Falcon Crest and the powers that be of Lorimar and CBS

[GillesDenver]

Christine Raines Talks About Her Flamingo Road Experience Talks Badly About Filerman. who liked this producer

Since You've Gone: An Interview with Cristina Raines

Establishing and maintaining a successful acting career usually represents the pinnacle of an actress' life and accomplishments, which is...

hillplace.blogspot.com

Along with Fairchild, Raines also admits that she did not enjoy working with Executive Producer Michael Filerman on "Flamingo Road." With the same level of candor, Raines acknowledges that "Michael Filerman is not one of my favorite people in the world. You know how I feel about Michael Winner? It's very close. Michael Filerman is a nasty man. He is the kind of person who goes out of his way to sabotage people. Michael Filerman tried to blame Mark and me for supposedly destroying the show and that it was supposedly our fault that it got cancelled. I'm not quite sure how I found out, but I got wind that he had been saying that, and action was taken to make him stop it. That's how awful he was. That's what I meant when I said he tried to sabotage people. It wasn't us who were the reason the show was cancelled. That's about as far as I want to go on that subject. Like I said, I really dislike Michael Winner and Michael Filerman is his bookend. (laugh)"

 

[Richard Denault]

alexpaige said:
But you are misunderstanding the situation. Lee Rich hired Jeff Freilich to replace Earl after Earl resigned. Earl didn't leave because Freilich was brought into the show - he left before that. He had been thinking of leaving since season 4. When Earl says "I was not pleased with the direction it was going in. I also was not sympathetic to some of the people that were brought aboard" he is referring to the direction it went in AFTER he left. Remember that Earl was still involved as Creative Consultant for season 6, under which arrangement he was sent scripts of each episode and asked to provide his input. Also he had good friends who were still working on the show (Ernie Wallengren, William Schmidt) who kept him abreast of what was happening under the new regime of Jeff Freilich. Earl did not care for Freilich and especially his attitude to the writing staff. William Schmidt did an interview with the German Falcon Crest Fan Club where he talks about this too. In the original interview, Earl talked a lot about Freilich, but he asked me to remove those sections before publication.
Jeff himself told TJP very satisfied
"He almost fired David Selby (at the end of the seventh season) as well. There was a situation in a limousine scene when Jeff thought David was not prepared well. According to Jeff, David had read the script the very last minute and complained about his dialog of him just the moment when they were ready to shoot.
HE WONDERED WHETHER TO FIRE DAVID THAT MINUTE, BUT HE DECIDED JUST TO KICK DAVID OUT OF THE SCENE ON THE SPOT Startled Jane and Susan had to do it on their own when Jeff spontaneously changed it; with stunned faces, they played their altered dialogue on the spot"
Although David's film career was not very good, he starred in Rich and Famous in 1980 with Jaquelinne Bisset and Candice Bergen directed by the legendary Cukor
He was very rude and David had such a strong argument that he thought he was going to kick him off the plate but Cukor didn't.
Jeff, a rookie director, expels the male protagonist of the series as a bad student
The opinion groups of lorimar from the seventh season
For them: The key factors for the serial's attraction named by the participants were Angela and Richard. He was listed as "the only other indispensable( with Angela ) character" in the evaluation.
The findings summed up that "all viewers had high praise for David Selby as an actor."
David received Soap Digest's Best Male Lead Award for his work in season seven.
And Jeff very smug presuming that he had almost fired him
In the end Jeff didn't do season eight. they fired him and David continued until the end

 

[Richard Denault]

Along with Fairchild, Raines also admits that she did not enjoy working with Executive Producer Michael Filerman on "Flamingo Road." With the same level of candor, Raines acknowledges that "Michael Filerman is not one of my favorite people in the world. You know how I feel about Michael Winner? It's very close. Michael Filerman is a nasty man. He is the kind of person who goes out of his way to sabotage people. Michael Filerman tried to blame Mark and me for supposedly destroying the show and that it was supposedly our fault that it got cancelled. I'm not quite sure how I found out, but I got wind that he had been saying that, and action was taken to make him stop it. That's how awful he was. That's what I meant when I said he tried to sabotage people. It wasn't us who were the reason the show was cancelled. That's about as far as I want to go on that subject. Like I said, I really dislike Michael Winner and Michael Filerman is his bookend. (laugh)"

