Angela's son, which messed up the backstory completely, Suddenly Richard was older than Julia, trust me it was a stupid plot device which sought to eradicate Chase, and worst it dimished Maggie to a pathetic clinging vine.

For some reason I found the revelation about Richard being Angela's son totally a stroke of genius. Yes, completely out of the blue and not plausible. And yet - the dynamic between those two actors made it work. Both characters hated each other and the thought of being connected this way. And yet they couldn't ignore the fact and struggled reconciliating the bond with their disdain for each other. I thought that was excellent drama.

I think the reveal that Angela was Richard’s mother would have worked better if they had kept Angela’s husband Douglas Channing out of it.

In the first season he comes across as a good father to Julia and Emma, with a cordial relationship with Angela. It doesn’t make sense that he would have been involved in the kidnapping. It was established early on that Jacqueline was ruthless and hated Angela, so it wasn’t out of character for her to be involved.

I did think it was a stroke of genius to use footage of Wyman in The Blue Veil during the reveal scene.

Also (and I have mentioned this before on another FC thread)-where did the Giobertis get all their money? California wine wasn’t really popular until the 70s. They seem loaded and hugely influential in the state of California, but I can’t see that fortune came just from wine.

I really liked the Gioberti castle house.

R158 - Need you ask?

I think the Falcon Crest money came mostly from volume. Since Angela was ruthlessly gobbling up any vineyard she could get, Falcon Crest probably made more money than others simply because they sold more. Also, a lot of money may have been made during the prohibition (according to Lance), so Falcon Crest was probably big already before Angela took over. Angela also once mentioned that Douglas always resented her family's wealth because she was initially the one with money, not he. According to Angela it was also her father who gave Douglas the start up money for the Globe.

Is the actor who played Joseph the same Jason Goldberg referenced above who was married to Soleil Moon Frye?

R162 yes wasn't Soleil Moon Frye Puny Brewster?

No, she was Punky Brewster.

And please stop casting aspersions on her size.

[quote] Also (and I have mentioned this before on another FC thread)-where did the Giobertis get all their money? California wine wasn’t really popular until the 70s. They seem loaded and hugely influential in the state of California, but I can’t see that fortune came just from wine.

R158 I don’t know the history but there was a movie called This Land Is Mine in the ‘50s with Rock Hudson and Jean Simmons that was about a California winery family and they didn’t seem poor. California did produce table wines, even though they were considered inferior. There was a wine industry. I forget the brand but as a kid I remember TV ads for Italian Swiss Colony wines on TV (“That Little Old Winemaker, Me”)...a California brand. There were also Roma wines (“Made in California - for enjoyment throughout the world”). I visited Napa Valley when I was around 10 or 11 and it was a rural area unlike it became later, but after all there were vineyards and somebody owned them and the land.

R166 I didn’t mean to write, “I forget the brand”, I meant to write that I forgot the region.

The show jumped the shark and then unjumped it several times. The first jump is when John Callahan appears as Eric Stavros. The final jump that was never unjumped was when Maggie died and twirled no more.

[quote]California did produce table wines, even though they were considered inferior. There was a wine industry.

The bigger issue was that no California wine was sold before its time.

That little old. Winemaker, me. (Voice of Jim Backus.)

R158 I explained this to you before in the previous thread. From the beginning and over time we learn that Angela throughout her life had invested in a lot of other things other than Falcon Crest. For example on at least three separate occasions we find out that she sits on the board of directors of some bank and with one phone call can buy the mortgage of any property she wants. On a side note they dropped the storyline where Chase and Richard would each get 50 million from Lana Turners estate if they became friends within a year.

[quote] I explained this to you before in the previous thread.

Yeah, why don't you pay attention and track r171's posts in an Excel spread sheet so you don't get caught again. You'll get detention next time.

R171 has spoken.

They should have rebooted FC with a retcon of the last two seasons. They were total crap, so just ignore them all together. That way Melissa and Maggie would still be alive. And no boring Ortega family or Michael Sharpe. Melissa and Lance could've remarried and been in charge of the Tuscany Valley.

R174 and we could see how the nine FC heirs turned out as adults.

R158 I must apologize. You are right. I was wrong. I'm on S7 for the third time. Angela's assets don't add up. On my fourth round I will keep a ledger of sorts maybe use Quicken. I will also start a list of all the reasons we hate new Vicki.

I'm starting S7 next week, just ended S6. I gotta say, S6 already had a drop in quality overall compared to previous seasons. S6 was good when it comes to dialogs, very good actually. But character arcs and stories were suffering heavily. Chase and Melissa were unrecognizable this season. Vickie, well, why was she even onboarded? Dana Sparks was obviously an affordable replacement for William Moses who probably became too expensive for the show. Vickie was the only family member left/resurrected so Maggie still had a family member on the show. But then Vickie was hardly available for Maggie. The Kit/Skyler story was initially interesting but then turned into a story that didn't concern the Channings or Giobertis which made the whole thing useless.

