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# 068 <3.28> Ashes to Ashes The episode title is an allusion to the phrase "earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust" in Christian burial services. This episode was originally assigned to HARRY HARRIS, one of the regular directors. On short notice, it was reassigned to BARBARA PEETERS though.  The aerial view of the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion at the beginning of this episode is a helicopter flight from the 1983 summer filming in the Napa Valley. While the final part of the helicopter sequence has been in use for the main title since this season, this earlier part is now used for the first time and will also be featured in the main titles of the following six years.Deleted scenes:
Early scripts drafts suggested that the next scene show Lance galloping furiously on horseback the following morning, as though the ride will rid him of the awful memory of the Spring House fire. This scene was omitted before the episode went into filming.   Mistake: In the scene with Angela and Phillip in the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion living room, the shots are from various takes that were combined in the editing process. This becomes apparent because Angela is standing back at the edge of the mantle in her close-up while she is standing quite near the center of the fireplace in the subsequent long shot.This is a mistake caused by the particular close-up filming technique — check # 001 (Chase and Maggie at the Gioberti Family Cemetery) for details. Early script drafts had coroner Vance Fowler find Julia's diamond ring in the debris of the Spring House. This part of the scene was omitted. It would have been pretty unrealistic how and where Julia, on the run, could have taken possession of her ring again.
Deleted scene: Emma and Maggie are walking through the woods near a pond — filmed near the lagoon at the BURBANK STUDIOS (WARNER BROS. STUDIOS); compare # 051. Emma tells Maggie that Julia appeared to her in a dream, saying that she is still alive. Emma says they went up to the tower room on the third floor of the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion where there was a strange sort of light and music and where Julia told Emma to go there whenever she felt lonely; Julia would be there, too. Maggie reacts with concern, fearing Emma might lose her mind. This scene was filmed, but removed in post-production. Fictional entity: Richard wants to meet with Padgett at the Hôtel International in Marseille / France. Series time frame: According to the TV newscaster, Julia first vaulted into the headlines a little over a year ago after the brutal shooting at Falcon Crest. In accordance with the interpretation in # 040, that happened around the end of February / beginning of March 1983. As some time has gone by since # 065 (the beginning of February 1984), it must be around March 1984 now.
  Mistake: In the scene with Lance and Angela in the Tuscany County Jail, the close-ups are from various takes that were combined in the editing process. This becomes apparent because the position of Lance's hand is different in subsequent frames; he touches the bars in one frame, but his hand is out of the frame in the sequence shot from across.This is a mistake caused by the particular close-up filming technique — check # 001 (Chase and Maggie at the Gioberti Family Cemetery) for details.   Mistake: In the scene with Maggie and Richard in the Gioberti House living room, Maggie smiles broadly in the wide angle shot. But in the very next frame, a close-up, Maggie is only slightly smiling and then begins smiling broadly a few seconds later.This is the typical mistake caused by the particular close-up filming technique — check # 001 (Chase and Maggie at the Gioberti Family Cemetery) for details. Lance is the sole beneficiary of Julia's estate; the bulk is her New Globe stock — according to Phillip, almost a quarter of the shares. But Julia inherited only 20 % from Douglas (see # 018, 019 and 022). So she must have bought additional shares.
Richard's jet is a Windstream 4 aircraft (a fictional make and model). The radio identification code is 4-Tango-Delta. The jet is owned by R.C. Incorporated — apparently one of Richard's entities.
The only scenes specifically filmed for this episode are the ones in the hangar (screen grab 1) and the footage of Spheeris on the runway (unpictured here). These segments at the Tuscany Valley Airport are filmed at Burbank Airport in Burbank, CA. The make and model of the jet in the hangar is a Grumman Gulfstream II (screen grab 1). The later exterior close-up of the jet's fuselage (screen capture 3) and the exterior shots of the plane taking off as well as up in the air — both right after takeoff and in later exterior shots — are from a film library and feature a different aircraft from the one in the hangar, albeit the same model, a 1969 Grumman G-1159 Gulfstream II (registration number N8000J). These clips originated while shooting the pilot of "Hart to Hart" (1979), but remained unused on that show; they were profitably sold on stock shot licensing platforms instead. "Hart to Hart" filmed these segments at Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport in Thermal, CA (visible in the background on screen capture 4). Different footage of this very jetliner that also originated while filming the "Hart to Hart" pilot will be used in # 155 (compare there) for the shots of the airborne jet carrying Peter, Kit and Tony. For the third plane portraying the Windstream jetliner, see the note about the engine below. The interior shots of Richard's jetliner (cockpit and passenger compartment; screen grab 2 above) are taken inside a jet mock-up, which was leased to many movie studios by a Pacoima based company by the name AIR MOCK-UP. The phone number Spheeris dials from the Tuscany Valley Airport to call Riebmann's contact is 458-2138 — without any area code, which means that the subscriber he calls is within the (707) area code where the Tuscany Valley is situated. The area code is (707). Despite the usual habit of the movie industry to use the "555" prefix for on-screen telephone numbers (compare # 005), the production company used a real prefix in the current episode.   