Michael Winner directed The Sentinel" (1977), starring Raines. She says
All I can say is that the New York Teamsters, who worked on the crew of that film, saved my life. That's all I'm gonna say. They were a stellar group of guys and they protected me from Michael Winner. If any of them are reading this, I want to say 'Thank you' because they made a point of letting him know that he'd better not mess with me. And I've never been afraid of anyone before, but that man was scary. It was really a frightening experience working for him. That man put me through hell. You know...he used people with real disabilities for the finale of that film. They were lovely and kind people, and he was unkind to them. He would also try to shoot Ava Gardner making her look really awful. Ava was still a stunningly beautiful woman, but he would go out of his way to light her badly, on purpose, to try and make her look bad. I wasn't aware at first that Michael was doing that. The cinematographer came over to me and he said 'Look at the way Michael's lighting Ava. He's trying to make her look horrible.' So I said to him, 'OK, let me see what I can do to help out.' I would work with the cinematographer and we would be in cahoots together so that we could figure out a way to give her better lighting to make sure she didn't look bad. What we would do is that I would distract Michael long enough for the cinematographer to reset the camera, that sort of thing. NOBODY liked that man. He was just unkind."

 

[Brian Kinney]

@Richard Denault : The film The Sentinel has nothing to do with the topic while @GillesDenver's comment about Christina Raines' experience with Michael Filerman has. Don't you see the difference between relevance and an unrelated story or gossip (e.g. the anti-gay rumour about Wyman)? Too often you seem to interpret quotes from different persons to fit your belief that David Selby has a superhero acting power.

Although David's film career was not very good, he starred in Rich and Famous in 1980 with Jaquelinne Bisset and Candice Bergen directed by the legendary Cukor
He was very rude and David had such a strong argument that he thought he was going to kick him off the plate but Cukor didn't.
Jeff, a rookie director, expels the male protagonist of the series as a bad student
The opinion groups of lorimar from the seventh season
For them: The key factors for the serial's attraction named by the participants were Angela and Richard. He was listed as "the only other indispensable( with Angela ) character" in the evaluation.

How do you associate Selby's work with Cukor on Rich and Famous to "Jeff, a rookie director" and Lorimar's opinion groups? Whoever is this Jeff? Freilich, Wainwright, Colby... or some random director for Lorimar named Jeff Miller no one ever heard about. But whatever it could be - it has nothing to do with a producer's decision to leave a TV series. It's just pure obsession with David Selby.

Quoting this and that from a German fan club over and over again in all threads about Falcon Crest is tedious to read - we all can find and read those interviews, even in a language we understand if we're interested ... It's less clear what your personal opinions about the topics are (except dragging Selby into it). But please try to accept the fact that someone who actually has spoken with Earl Hamner Jr. may have a point you'll never be able to refute, especially not if you don't understand the meaning of what you quote from these two.

 

[Richard Denault]

@Richard Denault : The film The Sentinel has nothing to do with the topic while @GillesDenver's comment about Christina Raines' experience with Michael Filerman has. Don't you see the difference between relevance and an unrelated story or gossip (e.g. the anti-gay rumour about Wyman)? Too often you seem to interpret quotes from different persons to fit your belief that David Selby has a superhero acting power.



How do you associate Selby's work with Cukor on Rich and Famous to "Jeff, a rookie director" and Lorimar's opinion groups? Whoever is this Jeff? Freilich, Wainwright, Colby... or some random director for Lorimar named Jeff Miller no one ever heard about. But whatever it could be - it has nothing to do with a producer's decision to leave a TV series. It's just pure obsession with David Selby.

Quoting this and that from a German fan club over and over again in all threads about Falcon Crest is tedious to read - we all can find and read those interviews, even in a language we understand if we're interested ... It's less clear what your personal opinions about the topics are (except dragging Selby into it). But please try to accept the fact that someone who actually has spoken with Earl Hamner Jr. may have a point you'll never be able to refute, especially not if you don't understand the meaning of what you quote from these two.