If I remember correctly, things go only worse from here. S7 had its own story-telling problems because of pending strikes and more budget cuts. At least we still have Angela's wit and Jane Wyman's and David Selby's acting to look forward to.

The show suffered from not having a strong family supporting unit. Angela’s daughters were pointless.

How can I be the first one here to mention Genele, played by Andrea Thompson? I thought she was stunning.

My favorite cliffhanger was Anne Archer’s character telling Angie that she would suffer as her famly (including her mother played by Celeste Holm) had been made to suffer. I wonder if Holm and Wyman both brought their Oscars to set in a sort of “big dick contest.”

Anne Archer was such a wimp. Angela could have squashed her without a second thought.

Andrea Thompson was great in that show. She started out very Film Noir, torturing poor Frank Aggretti. But when they turned her into a sympathetic character in the second half of her season she was quite effective, I thought.

^ Last thing I know, she is now a real estate agent in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

This Buddy Ebsen character and storyline is one of the worst. The fact that they brought in Eve Arden to say ten lines made it worse. I like how Chase's character evolved or devolved. Maggie even says to him at some point that's he no different from Angela and Richard. All his self righteousness and white knight nonsense was really self centeredness and ego.

Ok, im in the last third of the seventh season, the first without Chase. At this point I don't know why the eighth season is getting so much flack. Season seven is just as bad. I don't even know where to begin. Wine is not even a topic anymore, let alone a story line. The humor is already gone completely. Visually the season looks washed out with the main colors black, white and brown (rather subjective maybe). Plots don't make sense, e.g. Maggie being a drunk came way too sudden. I appreciates that she needs to suffer being Richard's wife. But this development came within just two episodes. Characters were either ruined or unrecognizable. Throughout the entire season Maggie was way too passive anyway. Melissa paled in contrast to her first couple seasons. Vickie 2 and Eric were never more than plot devices. I could go on.

The worst probably: None of the characters had fun anymore. The light hearted mix that made the show is gone.

Now I'm watching the Pilar Ortega show. Season 8 isn't good. Richard kidnapping his mother and wanting to bulldoze the homely valley is quite out of character at this point and not well developed. Maggie is on her last legs, having been a plus one for too long without showing any unique character traits anymore. And Susan Sullivan has been phoning it in for a while by now. Pilar isn't bad, but she is not good either. She is the color beige that helps others to look good. And Jane Wyman's contributions are noticeably fewer and far between. She definitely is ailing at this point.

Some things that work - at least as an idea: Focusing on the Valley again. The show developing a social conscience (more Hispanics, the occasional PSA against drunk driving etc.). The new Agretties work better than I remembered. The mansion interior is beautiful. Overall more character driven stories.

Overall: Not great, but not the disaster I remembered.

[quote]And Jane Wyman's contributions are noticeably fewer and far between. She definitely is ailing at this point.

Ailing? She lived a good 17 years longer after FC went off the air.

She lost a lot of weight during season 8 due to complications with her diabetes.

I didn't like the 13 storyline because it was just a rehash of the original cartel storyline from the second and third seasons. Richard even mentions this in one scene. Funny in S7 Maggie has a dream sequence and they dress up Richard like Quentin Collins - sideburns and all. I think the entire brief sequence was suppose to have a Dark Shadows look.

Poor Maggie was pretty much done as a character after Wainwright released her. The retconned a rape that had not happened initially and from that point on stuff just happened to her without the character having any drive on her own. Seeing that decline I am actually glad she was gone at the beginning of season 9. (A different exit would have been preferred though.)

Did Susan Sullivan ever weigh in on they way Maggie left? She must have agreed to do the one additional episode, so maybe she was fine with this gruesome exit.

I’m feeling so hoity-toity today. Dynasty on Pluto TV. Falcon Crest on FreeVee…

Now I'm debating with myself if I even should start the last season or just stop after season 8. Maybe I skip a couple episodes and continue with the episode in which Emma offs her husband. Once the St. Jamses are gone the show recovers a little bit.

Angela must be so proud of her children. They all killed someone at some point.

R191 just watch them all. You'll catch some things worthy to be shared here. I just learned that Danny Nucci wasn't even Mexican! FC really fooled us white hicks in the sticks who knew no poc.

Ok, I'm done watching the last season. We all know why this season didn't work. As everybody says it was quite the trainwreck. But there were some highlights: Wendy Phillips was completely underrated as Maggie 2.0. Maggie was not really herself in seasons 7 and 8. So I was happy to see her go, just not this way. Lauren was more emotional but also a lot more stable and perfectly holding her own against Richard. I really loved Wendy Phillips in this role.

Then I thought it was a good idea to give Richard a formidable foe, considering that Angela was unavailable. Making him the good guy, the hero of the show, was a good idea and worked well.

