Falcon Crest

[Chris 2]

I don’t know where you got the idea that Lorimar was collapsing, but that’s just not true. Nighttime soaps were collapsing, but Lorimar had had the foresight to begin a transition to producing sitcoms, and it had a number of hits under its belt already (“Full House”, “Perfect Strangers”, “Valerie/The Hogan Family”) with more to come. Within five years, Warner Bros - whose TV division had collapsed - acquired Lorimar and turned it into Warner Bros TV, with the Lorimar executive team taking charge.

[soapfan770]

Gotcha for some reason I thought Lorimar was struggling when Warner acquired them.

But Perfect Strangers? Shame on Lorimar for releasing that on an unsuspecting public.

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[Chris 2]

LOL I don’t disagree re: Perfect Strangers.

I worked in the business at the time of the acquisition and the Lorimar was a big get for WB. The studios and TV networks were becoming vertically integrated and since Lorimar wasn’t going to grow into a giant, it was going to get acquired. It had a number of suitors due to its slate of hits as well as its library titles. But Warner got it and ousted its TV executive team in favor of the Lorimar folks because pre-Lorimar, Warner’s TV production had declined to the point to the lowest point since the 1950s.

I really miss the days before all the consolidation, because I think there was a lot more creative freedom back then, particularly at the independent production companies. I’d argue that a Falcon Crest season 9 wouldn’t have happened at one of the major TV studios - they just would have cancelled it.

Edited January 20 by Chris 2

[kalbir]

Not just the primetime soaps, but CBS primetime on the whole was a mess.

CBS hung on to the primetime soaps as long as they did because the new dramas they launched from Fall 1985-Fall 1989 that got multiple season runs showed no signs of growth, not to mention a bunch of one season and done dramas.

Spring 1988 should have been the end for primetime soaps. It feels like the genre met its natural end point then.

Edited January 21 by kalbir

[soapfan770]

On the 1987-88 Season 7 Cliffhanger from SOD:

 

Soap Opcia Digett May 17, I988

Lance and Melissa are trapped in an underground bank vault in the fictional town of Hobart, California. While waiting for someone to rescue them, they use up some of the precious oxygen they have by engaging in some swift sex. Who will save them? Your best bet is Dan Fixx, the poor sucker Melissa allegedly loves. He goes down into a tunnel to bring them back up. What Melissa finds down in the vault (besides camal knowledge) will change her future and the future of the Tuscany Valley.
These are some of the pieces of the 1987-86 Falcon Crest ciff-hanger that unfolded on a location shoot at Rancho María in California s Placenta Canyon, the rugged country forty-five miles northeast of Hollywood. Far from the traffic jams of Los Angeles, the shoot begins a six a.m. with trailers, trucks, vans and cars from the soundstages at FC headquarters in Studio City lining up alongside the bam corrals and stables of the ranch. Far off on the left a pinwheel windmill twirls in the wind. Cattle graze and horses lean over the side of the railings of their corráis to sce what's going on.
In New York, people are truly freezing from temperatures in the single digits, but even a nippy 40 degrees in this crisp, clean air has the cast and crew shivering and downing cups of coffee. Most of the cast is here, or they will be after lunch. Brett Cullen (Dan Fixx) is the most outgoing of them, back-slapping and bantering with the crew, and proving he is a good sport when, for the upcoming rescue scene, he slips into a red and black harness that grips his thighs and hips while they taunt him with whistles and catcalls. Cullen shakes his tush for the them, admitting that his "garter" looks like "Frederic's of Hollywood meets construction worker."
Waiting for everything to get rolling is a delicate-looking Jane Wyman (Angela Channing). Standing alone and dressed in soft white wool — pants, jacks, kerchief — she scrutinizes the scene with the concentrated stare of an inspector. "What are we waiting for?" she demands as Co-Executive Producer Jeff Freilich, who is also directing this episode, talks to his cameraman before doing a take. Cameras and lights are positioned around a ten-foot hole dug for the rescue scene. Sonic stagehands are cutting a huge piece of concrete form down to size to fit in the hole. A rescue team from the nearby Arcadia Pire Department is on hand in case problems arise and a first- aid tent is pitched off to the right for injuries.
Freilich rehearses the scene where Dan volunteers to go down into the tunnel to find Lance and Melissa, before shooting it. The boom mike is covered in a furry gray hood to diffuse possible sound distortion by the wind. Actor Rod Taylor, one of the many guest stars to show up on Falcon Crest this year, joins Wyman in the scene as Frank Agretti, Melissa’s wayfaring and wayward uncle who has returned to Tuscany to give his niece an important heirloom. Taylor was familiar with the guest-star policy of the show from friends John Saxon and Kim Novak, who played major roles on Falcon Crest last season. “I saw Johnny Saxon do it,” he says. “I figured if Kim came on, I’ve got to come. Actually, they needed an ugly man for a change. They needed an oaf. It’s different for Angela to confide in somebody,” Taylor says of his character. He is one of the most popular guest stars they’ve had this year — Wyman reportedly calls him “Cuddles” — and he likes the “family feeling” on the show, adding that he has “the vague and hospitable idea” that he’ll be back next year, although Frank Agretti is allegedly terminally ill.
Rancho Maria has been used before as a location site. Around the ranch are wooden shacks and other building that have been seen in such movies and television shows as The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean and Roots. Makeup and hairstyling artists stand by for touch-ups on the porches of the weathered buildings. After the day’s first scene is completed, Jane Wyman finds shelter from the strong winds inside the building marked Wells Fargo Bank

