When did FC slip, in quality?

[Gioberti84]

What season, do you think had the steepest decline, in quality? Seasons 1 to 3, the first third of season 4 and the first half of season 6 are excluded, from the poll?

 

[Monzo]

When it comes to questions like this, I always base my decision on when I emotionally disengaged from a show; for Falcon Crest, that was season 6. During that season, I stopped watching out of enthusiasm and started watching purely out of habit. Since I wasn't as emotionally invested as I used to be, the decline in subsequent seasons didn't shock me nearly as much as the drop-off in season 6 did.

For anyone interested, there is a similar poll on this topic with a pretty clear frontrunner: https://www.tellytalk.net/threads/biggest-drop-in-quality.14987/

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

After Robert McCullough was fired at the end of Season 3 (either because of his onset manipulations or because Lorimar didn't want to pay both McCullough and Earl Hamner) the show was never the same. I found the first two-thirds of Season 4 to be watchable enough until CBS demanded the year's main storyline (the nazi treasure plot) be ceased immediately, 10 episodes before the end of the season.

To me, that was when FC derailed.

Season 5 was drab and cluttered. Freilich's Season 6 re-energized the show despite some goofy "comedy" thrown in, while his Season 7 became too obnoxiously frenetic. FC tried to go straight again for Season 8, but its mojo had already been stolen. And Season 9 was like a different program.