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David Selby interview from January 1990. @Khan @DRW50 @kalbir @slick jones @Chris B @Chris 2 @Soapsuds @te. As @kalbir noted Selby was already thinking of leaving the show: "Falcon Crest's Mr. Mean Looks for New Adventures” Jamie Portman January 4, 1990 The Toronto Star STUDIO CITY, Calif. - It's been a typical morning's shooting at CBS Soundstage Ten, home of the long-running Falcon Crest TV series. David Selby is winding up a crucial scene for an episode that will give a further slant on the character he has played for eight seasons - that of the brash, arrogant and opportunistic millionaire, Richard Channing. But these days, Selby is also conscious of winding up a major chapter in his career. He's preparing to exit the show, which will probably mean an end to the character of Channing The scene completed. Selby's tall figure moves along a dusty corridor to the set housing the opulent sitting room of Falcon Crest matriarch Angela Channing. He stands, hands in pockets, nostalgically surveying a plush exterior which in the course of nearly a decade has become as familiar to him as his own home. "It's right to be leaving," he says in a gentle voice, markedly different from the rasping cadences of his on-screen character. "I've got to move on," An ongoging role in a series like Falcon Crest (which airs in Toronto on Channels 11 and 4 on Fridays at 10 p.m.) can become dangerously comfortable for an actor, he admits. It may provide security, but it can also leave him in a creative rut. "I wrap up here around Feb. 15 and then I'll see what new adventures lie my way. I'm not worried. I have a good agent. But what will be the fate of Richard Channing? ". Good question," says Selby. "I don't know what's going to lie ahead for him - whether they're going to write him out of the show or what Personally I'd like to see Channing go out with a sense of style, but you never know." It’s a character he has enjoyed playing, and it's one that has sparked a continuing stream of fan mail. Selby, a veteran stage actor, says Shakespeare had it right when he wrote Richard III: audiences love ruthless and unprincipled characters. But Selby thinks Channing has improved since the days when his megalomaniac plans to build a race track in Tuscany Valley threatened the entire area's wine "Oh sure, I think Richard Channing has become much nicer than he used to be. He's trying to get to the place where we all are in terms of finding some sort of peace within his own life. " Still, he's not that much softer, not when it comes to hard business deals. He's still out there determined to play the game like Ted Turner or Rupert Murdoch. " For me, he’s been one of the more interesting characters I’ve played. There's a dimension to him. Far better to do a character like this than to have one of those 'white hat' roles where I catch the crook every week.'* Nevertheless, Selby finds the longevity of the Falcon Crest series something of a miracle. "It's survived three programming chiefs, endless numbers of producers and writers, each of whom comes in with their own slant on how the show should go. We've had writers' strikes and other upheavals in the industry, and the climate in which the show operates is very different from when It began in 1981. Viewers don't have the same identification with the three networks that was once the case. Now they have cable and the temptation of the video shop. Why has Falcon Crest survived? Perhaps all this turmoil over the years is the reason. Maybe all these changes at the front office and within the hierarchy have brought in new ideas or kept it interesting or simply given us a kind of spontaneity each year." Long before he moved into movies and TV, Selby was a respected Broadway actor, co-starring with the likes of Geraldine Page, Joanne Woodward and Sandy Dennis in such shows as The Heiress Sticks And Stones and Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. But despite a major feature-film debut opposite Barbra Streisand in Up The Sandbox and roles in several other movies including Rich And Famous and Super Cops, Selby found he preferred television. 'To be frank, I wasn't getting the film roles I wanted to play. "I need a change, but I don't regret any of Falcon Crest.'' Black magic He says the ruthless, hard-driving Richard Channing seems positively saintly compared to that of Michael Tyrone, a character he played for three seasons in an early series, Flamingo Road. Tyrone was a power-hungry tycoon, determined to avenge the execution years before of his father for a murder he hadn't committed. Tyrone even resorted to black magic and the murder of his sister to achieve his ends. "Michael had very few redeeming qualities," laughs Selby. "But the audience hung in there." Selby also has a fondness for the old spooky soap opera, Dark Shadows, in which he was a series regular more than 20 years ago "I still get fan mail from that show," he marvels. "There's hardly a week goes by that somebody I meet doesn't bring it up. I figure that years from now when I'll be hobbling about with a cane, people will still be saying they remember me from that series!"

