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# 001 <1.01> In His Father's House
(revised 04/08/2024)
Audio commentary for this episode
by DFCF President THOMAS J. PUCHER
for the 40th anniversary of the series première (12/04/2021):
Download the audio file and listen to it while you are playing the episode from your official WARNER HOME VIDEO DVD at the same time (turning down the volume of the disc is recommended):
Start playing the episode when you are advised to do so after the introduction to the commentary.
If the DVD in your region does not contain the teaser before the main title (German, Spanish and Australian configurations), start playing the episode as soon as the main title is mentioned in the commentary.
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The tree-lined Tuscany Valley country road at the beginning of the main title is actually Oak Knoll Avenue in the Napa Valley (more details see below).
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The grape barn amidst the vineyards at the beginning of the main title is located on the grounds of Round Pond Winery near Conn Creek Road in the Napa Valley.
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On the radiator grille of Angela's black 1969 Mercedes-Benz 600 (type W100), there is a reflection of the filming crew for a short moment.
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The pictures of JANE WYMAN and JAMIE ROSE are specifically filmed for this season's main title. JANE's picture was filmed while shooting # 002.
The other actors' pictures in the main title come from various scenes (see the information listed in the respective episodes).
Labeling names: EARL HAMNER gave some of the characters of his new series labeling names:
- Angela (Greek origin) means "angel" or "messenger". The connotation of "angel" is an ironic allusion to Angela's not-so-angel-like character. The meaning "messenger" refers to Angie being the one to call Chase's family to inform them about Jason's death.
- Jason (Greek origin) — "the healer". This labeling name is a good choice for Angela's brother and refers to his kind and vulnerable nature opposite to his sister's ruthless attitude. The name symbolizes his good-natured attempts to heal old wounds and reconcile family differences by building relationships to his nieces, Julia and particularly Emma.
- As the name Emma (German origin) symbolizes "universal", this very well indicates Emma's ability to change and that her character will develop a variety of different aspects throughout the series.
- As EARL's original family tree for the development of the series indicates, "Chase" is just a nickname, a derived English version of his actual first name, Charles (Germanic origin). As Chase means "huntsman" and "Charles" symbolizes "free man", the choice for this name very well reveals Chase's hunt for integrity and heroism as well as his battle for freedom for his family and his land throughout the series.
- Julia (Latin origin) — the "down-bearded youth". Her name refers to Julia's dependent and somewhat rebellious character: Just like youngsters still depend on their parents and sometimes dare rebel against them, Julia is also dependent on Angela, yet desperately trying to free herself from her mother's boundaries from time to time.
- Lance (short form for Lancelot) describes the old French weapon, a "lance", but is also a reference to "territory" and "land". The choice of name hints that Angie's grandson is one of her promising human weapons or maybe even her most promising one in her battles to defend her territory.
Cumson as Lance's last name is a hilarious choice. If you read it "cums-on", his name sounds like "Lance comes on..." — what a sardonic and symbolic name for the playboy who comes on to almost any beautiful woman in the Tuscany Valley!
- Maggie (derived from Margaret; Greek origin) means "pearl". The connection to Maggie as the "pearl" of the Gioberti family is obvious.
- Cole (English origin) indicates "coal" or "a dark one". This name is a very good choice referring to Cole's position in the Gioberti family: As his father was often absent when the family lived in New York City, Cole as the only man left was to sort of substitute Chase's leading rôle in the family and, therefore, had to be strong as coal. On the other hand, however, just as coal is not only strong, but also dark, Cole has the capability to "turn dark", too, and to revolt against his father's authority, which will become evident especially in # 004; "coal" being heated in furnaces and stoves to cook with, is a symbolic reference to the character's hot temper.
- The name Vickie is a short form for Victoria, which actually stands for "victory" (Latin origin). Vickie desperately attempts to be a victress and conqueror: Throughout her life, she will try to free herself from the boundaries her parents and her future husbands set. The use of her name is dramatic irony: She will never manage to straighten out her affairs, both in her personal life and in business. Every relationship will end up in disaster, and her long-pursued dancing career will never materialize either.
