# Falcon Crest (1981)

> A nine-season 1980s primetime soap in which the feuding Gioberti and Channing families battle for control of a California wine empire.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/81

## Facts

- Seasons: 9
- Episodes: 227
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama
- Created by: Earl Hamner, Jr.
- Network: CBS
- Cast: Jane Wyman, David Selby, Robert Foxworth, Lorenzo Lamas, Gregory Harrison, Susan Sullivan, Kristian Alfonso, Jamie Rose
- TMDB rating: 6.2/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081858/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: mild
- Tone: melodramatic, scheming, glossy, sardonic, sensational

## What critics say

Audiences rated the series negatively overall, with its melodrama and soap excess generally seen as campy and dated.

## Synopsis

Falcon Crest (1981-1990) is an American primetime soap opera created by Earl Hamner, Jr. for CBS. Jane Wyman stars as Angela Channing, the tyrannical matriarch of the Falcon Crest Winery, who clashes with her rivals in the wealthy Gioberti and Channing families. Robert Foxworth plays Chase Gioberti, Angela's nephew who returns to the estate after his father's death, while David Selby, Susan Sullivan and Lorenzo Lamas round out the feuding clans. The engine of the show is relentless competition over vineyard land, wine contracts and family inheritance, with each episode built from boardroom schemes, secret alliances, romantic entanglements and bitter confrontations at the family estate. Running nine seasons and 227 episodes in a single continuing storyline, the series unfolds in the fictitious Tuscany Valley northeast of San Francisco, where sun-drenched vineyards contrast with the cutthroat ambitions of its characters. The tone is melodramatic, glossy and openly scheming, with a sour-grapes wit beneath the polished surface. Fans of Dallas and Dynasty will find the same kind of primetime family melodrama, where wealth, inheritance and rivalry drive every twist.

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