Wow thanks for the tag @Franko !!!’

Thanks for resharing that. @Khan Anderson only lasted the first 13 episodes of Season 9 so like her dismissal of her GL stint I get the feeling she doesn’t have good memories there. I believe one of her last episodes had to be heavily rewritten as David Selby refused to play the Richard scenes as they were originally written. I don’t know how much influence she actually had at FC; after she left though oddly FC started feeling like FC all over again although I’m aware there was some heavy rewriting involved. It’s interesting she did mention working with Kristian Alfonso again on FC; the writing for Pilar in Season 9 is so wildly different how Pilar was written in Season 8, @Chris B I’m still surprised that anti-KA/Pilar blogger for years ago didn’t even reference it.

Haha that is an interesting question but there is some precedent in soap land and even Y&R for that matter. Probably the most interesting case had to one time very popular leading man George Reinholt of that era to be blacklisted due to his behavior on the set. Then there was the case of that guy who played Warren Andrews on GL…. @DRW50 correct me if I’m wrong. And as @Broderick @Khan @Paul Raven mentioned, there’s good reason why EB and PB still worked but yet were definitely in the second tier and doghouse from 94-early 97. As someone once explained me, Bell decided to “show the two men who real diva of the show was!” Brenda as Sally sounds like fan fiction or someone’s fantasy honestly. This is the first time I’m hearing of it. Something tells me Bell only thought of Conley in mind, because I can totally see a Sally Spectra like character deviously annoying Vanessa Prentiss just because they could 🤣🤣🤣

You’re quite welcome and I agree with many of the points you raised. The incest line was wayyy too blatant lol. And yes, I have memories from King on Melrose. Not so good lol. Interesting to see the movie was written by Stirling Silliphant. Silliphant was in the twilight of his career by this point but of course no stranger to heavy and at times gothic melodrama from his earlier TV work—see Route 66 as the most prominent of his work. But I don’t if he still had the energy to deliver a weekly serialized series as opposed to episodic work. You’re quite welcome. I’m sure if ABC had picked this up they would have probably ordered to be tooled more like Dynasty.

@DRW50 @Khan @Paul Raven @kalbir There’s a few minutes of Golden Gate available on YouTube: I wonder how this would have fared as a weekly series. The San Francisco newspaper angle would get used by Falcon Crest. I know Perry King’s movie career had derailed by this point and he had some success with shows like Riptide and being in a plethora of TV movies but as leading man…no. Too stiff and not dynamic.

I don’t see it listed, and maybe because it fell outside of the Top 70 lol, but in April ‘82 NBC began airing the rest of Chicago Story in the 8:30/7:30 Friday night slot after the Saturday night slot flopped, which was even worse. I guess NBC wanted to burn off the experiment. Chicago Story ended up being ranked at #101 for the season. What a mess.

Since when did Thudley start doing thirst traps like this? 🥵🥵🥵Too bad the new RJ didn’t join in!

You’re welcome @kalbir . I did notice overall the ratings were down all across the board. Re: Moonlighting’s series finale. What a pathetic rating and ending, then again a fitting end to a very, very abysmal final season. Flipping back to the early 80’s attached in the April 12-18 1982 top 15 ratings. Dallas aired a repeat of the season premiere, but Falcon Crest still finished at #9 with their season finale of the first season:

What a strange season of Melrose LOL Actually Walters had also been in a lead star in a couple other Spelling productions including having a lead role on the short lived Nightingales (basically Grey’s Anatomy ahead of its time). Walters was just coming off that USA network show of hers when she got the Melrose gig, obviously her past/present connections probably got her that roles. I think Susan has always had more high profile roles than Linden ever has, although Linden and Susan were basically equals on Teen Wolf.

