Ninth season Susan Sullivan or Gregory Harrison poll

[Richard Denault]

Lorimar decided to bring Gregory in so as not to pay him after canceling Family Man
And that's why it was decided to hire Thorpe and Suenow so that Michael Sharpe would fit in.

Willian Devane says
Devane: Well Kevin Dobson came on to Knots because CBS had to fulfill a contractual obligation of his. He had a deal with CBS to do a series; there was a show that he was going to do, like a detective who had a young daughter and that went nowhere. CBS had to fulfill his contract so they put him on Knots Landing. It worked well because Don Murray didn't want to be on Knots anymore. You'd be surprised how often people get onto shows like that, because the actor has a contract with the network. It actually happens with writers all the time. I've been on shows when suddenly writers show up out of nowhere and you wonder why. Then you realize that they had a deal with the network
That's what happened with Surnow and Thorpe??'
Kevin fit perfectly into Knots, plus it was the soap era.
But it seems that they insisted on making Falcon Crests fit Michael Sharpe
In this announcement of the first episode of Gregory's ninth major size David

 

[Richard Denault]

Willian Devane says
Devane: Well Kevin Dobson came on to Knots because CBS had to fulfill a contractual obligation of his. He had a deal with CBS to do a series; there was a show that he was going to do, like a detective who had a young daughter and that went nowhere. CBS had to fulfill his contract so they put him on Knots Landing. It worked well because Don Murray didn't want to be on Knots anymore. You'd be surprised how often people get onto shows like that, because the actor has a contract with the network. It actually happens with writers all the time. I've been on shows when suddenly writers show up out of nowhere and you wonder why. Then you realize that they had a deal with the network
That's what happened with Surnow and Thorpe??'
Kevin fit perfectly into Knots, plus it was the soap era.
But it seems that they insisted on making Falcon Crests fit Michael Sharpe
In this announcement of the first episode of Gregory's ninth major size David

By the way also failure the Family Man finished #113 out of 141 prime time shows for the 1990–91 season Nielsen rankings.

 

[Richard Denault]

It is a pity that the German club does not have the comments of the Lorimar control group in the ninth season.
I can imagine the letters to CBS and Lorimar from fans furious about season nine.

 

[AndyB2008]

Willian Devane says
Devane: Well Kevin Dobson came on to Knots because CBS had to fulfill a contractual obligation of his. He had a deal with CBS to do a series; there was a show that he was going to do, like a detective who had a young daughter and that went nowhere. CBS had to fulfill his contract so they put him on Knots Landing. It worked well because Don Murray didn't want to be on Knots anymore. You'd be surprised how often people get onto shows like that, because the actor has a contract with the network. It actually happens with writers all the time. I've been on shows when suddenly writers show up out of nowhere and you wonder why. Then you realize that they had a deal with the network
That's what happened with Surnow and Thorpe??'
Kevin fit perfectly into Knots, plus it was the soap era.
But it seems that they insisted on making Falcon Crests fit Michael Sharpe
In this announcement of the first episode of Gregory's ninth major size David
View attachment 50121

That show Kevin did prior to Knots Landing was Shannon, in which he played a San Franciscan detective.

Unfortunately Shannon was put into the same Wednesday 10pm timeslot as Dynasty (Joan Collins had come in by this point) and Quincy M.E, and didn't last long.

 

[juschill]

As Susan told soap opera in 2001
"SUSAN: I think that what really happened was that my contract was up and I think they decided that perhaps they could pump some new life into the show. So they brought in Gregory Harrison and took the show in a whole new direction"
They fired her and with that money they will pay Gregory Harrison
Gregory had been hired by Lorimar to play a comedy Family Man that had been postponed for a year. To avoid paying him to do nothing they put him in Falcon Crest
In my opinion, with Angela being sick, losing Susan was a tremendous mistake.
Family Man premiered the following year and was a failure. It only took one year
View attachment 49859

The biggest mistake was pretending the 8th season never happened.

Gregory Harrison was fine. Maggie was tired and boring. But the worst part was ignoring the Agretti story especially Nick and Ben, dropping all of the Ortega stuff as painful as some of it was, pretending Samantha Ross never happened.