- Gus is, according to EARL's documents about the predecessor ("The Vintage Years"), short for Gustavo. That first name (Germanic origin) means "stave of the Goths" and alludes to the courage and braveness of the character, being an ethnic minority among the rich and dominant figures in the community. Originally, EARL planned to name the character Gustavo Felice Nuñez (Felice meaning "happy").
The Chinese first name Chao-Li means "rational dynasty".
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The stained glass window above the main entrance to the Falcon Crest Winery Building was propped with a sign saying "Falcon Crest Winery" to cover the name of the real winery, Spring Mountain.
The original concept for the Emma character was a guest spot for only five episodes. But the audience liked MARGARET LADD so much that Emma became a permanent regular. The actress shared more details in an exclusive 2007 DFCF interview.
Fictional entity: Chase works as a pilot for AIA (compare # 024 for the full name: Allied International Airlines). Compare # 091 for a later reference to Trans Atlantic Airlines.
The season 1 bible originally planned for Chase to work for TWA (Trans World Airlines, a real airline at that time) whose terminals were often used by LORIMAR for filming (compare # 012 and 119). In the end, however, the producers decided against using the name of a real airline.
The AIA plane with Chase as the pilot is a Boeing 747.
The exterior clip of the AIA aircraft is stock footage, which was purchased from a movie clip archive. It comes from UNIVERSAL's 1974 movie "Airport 1975", starring ROY THINNES as the co-pilot. The movie was filmed in an ultra-wide 2.35 : 1 aspect ratio (screen capture 2), so LORIMAR zoomed in and cropped the clip to adapt it to the 4 : 3 aspect ratio of "Falcon Crest".
The number of Chase's AIA flight is 205.
The writers played around with a number of possibilities for Jason's death before they decided on the final version — falling off the catwalk in the Falcon Crest Winery Building.
EARL HAMNER's original ideas ranged from Jason's dead body floating in a huge vat in the winery (in an underground passageway from the Mansion to the Winery Building) to Jason being found dead at the bottom of a ravine.
This episode's writer and this season's executive story consultant ROBERT L. McCULLOUGH thought about having Jason's skull cracked by a bottle of wine. His early ideas included Angie telling Dr. Ludwig (the medical examiner originally developed) that Jason had a nasty fall in the Winery Building and her pressuring the doctor to write "cardiac arrest" in Jason's death certificate.
The filming location for the Winery Building interiors (stairway, catwalk, big vats, etc.) is one of the buildings at Brookside Winery (previously Italian Vineyard Company / Guasti Winery) in Ontario, CA, a city in Greater Los Angeles. That winery is no longer in business nowadays.
HARRY TOWNES is replaced by a stunt double in the scene with Jason falling off the gallery in the Falcon Crest Winery Building.
Edited scenes: The director's cut featured more of the events after Jason's fall. The following parts were removed in post-production:
- Emma and Turner run down from the catwalk. Turner kneels beside Jason's body and goes through Jason's pockets. He empties the pockets, steals some dollar bills and flees the scene. Left behind on the floor is a faded photo of Chase, dressed in the uniform of an Air Force captain, which came from Jason's shirt pocket.
- When Angela later kneels beside Jason, the scene originally continued: She discovers the photo of Chase on the winery floor and tears it into pieces. Although no close-up of the photo is featured in the final version, it can still be seen next to Jason's body in the remaining segments (yellow mark on the above screen grab).
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The establishing shot of New York City — a nightly view of the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan — is stock footage from a film library. It is filmed from Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park — from a parking lot under the bridge west of New Dock Street.
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Different camera angles: The episode itself features a wide angle shot of Jason's truck, a yellow 1962 Chevrolet C-10, running over the rock (right screen capture). The sneak preview before the main title, however, shows two closer shots from different angles.
The filming location for the Old Vineyard Road (street name revealed in # 017) where the truck goes over the rock is in Griffith Park in Los Angeles. It is a distinct rock formation along the North Trail, facing east towards Spring Canyon and Vista del Valle Drive below. The area is closed to public traffic, but can be hiked. Only the segments with the truck, Jason and Chao-Li are filmed there as "day for night" shots — a cinematographic technique to simulate a night scene actually filmed in daylight; it is usually underexposed and processed through a special filter in post-production to create the illusion of darkness.
The segments with Angela and Emma on the Old Vineyard Road are from the grounds of the Brookside (Guasti) Winery and were combined with the other segments in post-production.
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The Tuscany Valley Sheriff's patrol car is a 1981 Dodge Diplomat.
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Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion interior set — inconsistencies:
The way the stairway is built and usually seen from the first floor pretty much matches the architecture of the real Villa Miravalle at Spring Mountain Vineyards in St. Helena, CA. The set also creates the illusion that the second floor can be reached by two flights of stairs with the landing in between. In the wide angle shot from the living room, however, a wall can be seen that kind of blocks off the second flight of stairs (yellow mark) so the second floor would be unaccessible (for more details compare # 066 where this wall will be visible in a close-up from the stairway landing). Also, a wooden beam (red mark) can be seen, which is apparently below the imaginary ceiling of the foyer (the set on the sound stage has no ceilings), which makes no sense from an architectural point of view. It is obviously part of the greenbeds of the sound stage.
Also, the three steps leading from the front entrance down into the foyer (green arrow) do not exist in the real Villa Miravalle (as visible on screen grab 2 from "The Vintage Yerars", which was filmed inside the real house). The set designer added them to make the interiors architecturally more interesting. The result of this idea, however, is that the veranda would be almost like a slightly elevated platform or landing compared to the first floor and the drivewy (sound stage floor), which would also create an architectural conflict with the window sills and apron walls in the living and dining rooms. In particular # 040 (compare there) will reveal that the set has only two steps from the driveway up to the veranda plus a third step from the veranda to the front door. Construction-wise, the three interior steps from the entrance down into the foyer were mandatory to have the first floor on the same level as the driveway, i.e. the floor of the sound stage. The following sectional elevation drawing of the Victorian Mansion's set (veranda and foyer) illustrates the architectural levels:
LORIMAR's original blueprints of this set and many others are available for DFCF members in the Show - Production Office - Filming Locations - Movie Studios - Interior Sets section.
The season 1 bible and the story outline for this episode planned for Angela to decide against informing Chase about his father's death, but for Julia to call him. As a result, the original concept planned for Angela to continuously blame Julia for Chase's return to the valley. In the end, the writers decided against that idea and finally had Angela call Chase's family.
Inside joke: Vickie's teacher and lover is named after ROBERT HARRIS, a member of the show's stunt crew.
Original script drafts called for the first New York scene to play in Bob Harris' apartment where Vickie should show him the contents of her wallet, including family photographs, and where she should also try to seduce him. This segment was not used in the final version of the episode though.
This episode marks the first appearance of uncredited extra MARTHA MANOR. She was an American actress, who appeared in minor parts and as an atmosphere person in many TV series and movies between the 1930's and 1990's. She only had a handful of speaking parts in her career, including three on "Falcon Crest" in different episodes. She worked on the show steadily throughout its entire nine-year life cycle, primarily as a stand-in for JANE WYMAN and SUSAN SULLIVAN though. She had minor parts on camera etween seasons 2 and 8. Before "Falcon Crest", she had worked as a stand-in for SUSAN SULLIVAN in "Having Babies II" and "Rich Man, Poor Man — Book II"; after "Falcon Crest", she stood in for her again in "Dharma & Greg".
MARTHA is visible (with her natural hair) as a passerby in front of the Giobertis' brownstone in New York City in this episode and will play a variety of different characters in the episodes to come. Extremely versatile, MARTHA uses different hairstyles, but also a number of wigs for her various rôles. Her variety of clothes and the advantageous use of make-up help change her looks drastically — oftentimes beyond recognition.
Compare # 213 for a list of appearances throughout the series.
Fictional entity: Chase arrives at his New York home in a Capitol Cab taxi.
The taxi company's logo is a generic prop and kind of an entertainment industry standard. It was used in an abundance of TV series and movies particularly in the 1980's.
For more information, see the Beyond the Show – Props – Signage section.
The taxi is a 1975 Ford LTD Landau.
The car driving by after Chase gets out of the taxi is a light yellow 1977 Ford Pinto Runabout.
This car will appear as a background vehicle in many other episodes (see # 013, 020, 021, 022, 023, 025, 027, 031, 033, 034, 036, 039, 050, 053, 054, 055, 059, 063, 065, 071, 073, 092, 094 and 113).
The vehicle is not a LORIMAR prop, but the car is owned by stand-in and extra GORDON HODGINS (see the following paragraph and more notes below). Following the industry's common practice for background actors, GORDON is paid additional $ 30 per episode in which he brings his car to the set to be photographed, plus mileage for the distance between his residence and the studio or filming location. This is a win-win situation for both parties — the actor is paid a small additional amount of money, and the production company does not have to rent or buy a picture car, which would be far more expensive.
This episode marks the first appearance of GORDON ("GORDIE") HODGINS (uncredited). He was a member of the crew who worked steadily on "Falcon Crest" between seasons 1 through 7. As previously in other LORIMAR series, including "The Waltons", he primarily worked on the set as a stand-in. If necessary, however, he was asked to appear on camera as an atmosphere person and even got one speaking rôle (including billing in the end credits) in # 182.
His first on-screen appearance in this episode is as the driver of the aforementioned Ford Pinto Runabout in New York although he is barely visible. He will portray many different characters in the episodes to come.
See below for two more appearances in different parts in this episode.
Compare # 182 for a list of appearances throughout the series.
Two more cars are prominently featured in this scene (parked on the street):
On the left of the frame, a brown 1975 Volkswagen Rabbit (series I, type 17) can be spotted. This background car will also be visible in future episodes (see # 020, 022, 025, 039, 059 and 063).
The car on the right is a golden 1970 Ford Maverick, which will reappear in # 023 and 062.
Chase and Maggie's New York brownstone is the second house from right on Brownstone Street (nowadays Ashley Boulevard) on THE BURBANK STUDIOS (WARNER BROS. STUDIOS) backlot.
Real-life allusion: Chase mentions U.S. astronaut NEIL ARMSTRONG.
The segment with Angela's Mercedes-Benz 600 driving along the Golden Gate Bridge — Chao-Li picks up Chase and Maggie from San Francisco Internation Airport — is an aerial view (filmed towards southeast from a helicopter) with San Francisco in the background.
The tree-lined Tuscany Valley country road the black Mercedes-Benz 600 drives along on its way to Falcon Crest is actually Oak Knoll Avenue in the Napa Valley.
One segment of the drive was used for the main title (see above).
The limo drives from west to east in the Napa Valley, the camera in the aerial view from the helicopter first facing southwest, then turning to northeast. The particular section of Oak Knoll Avenue filmed for that scene is near Trefethen Vineyards.
When Chase and Maggie arrive at Falcon Crest, the frame with the front of the Victorian Mansion is darker than the previous segment (back of the house); the subsequent frames with the cast members in front of the house are brighter again.
In the film transfer, the original picture negative of the house was obviously not brightened up well enough to match the other segments.
Mistake: When Chase and Maggie arrive at Falcon Crest, Chao-Li takes the two suitcases from the car and heads towards the entrance where he sets down the luggage for a moment to open the front door and then enters. As seen from outside, he turns to the left inside (towards the living room; yellow arrow on screen capture 2). He has already disappeared from the camera's POV into the foyer when Lance greets Maggie and then Chase. In the following interior scene, Julia descends the stairs and heads towards the front door, passing Chao-Li, who, in this segment, only arrives now from the veranda at the doorstep although, to be consistent with the exterior scene, he would have to have entered the foyer already. Also, he switched the suitcases — while he carried the brown one in his left hand and the one with the white / blue stripes in his right hand in the exterior scene, the situation in the interior scene is just the opposite.
This continuity error is a result of the exterior scene being shot in the Napa Valley weeks apart from the interior scene, which was filmed later on the sound stage in Burbank.
The filming location for the Gioberti Family Cemetery on the Falcon Crest grounds in this episode and # 004 is the Boot Hill area at Kunde Family Estate in Kenwood in the Sonoma Valley, CA.
Click here for sketches of how the Gioberti Family Cemetery changed over the years.
Mistake: When Gus and his family head towards the Giobertis after the funeral at the Gioberti Family Cemetery, Chase and Maggie are turning round and are not too close to each other. In the subsequent frame filmed from across, however, they are standing much closer together.
In the filming industry, it is a common practice to shoot several takes of the same scene in order to show that scene from various camera angles (e.g. wide angle shots and close-ups of a setting, close-ups of two actors facing each other or standing next to each other, etc.) on the screen for dramaturgical reasons. Therefore, the actors have to play the same scene several times. The advantage of this filming process is that only one camera and one camera crew is needed. Filming a scene may thus take longer, but is much cheaper. On the other hand, mistakes in continuity may occur easily when various takes of the same scene are edited in post-production. Although the actors try to play each take the same way, slight differences, e.g. a different body posture of the actors, different arrangements of props or amended dialog lines, can never be avoided. Another reason for differences in the various takes is that a different body posture or a different arrangement of props becomes necessary in order to create a more esthetic look of the shot, even if this look does not match the preceding one or the following one.
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The establishing shot of New York City — now a day view of the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan — is stock footage from a film library, too. It is filmed from Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park in northwestern direction.
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Mistake: The establishing clip zooms in on the fifth floor of the New York City apartment building where Robert Harris lives. His apartment (number 702), however, is located on the seventh floor.
This inconsistency is caused by the use of different filming locations. Whereas the exterior shot is stock footage from a film library, featuring the Three Thirty Two, an Upper East Side apartment complex on East 84th Street in New York known from the 1970's TV comedy "Rhoda", the location for the interiors is the Hollywood Tower in Hollywood, CA.
Inside joke: Some of the names on the mailboxes in Robert Harris' apartment building are LORIMAR staff members: Zakarian is named after business affairs executive KATHLEEN ZAKARIAN-SNIDER, Coty after production coordinator CASS COTY.
After his first appearance in this episode (see above), GORDON HODGINS (uncredited) appears again. In this scene (as well as others until # 012), he plays as a Tuscany Valley catering service employee who has an assignment as a servant in the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion during Jason's funeral feast. He has a fake mustache in this rôle. But he will also portray many different characters in the episodes to come.
See below for another appearance in this episode in a different part.
Compare # 182 for a list of appearances throughout the series.
For details about GORDON HODGINS, compare above.
This episode marks the first appearance of uncredited extra KEVIN G. TRACEY. He is an American actor, who specialized in appearing as an atmosphere person in an abundance of TV series and movies between the 1970's and 1980's. It is somewhat surprising that he was used as an extra in so many scenes because atmosphere persons are usually selected due to their low-key profile. KEVIN, however, is everything the "usual" extra is not; he has a striking appearance: This gray-haired guy is remarkably slim with a thin and rugged face, dark and deep-set eyes and thick black eyebrows. During the first seven seasons, KEVIN was hired on a day-to-day basis, but filled the position vacated by GORDON HODGINS, who was a regular stand-in on "Falcon Crest" and left at the end of season 7. During season 8, KEVIN, now a staff member, reduced his on-screen appearances on the show, but mainly served as a stand-in.
With only a few exceptions, he portrays in nearly all his scenes a thick-eyebrowed gentleman from the Tuscany Valley. On rare occasions, however, KEVIN plays a few other rôles from time to time, too.
In the current episode, he is one of the guests at Jason's funeral feast in the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion.
Compare # 185 for a list of all his appearances throughout the series.
Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion interior set — inconsistency: The windows to the south in the living room are in different shape (a semi-circular arrangement like a sort of an oriel) compared with the real ones; the same goes for the windows to the west.
Aside from the regular, semi-regular and recurring guest cast, there is none of the mourners from Jason's burial visible among the guests at Jason's funeral feast in the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion. It seems that — except the family members — the mourners at the Gioberti Family Cemetery and the guests at the reception are all different. The actual reason for that is that the burial scene was filmed in Northern California while the funeral feast was shot on the sound stage in Burbank. All the extras for the repective scenes were local hires so they were not a match in these scenes.
Mistake in the scene with Angela and Lance during the funeral reception in the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion: Angela is standing in the foyer at the doorway to the living room when she gives Lance a sign to come over. She looks towards the front entrance. Lance, however, is leaning against the banisters of the stairway, i.e. actually farther left from Angela's point of view.
Lance's age can be derived from this episode: Chase mentions the last time he visited the Tuscany Valley was 20 years ago when Lance was one year old. So Lance must have been born in 1960. This will be confirmed in # 025 (1982) when Julia says Lance was born 22 years ago. Inconsistency: This is in contradiction to what Julia says in # 004 (in 1981): according to her statement there, Angela took Lance away from her 23 years ago, i.e. 1958. But this is impossible because, giving respect to Julia's age (see # 155), 1960 must be the correct year of his birth.
LORENZO LAMAS' "eyelash-fluttering Valentino look", as JANE WYMAN called it, is caused by his nearsightedness. JANE made him get contact lenses during the season to solve the problem.
The 20th Precinct Station House of the New York Police Department is actually the Hope Community Hall in New York City. While the series was filmed, the building used to be the actual old 28th Precinct Station House.
After his earlier appearances (see above), uncredited stand-in GORDON HODGINS appears as an extra again for a third time this episode — now at the 20th Precinct Station House in New York, without the fake mustache though (see above).
Compare # 182 for a list of appearances throughout the series.
For details about GORDON HODGINS, compare above.
Angela's double-pedestal desk in the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion study in this season is an antique walnut piece of furniture with fruitwood intarsia, particularly inlays of foliage swags. It has four drawers in each pedestal and an additional one in the center. The measurements are 72" (width) x 40" (depth) x 30" (height).
Different from the desk, which will be in use from season 2 on (compare # 019), this desk is not a LORIMAR owned prop. It was rented from THE BURBANK STUDIOS (nowadays WARNER BROS. STUDIOS), which was a joint venture of WARNER BROS. and COLUMBIA PICTURES at the time. The desk is still available from the WARNER BROS. prop department to this day.
This desk was previously and later used on other shows filmed at THE BURBANK STUDIOS. For more details, check out the Beyond the Show – Props – Set Dressing – Tables & Desks section.
Phillip Erickson was neither part of the season 1 bible nor of the story outline. The character was added on very short notice during the final revisions of the episode script.
A detailed analysis of the original concept and the show's development is available in "The Secret FALCON FILES", a special fan club newsletter series.
Labeling name: The name Jasper (Persian origin) means "treasurer" and very well alludes to Jasper Gioberti's aim to keep together the heritage and wealth of his family.
Falcon Crest has growing fields of 550 acres altogether — 50 acres (Gioberti Estate) plus 500 acres around the Victorian Mansion.
In the scene in the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion study with Phillip's summary about the inheritance, his sentence about the unity of Falcon Crest is looped in the original English audio. The ADR process becomes audible through the slightly different ambient sound. The looping begins with his phrase, "The only thing that could jeopardize Falcon Crest's unity would be the death of his children under suspicious circumstances, in which case the victim's heirs would inherit what is rightfully theirs." The looping is not easily noticeable in the first part of the sentence; only the word "under" (in the phrase "under suspicious circumstances") is slightly out of sync with the movement of his lips. Just while these words are spoken, Phillip's sentence becomes a mere voice over when the picture cuts to Angela and then Chase. The different ambient sound becomes even more apparent in the following part: "in which case the victim's heirs will...", which was the actual reason for the looping because MEL FERRER's re-recorded line is different from the script, so it was necessary to cut to JANE WYMAN and ROBERT FOXWORTH during this sentence in order not to show MEL FERRER's lips being out of sync with the audible line. The script originally suggested for that part: "...under suspicious circumstances, in which case everything would pass to the victim's heirs." The exact reason for rephrasing is not documented though.
