Falcon Crest

[kalbir]

So the rebroadcasts were 1986-1987 broadcast syndication, 1987-? Lifetime, 2000-2003 Soapnet, 2022-2024 Freevee. Am I missing any?

[soapfan770]

TNT 1991-93ish and the SoapNet broadcast’s actually lasted til 2005 when MP and 90210 took over. 

[kalbir]

Thank you @soapfan770

I had no memory of TNT rebroadcasts.

Whenever any full episodes or clips turn up on YT/DM they are usually from Soapnet 2000-2003 recordings.

[adrnyc]

NOOOOOOOOOOO! Those bastards. I'm right at the bottom 1/3 of Season 5. I'd only ever seen through Season 3. 

Luckily...kinda...I do have through Season 6 on DVD's that I got from a fan, like, 12 years ago. But they're transfers from VHS tapes recorded off the SoapNet airing. Not good quality. That's part of why I never made it past Season 3. 

I have to believe that, since someone went to the trouble of finally digitizing all the episodes that it'll find its way to another streaming service. Probably Max as others have posited on this board. 

[soapfan770]

You’re welcome @kalbir it’s funny as a late 80’s preteen I remember watching Dallas with my parents and siblings atill the bitter end along with other shows like  Knots The Equalizer, LA Law, and shows like Scarecrow and Mrs King and Remington Steele yet Falcon Crest was a show I just occasionally watched and lost track of. I knew of Dynasty but it was always on a school night (although we were 8:00MT lol) 

I guess I have a fonder memory for the late  80’s primetime soaps in their later days than most because that’s when I started watching them even though they were past their prime in retrospect. 

[soapfan770]

“A shocking new show with s very familiar name!!”

Good lord CBS, and why was Jane Wyman named last in this promo?

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[kalbir]

Falcon Crest final two seasons were not necessary and I feel they only happened because CBS was in their third place primetime mess era. Season 8 was a chore to get through and season 9 had a darkness and sadness surrounding it and it was painful to get through. A good amount of the final two seasons I was like "make it make sense". 

If we're keeping it real, after watching Falcon Crest episodes I was surprised it made it past Spring 1986. 1985/86 was the season tanking was cemented (signs of tanking were showing during the last 10 episodes of 1984/85) as the storylines were so start and stop and most of them didn't really work. I will admit 1986/87 was an improvement but it was still tanking. 1987/88 it started going off the rails and Spring 1988 should have been the end. Spring 1988 to me feels like it should have been the natural end point for 1980s primetime soaps.

Its so funny how the fortunes of CBS daytime and primetime were in opposite directions by Fall 1989: killing it in daytime w/ all four soaps at full strength plus the game show block but an absolute mess in primetime.

[Khan]

I agree.

[soapfan770]

While I found the Freilich era to resurrect the show and make it highly entertaining, I still vividly remember your satire post with Jane Wyman quotes several several pages back Khan

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Dallas should’ve ended with Sue Ellen telling JR he’ll  be the laughing stock of Texas while FC should’ve ended with Angela’s very ominous “I’ll be back” to Melissa. 

[te.]

Well, last is usually considered a "star spot". I'm more confused with Mark Lindsay Chapman being named in this - he was hardly famous and not even a regular! I do think it's interesting how they just promoted it as a new show. Though it makes sense - I actually think it's probably a much more well-plotted and written season that a lot of them. But they could've pretty much just named it Falcon Crest: New Beginnings or something...

[All My Shadows]

So, for the first time ever, I'm going into FC in earnest with a watch from the beginning until as far as I can get (which I was hoping would be the whole series until Freevee took it off). I think I have access to at least the first three seasons.

I'm going to have annoying questions/comments, so get ready 

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- Please tell me that them casually referring to Angela as "Angie" is just one of those things that only lasts through the first season and is never done ever again because it just seems so wrong!

- Lorenzo Lamas was hot from episode 1. He and Jane definitely had the chemistry as scheming grandmother with her apprentice grandson learning her ways.

- I forgot that the Giobertis were supposed to be a NYC family transplanted into NorCal, but the only one who gives off New Yorker vibes is Vickie. Cole absolutely looks, sounds, and acts like he's from rural America. Chase and Maggie give Midwest.

- I'm actually liking the more self-contained early episodes, but I wonder how they really marketed the show at the time. DALLAS was full-on soap by this time, so I'm impressed by the fact that they didn't rush FC into serialized mode and took time to develop the characters and relationships slowly. The continuing plot of Angela wanting Chase gone and the threat of the Giobertis finding out what really happened to Jason is good, though, and it frames everything else well.

[Khan]

Same here.  Those episodes were rough, like DALLAS's and KL's earliest episodes were rough, but they also showed some promise. 

Moreover, given all that we know about Earl Hamner, Jr. and his career before FC, I think those episodes were more in his wheelhouse as a producer/writer.

I think all subsequent seasons should have been mapped out that way: self-contained episodes that still fit within a season-long arc or mystery.  The more FC tried to be like DALLAS and DYNASTY (and later, "Miami Vice"), the further it got away from itself.

Edited July 17, 2024 by Khan

[kalbir]

Season 1 felt like wealthy Waltons in modern day California wine country and it was a good start that built the foundation. 

CBS should have realized that Earl Hamner was not David Jacobs or Aaron Spelling or Bill Bell. Family drama was more Earl Hamner style, not soap opera.

I thought seasons 2 and 3 were Falcon Crest peak even though it became Dallas with grapes/James Bond hybrid and that lasted through season 4. Season 5 became Dallas with grapes/Miami Vice hybrid because if you can't beat the new hotness might as well join it.

[Khan]

I agree.  I really like how FC was set up in the beginning, with the Giobertis as stand-ins for the audience, who would have been new to that world; and the Channing/Cumsons as their pseudo-Gothic relatives and rivals, who controlled the valley, and who would have provided some intrigue on occasion.  The only change I'd make would be to combine Emma and Julia into one character (as Lance's mentally unstable mother, who was unable to raise Lance herself - leaving the task entirely to Angela - and whom Lance regards more like a sibling than he does his actual parent).

Edited July 18, 2024 by Khan

[Paul Raven]

@Khan like that idea of combining Julia/Emma.

Just found out that Bethel Leslie/Gerry day wrote the Season 1 ep Victims.They co wrote Secret Storm at one point and of course Bethel had several soap roles.

Forgot that Emma was pregnant .Who was the Dad?