Post by topbilled on Jan 20, 2023 15:54:26 GMT
Jan 20, 2023 12:20:13 GMT Newbie said:
That's an impressive list of guest stars. One of these is not like the other: Buck Henry. Hard to imagine how he'd fit in Falcon Crest.There were all types of people on Falcon Crest.
The strongest seasons were 1-4. I also enjoyed season 5, though the show stumbled a bit...mostly because there was a good revenge plot involving Celeste Holm's character, and her children played by Anne Archer and Jonathan Frakes.
Season 6 was a return to form. Season 7 was still quite watchable. Season 8 signaled a change in executive producer and writing team, and an attempt to introduce a working class hispanic family which did not go over well with the audience. Also, Ana-Alicia's character was killed off at the beginning of season 8, which caused viewer outrage, so she was brought back mid-season to play a lookalike character. The actress was interviewed about her abrupt firing and rehiring, and she said she received two paychecks for season 8...because she was still getting paid for episodes after her first character Melissa had been killed off, per her original contract, then she was given a new contract to play the second character Samantha as a guest star.
Despite the chaotic uneven nature of season 8, it's still watchable thanks in large part to the scenes between Wyman and Selby...plus Rod Taylor joins the cast as Wyman's last husband in the series.
Season 9 is by far the worst, and the show really should have ended at the conclusion of season 8. At the beginning of the last season, Susan Sullivan's long-running character Maggie was killed off in the premiere episode. Then two episodes later Wyman's character is rendered comatose and she will remain off screen for the next 16 episodes (this was a combination of the new producer cutting her out of the series as well as a request by Wyman's doctor to decrease her workload). Wyman would defy doctor's orders and return for three episodes at the end to provide the show with a proper conclusion.
Ana-Alicia did not return for season 9 and her second character Samantha is just not mentioned anymore, which was silly since they had gone to so much trouble to resurrect her the previous year. Margaret Ladd was dropped from the show after the tenth episode, and Rod Taylor was let go after the eleventh episode, meaning both Ladd and Taylor are absent at the end, which doesn't make sense since Wyman's character was still in a coma and then when she comes out of a coma, her husband and daughter are nowhere around.
Instead season 9 had an influx of new characters and storylines that had a much different tone than the previous eight seasons. Gregory Harrison was brought in as a ruthless business to go toe-to-toe with David Selby's character. They even changed the theme song for the final season. It was like they were attempting to make a whole other series, instead of staying true to the formula that had made Falcon Crest such a success with audiences.
For anyone rewatching the entire series, my advice is once you reach season 9 and Wyman's character lapses into coma, skip to the last three episodes when she awakens and call it a day. Or else just stop watching it at the end of season 8. Truly, season 9 is that bad and there are so many inferior episodes that it's a chore to sit through all of the final season.
Incidentally, Lorenzo Lamas was the only actor to appear in every single episode of the show's run. That's a remarkable accomplishment considering all the cast turnover at the end.
