I recall @Chris B asking about this but here is an interview Sheri Anderson did with SOU back in the fall of ‘89:

Here is an article that I think is interesting, it is an interview with Shery Anderson, screenwriter of the ninth season

THE WRITE STUFF: FALCON CREST’S SHERI ANDERSON: FROM DAYS TO NIGHTTIME
By Richard Spencer Soap Opera Update, 1989
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At a time when the success of nighttime soaps is shaky, Sheri Anderson, former headwriter for DAYS OF OUR UVES, ANOTHER WORLD, GUIDING LIGHT and GENERAL HOSPITAL, makes the jump to the evening format with some new ideas to help strenthen the CBS California vineyard based soap opera FALCON CREST.

"FALCON CREST is going to have a differnet tone that it never had before," headwriter Sheri Anderson expiains. "The people that I am working with are kind of an interesting mix. The executive producer, Joel Sumow, did the first years of MIAMI VICE and THE EQUALIZER, Bob Cochran, a Harvard MBA,and Cyrus Nowrasteh, who has done a number of features, are story editors. I am co-porducer, with a history in daytime, so we are a real different mix. We all kind of balance each other out in different ways.
I am sort of the emotional side (coming from daytime) and they are more the gritty side."

A lack of focus is what Sheri attributes to FALCON CREST's problems the last few seasons. "No one , seemed to knwo that the characters' motivations were. Pilar was a real good example. No one seemed to know what she wanted. This season it is clear that Pilar wants Lance. That is really her dream and goal tokeep Lance. She will do anything to do that. She will be making some sacrifices thís season that really jeopardize her relationship with Lance."

While Pilar's character may be strongly in place, Maggie's is not. How will the show restructure in light of Maggie's drowning? "
We are not trying to replace her, but we are adding another kind of strong heroine character. That character is Laruren Daniels. She's very earthy; married to a construction worker. Lauren. is the sister of Michael Sharp, Gregory Harrison's new character.

"Michael is an extremely powerful adversary to Richard Channing. He will be more cynical than Richard and less emotionally motivated. For Michael it is all power and money. The audience will be more sympathetic toward Richard. He will be going through hell," Sheri reveáis with doom in her voice, "...Paying for his past sins "

The complete opposite of Richard or Michael's intensity is the the new character of Charlíe St. James."Charlie is every woman's foolish choice," Sheri character sketches. "He's kind of indescribable; charismatic, totally unpredictable, charming, unnervtng. He's coming in as a love interest for Emma. He will be the first man to make Emma feel like a woman. She's really not victimized by him...she’s addicted to him. Charlie's presence will make her a little less flakey this season."

But Emma is not the only one in store for major personality changes, also in the categroy is Frank. "We arebringing back somebody from his past," Sheri reveals "there will be a great secret that will come to ight." Speaking of characters from the past, are there any Sheri would like to return? "Everyone is fond of Ana-Alicia in her original role. At this point we don't have any plans to bring her back because we have some other character that are going to take the forefront."

And if one thing is going to remain the same, it will be what Sheri recognizes as the theme of FALCON CREST "Quest for control of Falcon Crest. We have people trying to take control, and they are all taking it for different reasons. Some are emotioanl, some are revenge, but they each have a different eason for which they want Falcon Crest. And that is really the pivotal center. It is very earthy."

Keeping the core of lite show intact is not the only thing nighttime shows have to do to stay interesting and acording to Sheri"I din't think night time shows have kept paces with changes in the viewing audience," Sheri answers by analyzing what exactly is primetime soaps* problem. ln datyime, you do over the years the shows stay on, but you are adapting to what people are accepting:faster-paced, or slower, or addíng more comedy, depending on the audience, and what they are buying. I don't think some of these shows in primetime have done that

"We are trying to make the show as much episodio as it is continuing. We are cutting down the number of scenes in each act to get the audience more involved. But some of the shows, and this happens in daytime al so, don’t let the characters really grow,"

Sheri certainly made chracters develop during her daytime career, but especially on DAYS OF OUR LIVES, which is the source for her favourite stories of her careen ”When Víctor carne to Salem and revealed tha the was really Bo’s father, it caused such a ripple effect for Kim, Shane, Román, Bo, Hope, Caroline and Sean. I also liked bringing Kayla back for Patch.” Having written for Kristian Alfonso' s Hope (DAYS) and now Pilar on FC, Sheri distínguishes between the two characters.
"Pilar is a woman, but Hope was growing up. Hope was more innocent and Pilar is not Pilar has an intelligent strength where Hope did all the wrong things for all the right reasons." Pilar wíll be the only one retuming from her family, while Angela Channing’s appearances will be limited (per Jane Wyman's contract). "But Richard will be taking a very strong role which is very similar to Angela

Angelad presence will be felt in every epísode/ Sheri informs. A lot of people complained about the women of FALCON CREST being wishy-washy They certainly aren't this season Sheri emphasizes. "Lauren will be strong, especially after her brother Michael steais Richard’s children and places them with her, Frnak’s step daughter will be very devious, indicateive of Kathleen Turner in “Body Heat” And Gregory Harrison is fabulous," Sheri reports with joy. "He is so different from his character on TRAPPER JOHN, M.D He is very similar to Michael Douglas in the film 'Wall Street'. FALCON CREST viewers will find a much richer textrae, getting away from the glamour and really going to substance and style." Sheri concludes, "it will be a show to watch, We are trying to bring in a new audience, and at the same time, respect our past audience."