Continuity error: Right before Spheeris makes the aforementioned phone call on the payphone, Richard's jet, having just taking off, is considerably above the ground already (screen grab 1). After Spheeris hangs up, the plane is seen again (screen capture 2), having not flown very far in the 26 seconds that have passed before the camera cuts back to it. The jet would have been farther away and higher up than it is in the second cut. This is caused by the fact that post-production used stock footage of the takeoff, which they just split.   More continuity errors occur a few segments later: Two of the establishing shots of Richard's jetliner are not dark enough for the time of day that the respective scenes are taking place in.The first establishing shot after the late afternoon scene with Melissa and Cole in the Falcon Crest Winery Building shows an exterior view of the aircraft that suggests dusk (screen capture 1) — while the script rather called for a night shot. The following interior scene, which particularly includes Richard and Lance's chat at the bar, shows the cabin illuminated by lamps and all window shades closed, suggesting darkness outside. There is no specific information in this scene where the plane is at this time, but it is definitely heading east from its departure in the Tuscany Valley. This segment is followed by the scene with Melissa and Cole returning from dinner at the Tuscany Valley Inn to Falcon Crest. That scene establishes a very dark night (screen grab 2); the Tuscany Valley is located in Pacific Daylight Time zone (this episode concludes on 03/18/1984; see # 098 and 100 for the series time frame). Giving respect to the darkness in the scene at the Mansion, the following establishing shot of Richard's jet right before Maggie tucks Joseph in and then heads towards Linda is too bright for this time of day again (screen capture 3). The jetliner is approximately flying somewhere over Colorado at this time, as it can be concluded from Chase's later radio communication with Denver Airport tower. Colorado is located in Mountain Daylight Time zone, which is one hour ahead of Pacific Time zone, i.e. it should even be darker there already than in the Tuscany Valley. As explained above, the establishing shots of the Windstream jetliner (actually a 1969 Grumman G-1159 Gulfstream II) are stock shots from "Hart to Hart" where they were actually filmed in daylight. LORIMAR's post-production divided the original, long segment of the aircraft's flight into various segments to be used in the current "Falcon Crest" episode as three different establishing shots and filtered them to simulate dusk scenes gradually getting darker. They were not careful enough with these two clips though. Only the final establishing shot right before the cliffhanger was modified correctly for a night scene.
Inside joke: The exterior clip of the engine is stock footage, which was bought from a movie clip archive. It comes from UNIVERSAL's "Airport '77" movie, starring ROBERT FOXWORTH as Captain Chambers. This clip features a Boeing 747-100 — the third aircraft portraying Richard's jetliner this episode (compare above). The exact same frames were not in the final version of the movie, but it was "superfluous" footage that originated while filming a longer segment of the burning engine for "Airport '77". The movie was filmed in an ultra-wide 2.35 : 1 aspect ratio (screen capture 2), so LORIMAR compressed the clip and cropped it to adapt it to the 4 : 3 aspect ratio of "Falcon Crest". Chase is told to accommodate an emergency landing at the Cañon City Airport. This is the real Cañon City – Fremont County Airport near Cañon City, CO. Earlier script drafts suggested a later reply from the tower, the controller's voice telling Chase he is now going down in the Park Range Mountains, CO. This is a real mountain range in the Rocky Mountains of northwestern Colorado. It was probably where the crash was actually supposed to have taken place, considering the description of the location in season 4, but the topographic name was never mentioned after this line was deleted from the script.
 The pitcher at the bar in the aircraft cabin mysteriously changes its position between scenes, which becomes apparent in the cliffhanger. Earlier, right after Maggie checked on Joseph and tucked him in, she walked through the dividing curtains to the passenger compartment and passed the bar. On the top of it near the end by the curtains, was the glass jar holding a bunch of straws (yellow arrow on screen captures 1 and 2); the glass pitcher (red arrow on screen grab 2) was standing by the wall along the side of the plane that she and Linda were sitting on. When, during the cliffhanger scene, the plane lurches forward and Angela starts to panic, the scene cuts back to the items on the bar (screen capture 3). The glass pitcher is now suddenly behind the jar of straws by the curtain (just to compare — this would have been the position marked green on screen grab 1), and it slides down the longer part of the bar, pushing the jar of straws off with it. Although the scene cut away from the bar after Maggie walked by, none of the passengers put the pitcher on the other end of the bar since they were all seated and strapped in. The only one who could have moved the pitcher is Michael after he buckled up Joseph. But he certainly did not because he was heading straight back towards his seat next to Terry within less than ten seconds.Again, this is the typical mistake caused by the particular close-up filming technique — check # 001 (Chase and Maggie at the Gioberti Family Cemetery) for details. MEL FERRER and CLIFF ROBERTSON will not return next season. That decision was surprising for FERRER, a member of the original cast, because he was quite sure about his contract being renewed. FERRER later blamed JANE WYMAN for being made redundant. He is said to have been disappointed in her because of her lack of support for him although they had gotten along well on the set. Original storyline plans: Initial plans for the dramatic final weeks of the season suggested that guilt-ridden Dr. Ranson intend to commit suicide after failing to help Maggie with her brain tumor. Maggie was intended to be in a life-or-death situation at the end of this season. These plans underwent major rewriting. ← Previous episode... → General Information (Season 4) → Next episode... |
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