. Jeff Freilich takes some time out to talk about what Falcon Crest has been doing this year. Admitting that a shoot like this is a “major piece of production” for the show, he adds, “but this is the cliff-hanger so we hold nothing back.” They’ve decided on more of an emotional season finale than those they’ve had in years past, when viewers were left hanging with airplane crashes, earthquakes, and cars plunging into bodies of water to decide the characters’ fates, but Freilich promises that the absence of these disasters will not lessen the impact of the last two shows’ revelations. “The cliff-hanger itself probably has a bigger shock value than Angela finding out Richard is her son,” he says. “It’s a dramatic and emotional turn that any earthquake or explosion could not top. The power will completely change hands in Tuscany this season. Someone will make a shocking return at the end of the season and a major, major character on the scale of Angela or Richard will be murdered in the middle of the cliff-hanger.”

It sounds like a tall order, but viewers have come to expect the unexpected from Falcon Crest. Its experiments this year with multiple guest stars, and myriad plots proved that’s would do anything to keep the story moving, from having a female Ninja wielding a sword in Candlestick Park to bringing on Buck Henry as a special-effects expert to bedevil Melissa with toys that moved by themselves and locomotives that roared in her closet. Not everything worked. Freilich conceded that the first twelve episodes may have moved too fast for the viewers to follow. They were written while the show was completing production for its 1986-87 season and filmed without the traditional summer break because everybody was scrambling to get twelve episodes in the can before a threatened strike by the Directors’ Guild last July. Freilich thinks the effects of meeting this dead-line may have “overloaded” viewers with stories that were not sufficiently fleshed out, but he was confident that the remaining sixteen episodes of the season would make up for any inconsistencies.
The rescue of Lance and Melissa is halted by an emission of poisonous gas from the tunnel. Special-effects man Frank Pope, who tests the rescue rig several times before

the harnessed Brett Cullen is hooked to a cable and lowered into the earth with a truck operated crane, has simulated the poisonous gas with a cloud of yellow-green smoke. It rises out of the tunnel, smelling like sulfur, and everyone on the set backs away. The rescue equipment is identical to that used to save baby Jessica McClure who was trapped down as well in the fall of 1987.

After a hearty catered lunch served from a truck and eaten on picnic tables, the rest of the cast reports to work: Ana-Alicia (Melissa) in a new-wavy hairdo, Susan Sullivan (Maggie), David Selby (Richard), Margaret Ladd (Emma), Lorenzo Lamas (Lance), Dana Sparks (Vickie). As with most large casts on television, the camaraderie here is infectious with much hugging and kissing among the younger cast members. Susan Sullivan strolls up the road with her arm around Margaret Ladd’s shoulder. It seemed like a good time to talk to cast members about their reflections of Falcon Crest. Susan, in gray leather pants and cape, has just come from one of those gaggle of soap-star panels on Oprah Winfrey and she admits to being struck by the emotional connection the women in the audience made to Falcon’s sister soap, Knots Landing. From the sound of it, Susan wouldn’t mind it if FC could form a similar emotional bond with its audience. Of the show’s present emphasis on humor, Sullivan says, “It’s the crest that Angela rides best. And its tricky and difficult writing to do and it doesn’t always make it. I would like to explore the dynamics of a relationship, the interplay in a relationship.” Dana Sparks defended her character’s insolent behavior toward her mother last year. “Vickie was playing what the audience felt toward Maggie,” she contends. “She was so much of a wimp. Vickie had the wrong approach. It was the kind of family relationship where what you [are] thinking comes out [of your mouth] and it’s kind of brutal.”

David Selby thought the progression of Maggie and Richard’s relationship from friendship to romance to marriage was beautifully handled. “I liked the story because they were good friends,” he says. “It was the natural evolution of a relationship.” He also revealed that his good friend, actress Jane Alexander, convinced him to take the job on Falcon Crest — six years ago. “I wasn’t getting the right parts in movies or the theater,” says Selby. “I was having lunch with Jane and I told her about this offer for a series and she said, ‘Do it’ ”. He also explained how Richard Channing developed his taste for milk. Earl Hamner, creator of the show, helped him come up with the idea. “We thought what a crazy counterpoint that he would drink milk,” Selby laughs. “Earl thought it would always remind Richard of his mother. Besides, I happen to like milk.”

