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# 205 <8.22> Decline and Fall
 
 
(revised 08/14/2023)
 
 


 
 
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Script | Credits | Filming Locations
 
 

 
 
The CBS-MTM (RADFORD STUDIO CENTER) administration building poses as a Chicago O'Hare Airport building this episode. Prop signs are installed for that purpose.
LORIMAR's original map of this part of the studio lot is available for DFCF members in the Show – Production Office – Filming Locations – Movie Studios – Exterior Sets section.
 
 
Different camera angles in the sneak preview and the scene itself: The moment when Emma enters the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion living room from the foyer does not contain a short sequence that was featured in the sneak preview: the frames when Emma says "Hi everybody" and a wide angle shot of the family sitting in the living room is missing in the scene.
 
The bedroom in Samantha's apartment in Chicago is actually the master bedroom at Saddlerock Ranch in Malibu Canyon, the usual filming location for Maggie and Richard's ranch.
On 11/09/2018, the Woolsey Fire, a destructive wildfire in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, destroyed many parts of the Saddlerock Ranch, including the main house.
 
Mistake: The close-ups of Kelly during the dinner celebrating Gabriel's receving damages from the QVH for the negligence in his treatment are from various takes that were combined in the editing process. This becomes apparent when, in various frames (intercut with short close-ups of Maggie), Kelly first holds the salad bowl, then has obviously put it away somewhere and finally holds it again to pass it along. 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.
 
When Samantha appears at the front door of the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion, Angela refers to her family members as "doubting Thomases". This is a reference to chapter 20 of the Ghospel of John in the Bible where the skepticism of Thomas the Apostle is addressed.
 
Mistake: During Angela and Samantha's conversation in the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion study, Angela pulls her left hand away from the clipboard on her desk first. In the subsequent frame filmed from across, however, her hand is still on the clipboard. Once 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.
 
There is a phone number in Lance's clipboard on his desk in the Falcon Crest Winery Building, which is most likely his phone: (707) 555-7823.
 
Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion study safe combination: L 3 — 28, R 2 — 13, L 1 — 10; "L" indicating "left", "R" indicating "right". Mistake: KRISTIAN ALFONSO turns the numerical lock of the safe in the wrong directions in the following scene: she first turns it to the right, then to the left and finally to right again.
 
The clocks above the New Globe logo in Richard's reception area have always shown exactly the same time — a couple of minutes past 6 AM or PM / 9 AM or PM / 8 AM or PM / 10 AM or PM / 3 AM or PM — for almost the whole season (since # 189), no matter what time it really is. What a poor work of the set department and prop masters!
 
One more strange aspect with these clocks: When the newly renovated office and reception area was introduced in # 184, these clocks showed exactly 5 AM or PM / 9 AM or PM / 8 AM or PM / 11 AM or PM / last clock invisible. What time does each clock really refer to? Time zones? Deadlines for the working schedule of various newspaper departments? Release hours of the paper? Are certain time gaps caused by changing from or to daylight saving time?
 
Deleted scene: After the opening scene of act 3 (Lance and Pilar in bed in the morning), Angela and Frank, having breakfast in the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion sun room, talk about their friendship; Angie says she wants to avoid having the same feud with Nick as she had with Melissa. This scene was removed in post-production.
 

Tommy and Kelly have lunch at Duke's Diner near Lake Tahoe. The filming location is a small building on the parking lot of Malibou Lake Mountain Club in Agoura Hills, CA. For the use of the club house as another filming location, see below.

 
Allusion to the entertainment industry: Kelly mentions she wants to see a show with SUZANNE SOMERS and WAYNE NEWTON in Tahoe.
 
More downtown Tuscany stores on Polo Road are featured this episode: The Tropical Fish restaurant and Bicycle Shack among others.
The street is portrayed by Ventura Place in Studio City, CA, a short street very close to CBS-MTM STUDIOS (now RADFORD STUDIO CENTER). The stores, by the way, were real-life businesses at the time of filming.
 
Deleted scene after Maggie's desperation in her car: Samantha is taken to the Agretti Residence by Frank at night, looks at old photos of Melissa and tries to get the feel of her look-alike there. Nick appears and is speechless when he sees Samantha. When she flirts with him and walks out, he is charmed, curious and intrigued though. This scene was deleted to stay in the one-hour program time frame.
 
