Falcon Crest

[Khan]

It certainly helped FC to establish an identity of its' own, one that didn't remind viewers of DALLAS, DYNASTY or any other major primetime soap.  But I think what hurt was not that that was the new focus, but that Freilich spent so much money on it.  If he had kept the production within budget, or if the show had experienced an upswing in the ratings, then I think he would have been allowed to continue with his vision.

Edited May 13, 2023 by Khan

[kalbir]

@soapfan770 @Khan Season 6 and 7 were a high-octane action-packed thrill ride. Season 6 was an improvement over Season 5 Dallas with grapes/Miami Vice hybrid, but Season 7 it started going off the rails. I can't pinpoint the exact moment but Season 7 the core families shrunk and I found the supporting characters and guest stars in short arcs didn't really work.

[soapfan770]

Season 6 was definitely a big improvement as it did stabilize the show and saw a minor to moderate upswing again, but of course the season had a good three-four major overreaching story arcs that lasted all season long.

Season 7 was fun overall but yeah there is a point where the short arcs really stopped working. Leslie Caron should have been on all season as her mysterious Nicole character’s arc got wrapped up too quick. Maggie’s alcoholism struggle was blink and you’ll miss it. Losing Chase and Cole did leave a hole. I didn’t miss Chase much but I wish they had gotten Cole to return full time instead of that guest arc. Then there was that strange story of Lance and Raquel Welch’s daughter, who he discovered was not only on Angela’s payroll but was pregnant with Tony’s kid. 
 

Season 7 ended on a high note and Frelich was in the works to bring back Foxworth and Dalton, which neither return panned out (personal reasons for Foxworth as partner Elizabeth Montgomery had first got ill). 

[Khan]

That arc amounted to a few scenes of Susan Sullivan looking sleepy before Maggie was shipped off to rehab.

[te.]

To be honest, I think that the biggest issue with some of the actors were that they were just bland, didn't stand out and didn't manage to convey anything deeper than what was written on page; Cole's first wife that died in the plane crash comes to mind. She was actually on the show for a while (34 episodes!) yet leaves no real mark once she dies. Another one I took note of is Melissa's cousin, Robin, who becomes pregnant with Cole's child, but because the actress gives nothing aside what's written on paper to the role you can't ever figure out (or care) about her motives (in my notes I wrote that I wanted a Laura Leighton-type of actress for this one, or at least someone who could go head-to-head with Ana Alicia).

[Jagger1966]

I always thought that Cole's wife Linda and Melissa should have had some Krystle and Alexis catfights like those two did in the pond or the mud but the show never gave Linda anything substantial to do which was a shame because I saw the actress on a Murder, She Wrote episode after she left FC and she played a vixen and played her quite well I might add.

[kalbir]

On paper, Kristian Alfonso being cast comes across as popular daytime star brought on to aging primetime soap with the expectation that their huge daytime following would carry over (see also Vanessa Marcil on 90210 a decade later).

[Khan]

I agree.  FC's producers probably thought KA would bring her DAYS fans to their show with her.  But soap fans aren't monoliths.  We aren't going to watch a new show just because our favorite actor from another show has joined the cast; and even if we do, we aren't going to stick around if you don't give that actor an actual character to portray.  Pilar Ortega wasn't a character; she was just a substitute for Melissa.

[kalbir]

Not just a substitute, but the show's new pet that became front-burner lead right away.

[yrfan1983]

Ep 14: Ana-Alicia is the shot in the arm this show desperately needed! I now see that this show had zero sex appeal. She is sex on a stick.

[kalbir]

You'll soon see the setup of a triangle that will drive so many storylines for a good portion of the series. 

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Such soapy goodness.

Edited May 27, 2023 by kalbir

[soapfan770]

 

Years ago I remember some Falcon Crest blog post blaming KA for the decline of the show but I don’t think I would fault KA herself but all the producers and writers for the last two seasons. Just as KA’s Pilar was about to come into her own in Season 9’she was  bogged down by strange affairs first with the obese Ned Vogel and then with Frank Runyeon’s oddball character who seems to be a prototype for Bill Paxton’s character in True Lies just four years later.

 

 

Anywhoo one reason I was going to post on this thread because after to doing a rewatch despite on how tyrannical Angela was she was also an idiotic schemer with no foresight of what could go wrong as so many schemes just backfired on her. I’m rewatching Season 5 right now with Angela hiring Erin Jones to sabotage Richard and Chase knowing full well in retrospect that decision will haunt Angela through the series finale lol. 

Edited May 27, 2023 by soapfan770

[te.]

It's ridiculous to put anything on  a single character - it's more that they tried to revamp the show in season 8 to make it more grounded and when that didn't work they once again brought in a new team in season 9 that also had to deal with major budget cuts because of the ratings falling off. 

 

I do love season 9 though, even if it should've been called "Falcon Crest: The New Generation" and sold as a spin-off. Genele cracks me up.

[kalbir]

How are you finding Season 5 on a rewatch? The tanking was cemented this season (signs of tanking were showing in season 4), plus it couldn't beat the new hotness Miami Vice so might as well join it. The storylines were just so start and stop and most of them didn't really work.

[Chris 2]

They abandoned the season long arcs in season 5, and that was a shame. So we got flavor-of-the-week Apollonia for a few episodes here; Cesar Romero for a few episodes there; the failed Father Christopher addition; etc. Morgan Fairchild was a terrible fit for the show - it was an icky story for an escapist show like FC, and we had no investment in her character at all. She was just off to the side having a story, and with virtually no ties to the rest of the show. Bizarre.

Having Chase pushed out of Falcon Crest was also a dumb move (though I can’t remember if it happened in season 4 or 5, but season 5 had the fallout from that decision).