If it don't like my messages the solution is very simple not to read them.
Jeff's problem, as someone commented, is that he was a writer and producer, not a director.
As a director and producer he increased production costs in an exaggerated and meaningless way.
For example when the rescue of Lance and Melissa Emma, Richard and Maggie had to arrive by helicopter !!!.
In the interview he gave to Thomas he was delighted that he had fired Robert Foxworth in front of the entire team.
David's is very significant.
There is no limo scene with Angela Maggie and Richard in the last few episodes. Boasting to expel an actoran actor when ar when a legend like Cukor didn't.
The important thing is the filming and not the director's ego. Cukor knew Jeff didn't.
Jeff is pushy and .A liar?

 

[TJP]

I think the essence of all the rumors about who liked to work with whom, etc. is that showrunners are not the easiest persons to work with because they all (naturally) have their own ways to run a series. As a showrunnner, any producer sometimes has to make unpleasant decisions, whether it be due to demands from tue studio head or the network liaison, just to name an example where politics always play a big rôle. It is only natural that cast, crew and staff members may be offended by one or the other decision.

Although Earl was the creator of the show and did a great job to lay the groundwork, "Falcon Crest" (as it was finally retitled) was totally revamped when Bob McCullough became attached — and we got a much more exciting series première than the original pilot ("The Vintage Years", which was axed). Bob is a great writer and was a perfect de-facto showrunner because he saw Earl's vision of the show, but had the ability to spice it up as needed to become a hit series. I say that, as a very close friend of Earl's, and with the knowledge that Earl was more often than not unhappy about certain over-the-top storylines and plot twists Bob created. It's not my intention to diminish Earl's rôle in creating the show, but I think it was a wise choice that Bob became attached and turned it into the show we all grew to love because it simply needed that certain push over the edge although Earl's groundwork was very good.

It's no secret that Mike Filerman was not a really creative person, but more of a businessman, so it's no surprise that he and Earl never got along. Filerman was a hot-tempered and bossy type of person.

We will probably never find out the full truth about the McCullough / Black & Stern incident because all the parties involved have presented their different sides, and none of them seems to be fully convincing. The last person I would trust in that matter is Ann Marcus because she took it personally that her brief stay on "Falcon Crest" did not make her executive or supervising producer in season 4. By the way, I'm friends with both Bob McCullough and Steve Black & Henry Stern — and it may be surprising to many here after reading all about the alleged "hostility" that they've been sending each other Christmas greetings for decades after they left "Falcon Crest". Who would do that if the situation had actually been that bad?

 

[Richard Denault]

I think the essence of all the rumors about who liked to work with whom, etc. is that showrunners are not the easiest persons to work with because they all (naturally) have their own ways to run a series. As a showrunnner, any producer sometimes has to make unpleasant decisions, whether it be due to demands from tue studio head or the network liaison, just to name an example where politics always play a big rôle. It is only natural that cast, crew and staff members may be offended by one or the other decision.

Although Earl was the creator of the show and did a great job to lay the groundwork, "Falcon Crest" (as it was finally retitled) was totally revamped when Bob McCullough became attached — and we got a much more exciting series première than the original pilot ("The Vintage Years", which was axed). Bob is a great writer and was a perfect de-facto showrunner because he saw Earl's vision of the show, but had the ability to spice it up as needed to become a hit series. I say that, as a very close friend of Earl's, and with the knowledge that Earl was more often than not unhappy about certain over-the-top storylines and plot twists Bob created. It's not my intention to diminish Earl's rôle in creating the show, but I think it was a wise choice that Bob became attached and turned it into the show we all grew to love because it simply needed that certain push over the edge although Earl's groundwork was very good.

It's no secret that Mike Filerman was not a really creative person, but more of a businessman, so it's no surprise that he and Earl never got along. Filerman was a hot-tempered and bossy type of person.

We will probably never find out the full truth about the McCullough / Black & Stern incident because all the parties involved have presented their different sides, and none of them seems to be fully convincing. The last person I would trust in that matter is Ann Marcus because she took it personally that her brief stay on "Falcon Crest" did not make her executive or supervising producer in season 4. By the way, I'm friends with both Bob McCullough and Steve Black & Henry Stern — and it may be surprising to many here after reading all about the alleged "hostility" that they've been sending each other Christmas greetings for decades after they left "Falcon Crest". Who would do that if the situation had actually been that bad?