Thanks Carl for the memories of Dear John! Actually that’s the show where I know Susan Walters from originally although it’s a show that’s long been forgotten about. Walters’ work on Seinfeld and more infamously that strange role she had on Melrose (didn’t her character get hit by train???) are more notable it was always Dear John for me. I didn’t even know she had been a regular on Hotel til I saw a couple of her eps when it ran on SoapNet.

I did today LOL and will say the scenes weren’t bad, actually the highlight. Onto another point, @YRfan23 @kalbir @ranger1rg @Paul Raven @Taoboi just HOW many times are we going to repeat the story of “Oh Noah Newman is opening up a nightclub” LOL this seriously has to be like the 4th or 5th time with the 4th or 5th actor. 🤣 I’m honestly surprised JG has kept the Noah/Sienna thing going and not already tried to introduce the next Eden/Hunter/Adrianna/Courtney/Marisa character. I liked Adams and Braun on Days but here on JG’s Y&R they’re low energy and out of place.

May 8-14 1989 TV ratings with Dynasty’s series finale: May 15-21 1989 TV ratings with the season finale’s of Knots, Dallas, FC, and MSW. Dallas and FC were both beat by the series finale of Miami Vice. Interestingly Ian McShane was on both Dallas and Vicd the same night:

Ehhh as much I loved and enjoyed RTD’s earlier work, I really haven’t enjoyed much of his work in the past decade. I remember mildly enjoying Banana but Cucumber was a MESS. Years and Years was overrated and overhyped IMO. I was left underwhelmed. It’s A Sin was pretty solid though. And of course his return to Doctor Who has been nothing short of a disaster. I may watch, I may not. Like I said RTD and his work just doesn’t excite me like it use to.

Other than a couple notable examples like Lisa Mansfield disappearing, Bell always gave his villains a shocking satisfying ending. Matt’s death in 2001 under Alden & Co. was a continuation of this.

I believe we are now seeing why exactly Josh was relieved of his EP duties as apparently from what I read he gave that interview before it was officially announced 🤣🤣🤣 And thanks to @YRfan23 ’s episode counts, I see Billy Flynn’s appearances are also diminishing along with the train set…

Finally found some breathing room with the school year ending to post these, and apologies if they had been posted before, but here are weeks from May 1990, May 1991, May 1993, and May 1996 containing ratings for the final eps of FC, Dallas, Knots, and MSW. Only FC did poorly against a Cheers rerun, Wings, and Twin Peaks despite Knots season finale that night ranking at #13

To my surprise the whole series is actually on YouTube:

Probably one of the better written surrogacy stories I have seen as well. In real life the woman who basically my 2nd mother who had her twins via surrogacy with her sister in law (who had 4 kids herself!) as the surrogate carrying the embryos yet there was no drama or anything and when the twins born the whole family and their story was featured front page of the local newspaper. Both are now in their 30’s too. One the flipside most other surrogate storylines are usually written cheap and disgusting for the sake of creating lame “drama”.

BTG: A B&B: C…shocking I know but the past few months have actually been entertaining Days: C Y&R: The grade I usually reserve for B&B, a Z- !!!

Exactly!! Btw I’m glad we have a soap giving us May sweeps while Y&R is giving May sleeps 🤣

Same here. Anytime she gets stuck in one of his tics or fits she becomes extremely obnoxious. I’ve always tolerated her but sometimes I just can’t, and Thursday and today’s eps were just another reason why.

Well said!! I agree with all of this! Perfect Friday cliffhanger for the weekend too!

Derek, we hardly knew you. As for the cotillion scenes I would have been more curious if Francesca had actually won. I guess I’d love to see the Belleclaires be the Spectras to the Dupree’s Forrester’s but it obviously hasn’t been well developed yet.

Ad for the finale: