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# 099 <5.01> The Phoenix This is the first episode of the series to start with the regular practice of featuring a recap to remind the viewers of the previous episode's events before a very short sneak preview (usually one scene only) of the current episode — all prior to the main title. Announcer ROY ROWAN introduces the recap with "Previously on 'Falcon Crest'...", and the preview with "...and tonight...". In contrast, the syndicated version (in which LORIMAR edited approximately 3 minutes per episode for later TV rebroadcasts in the U.S.) does not contain a recap before the main title, but a sneak preview only, which lasts approximately 30 seconds, just like in the full versions of the previous seasons' episodes. From # 100 on, the sneak previews before the main title in the syndicated version are the same ones that each preceding episode featured between its closing credits and end credits (in both the original version and the syndicated one — "Next on 'Falcon Crest'..."). This website usually does not dwell on reedited versions. Whenever a syndicated version contains different footage from the actual scenes in the episodes though, an exception is in order to document any previously unreleased footage on this website.
 This season's main title design by GENE KRAFT includes title cards in the style of wine labels. The new typeface, which replaces the former Letraset Romic italics from the first four seasons' main titles is now Benguiat Book (bold). This font has already been in use for the opening, closing and end credits since the series' inception. The show title itself includes modifications of the capital "F" and "N" letters from the Benguiat Book font with elongated stems. This episode (at least its original full-length version aired on CBS) has a special logo that, for the first time, does not include the falcon coat of arms, but an ink drawing of the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion. The original ink drawing for the above main title card is on the left. The falcon, however, will be back in the following episode (compare there).Note that the edited syndication version of this episode used in rebroadcasts in the U.S. does not have this special logo, but the regular falcon coat of arms in the title card of this episode.
 The pictures of DAVID SELBY (taken while shooting # 100), WILLIAM R. MOSES and SUSAN SULLIVAN are specifically filmed for this season's main title.The background of SUSAN SULLIVAN's card was specifically filmed for the current main title. For the other actors' pictures in the main title, especially those coming from various scenes, see the information listed in the respective episodes.   The spelling of ANA-ALICIA's name is changed beginning this season: Both her Christian names are now combined with a hyphen. The reason is that the actress, who decided to drop her last name, ORTIZ, for her pseudonym, was tired of some people calling her only "ANA" because most of them believed "ALICIA" was her last name. ANA-ALICIA, however, prefers being called by both her Christian names.
Series time frame: Six weeks after the explosion of Richard's house (# 098). Giving respect to the interpretation in # 098 (also compare # 100), the opening of this episode must be on Saturday, March 2, 1985. Strangely enough, the TV newscaster says Floyd Gilmore, Sheriff of Tuscany County, was interviewed immediately after the blast at Richard's. Inconsistency: At the end of season 4, it was Dan Robbins, who was the sheriff. It will never be explained why he was replaced and how the new appointment could be done that quickly. The writers had originally chosen Garbett as the last name for Sheriff Gilmore. This name was "borrowed" from TV producer JOHN GARBETT. Inside joke: He is executive supervising producer CLAIRE WHITAKER's son-in-law (married to her daughter, KRISTIN WALLENGREN).  Fictional entity: A crew of KSFB 3 News, a San Francisco based TV station, is filming Gilmore's press conference in front of the Queen of the Valley Hospital. KSFB 3 was first visible at the rescue site after the plane crash in # 069.For more details about the KSFB 3 logo, check out the Beyond the Show – Props – Signage section.   Different footage: Angela and Greg watch the news program on TV where a clip of reporters asking Chase at the Queen of the Valley Hospital is featured (screen capture 1). While that clip is presented only on the TV screen in the scene in the episode itself, the sneak preview before the main title in the syndicated version (in which LORIMAR edited approximately 3 minutes per episode for later TV rebroadcasts) featured this footage in full frame (screen capture 2; the same take though).This website usually does not dwell on reedited versions. In this case, however, an exception was in order due to the different presentation.
Crawford, Cass and Anna's attorney, was originally named Chaleff in early script drafts.  Scenic art: In contrast to the previous one (compare # 082), a new painted backdrop at the entrance of the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion is visible for the first time.The lake from the previous backing was abolished. The new painting shows some rows of vineyards with some fallow land in between them, as well as a tree and hills in the background. This painting is quite light and is still inconsistent with the way the Falcon Crest grounds have been portrayed during on-locations shoots in the Napa Valley — the palm trees, hedges and swimming pool from the real Mansion are conspicuously missing from the painting for the sound stage shoots. A list of all episodes in which the backings of the Mansion are discussed is available in # 199.   The sun room is new to the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion interior set. In that part of the set, there used to be a walk-in closet in the study (see # 053). Inconsistency: It seems very strange that there are not only windows in the western wall, but also in the northern wall of the sun room (kind of circular arrangement) because the kitchen ought to be adjacent to the northern wall. The set designers paid less attention to details of the real house.By the way, there is no sun room in the real Villa Miravalle at all; in that part of the house, there is a back stairway and a part of the vast kitchen area. The sun room is equipped with McGUIRE furniture — a wicker table and chairs for indoor use. With their company, JOHN and ELINOR McGUIRE sort of pioneered the indoor use of wicker / rattan furniture; trying to capture the essence of casual luxury, they had an innate sense of defining a California lifestyle, indoors and out.
 The north wing of the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion (housing the kitchen) is missing on the drawing of Falcon Crest Resort, Cassandra's idea for remodeling the winery and vineyards into a hotel complex. Does she intend to tear that part of the Mansion down?The swimming pool is too big — unless she wants to enlarge it. Besides, the winery building and the bottling building are not built in an exactly parallel line to the mansion in real life. Apparently, Cass' architect (or rather the prop master!) was a little bit inaccurate.
On 10/09/2017, the house burnt to the ground in the Napa Atlas Peak Fire, one of many disastrous wildfires in the Napa and Sonoma Valleys.
Al Hurley's original last name was Scotty in original script drafts.  Product placement: Richard wears Nike sneakers, easily recognizable by the Swoosh.Jordan Roberts' original first name was Janet in the original season 5 bible. Also compare # 086 for the writers' previous idea to use the name of Janet Roberts in a different context.   From this season on, the newly established main wing of the Tuscany Valley (Memorial) Hospital complex will be seen. The private medical facilities are now called Queen of the Valley Hospital — Tuscany Valley Medical Center, as seen on the sign at the new main entrance in the first hospital scene.An extension of the medical facilities was already discussed in # 046, but seemed to fail when Angela refused the start-up financing she had originally offered. The financing, however, must have been secured in some other way in the meantime. The real-life location, the hospital in the city of Napa, CA, almost has the same name: Queen of the Valley Hospital — Napa Valley Medical Center.   Melissa is in a rather unusual, "luxurious" cell at the Tuscany County Jail: multi-colored linens on her bed, a lamp on the nightstand, posters on the wall and — most unusual — a TV set! The neighboring cell is not nearly as luxurious.The art poster on the left comes from a real art gallery, Galerie Yoshii, in Paris and promotes a special exhibition of the works of artist MARGUERITE LOUPPE (1902 – 1998). The poster on the right is an advert for a special exhibition entitled "Armes et armures du Japon ancien" ("Arms and Armors in Ancient Japan"), which took place at the Musée Cernuschi in Paris between December 6, 1979 and February 3, 1980.   The Gioberti House interiors have changed a bit over the summer hiatus: Parts of the limestone walls in the dining room (around the cupboard / dishboard) are now roughcast and painted. The carpet and couch colors in the living room are more pinkish and pastel-like.Chase tells Maggie he will sleep in his office. This implies that — besides the office in the Gioberti Estate Guest House to be introduced later this season — Chase has another office in the Gioberti House, which is never shown in the series. It must be the room with the French door to the west veranda (see # 019). The rooms behind the living room must be accessible from the door next to the staircase in the foyer — the door which also leads to the stairway to the basement. Also refer to # 024 in that context. LORIMAR's original blueprints of many sets are available for DFCF members in the Show — Production Office — Filming Locations — Movie Studios — Interior Sets section.   The headstone at Lorraine's grave is the same prop as Carlo's gravestone from # 071. The prop department exchanged the plaques with the inscriptions only.Lorraine was allergic to roses.  The scene at Lorraine's grave at the Tuscany Public Cemetery is filmed at the Public Cemetery in St. Helena, CA. It is in the same row of graves as Michael's, Linda's and Phillip's (# 069), branching off at 90 degrees.Richard's vehicles are 1981 Lincoln Town Car limousines — both the white stretched one in which he arrives at the cemetery as well as the black one with his bodyguards. Lance rides a red BMW K 100 motorcycle.
Chase about the Gioberti House: "This house is mine, my home, life estate. And 100 acres of some of the finest grape growing land in this country. They can't be taken away from me. And neither can the Falcon Crest name." For the "life estate", compare # 098. Interpretation: The 100 acres cannot refer to Chase's heritage only because the Gioberti Estate was only the original 50 acres of Falcon Crest. This can only refer to what Chase additionally bought in the meantime. As he only purchased the Whitaker Vineyards (# 055), that means they must be the additional 50 acres. This hardly refers to the Gianinni Winery since Chase does not own the (whole) property yet. The director's cut of this episode contained more dialog between Angela and Anna in the scene with them and Cassandra in the Wilder Advertising office. Originally, it transpired in their conversation that Angela and Anna went to elementary school together and used to be friends. But Angela remembers how Anna insulted their teacher, Miss Van Peer, and tricked her into believing it was Angela's misbehavior. That scene was shortened for the final version of the episode.