The last third of the season was actually not THAT bad. Less crime, more drama worked well. Genele was an interesting character in the second half of the season. She developed a good core without losing the selfish, calculating bitch. The writing made me root for her. And then David Sheinkopf. He may not be the most gifted actor. But back then I just wanted him to take me any way he wanted.

catch it while you can

Just noticed this. Shape tells Richard early in the last season that they are second cousins. It is also mentioned that Lauren was a distant relative of Maggie. So he married his second cousin and possibly was also related to Maggie. Unless the relation was through EG Marshall his step adopted father.

There was a character named Shape?

I was wondering if they could resume Falcon Crest (or Dallas or any weekly soap) nowadays. I didn't think that Dallas (2012) benefitted from a shorter 10-episode season. Soaps are talkative and every possible action and reaction to a plot is expected to play out. Soap seasons need to have at least 15 if not 20 episodes. And considering that numerous showrunner even during its original run couldn't get the show right, it would take a true mastermind to get FC back running the right way.

Do you need a discreet genre of primetime soap when almost every show, even former strict procedurals, have serialized elements?

This thread is having me take a very careful third look at the last two seasons. They may not be fan favorites but there's a lot to take apart. For instance the writers must have been just phoning it in sometimes. The same exact lines were repeated on several occasions either in the same episode or the next episode. Angela would say something like Richard is a snake but I'm going to wrap him around my finger. Then she would say the same thing in the next episode.

[quote] Do you need a discreet genre of primetime soap when almost every show, even former strict procedurals, have serialized elements?

I think there is still a niche for traditional melodrama, possibly in a family setting. 'This is us" would be the most recent example that comes to my mind. They really milked that niche.

[quote] This thread is having me take a very careful third look at the last two seasons.

I actually feel like the hard decline already started in season 7: Chase gone, Maggie a drunk, hardly a wine related story anymore, all those mini-arcs with stunt casting. Much was put upon by the network, but it didn't feel like the soap anymore that it used to be. Switching to video technology didn't help with look either. Season 8 was actually doing better in some regard. Sure, nobody cared about the Hispanic family. But Maggie running a newspaper, the new Agretti family - that kinda worked for me. I appreciate that they were trying to get back to family drama vs. half baked Thirteen and world domination.

[quote]I think there is still a niche for traditional melodrama, possibly in a family setting. 'This is us" would be the most recent example that comes to my mind. They really milked that niche.

I mean, I never watched This Is Us, just because there was nothing really about it that appealed to me. I suppose the last primetime pure melodramas that I really followed were Desperate Housewives and The Sally Field Program.

^ Did you watch Dallas 2012? It was unfortunately botched by poor writing. I still blame Cynthia Cidre for fucking it up.

I kept waiting for John Ross and Christopher to get it on! They had a lesbo threeway, but never the boys. Josh Henderson and Jesse Metcalfe in a hot sweaty throwdown fuck would have been very plausible. I think Josh's hand is on Jesse's butt in the photo...

I mean, I loved watching Judith Light gnawing into the scenery like a beaver.

The best part of the Dallas revival was Judith Light doing a line of coke, then coming up for air and saying, “Mama Like.”

[quote]The best part of the Dallas revival was Judith Light doing a line of coke, then coming up for air and saying, “Mama Like.”

This is absolutely correct.

Wooaaa....did Judith Light play Miss Ellie in the revival?

Hardly. Brenda Strong played Bobby's new wife Ann, who had basically become the matriarch of South Fork with Miss Ellie's death. She had an evil ex-husband who was played by Mitch Pileggi who became the villain of the show after JR died.

Despite the fact that she's only about three years older than him, Judith Light played HIS mother.

"I'm not a prostitution whore!"

R209 I don't remember a updated Dallas, R208 here. Where/when was it on? I remember a tv movie with Dale Midkiff as a beleivable Jock, but that was from over 30 years ago.

It was about ten years ago on TNT. It wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible either.

I think they had most of the surviving castmembers appear. Even Val and Gary, despite the fact that Knots was severed from the Dallas universe after the dream season.

It's a shame the Dallas reboot only last three seasons I found it mostly enjoyable, and it did have a hotter cast than OG Dallas. And it's downright criminal that the far shittier reboot of Dynasty went on for five fucking years.

[quote] I didn't think that Dallas (2012) benefitted from a shorter 10-episode season. Soaps are talkative and every possible action and reaction to a plot is expected to play out. Soap seasons need to have at least 15 if not 20 episodes.

R197 - Only season one was 10 episodes. Seasons 2 and 3 were fifteen. BTW, Dallas (1978 ) season one only had FIVE episodes!

Back to Falcon Crest please

Nasty old bitch Angela confronts the new whore in town, Terry.

Old cunt Angela cunts off with whispery con artist Kit/Skylar.

Kim Novak played Kit like the world’s 2nd biggest pillowcase (#1 of course was meek Anne Archer as Cassandra).

^ Ahhh... both scenes from seasons at the height of the show. Love the Terry years.

They never told us what happened to Cookie and Lance's baby! Was it aborted, adopted, sold, kept hidden, raised by nuns or something else? Maybe it went to live with Nick and Ben Agreti?

No wonder Emma turned crazy when mourning Dwayne.