Cole's inmate number at the 20th Precinct of New York City Police Station is 634685097.
Below the inmate number, a series of numerical digits is legible: "10 6 81". This is apparently supposed to be the date of Cole's mug shot, 10/06/1981. Prop mistake: This date neither matches the established time frame (which is confusing anyway; compare # 018) nor the airdate of the première. The prop department was negligent in not trying to bring this in line with the plot.
The bedroom set for the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion is built by the art department for multiple use to minimize production requirements. It serves as the guest bedroom in this episode and is filmed so closely that hardly more than two walls are visible. It will be slightly redressed for all other bedrooms in the Victorian Mansion (except Emma's rooftop studio) during this season and seasons 2 and 3 as well as for Lance's bedroom in season 4. The other bedrooms — in this season, Angela's (# 002 and 005), Julia's (# 002 and 005) and Lance's (# 008 and 014) — will also sometimes be filmed from different angles in order to prevent the audience from identifying the set as one and the same.
LORIMAR's original blueprints of this set and many others are available for DFCF members in the Show – Production Office – Filming Locations – Movie Studios – Interior Sets section.
In an earlier version of the script, Chase told Maggie that he often went over a hill near the Victorian Mansion to Sutter's Pond when he played hooky in his childhood. This line was changed in the final version to a ridge where Chase watched the falcons nesting; that way, the writing staff made sure to include the explanation why Joseph named his property Falcon Crest.
The limestone pergola where Maggie and Chase step down to the Gioberti House is also located on the Stags' Leap property in real life.
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The real stained glass window in the dining room of Stags' Leap Manor is covered with a prop stained glass element with the falcon logo. A close up of this window will be seen in # 041 for the first time (see there).
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The dining room chairs in the Gioberti House — one of them visible in this episode in the background (yellow mark); compare the scene still from # 012 on the left for a better view — are not props owned by LORIMAR. They were rented from THE BURBANK STUDIOS (nowadays WARNER BROS. STUDIOS), which was a joint venture of WARNER BROS. and COLUMBIA PICTURES at the time. They were in use throughout this season except for # 002 (compare there).
These chairs were previously used on other shows filmed at THE BURBANK STUDIOS. For more details, check out the Beyond the Show – Props – Set Dressing – Seating section.
The photo of Vickie and Cole and the picture of all four Giobertis were taken on the inner courtyard of the WARNER BROS. Executive Building at THE BURBANK STUDIOS.
Missing back panel while filming the standing shelf unit in the Gioberti House living room: While the shot towards the piece of furniture in the Gioberti House living room shows the back panel, that back panel is missing when the camera films from the opposite direction through this unit.
Mistake: When Gus enters the Gioberti House, the wide angle shot and his close-ups are from various takes that were combined in the editing process. This becomes apparent because Gus's position (as compared to the front door) is slightly different in subsequent frames.
In the usual process of making a movie or a TV show, scenes are shot at least twice from different angles (e.g. as a wide angle shot and in close-up), which bears the risk of inconsistencies; for details, compare the above explanation in the scene with Chase and Maggie at the Gioberti Family Cemtery.
In the scene in front of the Gioberti House when Mario and Gus are packing their belongings, the real interiors of the house can be seen through the dining room window (beige wallpaper and wooden decoration). The crew was negligent when they filmed from that particular angle because this gave it away that the interiors as shown in the previous scene must be a set on the sound stage.
Post-production error: The PAL version contains a faulty film position of the establishing shot of the Falcon Crest Winery Building, which is evident due to a binder clip in the center of the upper frame of the picture. This is not a typical tool in film editing, but a foldover clip for binding sheets of paper together. It seems rather mysterious what happened here.
This error is visible in the original TV airing in PAL-format countries and the PAL DVDs only. In the NTSC version (North America), the picture negative was in a different position in the film transfer (compare left screen grab), eliminating the flaw from the visible frame.