Season 8 was a decent season and deserved some sort of closure.

 

[Richard Denault]

Gregory Harrison was fine. Maggie was tired and boring. But the worst part was ignoring the Agretti story especially Nick and Ben, dropping all of the Ortega stuff as painful as some of it was, pretending Samantha Ross never happened.
Season 8 was a decent season and deserved some sort of closure.

Maggie's character had very bad scripts in the eighth
Richard could have left her the direction of the Globe
The Glenbraddock affair was really about breaking up his marriage
Michael was Richard's adored son. He wasn't going to lose it.
And take refuge in Angela's house with everything that had made her
And shortly after separating from Richard, she passionately kissed Tommy Ortega.
Maggie should have been back in the ninth. And fight with Richard against Sharpe

 

[Richard Denault]

And the New Globe??
They never named him again. But in episode 5 of the ninth season, a scene was deleted according to the German club.

www.falconcrest.org | Deutscher FALCON CREST - Fanclub / German FALCON CREST Fan Club

falconcrest.org

9.05 Soul Sacrifice writer Sheri Anderson & Alan Moskowitz
An early script draft contained a scene with Richard and Genele on the courthouse steps after the first hearing in the lawsuit concerning the administration of Angela's assets. The scene features a photo journalist named Stu trying to take photos of them, but Richard tells him to take a hike. Interestingly enough, Stu tells Richard he has no more right to order him around because he doesn't own the paper anymore. It is quite mysterious why that scene with this essential reference about the New Globe was edited before the episode went on the air.
A shame Sharpe could have taken the Globe from Richard. That would have hurt more than taking away Falcon Crest.
By the way, in Richard's office we see some little soldiers and a small balloon on Richard's desk. This was not in the production manager's detailed script?

 

[Richard Denault]

We already know that Susan was fired. But he had to say that she was the one who decided to leave.
After eighty ears of mental anguish, Susan Sullivan quits FALCON CREST 1989-10-31
By Robert Rorke
Susan Sullivan is leaving FALCON CREST after playing long-suffering Maggie Channing since its beginning in 1981. The choice was hers. “Maggie was repeating herself,” she says. “I had missed seeing several shows because I was out of the country. When I came home, I watched them back-to-back and I saw myself playing the same scene in every show. I just felt, this is not good for me, this is not good for the show — what are we doing here?”
Frankly, Susan admits that her personal plot suggestion, the marriage of Richard and Maggie, was Maggie's undoing. “I got boxed in by my very own idea,” she says. Exploring Maggie as a woman who was addicted to a man who was not really good for her left the character — and ac- tress — in a rut. “I just felt it was time for me to leave. Also, you know, if I want to do anything else in this business, I'd better try to do it now. I can't wait any longer, but it's been such a good run for me." Sullivan witnessed the evolution of FC from a "more homey” show that showed Maggie as the eternally supportive wife of Chase Gioberti (Robert Foxworth) — an incarnation that she feels viewers most easily identified with — to the “tongue-in- cheek” years when Jeff Freilich was ex- ecutive producer and Maggie gave birth on Angela's (Jane Wyman) couch.

Maggie's brief bout with alcohol featured Sullivan's most gutsy work in the role and drew on her memories of being the child of an alcoholic herself. "I think if Maggie was going to get involved with someone like Richard, she would have to go into a kind of denial and start drinking,” she observes. “It was hard for the audience. They do all these focus groups and a lot of people didn't like to see that in this character, so I always felt badly that maybe it was my own personal pursuit, but I wanted to play it.”
Susan would now like a complete change of pace: a sitcom. Sure, she'd like something as good as MURPHY BROWN, but she knows she's been out of circulation. “It's all such a crapshoot out there,” she says. “I've had some things offered to me that are not particu- larly interesting. I'm competing with a big, broad collective group of women from Jill Clayburgh and Marsha Mason to the TV ladies and it is going to be more difficult. I'm doing what everybody is doing, creat- ing some projects of my own.”
Maggie is dying a most untimely death — drowning — and Susan spoiled the surprise by alluding to it on appearances on late-night talk shows.
She regards her eight years on FALCON CREST as the end of a cycle of personal development, “My life has expanded,” she says. “I feel that I can take care of myself. I have a beautiful home, I have a wonderful relationship. My life is really terrific and I thank not only FALCON CREST — I thank myself. I thank Susan and Maggie and the people who watched.”
As she said in another interview
“In my mid-40s, I suddenly didn’t have the work that I had had for 20 years, and I sort of had to reinvent myself, but at the same time, I had the first real, deep, grown-up love of my life.”

