THE SHOW
A Saga of Power and Passion

A Family and a Heritage

After Joseph's death, his son Jasper is his universal heir; Jasper, who is married to Lily Travers, has two children, Angela (JANE WYMAN) and Jason (HARRY TOWNES). Jasper's marriage, however, is a disaster because his wife is very unfaithful. His ambitious daughter, Angela, convinces him to dedicate his life to his business only and gets him completely under control. Angela gets married with Douglas Channing (STEPHEN ELLIOTT), the editor-in-chief of The San Francisco Globe, a daily newspaper. They have two daughters, Julia (ABBY DALTON) and Emma (MARGARET LADD). But their matrimony is divorced a few years later. Neither is Jason happily married. His French wife, Jacqueline Perrault (LANA TURNER), leaves him and takes their son, Chase (ROBERT FOXWORTH), to Europe.

After their father's death, Falcon Crest is passed on to Angela and Jason, who have to share the estate 50 : 50. Angela, who lives in the Victorian Mansion, runs the business; Jason, who has become an alcoholic after his divorce, is no longer interested in business affairs and makes a bare living in the Gioberti House, which he totally neglects.

When Jason becomes the victim of a very mysterious death, a certain clause in Jasper's last will and testament changes the succession, and Falcon Crest is parcelled off: Angela gains control over 90 % of the estate, whereas only the old run-down Gioberti House and one single vineyard of 50 acres are willed to Jason's son Chase, who is an airline pilot now.

For the first time after twenty years, Chase returns to Tuscany to attend Jason's funeral. As he feels very much love for his ancestors' land he was born and raised on, Chase and his wife Maggie (SUSAN SULLIVAN) finally decide to leave their New York home and move the family west to California in order to start over — much to the dismay of Chase's aunt Angela, whose greed for money and power is not along the same lines with his moral integrity. Angela is more than shocked at the sudden family reunion. Supported by her Chinese butler Chao-Li (CHAO-LI CHI) and her clever attorney Phillip Erickson (MEL FERRER), she tries to cover how Jason actually died because she is afraid of losing her inherited property due to another clause in Jasper's last will in case it becomes apparent that Jason did not die a natural death.

The inhabitants of Tuscany are seized by proud, passion, greed and thirst for revenge as well as love of the land; a desperate struggle for predominance emerges in the beautiful scenery with its superb vineyards. No risk is too high to gain control over Falcon Crest.

On the one side, there is Chase with his wife Maggie and their children Cole (WILLIAM R. MOSES) and Vicki (JAMIE ROSE & DANA SPARKS), who want nothing else but leading a peaceful life in the valley. Giving up his job as a pilot, Chase tries to make a living as a vineyardist, something of which he knows very little at the beginning. Maggie works part-time as a freelance journalist for various newspapers and magazines.

On the other side, there is Angie, an ambitious woman full of hate, as well as her daughters Emma and Julia, who is a winemaker and works as the cellerar at Falcon Crest. For devious Angela nothing can be insidious enough to fit her plans of driving her nephew Chase out of the valley so that "her" property could once again be complete. Vicious calumnies, bribery and blackmailing is Angela's favorite way of doing business. She is assisted by her spoiled-rotten grandson Lance Cumson (LORENZO LAMAS), a young playboy, who has no moral principles and usually makes himself at home in any woman's bed in the valley; he is Julia's son from her wrecked marriage with Tony Cumson (JOHN SAXON & ROBERT LOGGIA).

The Plot Thickens

Douglas' son Richard Channing (DAVID SELBY) arrives in San Francisco. Richard, who was adopted by wealthy businessman Henri Denault (E.G. MARSHALL) after his birth, has been desperately looking for his biological mother since he was a teenager. Richard realizes his vast fortune cannot compensate the lack of love in his life. After Douglas' death, Richard inherits the half of his biological father's shares of The San Francisco Globe. A conflict between Richard and Angela, Douglas' ex-wife, emerges because she is angry at the fact that each of her daughters inherited just a quarter of Douglas' stockholdings. Mysterious Richard stirs up a lot of trouble in the history of the Gioberti family: He does not only become Angela's most powerful archenemy, but later also turns out to be her own son, whom she thought she had lost in childbirth, but who was actually kidnapped by Doug and his mistress, Jacqueline Perrault. In the course of time, Richard takes over the show's leading rôle after Angela.

A combination of beauty, greed for money and thirst for revenge — Melissa Agretti (DOLORES CANTU & ANA-ALICIA) is more than the designated heiress of the fertile Agretti Vineyards. Due to an everlasting family feud, she wants to get the Giobertis down. The unscrupulous young woman gets even married with Lance Cumson to defeat Angela, the "queen of the valley" — because revenge is sweeter than wine.

