Editorials

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FALCON CREST: TIME TO UNCORK A CLASSIC

KNOTS LANDING, DYNASTY and DALLAS have all become a familiar fixture on the cable-TV landscape. But one soap is missing. We think it's time for FALCON CREST (which was bought for syndication by TBS in 1986) to be dug out of mothballs and put back on the air.

Although overshadowed by it's megahit lead-in, DALLAS, FALCON CREST consistently delivered first-rate entertainment. The stars: Jane Wyman as sour grapes queen Angela, Susan Sullivan as long-suffering Maggie and David Selby as black sheep Richard, provided a strong back-bone. They were supported by a wide assortment of celeb guests: Gina Lollobrigida, Lana Turner, Morgan Fairchild and even Apollonia visited the winery.

The plots were fun and often outrageous: fires, explosions, shootings, plane crashes, eqrthquakes, illegitimate kids who became priests, legitimate offspring who joined convents ... not to mention Melissa, the slumming socialite with a lounge act. Plus, FALCON CREST had a wicked sense of humor that surfaced in acerbic dialogue.

So let's get this vintage drama back on the air where it belongs. The wine has aged long enough.

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BEST & WORST '89

MOST RUINED SHOW - PRIMETIME
We named FALCON CREST Best Primetime Soap in 1987 and 1988 for good reasons. Droll writing, unpredictable plotting, innovative direction, sterling performances and a renewed energy made the show very entertaining and suspenseful at the same time. Several highlights come to mind: Maggie giving birth in Angeia's living room while Den Fixx played Chopin; the murder game at Falcon Crest where an actual body did turn up; Kim Novak and Roscoe Lee Browne's riotous guest-star turns as mystery woman Kit Marlowe and necromantic mogul Rosemont; Ana-Alicia's hilarious turn as Veronique the Slumming Socialite and those humdinger cliffhangers.

But then they fired everyone, or nearly everyone. Out went the creative producing and writing team; out went Ana-Alicia. Instead they put all their eggs in one basket and called it Pilar Ortega, played by the beautiful Kristian Alfonso. She has not developed into lead actress material since her days at DAYS. Then they wiped out the long-planned reconciliation between Richard and Angela Channing, which had provided many volatile and moving moments in the previous two seasons. Add to this lackluster roster a truly pointless insidertrading plot. But the biggest disappointment was the show's abysmal lack of humor. FALCON CREST no longer cracked us up. It was unforgivably dull and no reason to stay home on a Friday night.

One bright spot: the 1989 season has already shown much improvement over last year, so it looks like FALCON CREST has emerged from its slump.

WORST FIRING: ANA-ALICIA, FALCON CREST
Firing Ana-Alicia from FALCON CREST was a decision that spelled disaster for the series last season. A versatile and dynamic player, Alicia was the only woman on the series who worked as an adversary to queen bee Jane Wyman as Angela Channing and she had been given the opportunity to prove her strength. In fact, before she was sent packing, Alicia's character, Melissa Cumson, had wrested the vineyard away from Angela. The anticipated struggle between them promised exciting viewing. FC realized its mistake, and re-hired Alicia for five episodes as a courtesan named Samantha Ross in a too-late effort to boost sagging ratings. They never should have disposed of her in the first place.

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BEST & WORST OF DAYTIME & PRIMETIME

BEST FAMILY-TIES
The television landscape is littered with families who have relationships on the emotional level of Ozzie and Harriet. But FALCON CREST, while it may have its problems, consistently displays characters who have complex, amusing, and turbulent interactions with each other, Richard and Angela, Lance and Angela, and Melissa and Lance (when Ana-Alicia played that role) are just three examples of characters who have a range of emotions to the show. Maggie may have her problems with Angela, but they do rally together in a crisis. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is just like life.

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TV'S BEST & WORST MARRIAGES

Maggie & Richard, FALCON CREST

He lies. She leaves him. That's the pattern here. Richard doesn't just fib; his life is a series of subterfuges that always backfire. And Richard doesn't take kindly to retribution, either. When Maggie left him most recently (after discovering that he had created a dummy corporation to compete with his mother's vineyard), Richard used Maggie's brief bout with alcoholism last year as a means of forcing a judge to give him custody of their two sons. When it comes to "For Better or Worse" with Richard and Maggie, better always turns to worse.

