Falcon Crest

[Khan]

True.

I'm not saying FC was a terrible show, but was it really capable of beating DYNASTY or KL?  I'm just saying.

Edited April 26, 2022 by Khan

[te.]

Falcon Crest was a hit in parts of Europe, while Dynasty and Knots floundered. Just saying that it clearly had its own appeal.

[Soapsuds]

No Dallas this week...you tell me if Dallas lead in helped them?? I think it did...Dynasty and knots ranked above it and even The Colbys tied it.

 

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[I Am A Swede]

Here in Sweden for example. Falcon Crest was very popular here, even matching Dallas, and it has been re-run several times.

Dynasty on the other hand ended after season three, and had to wait almost 10 years after that to air in its entirety, and then only in a daytime slot, while Knots Landing has, as far as I know, never aired in full here.

[te.]

Of course Dallas helped them, but it's worth noting that the week you're referring to one episode of The Colbys aired after Dynasty, the regular episode on Thursdays got a 13.6. Also, the lead-in to Falcon Crest, Kenny Rogers special, got a 14.5 rating, so Falcon Crest grew out of it at 10PM on a Friday night and won the time slot against Stingray (14.7) and US Marshals: Waco & Rhinehart (13). So clearly, Falcon Crest had it's own audience on par with Knots Landing (which got a 16.1 rating that week out of a 14.6 lead-in from Simon & Simon).

[Soapsuds]

With Dallas lead in

 

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[kalbir]

For 8 seasons (1981/82 to 1988/89) we had the big four soaps. Here's how they rated at the end of each season.

1981/82: 1. Dallas, 13. Falcon Crest (first season), 19. Dynasty. Knots Landing was below the Top 30. Falcon Crest was the highest rated new scripted series of 1981/82.

1982/83: 2. Dallas, 5. Dynasty, 8. Falcon Crest, 20. Knots Landing

1983/84: 1. Dallas, 3. Dynasty, 7. Falcon Crest, 11. Knots Landing

1984/85: 1. Dynasty, 2. Dallas, 9. Knots Landing, 10. Falcon Crest. The peak season of primetime soaps.

1985/86: 6. Dallas, 7. Dynasty, 17. Knots Landing, 24. Falcon Crest. The season primetime soaps started tanking.

1986/87: 11. Dallas, 23. Falcon Crest, 24. Dynasty, 26. Knots Landing

1987/88: 22. Dallas. Falcon Crest, Dynasty, Knots Landing were below the Top 30. Primetime soaps really should have ended at this point.

1988/89: 27. Knots Landing, 29. Dallas. Falcon Crest and Dynasty (final season) were below the Top 30.

Falcon Crest finished ahead of Dynasty in two seasons and ahead of Knots Landing in four seasons. Yes there was the time slot hit perception, but it clearly had a following.

 

[Paul Raven]

Of course Falcon Crest had it's own following but CBS never moved it (until the very end)which was a rarity for the times.

Even Knots was moved twice to 9pm to try and build another show behind it.

Dallas moved to 9pm to open the lead out to Falcon Crest.

It wouldn't have been unheard of to move FC to a 9pm slot elsewhere or even 10pm on another night to allow a new show to benefit from the strong Dallas lead in.

When FC finished it season in 83,The Mississipi starring Ralph Waite played for 6 eps and ended up in the Top 20.

When it was moved to 8pm Tues the following season ,it flopped, but that's another story.

Edited April 27, 2022 by Paul Raven

[te.]

Mississippi did ok post-Dallas, but clearly didn't retain as well as Falcon Crest. If anything, it showed that the flow wouldn't be great just because of what they put there, so they probably figured it was best to leave Falcon Crest where it was. Why mess up a good thing?

 

[Paul Raven]

I get that, but I wonder if they thought of putting Emerald Point Fri at 10 and moving Falcon Crest to Monday at 10.

EP would be compatible with Dallas and might have become as  successful as FC in that slot.

Meanwhile FC would sit well on Mondays and provide familiar programming there rather than trying to establish a new serial.

Re The Mississipi

Here's a show that showed some promise 10 o'clock Fri so what do CBS do-throw it to the wolves Tues at 8 against the then hot A Team and ABC comedies.

Either they had great faith in the show or someone at CBS wanted to dump it.

Did Ralph Waite get a series guarantee from CBS to stay on The Waltons at some point? 

Maybe that was a deal done by a previous regime and they were forced to honor it.

Always fun to play scheduler...

[te.]

Emerald Point NAS did get a special airing behind DALLAS... it rated 9.2/14 out of 25.7/41. It actually did worse than it did in its Monday time slot and was its lowest rated episode!

[Chris B]

Falcon Crest was entertaining, but it did always have an indentity crisis, which is why I feel I'm not as critical of it as I am when a show like Dallas or Knots Landing messed up. I do think the timeslot is how it was able to weather all of the creative upheavals. I bought three volumes of behind the scenes info from falconcrest.org and they have many of the story bibles included in it and it's interesting because even with the writing shifts, there are many attempts throughout to tell stories in a way that would be more character driven or explain character motivations better, but these scenes and stories were often cut. I wonder if that was because of the timeslot and the desire to keep up with Dallas, so they focused more on action instead of developing the characters.

[Paul Raven]

Would love you to share some of that!

 

When was that?

I assume EP was already struggling by this point and to expect viewers to be interested in a serial with a random episode is a big ask.

[te.]

Late in the season - 1x20, but still. The episodes between that one got a 13.2 and 11.1 in the regular Monday timeslot. It just shows that just because something aired after Dallas didn't mean it would've gotten big ratings. Dallas and Falcon Crest just flowed very well, which is why I assume CBS kept it (plus I assume Lorimar pushed the combo too).

Emerald Point NAS was also sampled in the Monday time slot - the first episode earning 19.2/29 share. I think the biggest issue for EP was that it was boring. You can sort of watch how it gradually fell apart through the season:

http://tvtango.com/series/emerald_point_nas/episodes

[Paul Raven]

Actually it was the Monday episode that ranked #67 with 9.2/14

The special Fri ep had a 13.8/24 #48 - nowhere near FC but a big jump over Monday.

Dallas was #3

The Mon EP was up against Pt 2 of the Lace miniseries on ABC which was #1 for the week.

I wonder if this was more about saving a new FC episode for later and burning off EP rather than trying to save it.

No FC set Matt Houston on ABC to #21, much higher than usual.