Terry Hartford (LAURA JOHNSON), Maggie's attractive sister, is one of Tuscany's hottest news topics when the former callgirl gets to wealth by marriage.Wealthy Greek businessman Peter Stavros (CESAR ROMERO), owner of several shipyards and chemical factories, tries to get back together with his teenage love, Angela. Melissa's uncle, Frank Agretti (ROD TAYLOR), returns to the valley.

FALCON CREST chronicles the internal conflicts within a great family, whose members are often supported by attorneys, other vintners, the local authorities, the Sheriff of Tuscany County etc. Anyone might form an alliance with anyone — it just depends on a lucrative offer, and one's partner of today might be the enemy of tomorrow.

Going thru the list of special guest stars, who sometimes appear for a few episodes, is like reading the Who is Who encyclopedia of movie stars. Popular actors and actresses season the seasons, e.g. artists like CLIFF ROBERTSON, PARKER STEVENSON, GINA LOLLOBRIGIDA, ANNE ARCHER, CELESTE HOLM, MORGAN FAIRCHILD, KIM NOVAK, JANE BADLER, ROBERT STACK, LESLIE CARON, EDDIE ALBERT, LAUREN HUTTON, URSULA ANDRESS and SUSAN BLAKELY.

From 1981 thru 1990, 227 episodes bring along stories about money and power, happiness and suffering, love and hate, fate and death.

LORIMAR, nowadays a subsidiary of WARNER BROS. TELEVISION, developed the FALCON CREST series based on a script by EARL HAMNER, a distinguished novelist and award-winning screenplay and teleplay writer, most remembered for his popular television series THE WALTONS. Originally intended to be a one hour TV movie, LORIMAR produced THE VINTAGE YEARS, the predecessor of the FALCON CREST show, in the spring of 1981. After that made-for-TV-movie was totally revamped, recast and recreated, the program FALCON CREST made its début on the CBS television network on December 4, 1981.

Beside other soap operas, such as DALLAS, KNOTS LANDING and DYNASTY, the series was consistently among the top-rated American primetime dramas on television. Filmed in California's heralded wine country, the Napa and Sonoma Valleys, as well as on location around Los Angeles and at CBS STUDIO CENTER in Studio City, FALCON CREST has been syndicated in over 35 countries up to now. As one of the most popular shows in television history, the series is still very successful in many European countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Spain, Scandinavia, and most recently even in some of the former communist countries in Eastern Europe.

THE DFCF
A Brief Overview

History

After the liquidation of the UNITED FAN CLUBS ORGANIZATION, the GERMAN FALCON CREST FAN CLUB became independent on October 14, 1989. The head office was located in Kerpen near Cologne. The club's first board of directors, SASCHA BÜCHER and ANNEMARIE POHL, published the first issue of the Falcon Crest-Clubjournal newsletter edition on December 15, 1989. The fifth and final issue of that particular newsletter edition was put out on April 1, 1992.

After the resignation of the directors, a new board was elected on July 7, 1992. INGO A. KÜPPERS, THOMAS J. PUCHER and GORDON SCHMITZ took over the management and moved the DFCF headquarters to Neumarkt/Opf. south of Nuremberg. Another election was neces- sary when GORDON SCHMITZ left the managing board; he was replaced by ANDRÉ TAUCHNITZ on July 1, 1993. On August 1, 1994, the DFCF published the first issue of its new newsletter edition called Falcon Crest’s.

The Team

The three directors and their functions in detail:
· INGO A. KÜPPERS has been interested in FALCON CREST for over eight years. After he became a fan club member, he also started working as a freelance writer for the club's newsletters. Since he joined the board of directors, he is in charge of acquiring publicity photographs, as well as national and international newspaper articles about the series. Besides, he is the treasurer of the club.
· THOMAS J. PUCHER fell in love with the show in 1987. He joined the fan club in 1990 and immediately began working as a freelance in the field of research. After contacting WARNER BROS. in 1992, he became one of the club's directors. As a member of the board, he is in charge of correspondence and public relations. He is the author of the synopses of each episode. Furthermore, he is in charge of planning and producing Falcon Crest’s, the current newsletter edition in German language, which is published twice a year. Due to his cooperation with American collectors, press representatives and even some members of the FALCON CREST cast and production crew, he was the first one to publish spectacular background information about the show that hardly anyone had heard of before.
· ANDRÉ TAUCHNITZ deals with analysis and interpretation of the series. He also runs the video service and is in charge of the promotions coordination.

