what were they thinking in the writers room killing off chase maggie and melissa did they just decide to burn falcon crest to the ground or what

30 minutes ago, asafi said:

what were they thinking in the writers room killing off chase maggie and melissa did they just decide to burn falcon crest to the ground or what

IIRC, Robert Foxworth left, because his then-partner, Elizabeth Montgomery, was sick with cancer. Melissa and Maggie, however, were killed off, simply to save cash (although, as @te. has pointed out, they killed off Melissa without realizing they still had to pay Ana-Alicia for the entire season).

Personally, I think CBS would've been better off cancelling FC after S5 or 6. The show was in obvious decline - both from a ratings standpoint, and in terms of quality - and too much of the expensive cast was too crucial to show's structure to lose.

Edited March 22Mar 22 by Khan

1 hour ago, asafi said:

what were they thinking in the writers room killing off chase maggie and melissa did they just decide to burn falcon crest to the ground or what

@asafi Are you currently watching or did you watch in the past (original broadcast, reruns, streaming)?

33 minutes ago, Khan said:

Personally, I think CBS would've been better off cancelling FC after S5 or 6. The show was in obvious decline - both from a ratings standpoint, and in terms of quality - and too much of the expensive cast was too crucial to show's structure to lose.

Falcon Crest got spared the chopping block so many times because CBS primetime had bigger things to worry about.

7 hours ago, kalbir said:

Falcon Crest got spared the chopping block so many times because CBS primetime had bigger things to worry about.

True, lol. Same goes, I guess, for DALLAS and KL, too. CBS was such a mess. In fact, it's still a mess, IMO, even though they rebounded eventually with all those Bruckheimer shows.

1 hour ago, Khan said:

True, lol. Same goes, I guess, for DALLAS and KL, too. CBS was such a mess. In fact, it's still a mess, IMO, even though they rebounded eventually with all those Bruckheimer shows.

LOL!!

It’s funny all of those procedurals helped CBS long term but fans were left in the cold when it came to the abrupt endings of Cold Case, Without a Trace, CSI Miami and CSI NY, and even OG CSI. To add insult to injury NONE of them have survived In streaming or syndication the same way the Law & Order franchises are DOA

Shows like The Good Wife, Elementary, Point of Interest, and even Evil had vocal enough fan bases to warrant good conclusions.

27 minutes ago, soapfan770 said:

LOL!!

It’s funny all of those procedurals helped CBS long term but fans were left in the cold when it came to the abrupt endings of Cold Case, Without a Trace, CSI Miami and CSI NY, and even OG CSI. To add insult to injury NONE of them have survived In streaming or syndication the same way the Law & Order franchises are DOA

Shows like The Good Wife, Elementary, Point of Interest, and even Evil had vocal enough fan bases to warrant good conclusions.

Of any of them I watched Cold Case the most so that still annoys me.

We have discussed Season 7 before, but here’s some additional background details that were shared in a FC FB group:

Regarding original storyline plans, the Nicole Sauguet storyline was indeed intended to last longer.

Chase, presumed drowned, was to show up at Falcon Crest in disguised via plastic surgery, to start a romance with Nicole Sauguet to divert her schemes while plotting revenge against Richard & Angela. Also he would be making moves to reunite with an unsuspecting Maggie and Kevin.

The outline for the first twelve episodes was done quite hastily and — for the first eleven episodes — mostly without the input of supervising producer Howard Lamont who was out of production suffering from a back injury. Due to these circumstances, the early episodes of the season (some of which written by non-staff writers) are much more inconsistent and less specific as usual. There are a number of contradictions in the shorter storylines in particular, e.g. the vague hints about what Chase put up as collateral for Nicole Sauguet's loan  and — even more obvious — the Carlton Travis storyline, which lacks a reasonable explanation why Carlton blames Richard for his own pathologic guilt complex caused by his brother's death although Carlton apparently is not insane at all. After the filming hiatus, which enabled the writing staff to finish the bible for the rest of the season, the plot will become much more complex and less inconsistent.

Despite many continuing threads, many storylines were tied up more quickly this season. Although "Falcon Crest" keeps up its serialized mode of storytelling, it developed a slight tendency towards episodic television this year by creating episodes with a beginning, middle and end to move even more rapidly than in the previous season. Freilich & Co.  had hoped to make it easier for new viewers to pick up the story. Meanwhile Freilich had implemented a new special guest star policy will contribute to that aim as well. The producers decided to have at least one new celeb guest per month this season. Therefore, season 7 is the year with the largest number of rotating guests in the Tuscany Valley. However, on the downside, due to budget constraints, main cast members Ladd, Chi, Cullen, Sparks, and Callahan do not appear in multiple episodes.

@soapfan770 This is all fascinating. Thanks. Sometimes I find Falcon Crest much more interesting to read about than watch...

I wonder who would have played the surgically-altered Chase?

For the record, Season Seven's marquee guest stars included:

Leslie Caron (three episodes, October 1987)

Ed Marinaro (four episodes, October 1987, plus one last in April 1988)

Eddie Albert (four episodes, October-November 1987)

Eve Arden (one episode, November 1987)

Lauren Hutton (four episodes, November-December 1987)

Buck Henry (three episodes, December 1987-January 1988)

Theodore Bikel (four episodes, December 1987-January 1988)

Tahnee Welch (four episodes, December 1987-January 1988)

Ursula Andress (three episodes, one in January 1988, then two in April 1988)

Rod Taylor (three episodes, February-March 1988, then two in April-May 1988, before joining the cast in Season Eight)

Roscoe Lee Browne (10 episodes, February-May 1988)

Mary Ann Mobley (four episodes, March-April 1988)

Charles Frank (seven episodes, April-May 1988, before wrapping his story up for two episodes in November 1988)

With the exceptions of maybe Lauren Hutton and Ursula Andress, I can't imagine that any of these people provided much of a "Wow! I've got to tune in!" factor.