 

[WarriorsFan]

1989-10-31

The scanned article looks like its from Soap Opera Digest. Going by the issue date October 31, 1989, that means it was published after the season premiere September 29, 1989. Plenty of time for the writer to make the network/production company look positive.

 

[Richard Denault]

The scanned article looks like its from Soap Opera Digest. Going by the issue date October 31, 1989, that means it was published after the season premiere September 29, 1989. Plenty of time for the writer to make the network/production company look positive.

According to what they said, for the actors it is better to say that they have left. What to admit they have been fired
Susan did not know that she was going to die, and that her contract was not going to be renewed. Until she received the script by messenger. Susan got very angry.
That's why she cut her hair. And I anticipate her death in her interviews.
That's why they removed it from credit titles.
52516[/ATTACH]1]@TJP, good friend, can you clarify it for us and give the date of the script for The Price of Freedom?

 

[TJP]

@TJP, good friend, can you clarify it for us and give the date of the script for The Price of Freedom?

I'm not sure which draft of the script Susan received by messenger. I can only say that the earliest documented draft was a revised version of the first draft dated July 12, 1989.

That script was revised very often. The final draft alone had eight additional revisions.

Filming season 9 started towards the end of July 1989.

 

[Richard Denault]

I'm not sure which draft of the script Susan received by messenger. I can only say that the earliest documented draft was a revised version of the first draft dated July 12, 1989.

That script was revised very often. The final draft alone had eight additional revisions.

Filming season 9 started towards the end of July 1989.

Susan's contract had ended when Susan received the script for the first episode of the ninth season.
Did you negotiate her appearance in the last 2 episodes?
I read that he commented that she had been paid a lot to appear in the last two.
They could have spared her, Maggie went to Australia and died there.
She would have been cheaper.
Or Suenow & Thorpe wanted viewers to see her dead. To make her resurrection more difficult???
Has Susan told you something?

 

[TJP]

Or Suenow & Thorpe wanted viewers to see her dead. To make her resurrection more difficult???
Has Susan told you something?

I don't know the details, but Surnow and Thorpe were not producers who discussed anything with actors. From all I heard (especially recently from a crew member) these writers / producers were very conceited and felt they were "above" the cast and never saw the need to discuss storylines or look for a collaboration. They just wanted to do what they felt was "right". The same with Cochran. What an attitude when you have a show with an ensemble cast!

 

[Richard Denault]

I don't know the details, but Surnow and Thorpe were not producers who discussed anything with actors. From all I heard (especially recently from a crew member) these writers / producers were very conceited and felt they were "above" the cast and never saw the need to discuss storylines or look for a collaboration. They just wanted to do what they felt was "right". The same with Cochran. What an attitude when you have a show with an ensemble cast!

The problem is not that the producers ignored the actors. They were pretentious as you commented on Facebook
People like Surnow and Nowrasteh later even bragged about having written the final season on a blank sheet of paper and having created the most unwatched season in television history. !!!
When the journalist from the French magazine Cine Tele Revue visits the Falcon Crest plate in November 1989, everyone in the world is upset, everyone knows that everything is going wrong.
That was the last episode that Sheri Anderson co-produced.
The 14th was already co-produced by Cyrus Nowrasteh and the series collapsed

Gregory Harrison commented that he received letters in which they were crucified.
And Lorimar or CBS did nothing.
If CBS forced the Nazi plot to end

 

[Richard Denault]

That script was revised very often. The final draft alone had eight additional revisions.