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SOAPS' MOST TREASURED CHARACTERS

Angela Channing, FALCON CREST

"The most intelligent female on television, Angela Channing has succeeded in a business traditionally dominated by men. Unlike a number of her TV counterparts, she's done it by using her strength, will, scathing wit and intelligence - and not through sexual manipulation, lies and deceit. Usually. Well-bred, well-read, and cultured, Angela has a love of her family and of the Falcon Crest land unparalelled since Scariett O'Hara."
- Sheri Anderson, co-producer, FALCON CREST

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GIMME A BREAK - MOST UNBELIEVABLE PLOTS

The Pilar Ortega Show, FALCON CREST

FALCON CREST used to be a show about two families - the Channings and the Giobertis. Now it's about one person: Pilar Ortega, who was nobody until this season. Suddenly, she is the focus of everyone's attention while such stalwarts as Angela, Richard and Maggie have been relinquished to supporting players. For some unknown reason, the top brass at FC has the idea that the audience just can't get enough of Pilar. Kristian Alfonso, while undeniably beautiful, cannot carry an entire show.

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THE LURID PASTS OF SOAP CHARACTERS - SOAP PASTS THAT HAVE CONVENIENTLY BEEN FORGOTTEN

Lance Cumson, FALCON CREST

First Appearance in Town:
Lance was born with an attitude, and a bankroll. Grandson of grape queen Angela Channing, the obnoxious playboy got most of what he wanted in terms of money and women, but he didn't get respect until recently.

The Dirty Deeds:
Lance's lurid past includes an arranged marriage to Melissa Agretti and many many sordid quickies with a bevy of women. Ana-Alicia, who played Melissa, related one of Lance's more lurid moments: "We were having a party at FALCON CREST and I walked upstairs to find him in my bed with another woman. Or how about the time he raped me? We were at somebody's wedding party. We were married ourselves, but we were not having relations. I had a crush on Cole Gioberti. My husband, Lance, took me and slapped me. I slapped him. He threw me on a rock. The last shot was of my hand holding a flower. It fell to the floor. How symbolic. It was horrible."

Why Nobody Ever Asks About it:
Ana-Alicia can't imagine why anyone would forget Lance's lurid past. But people have. Ever since he was reconciled with his father, Tony, and since evil Nurse Chadwick gave one of his old girlfriends an overdose of sleeping pills, Lance has been battling bad guys - including Richard Channing - with gusto. He's even settled down, marrying former quickie Pilar Ortega.

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TV'S BIGGEST FLIRTS

Lance Cumson, FALCON CREST

APPROACH:
Lance is a rich stud who masquerades as a savvy stud. He likes props for seductions, like athletic equipment or his motorcycle. When he's out nightclubbing, he picks the most vapid woman in the room and tries one of his lines on her (instead of having a conversation, which would be too much work). Before she forgets her own name, she goes home with him. Call it a night.

PREY:
Legion. Most recently it's been Dina Wells, Melissa Cumson, Pilar Ortega, and Cookie Nash. Melissa was married to him twice; Dina had sex with him on Nautilus equipment; Pilar had a child with him when she was a teenager; Cookie Nash got pregnant by him this year.

SUCCESS RATE:
No woman seems to have ever turned Lance down. How often does a guy like that come along?

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STORY LINES WE THOUGHT WOULD NEVER END

The Jeff Wainright Story, FALCON CREST

Get this: while stricken with amnesia, Maggie Gioberti dashed off a novel and her publisher assigned an aspiring novelist named Jeff Wainright to help her sell it to the American public. They went on tour together. Jeff was working on his book, Consumed, and thought his obsession with Maggie would help him finish it. So he kidnapped her. Then he raped her. Maggie was rescued. Jeff escaped. The show went on hiatus. The autumnal equinox occurred right on schedule. A whole new season of FALCON CREST followed suit ... and there was Jeff Wainright, escaping from his captors and kidnapping Maggie's daughter, Vickie. Jeff eventually got his hands on poor Maggie again. More torture. More tears. We were relieved when the maniac was blown up while driving his truck across a rigged bridge.