The same filming location will be used as the Tuscany Valley Parish Church from # 104 on.
  The interior sets of the upper floors of the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion, which were newly built for this season (on stage 16 at CBS-MTM — now RADFORD STUDIO CENTER — while the first floor is located on stage 10), are different from the upstairs hallways shown in # 001 through 007, 013, 019, 031, 046, 063 and 066 (compare there). It must be a different part of the house again. The most striking thing, however, is the same characteristic stained glass window again — the window known from many different places in the Mansion hallways.Drawings of the Mansion (floor plans and architectural views) are available here.   The interior set of Lance's current bedroom in the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion is basically the same as the set of his old bedroom (e.g. featured in # 008 and 014), of Angela's (# 002), of Julia's (# 002 and 005) and of Lance and Melissa's (seasons 2 and 3; compare screen capture from # 023) bedrooms as well as of the guest bedroom (# 066). The only difference this time is that the door opens the other way round — an easy way to cut down production costs. Only minor changes are made and different furniture is brought in to make the same set look like various bedrooms.
  The barn at Spring Mountain is now used as the Falcon Crest Guest House. Since # 021, when Melissa got an old crib from the barn, the barn must have been rebuilt into a guest cabin. A blue sunblind was added to make it appear as a residential cabin.
Inside jokes: Marysville is the name of the small town where EARL HAMNER used to have a vineyard of his own at the beginning of the 1980's. It is a town in California whereas the town of Marysville in the series is located in Connecticut. The character of Father Matthew from Marysville is named after a real-life priest by the same name, who used to dance in the theater with JANE WYMAN and Father BOB CURTIS.
  The headstones placed near the church are props although the real cemetery adjacent to the church yard could also have been used for this scene. The headstone behind Angela, by the way, is one of the three identical headstones from the Gioberti Family Cemetery; one of these was used as Jason Gioberti's gravestone (compare # 012).  Mistake: When Greg turns to see Angela standing in the cemetery near the church in Marysville, he turns fast in the long shot and already faces her. After the cut, the first frame of his close-up is on his back, and he turns again.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. Compare # 001 (Chase and Maggie at the Gioberti Family Cemetery) for the advantages and disadvantages of this shooting procedure. Fictional entity: Greg mentions the Inquisitor magazine, a tabloid, to Angela.   Different footage: Angela says to Greg at the cemetery in Marysville: "But if you reveal what you are about to find out, I promise you that you'll regret it the rest of your life." That very moment is featured in a close-up of Angela during the actual scene in this episode as well as in the sneak preview before the main title in the original full version of the episode (screen grab 1). In contrast, the syndicated version (in which LORIMAR edited approximately 3 minutes per episode for later TV rebroadcasts) contains a wide angle shot of that very moment in the sneak preview (screen capture 2) — apparently from a different take.This website usually does not dwell on reedited versions. In this case, however, an exception was in order since the syndicated version actually contains this previously unreleased footage.  The filming location for the gym at the Marysville Convent in this and the following episode is what used to be the Studio City Health Club, a small commercial gym close to CBS-MTM STUDIOS (now RADFORD STUDIO CENTER) on Ventura Place in Studio City, CA. The building houses a restaurant nowadays.Due to technical difficulties with the original film, the scene with GEORGE BRENLIN (Father Matthew) at the gym at the end of # 099 had to be reshot while filming # 100. Labeling name: Father Chris Rossini is given one of the most symbolic first names for a priest: Christopher (Greek origin) means "bearer of Christ". Early script drafts suggested that the final scene of the episode — when Angela tells Greg the truth about Julia's first son — take place in the church in Marysville where Father Christopher baptizes a baby.  Like in CLIFF ROBERTSON's case in season 3, MORGAN FAIRCHILD's credit is in a special position: It is a closing credit between act 4 and the end credits. The background picture on her title card is previously unused footage from season 3 and features a view of the main driveway to Falcon Crest (filmed from Shafer Vineyards towards Stags' Leap outside Napa, CA; compare # 041 for details).← Previous episode... ← General Information (Season 5) → Next episode... |
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Product placement: Terry and Greg have a bottle of Perrier-Jouët Champagne (Fleur de Champagne) at the Tuscany Downs Turf Club.
Despite LORIMAR's "new wardrobe for new season" policy, this episode, Angela wears a blouse she already wore in season 4 (# 096).