For more information about differences in the visible frame, consult the post-production section in the Show – Production Office – Making of information.
The scene with Angela and Lance in the Falcon Crest Winery Building is filmed in the real cave of Stags' Leap Winery.
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Cameraman's mistake: The camera is visibly shaking for a short moment in the scene with Angela, Chase and Maggie on their way to the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion entrance.
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In the close-ups of Maggie and Lance in a scene on the driveway in front of the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion, there are bushes to be seen in the background although there are no bushes near the veranda in the wide angle shots. Parts of the scene are obviously from different takes on the sound stage as well as on location — put together for the final version to be aired. In order to create the illusion the scenes that were filmed at the studio take place in front of the house, the set decorators propped the background with the same prop statue that is usually placed near the entrance of the mansion.
Original plans for this episode contained a moment right after Chase and Maggie's departure to the airport when Emma, from the window in her rooftop studio, should have watched the Mercedes-Benz 600 drive off. Lost in thoughts, she should have mentioned to Julia that she wished her uncle Jason's death would have been just a bad dream. This segment, however, was not used in the final version.
In an early script draft, Vickie and Maggie looked through Vickie's high school yearbook while talking about Vickie's relationship with Bob Harris. They mentioned an unseen character named Tommy Simpson, Vickie's date for the junior prom.
The de Forest Research company had cleared the following possible names for LORIMAR to use for Vickie's high school in New York City: Millard Fillmore or Thomas A. Edison.
The final draft of the script omitted that part, shortening the whole scene drastically.
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The driveway to the Gioberti House as seen in the scene when the Giobertis arrive in the valley is the real driveway to Stags' Leap Manor.
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Original script drafts contained a scene with Lance driving over to the Gioberti House and inviting them for dinner at Falcon Crest. This segment was not used for the final version of the episode though.
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License plate number of Chase and Maggie's beige 1980 Ford LTD Country Squire Station Wagon with exterior wood trim: New York 625 FEW.
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Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion interior set — inconsistencies:
When the Giobertis arrive in front of the mansion at the end of the episode, the front door is ajar and offers a detailed view of the window in the library of the real Villa Miravalle in the background. An earlier close-up of Chase on the driveway (shortly after the shaking camera as mentioned above) also offered a short glimpse of these interiors. The upper part of the window in the study (actually the library) contains colorful stained glass elements whereas the interior set of Angela's study does not.
Shortly before Angela is petting Apollo, the real interiors of Spring Mountain's Villa Miravalle are visible through the front door (screen capture 3). You can see that the wall in the foyer towards the study is painted in a bright cream color above the wainscoting. In the unaired predecessor, "The Vintage Years", which was filmed inside the real house, this was even visible in more detail (screen grab 4). In the interior set built on the sound stage, however, the complete foyer is papered up with a richly ornamented wallpaper, as visible in earlier scenes in this episode (screen captures 1 and 2). It is a mystery why the set decorator felt the need to use wallpaper on that wall as well in contrast to the real house.
Oddity in the finale with the Giobertis visiting Angela: When Angela greets the Giobertis, Chase, Maggie, Cole and Vickie (in this order) step up from the driveway to the veranda of the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion. It seems strange that each of the four Giobertis is waiting on the driveway out of the camera angle until the previous character finishes saying hello to Angela before the next character climbs up the steps. It would have appeared as a more natural flow if all the characters had come to Angela as a group, then shaking hands with her one after the other, which is the way it was actually written in the shooting script. It remains a mystery why stage directions on location changed that during filming.
Lance's pet, Apollo, is a peregrine falcon. His name will be mentioned in # 007 for the first time. It is the Latin version of Apollon, a Greek name, and refers to the god of the sun and light in ancient Greek mythology.
In early script drafts, the episode finale is different: Angie allows Lance to precede her through the Victorian Mansion entrance, she turns back towards her vineyards for a moment, surveying her domain. Then she enters the house, closing the door behind her. When during the filming Apollo turned his head, the shot turned out so well that the producers decided to close the episode on this very moment. It also became the iconic segment for the final scene of the main title.
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