A bunch of freelance writers also contributes to the club's success nowadays:
· SASCHA EICKELMANN continually revises and completes the biographies of the actors and actresses.
· SASCHA KURZ designs architect's plans of the show's interior sets.
· ADRIAN McCONCHIE provides promotional materials about the show and the fan club via the Internet.
· MARIANNE FREY, who retired in 1996, used to enlist many new members and clients during the development stage of the club.

Quality television demands quality publications. The fan club's contribution to modern aspects in mass media is also looking behind the scenes of the series, analyzing the show's messages and drawing parallels between the soap opera and real life. Therefore, the DFCF is always on the look-out for new talents to cooperate with. If you enjoy writing and have enough time to do so, please go ahead and contact us.

To keep up its quality standards, the DFCF staff makes great efforts and spends very much money to get in touch with organizations in the United States and other countries. TIME WARNER, INC. was happy to hear about the club's projects and provided the DFCF with many promotional materials on the show.

The Offer

The use of the club's extensive archives of printing materials and photographs contributes to its newsletters' success. Falcon Crest’s, the current newsletter edition, which replaced the former Falcon Crest-Clubjournal edition and premiered in August 1994, reveals the club's quality standards.

Each issue of Falcon Crest’s, which is based on a draft by GORDON SCHMITZ, a former director, is dedicated to one season of the series only: The DFCF prints very detailed synopses of each episode as well as so-called specials, i.e. particular pieces of text or illustrations referring to the most important events on the show, including wedding ceremonies, funeral services etc. The document section of the newsletter contains hand-written papers, such as personal letters, last wills and testaments etc.

In addition, the newsletter contains biographies of the actors and actresses, background reports and room for advertisements for the fans.

The newsletter is illustrated with black-and-white stills, which are reproduced by photocopier, as well as color photographs, e.g. cast photos, studio portraits and location photos; about 10 % of each issue are reproduced by color laser photocopier.

The newsletter is published in sheets so that the fans have the possibility to sup- plement it with their own materials to complete their individual FALCON CREST collection as they like it. Falcon Crest’s is published at a limited circulation twice a year, usually in February and August. In addition to the regular newsletters, the DFCF sometimes puts out special editions about particular topics connected with FALCON CREST in association with TJP PUBLICATIONS. In September 1996, for instance, Welcome to Tuscany Valley was published — a tourist guide to the locations, exterior sets and film studios where FALCON CREST was filmed. Another example for these special editions is THE VINTAGE YEARS — The development of the FALCON CREST show..., a magazine about the series' original predecessor; put out in February 1997, it is the first publication to provide spectacular information about the one hour TV movie, which was originally intended to be used as the pilot show for FALCON CREST. TJP PUBLICATIONS also produces the annual FALCON CREST calendar, including brilliant color photos of the actors.

As the ninth Falcon Crest's newsletter, which is scheduled for publication in August 1998, will be the last issue of the season-by-season magazines, the new core of the club's work will be the directors' efforts to convince the former producers of the show to film a reunion. Since WARNER BROS. recently had success with both DALLAS and KNOTS LANDING reunions, lots of FALCON CREST fans wish their favorite soap opera was still in production, too. Although a FALCON CREST comeback might be rather improbable, THOMAS J. PUCHER and INGO A. KÜPPERS make great efforts for a fictitious reunion movie and have already passed on a first draft of their own scripts to some of the former cast and crew members.

Irrespective of a possible realization of the project, the DFCF intends to offer the scripts, which might be a solid basis for a spectatcular return of FALCON CREST to nighttime series television, to the loyal FALCON CREST fans as monthly publications. Like the original scripts, the self-written scripts contain cast lists, set information, the plot and dialogs as well as production notes. The scripts of the fictitious reunion are written in American English.

By purchasing the DFCF newsletters, you help us support fokos, a photocopying and printing service operated by Neumarkt’s Jura Workshop, a non-profit organization which employs disabled people and mental patients.

Beside magazines and other printing materials, the DFCF also sells location photographs and some photos from the set in association with TJP PUBLICATIONS. Please note that, due to copyright laws, it is impossible to distribute publicity and promotional photographs from the show separated from our newsletters.

For a free list of available materials, please contact the DFCF via e-mail, fax or air mail. All offers are subject to change without notice.

This site designed and maintained by Adrian McConchie. © 1998 Adrian McConchie. All rights reserved. Original images and materials © 1981-98 Warner Bros. Television. No material, designs, artwork, original images, titles or scripts may be reproduced without the consent of the respective author. 'Falcon Crest: A Tribute' is an independent site that shares no affiliation with Warner Bros.