Question: What series featured Stephen Baldwin and Josh Brolin as young Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill Hickok?
Last Question: What CBS series shot much of its location footage at Napa Valley’s Spring Mountain, Altamura Valley and Inglehook vineyards?
Answer: Falcon Crest
Great job Jim!!
Falcon Crest aired on CBS for nine seasons, from December 4, 1981 to May 17, 1990. It starred Jane Wyman as Angela Channing, the tyrannical matriarch of the Falcon Crest Winery, alongside Robert Foxworth as Chase Gioberti, Angela’s nephew who returns to Falcon Crest following the death of his father.
The show was created by Earl Hamner, who had previously created The Waltons. After The Waltons finished its final season in 1981, Hamner wanted to create a family drama involving the wine industry. However, Dallas was CBS’s biggest hit, so the network requested that Hamner make the show more along the lines of Dallas. It actually paid off, as CBS scheduled Falcon Crest at 10 p.m. on Friday nights, right after Dallas. Falcon Crest would become a top 20 show for several years.
Over the last few years, many of the core cast members had left the show. Then ratings began to drop, as did the ratings for all of the primetime soaps of the time. When the show ended Angela (Jane Wyman), Emma (Margaret Ladd) and Lance (Lorenzo Lamas) were the only remaining original characters from the original first season cast remaining on the series.
Falcon Crest ended happily with a family wedding taking place on the grounds of the mansion. Taking a walk outside, Angela delivered a speech (in her thoughts and was written by Jane Wyman herself) that brought the series to a conclusion, mentioning past characters and events but looking forward to the future. The final scene of the series shows her toasting the land, “A toast to you Falcon Crest, and long may you live.”
Here is that scene:
And here is the theme song:
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