Richard and Maggie come to the rescue site to warn Angela that she is in danger. Angela doesn’t know it, but Richard’s deal with The Thirteen — a sinister group of wealthy and powerful businessmen headed by a jolly avuncular descendant of Satan named Rosemont to destroy her is in full motion. Meanwhile, Melissa, rescued from the vault, has found something down there that makes her furious with Angela, but Mrs. Channing refuses to discuss it. “Somebody tie her to a tree,” she tells Frank Agretti.

Lance and Melissa’s rescue from the bank vault is filmed after four p.m. After being on the set since dawn, Jane Wyman has gone home and there is a stand-in dressed in white to cheer along with everyone else. With the completion of that scene, the cast is released except for Rod Taylor and Ana-Alicia, who remain behind in the fading daylight to do close-ups for the scene just prior to Angela and Melissa’s argument about what she has found in the bank vault. Melissa feels her jacket pockets and finds they’re empty. “Where is it?” she shouts at Frank and then she runs off to pick a fight with

Angela, whom she’s convinced has stolen what is hers. Does Angela rob Melissa of her Agretti heirloom? What does Melissa find in the bank vault? Will she be murdered for what she knows? Or does somebody else die? Falcon Crest’s cliff-hanger is revealed in the last two episodes of the season, tentatively scheduled by CBS for May 6 and May 13.

[AbcNbc247]

Just a heads up, guys

Falcon Crest is leaving Freevee soon

[Chris 2]

Sorry to hear this. When is it leaving? I hope Dallas isn’t going too.

Edited February 19 by Chris 2

[Soapsuds]

Damn!

Is it posted on FreeVee? Glad I have other ways of watching it. 

I doubt it. They just started airing the new HD masters. I'm glad I bought the whole series from iTunes.

Edited February 19 by Soapsuds

[AbcNbc247]

 

They didn’t put a date. It just says, ‘Leaving Soon’

It doesn’t say anything about Dallas though.

[Soapsuds]

I doubt Dallas is leaving but it's a shame about FC.

[soapfan770]

Bummer, glad we got to enjoy it while it lasted. Maybe it'll end up on Tubi or something? I'd hate for the series to sit in the dustbin for 17 years again. Or at the very least, maybe finally get a complete series DVD? 

[te.]

I'd assume it might turn up on whoever owns Lorimar's catalog at worst? I don't think they'll let it lay on the shelf after all that job digitizing it.

 

But another FAST service seems likely.

[Soapsuds]

It suppose to be transferred to HD after they're done with Knots.

Just recently iTunes had directed FC episodes to FreeVee which it never did before.

Itunes does have the first 4 seasons for purchase.

[soapfan770]

Good point, I just didn't want the show to get left behind again. Of course Warner still owns the Lorimar catalog so it could very well end up on Max one day, maybe...

Streaming for some of these older shows I can enjoyed back in the day can be a real chore. Recently we had Picket Fences get dug up by Hulu, they ran it for a couple years and then dropped it. Prime picked it up for like a month before dropping it back into oblivion at this moment. LA Law took forever to get to streaming, disappeared for a few years, and was recently picked up on Hulu. And we finally finally now have Northern Exposure streaming. And of course, then there is Knots...

 

I was hoping with Dallas, Dynasty, and FC (for now) all up on Prime Video/Freevee that this would be the year Knots finally made it to join the others. I mean I have the complete series, but it's a poor quality bootleg version I got off Etsy several years back lol and found it hard to watch. 

[Khan]

I agree.  With some notable exceptions - such as "Murder, She Wrote," which finally got its' own "channel" on PlutoTV! - streaming services and OTA channels can overlook a lot of great shows from the '70's, '80's and even '90's.  My recent experience has been that it's either the "newer" stuff that's offered (and by "newer," I'm talking about shows from the '00's and '10's) or it's whatever is still viewable from the '50's and '60's.*  And that's just from the Big Three (ABC, CBS and NBC)!  Once you include early FOX, UPN, The WB and early cable and first-run syndicated shows, the pickings get even slimmer.

That's why I encourage others now to hold onto their DVD's and Blu-rays of their favorite series and, if possible, purchase or re-purchase them wherever they can, because even if there's a chance that a "Picket Fences" or a "Northern Exposure" were to pop up again on another streamer or OTA channel, it won't last forever there either.  There are so many past shows out there, waiting to be viewed again, but these streamers and others have only so much "space" for them all.

 

*Recently, I've been reminded all over again how many frigging western shows they made BITD, lol.