That script was revised very often. The final draft alone had eight additional revisions.
You said that before seeing Emma beaten Magiie was visiting Richard in prison in a scene that was cut

www.falconcrest.org | Deutscher FALCON CREST - Fanclub / German FALCON CREST Fan Club

falconcrest.org

Deleted scene: Before Maggie comes home where Emma is waiting for her in the evening, the director's cut contained an act 1 scene with Maggie's first visit with Richard in prison — in a visiting room with a wire-mesh screen between them. Right at the beginning of this scene, Richard notices and addresses Maggie's new haircut. Richard tries to explain he has changed, having undergone a trauma in prison and feeling humilated. Maggie tries to fight off her tears because she is still torn between anger and her feelings for Richard. The scene ends with Maggie pulling out "We Miss You, Daddy" drawings from Michael and Kevin and pressing them against the glass partition. Unfortunately, this highly emotional scene was removed in post-production.
What we saw is Maggie at the pool when she tells the babysitter that Richard's lawyer wants to see her. Richard is broke but Maggie is still at her house with service, she is at the pool with the kids.
And when Julius visits her he tells her that she is very busy.
Maggie
Listen now I'm very busy!!!Tell me how I can help you
Julius
I come as a messenger from Richard, he's having a bad time.
Maggie
I don't need you to tell me
Julius gives him thebox of ring
You're not going to open it, no
Maggie
I won't do it, I'm sorry, I have to go back to the kids.
Julius
Magie, I've known you both for a long time.I don't come alone as Richard's lawyer.He is desperate Even if you don't care about anything. Make him believe that you worry lie to him at least while he's in jail
She later visits him in jail. A cold and distant Maggie,

They destroyed Maggie's character so that we would accept that three months later we would accept that a lovestruck Richard would marry Lauren.
These three scenes: Visit to the prison, Visit of Julius, Visit to the marital room underwent changes????.
What did Maggie think, Susan always spoke badly about her marriage to Richard.
But on her Twitter this year I posted this Twitter and David retweeted it.

 

[Richard Denault]

What did Maggie think, Susan always spoke badly about her marriage to Richard.
But on her Twitter this year 20I posted this Twitter and David retweeted it.

After the horrible scene of the marital room. Maggie, listless and cold, seems to be doing him a favor, although Richard looks desperate and defeated.
In 9-02 Charley we see the last scene of Magiie Richard.
The last shot of Richard and Maggie is an interrupted hug.
Maggie
You will have to keep all the promises you have made to me Richard, take care of the children, no more greed or ambition. Give a good example to our children.
children
Richard
I will keep all my promises but you have to do something for me
Maggie
Whatever you want
Richard
Hug me
In 9-01 The price of freedom
1st Maggie's visit to Richard in prison1 In the end it was deleted
2st Julius's visit to Maggie
3st The visit to Richard in the marital room
And in 9-02 Charley
4.The final scene in Maggie Richard's bedroom
After the emotional 1, Maggie was very cold in 2 and 3.
They were in the original drafts,
Hopefully @TJP will clarify it for us

 

[Jock Og]

I don't know the details, but Surnow and Thorpe were not producers who discussed anything with actors. From all I heard (especially recently from a crew member) these writers / producers were very conceited and felt they were "above" the cast and never saw the need to discuss storylines or look for a collaboration. They just wanted to do what they felt was "right". The same with Cochran. What an attitude when you have a show with an ensemble cast!

That was a dreadful cold approach from the new TPTB. I heard about this before. It would have been for sure quite the contributing factor in screwing the coffin down. David, Lorenzo, Margaret and Chao-Li were FALCON CREST diehards and not to liaise with them closely was mind-boggling.

That script was revised very often. The final draft alone had eight additional revisions.
You said that before seeing Emma beaten Magiie was visiting Richard in prison in a scene that was cut

www.falconcrest.org | Deutscher FALCON CREST - Fanclub / German FALCON CREST Fan Club

