16 minutes ago, Khan said:

I hope not. HM deserved better, lol.

I dunno, it always seems far-fetched to me to have cartels and the like mucking about on a show that's supposed to be about the wine industry. Like, is the industry really that dangerous, lol?

Somewhere I think Hamner & Co. really missed the boat with developing the wine country setting theme, especially by not having the a rival family like the Agrettis and/or Rossini’s involved as a major rival to FC in the wine industry i.e. Angela & Melissa along with some other rival regularly compete in wine competitions, more down to earth drama like land and/or drought issues, and along with more a focus on classism drama that we saw in Season 1.

But it’s also obvious that CBS put on the pressure to include more of the San Francisco and New Globe angle as well as pressure to compete with Dynasty and well; alas we ended up as @kalbir pointed out James Bond-esque stories which of course gave way to going full on campy action-adventure mystery as the series progressed.

15 hours ago, soapfan770 said:

But it’s also obvious that CBS put on the pressure to include more of the San Francisco and New Globe angle as well as pressure to compete with Dynasty and well; alas we ended up as @kalbir pointed out James Bond-esque stories which of course gave way to going full on campy action-adventure mystery as the series progressed.

I agree. There comes a point in FC's run when the vineyards themselves become an afterthought, and most of the drama has little-to-nothing to do with the actual running of Falcon Crest. S8 tries to re-emphasize the vineyards - as well as the classism that you've mentioned, @soapfan770 - with the additions of Nick, Ben and the Ortegas. However, with the severely reduced budget and the loss of Ana-Alicia (and Kristian Alfonso as a poor substitute), the season is just a chore to watch.

On 2/23/2026 at 10:55 AM, Khan said:

I agree. There comes a point in FC's run when the vineyards themselves become an afterthought, and most of the drama has little-to-nothing to do with the actual running of Falcon Crest. S8 tries to re-emphasize the vineyards - as well as the classism that you've mentioned, @soapfan770 - with the additions of Nick, Ben and the Ortegas. However, with the severely reduced budget and the loss of Ana-Alicia (and Kristian Alfonso as a poor substitute), the season is just a chore to watch.

I recently streamed the whole show and hadn't seen it since being a kid in the 80s. The stark change in tone in season 8 was jarring. The show became sooooo slow and boring. I found some of season 9 entertaining, especially the first 13 episodes, but it was like a whole different show by then.

14 hours ago, 1974mdp said:

The stark change in tone in season 8 was jarring. The show became sooooo slow and boring.

I agree. Michael Filerman, who had re-assumed control over the show after several seasons away, brought the show back down to earth, but he forgot to inject some life into it as well. Most of the storylines during that season were just big, fat who cares. I really don't blame the S9 team for jettisoning most of what S8 had set up, even if the stuff they came up with was only marginally more interesting, lol.