How to say in Spain
Time heals everything
Nothing is true or false, everything depends on the glass with which you look

 

[Richard Denault]

I think the essence of all the rumors about who liked to work with whom, etc. is that showrunners are not the easiest persons to work with because they all (naturally) have their own ways to run a series. As a showrunnner, any producer sometimes has to make unpleasant decisions, whether it be due to demands from tue studio head or the network liaison, just to name an example where politics always play a big rôle. It is only natural that cast, crew and staff members may be offended by one or the other decision.

Although Earl was the creator of the show and did a great job to lay the groundwork, "Falcon Crest" (as it was finally retitled) was totally revamped when Bob McCullough became attached — and we got a much more exciting series première than the original pilot ("The Vintage Years", which was axed). Bob is a great writer and was a perfect de-facto showrunner because he saw Earl's vision of the show, but had the ability to spice it up as needed to become a hit series. I say that, as a very close friend of Earl's, and with the knowledge that Earl was more often than not unhappy about certain over-the-top storylines and plot twists Bob created. It's not my intention to diminish Earl's rôle in creating the show, but I think it was a wise choice that Bob became attached and turned it into the show we all grew to love because it simply needed that certain push over the edge although Earl's groundwork was very good.

It's no secret that Mike Filerman was not a really creative person, but more of a businessman, so it's no surprise that he and Earl never got along. Filerman was a hot-tempered and bossy type of person.

We will probably never find out the full truth about the McCullough / Black & Stern incident because all the parties involved have presented their different sides, and none of them seems to be fully convincing. The last person I would trust in that matter is Ann Marcus because she took it personally that her brief stay on "Falcon Crest" did not make her executive or supervising producer in season 4. By the way, I'm friends with both Bob McCullough and Steve Black & Henry Stern — and it may be surprising to many here after reading all about the alleged "hostility" that they've been sending each other Christmas greetings for decades after they left "Falcon Crest". Who would do that if the situation had actually been that bad?

Earl was a wonderful writer. But he only wrote a script on <1-04>. His son Scott son four, two in the first season, two in the second
Because ?. Due to the lawsuit that was brought against him for plagiarizing a novel when creating Falcon Crest
Perhaps producing a late-night soap opera was too much for him. The problems of the third season seem to have overwhelmed him
Although he commented in a 1999 interview that he left Falcon Crest because he was tired and had enough money.
in another 2005

Interview: Earl Hamner (2005) | Scott Holleran

by Scott Holleran Best known as the creator and producer of the long-running CBS series The Waltons, Earl Hamner’s work ranges from his early screenplays for Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone to his script for the 1973 animated musical adaptation of E.B. White’s children’s novel, Charlotte’s Web...

www.scottholleran.com

Earl Hamner: I don't know. I did have a deal with them at the very end when I resigned that I would be a consultant at a very nice salary. Something happened—which I have never really understood—and my agent called one day and said they were not picking me up after the first month [as a consultant]. That was disappointing to me, being the sort of goose that laid the golden egg.
It seems that in the end they fired him.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I realize this reveals my potential corruption, but Bob McCullough was a brilliant showrunner; I'm currently re-watching the first three seasons of FALCON CREST (as I do most Marches, although I somehow missed last year) and it's nuts how fast the show collapsed after he was fired -- twice -- by the end of Season 3. (The first two-thirds of Season 4, without McCullough, were acceptable, but then CBS delivered the coup de grâce by demanding the nazi treasure storyline be dropped immediately, leaving the writers to cobble together 10 episodes of plotting in order to finish out the year, the series -- in my estimation -- never recovering). Should they have allowed him to stay, or brought him back, even if he ran roughshod over the employees? Maybe they could have asked him to not manipulate so much, pretty-please?

Here's an interview with McCullough from about a year ago (he doesn't mention FC directly):

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I keep finding listings for McCullough being born in 1960 -- this can't be true, can it? A 21-year-old running FALCON CREST ???

@TJP? Any opinions?