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# 055 <3.15> Queen's Gambit The call sheet for 09/21/1983 planned a segment with Maggie's Ford Thunderbird to be shot for the main title. Unfortunately, it remains a mystery why this never materialized. Early script drafts planned for Chase, Cole and Sheriff Robbins to be waiting at the Tuscany County Jail for the bail to be posted in the first scene. This segment was omitted.
  Mistake: In the scene with Richard and Spheeris in the New Globe executive office, the newspaper lies even on the surface of the desk at the beginning, but is rolled-up in later frames although nobody touched it.This is a mistake caused by the various takes in filming — check # 001 (Chase and Maggie at the Gioberti Family Cemetery) for details. Kleeger Wine Distribution is the distributor for Falcon Crest wines; Angela owns the majority of the shares in the company. Jack Sloan (# 008) apparently was to distribute the Falcon Crest 1978 Cabernet Sauvignon only, no other Falcon Crest wines.   Different footage: In this episode, the moment when Melissa slaps Lance in the face in the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion foyer (and the moment before) are filmed from a different angle from the one in the sneak preview before the main title. The footage comes from various takes of the scene.
Early script drafts contained a scene with Michael coming home with a thick file from the hospital and Terry persuading him to forget about his work. This scene was omitted in the final version of this episode; what was kept, however, was the scene when they are both satisfied after having sex with each other for the first time.  A red Volvo 242 DL sedan drives past Linda and Cole's home when Melissa pays a visit to Linda.This picture car will be used over and over again in the background action of many exterior scenes in the following episodes: # 057, 059, 062, 063, 065, 067, 097, 124, 135, 136, 138, 139, 144, 145, 171, 176, 177, 179, 183, 189, 199, 209, 210 and 221. The vehicle is not a LORIMAR prop, but the car is owned by MELODY McCORD, who started working as a stand-in on the show this season and will be seen as Melody, the head house maid at the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion, on a regular basis from # 066 on. Following the industry's common practice for background actors, MELODY is paid additional $ 30 per episode in which she brings her car to the set to be photographed, plus mileage for the distance between her residence and the studio or filming location. This is a win-win situation for both parties — the actress 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. In # 189, Melody will briefly be seen driving this car, so it is apparently her character's automobile in the show's plot, too.
  The interior set of Plenn's office at Smith, Plenn & Hogstedt in San Francisco is the same as the usual bedroom set in the upper floors of the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion; compare # 023 for example. It was just redressed (particularly with wood wall paneling) and refurnished.The swivel armchair at the desk and the guest armchairs are the same props as in Tanner's accounting office (# 027), Phillip's law office (# 028) and Ms. Smith's office at Smith, Plenn & Hogstedt (# 049). Early script drafts staged the scene with Cole, Linda and attorney Plenn on the street in front of the law offices in San Francisco while the final version featured an interior scene. Tuscany Downs is being built by Sansamour Construction. As stated in # 029, Sansamour is one of Richard's entities.  Lighting crew's mistake: At the beginning of the scene at the Tuscany Downs race track construction site, large light rigs can be seen reflecting off the metal body of the bulldozer as it drives by.Sansamour Construction's bulldozer is a Caterpillar 963.
 In the scene with Otto, Emma and Angela in the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion study, the last few words before Otto moves out of the frame towards Emma are dubbed in post-production. He says: "Not if you stay locked up in your room all day." His lips are moving, but they are not saying "locked up". The scene was much shorter in the script, so it remains a mystery what his original line was. Post-production mistake: As in # 051, old stock footage of the Tuscany Valley Hospital is reused (this time from # 034). The sign still reads Tuscany Valley Memorial Hospital. Signs saying Tuscany Valley Hospital have usually been used for that purpose since the beginning of this season (compare the screen captures in # 041).
 The Saloon is a restaurant in Tuscany. Emma and Dr. Foster have some wine there.The filming location for the exterior shot is what used to be a real-life restaurant by the same name on Little Santa Monica Boulevard in Beverly Hills, CA. This exterior shot, however, was not specifically filmed for the series, but is stock footage. The Saloon was destroyed by fire towards the end of the 1980's. Nowadays, a store is standing in its place.   The interior set of The Saloon is the same as the tasting room set in the Falcon Crest Winery Building introduced in # 053, just redressed. Although the scene with Emma and Otto is filmed so closely, this fact is particularly revealed by the distinct walls with vertical wood panels atop a brick base (see arrow where the building materials meet). The filming location for the Tuscany Valley Airport is the Whiteman Airport in Pacoima, CA in this episode.N6PK is the license number of Simon Whitaker's plane, a Cessna 310I (construction number 310I0021, built in 1964). Like Chase's plane (compare # 048), this plane is actually owned by CLIFF ROBERTSON also. N522R is the license number of Chase's white plane in this episode. Inconsistency: It was N523R (the real registration) in # 048. It remains a mystery why the prop master changed the registration number for the current episode.   It becomes obvious in this episode and, in particular, in # 058 and 060 that the interior set of the McKay House master bedroom is the same as the usual Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion bedroom set. It is a redressed version of the Mansion's guest bedroom (compare # 001), of Angela's (# 002 and 005), Julia's (# 005) and Lance's (# 008 and 014) bedrooms in season 1 as well as of Melissa and Lance's bedroom (compare screen capture from # 023) and of the nursery (# 021 and 028). The movable walls were just arranged differently (window, fireplace). 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.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. Season time frame: Michael diagnosed Dan with an aneurysm over a month ago. It remains a mystery if this refers to the original diagnosis (# 051) or the one after Dan's symptoms got worse (# 053). Giving respect to the time gap between # 052 and 053, the latter seems to be the case. Angela made it clear to Terry she wants to know everything about the Giobertis two weeks ago. Her reminding Terry the last time was seen in # 052, which seems to be illogical giving respect to the period of time that apparently passed between # 052 and 053. Maybe there was another reminder (not featured for the audience) just in that period of time. Maggie was at Michael's home one week ago (in # 054). Therefore, the current episode must depict the events around the second week of October 1983. The harvest at Falcon Crest is scheduled to begin in approximately a week to ten days. This will be in # 056. ← Previous episode... → Next episode... |
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