falconcrest.org

Deleted scene: Before Maggie comes home where Emma is waiting for her in the evening, the director's cut contained an act 1 scene with Maggie's first visit with Richard in prison — in a visiting room with a wire-mesh screen between them. Right at the beginning of this scene, Richard notices and addresses Maggie's new haircut. Richard tries to explain he has changed, having undergone a trauma in prison and feeling humilated. Maggie tries to fight off her tears because she is still torn between anger and her feelings for Richard. The scene ends with Maggie pulling out "We Miss You, Daddy" drawings from Michael and Kevin and pressing them against the glass partition. Unfortunately, this highly emotional scene was removed in post-production.
What we saw is Maggie at the pool when she tells the babysitter that Richard's lawyer wants to see her. Richard is broke but Maggie is still at her house with service, she is at the pool with the kids.
And when Julius visits her he tells her that she is very busy.
Maggie
Listen now I'm very busy!!!Tell me how I can help you
Julius
I come as a messenger from Richard, he's having a bad time.
Maggie
I don't need you to tell me
Julius gives him thebox of ring
You're not going to open it, no
Maggie
I won't do it, I'm sorry, I have to go back to the kids.
Julius
Magie, I've known you both for a long time.I don't come alone as Richard's lawyer.He is desperate Even if you don't care about anything. Make him believe that you worry lie to him at least while he's in jail
She later visits him in jail. A cold and distant Maggie,

They destroyed Maggie's character so that we would accept that three months later we would accept that a lovestruck Richard would marry Lauren.
These three scenes: Visit to the prison, Visit of Julius, Visit to the marital room underwent changes????.
What did Maggie think, Susan always spoke badly about her marriage to Richard.
But on her Twitter this year I posted this Twitter and David retweeted it.

Incidentally the deleted initial scene in the prison when Maggie and Richard have a heart to heart; with the display of the boy's drawings was a dreadful mistake, IMHO. It would have been a considerate nod (if included), to ardent followers of seasons past and wouldn't have been too much to ask.

Away back in the day and then tick-tock tick-tock.


David Selby a.k.a. Richard Denault Channing talks about the upheaval in the last season, ('behind the scenes'; from the 9th and final season, 1989-'90):

“It went into another direction. They brought in another new character, Sharpe or whatever. He had nothing to do with the show. That was not the tenor of Falcon Crest. It was difficult... But the changes, the new regime that came into Lorimar made those changes.”

 

[Matthew Blaisdel]

Wow, FC really tanked terribly with season 7, falling from 23 to 42. Seems like just squeezing in as many famous guest stars as you can doesn't help, if you are running out of interesting storylines. They really should have saved all those unnecessary guest star salaries and instead invest it in some talented writers.

And don't tell me, it's all because people were just more interested in sitcoms at the time, because Knots only lost 5 numbers that same year.
The audience wants quality, not quantity, as simple as that.

 

[WarriorsFan]

Wow, FC really tanked terribly with season 7, falling from 23 to 42. Seems like just squeezing in as many famous guest stars as you can doesn't help, if you are running out of interesting storylines. They really should have saved all those unnecessary guest star salaries and instead invest it in some talented writers.

And don't tell me, it's all because people were just more interested in sitcoms at the time, because Knots only lost 5 numbers that same year.
The audience wants quality, not quantity, as simple as that.

1987/1988 was a bad season for CBS primetime line up, as they became the third place network in primetime.
On the drama side, Murder She Wrote dropped from #4 to #9; Dallas, Falcon Crest, and Knots Landing dropped as shown in the chart above; Simon & Simon and The Equalizer were not in the Top 30; Magnum PI ended; and Cagney & Lacey was cancelled.
On the comedy side, Newhart dropped from #12 to #25; Kate & Allie and Designing Women were not in the Top 30; and My Sister Sam was cancelled.

 

[TJP]

Wow, FC really tanked terribly with season 7, falling from 23 to 42. Seems like just squeezing in as many famous guest stars as you can doesn't help, if you are running out of interesting storylines. They really should have saved all those unnecessary guest star salaries and instead invest it in some talented writers

Let's not confuse cause and effect in that context.

It wasn't Jeff Freilich and his team who ran out of good ideas, but they were forced by CBS to tell more or less self-contained stories since CBS thought it would benefit from that concept in later syndication. CBS actually wanted to change the show drastically and go episodic from season 7 on. The rotating celeb guests with their short storylines were a compromise Jeff negotiated with the CBS liaison because he actually preferred a big core storyline and creating supporting sub-plots around it, which CBS wouldn't let him do for that year. When CBS realized mid-season that it was a mistake, parts of the audience had already been lost. At that time, CBS no longer objected against going back to non-episodic storytelling. That's when Howard Lakin created The Thirteen.