@soapfan770Thank you so much for posting that! I know the final season of Falcon Crest is controversial but I thought it was a fantastic swing that mostly worked. The only thing that would've made it better is if they had more money which hopefully could've kept Emma full season. I feel like that was her strongest arc since season one and I wish she had remained so we could've seen her as a mother. I also wish they had more Angela but that was obviously out of their control.

As different as it was, I felt season 9 to be very true to the initial gothic roots of the series.

I really enjoyed the first half of season 9. It was dark but Emma, Angela, Lance and Richard were front and center.  Pilar and Frank were finally interesting.  Charley, Michael and Genele came in and caused a lot of drama.  It was even sexier. I also liked the new into theme music. Then the second half of the season went to hell.

Thanks @soapfan770 . Sheri seems to have a much different take on Emma's husband than I remember the show having.

@soapfan770 Thanks for the Sheri Anderson interview.

So she admits to being influenced by Wall Street, but did she really think that 25 years later (going by real time) the audience wouldn't notice the dust off of The Sound of Music?

2 hours ago, Efulton said:

 Then the second half of the season went to hell.

There was a five week break between the last Friday episode and the Thursday episodes which were the final four episodes. I have a feeling the final four episodes were refilmed to wrap up the storylines. 

The original trailer for "Falcon Crest" from 1981 - afterwards the entire pilot was trashed and they started all over again 

 

I would have loved being on the set the day Jane Wyman got that ridiculous wig.

Poor Michael Swan. Not sure he would have been worse than Foxworth, although as with all his non-Scottish accent roles, he's lacking charisma.

They made so many changes, but whichever queen at Lorimar brought in Lorenzo Lamas and Billy Moses did the 1981 version of this at any discussion about them:

And good for him.

Edited July 8Jul 8 by DRW50

12 hours ago, DRW50 said:

I would have loved being on the set the day Jane Wyman got that ridiculous wig.

They originally wanted Barbara Stanwyck, so I guess the wig was a choice to make Angela look more like her. Wisely, they ditched it (or Jane Wyman made them do so lol).

Interesting that the Vintage Years pilot got an early trailer preview. I guess they must've decided to scrap it entirely when the show was moved to a mid-season premiere.

When The Vintage Years was announced at the May Fall Schedule meetings, it was with the disclaimer that there would be changes in casting and concept.

It debuted in Dec 81 because of the strike that held up production of many shows. 

 

 

 

 

7 hours ago, Khan said:

The first seasons...were probably their best, if only because they adhered the most to their creators' intentions.  They weren't being forced to "glam up" yet, so more attention was paid to developing characters and so forth.

Falcon Crest first season felt more like a family drama. I thought of it as wealthy Waltons in modern day California wine country. I don't think Earl Hamner wanted a Dallas with grapes/James Bond hybrid but that's what seasons 2-4 were. 

I wonder how much of the shift in direction was CBS mandated. 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.

 

Edited July 12Jul 12 by kalbir

Hamner loved the concept of a family escaping the big bad city to return to their small town roots. Before he passed away, he pitched a show called “Foundations” where a man moves his family from the city back to his hometown to take over the family apple orchard business. Sound familiar?

15 hours ago, Chris 2 said:

Hamner loved the concept of a family escaping the big bad city to return to their small town roots. Before he passed away, he pitched a show called “Foundations” where a man moves his family from the city back to his hometown to take over the family apple orchard business. Sound familiar?

Hahaha, yes it does

I don't think that would've fit on CBS in the CSI/NCIS/Criminal Minds/Hawaii Five-0/Blue Bloods era though.

Edited July 13Jul 13 by kalbir

15 hours ago, kalbir said:

Hahaha, yes it does

I don't think that would've fit on CBS in the CSI/NCIS/Criminal Minds/Hawaii Five-0/Blue Bloods era though.

I don't think so either.  At best, I see it as a companion of sorts to "Touched by an Angel" or "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman."  Something that might've worked best on Saturday nights, where expectations are low.

I also agree that FC as it came to be was not what Hamner himself wanted at the start.  If you'll notice, too, that although he was EP for several seasons, he wrote only two episodes.  To me, that says he wasn't as comfortable with FC as David Jacobs was with KL.

3 hours ago, Khan said:

I don't think so either.  At best, I see it as a companion of sorts to "Touched by an Angel" or "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman."  Something that might've worked best on Saturday nights, where expectations are low.

I also agree that FC as it came to be was not what Hamner himself wanted at the start.  If you'll notice, too, that although he was EP for several seasons, he wrote only two episodes.  To me, that says he wasn't as comfortable with FC as David Jacobs was with KL.

It might have been somewhere along the lines of Four Corners, that Ann Margret show which ran for two weeks.