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THEY WENT THATAWAY - THE FINEST MOMENTS OF SOAPS' MOST ASKED-ABOUT CHARACTERS

Julia Cumson, FALCON CREST

Finest Moment:
Depending on your taste for the offbeat, Julia murdering Jacqueline Perrault and a score of others in a season finale or Julia parading around in a nun's habit was her finest moment. Whatever she does, she's usually unforgettable.

Why Julia Left:
After Julia killed all those people, something had to be done with her. Being a rich criminal, she didn't exactly have to go to an ordinary prison and face the wrath of prison matrons. Julia was sent to a convent where the nuns could pray for her.

How Things Would Be Different If Julia Hadn't Gone:
As the eldest child of Angela Channing, Julia would have been named guardian of Falcon Crest until Angela recovered from her coma. Michael Sharpe would have had a much more difficult time wresting control of the winery from Julia than he did her defenseless sister, Emma.

The Folks Julia Left Behind:
Her son, Lance; her mother, Angela; her sister, Emma, and her brother, Richard Channing.

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FALCON CREST: THUMBS DOWN!

How do you send a show on the road to ruin? Get rid of the executive producer, Jeff Freilich, who made it stylish, hilarious, fastpaced entertainment. Fire one of the most talented members :of the cast, Ana-Alicia, an exciting actress who promised to deliver more than ever when Falcon Crest was turned over to Melissa in the 1988 cliffhanger. Replace the sharp photography with a flat look that makes a beautiful actress like Susan Sullivan look sallow. Remove the thrilling background music that did so much to create mood. And, worst of all, destroy nearly all trace of humor that put FALCON CREST in a class by itself. Not even Angela (Jane Wyman) is funny this year and that spells trouble. FALCON CREST is dull beyond belief. The writers have come up with nothing to match the excitement of previous seasons and have literally filled the hour with a lot of stilted dialogue. Is this the same show that we watched with relish and named Best Prime Time Show for the past two years in a row?

Sadly, the answer is no.

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RATING THE PRIME-TIME CLIFF-HANGERS

# OF CLIFF-HANGING PLOTS: 4
# OF PEOPLE IN PERIL: 6
FALCON CREST closed their finest season with a heart-stopping finale that left viewers breathless. The writers spun a web of multiple physical and emotional predIcaments that were intriguing without being contrived. Even such machinations as Emma poised to leap from a rooftop and Chao-Li lying unconscious after a tumble down the stairs were logical conclusions to the unfolding plot.

The demand for action was well-served by the frenetic city-wide search for Melissa and Kevin, Maggie's kidnapped baby. It escalated in tension and intensity as the episode built to a climax and became an underwater adventure when most of the pursuers as well as their quarry plunged off a pier into San Francisco Bay. Thankfully, important story lines involving Kit, Peter, Tony and Meredith were not only given a fair amount of air time, but were ultimately resolved in a satisfying manner.

Arguably, the culmination of the episode was when Angela sat down, read a letter and learned that her archenemy, Richard Channing, was actually the son whom she thought had died at birth. FC made a brilliant decision to use a sepiatone clip of a youthful Jane Wyman (in The Blue Veil) to depict Angela's memory of being told of her baby's death. Of course, the moment when Chase handed Maggie her son, then disappeared under water, was also a dramatic peak. It was a vintage episode for FALCON CREST. Here's to many more.
GRADE: A

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THE BEST AND WORST OF '86

BIGGEST LETDOWN: Father Christopher, FALCON CREST
Father Christopher provided FALCON CREST with something they've never had - a male character with a conscience. He wasn't just a priest who wanted his flock to conduct themselves in the Christian way. As Julia Cumson's illegitimate son, he was an heir to the Falcon Crest fortune and had a stake in the business decisions they made. As a spiritual man plunked down in the backbiting world of vineyard politics, he added a welcome dimension to the standard maneuvering of the Gioberti and Channing families. When he was written out of the show, FALCON CREST lost a potentially pivotal and exciting character, a talented actor in Ken Olin, and an opportunity to develop stories that were different from the usual confrontational plots that FALCON CREST and other prime time soaps have exhausted.

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