Post-production mistake: The establishing shot of the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion at night is one of the clips shot during the shooting of the fire scene for # 103 (compare there), which includes the false gable that was specifically built and burnt down. It is zoomed in this episode. The shot was also used by mistake in # 115, 125, 137, 170, 180 and 198 already.
 
Mistake: In the scene at the piano in the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion living room, the close-ups of Lance and Emma are from various takes that were combined in the editing process. This becomes apparent when Lance's right hand is on Emma's shoulder in one moment, but is no longer there in the next frame filmed from across. Again, this is a mistake caused by the particular close-up filming technique — check # 001 (Chase and Maggie at the Gioberti Family Cemetery) for details.
 
Post-production mistake: Richard has an appointment with Samantha in Golden Gate Park. But an establishing shot of Washington Square in San Francisco is used. It is not Moscone Park either, which was the writers' original choice in early script drafts.
 
The filming location is not Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, of course, but a private park area at Malibou Lake in Agoura Hills, CA across the street from Malibou Lake Mountain Club.
 

The unmarked van the police use to listen in on Richard's conversation with Samantha is a brown 1977 GMC Vandura.

 
Having Richard tell everything to Samantha although he is sure she is wired and wants to get his confession, is an absolute nonsense the writers created. No one would ever believe scheming Richard would be that stupid to think Samantha would just record their little chat on tape without transmitting it directly to the police.
 
Product placement: The Time magazine (compare # 100) is presented again — this time with Richard Channing on the cover.
This is also an inside joke: TIME, Inc. had merged with WARNER COMMUNICATIONS and acquired LORIMAR-TELEPICTURES a few weeks before this episode was produced.
 
The back of the Time magazine is propped with an advert for Wade's Wintergreen, a fictional chewing gum brand. For more details about this typical 1980's prop, refer to the respective entry in # 056. Further information is also available in the Beyond the Show – Identical Names section.
 
Prop mistake: The Time magazine's release date in the upper left corner of its cover reads "May 29, 1989", which was, by the way, a real release day because, back then, the magazine was published weekly on Mondays. This date, however, does not match this season's time frame (compare below). Also, the release of the issue with Richard on the cover definitely happened on a Saturday according to the storyline since the issue appeared on day 5 of this episode, which was the beginning of the weekend Tommy and Kelly used for their trip to Lake Tahoe. The prop error is pretty obvious also because the show usually does not depict events beyond the actual airdate of the episode, which was 05/19/1989.
 
Season time frame:
As Angela's return to Falcon Crest is celebrated at the beginning of this episode, this must be the evening of the same day when # 204 closed (Monday, 04/10/1989). This is confirmed when, on the same evening, Samantha states she had been arrested in the phony French prison for one week (since 04/03/1989; # 203).
On day 3 of this episode, i.e. Wednesday, 04/12/1989, Richard receives the written indictment from the SEC. After this scene, one unseen day must go by because Richard mentions on the next day featured on the show that he was indicted two days ago. This also makes it clear that Tommy and Kelly are on their way to their weekend trip to Tahoe on Friday, 04/14/1989 (next to last day of the episode). So the episode finale takes place on Saturday, 04/15/1989.
 

The filming location for the Lake Tahoe resort where Tommy and Kelly are staying is the Malibou Lake Mountain Club in Agoura Hills, CA. A different part of this location was used as the funeral home where the memorial service for Skylar was held in # 141.

 

Product placement: Lance serves Perrier mineral water to Samantha.

 
Cameraman's mistake: In the scene between Samantha, Lance, Pilar and Angela in the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion living room, the boom microphone can be seen on the upper frame for a short moment above Lance; ironically enough, it happens just when Angela says: "Oh, why?" Shortly after, the same error occurs again twice — when Pilar walks towards Lance and when Angela tells Samantha that when she comes back to testify, she must stay at Falcon Crest.
 

The filming location for Lake Tahoe is Malibou Lake in Agoura Hills, CA. The little island where Tommy and Kelly are right before the boating accident is actually in that lake.

 
Mistakes in the cliffhanger on the driveway of the Channing Ranch: The close-ups of Kevin and Michael in Maggie's car when they wave goodbye to Richard are not filmed in the immediate surroundings of the main house. This becomes apparent because there are trees only on one side near the circle drive where the berm is. The fact that, in the close-up, trees are visible on either side gives away that these segments were filmed further away from the house on the driveway near the gate.
When the camera gets back to Richard after the first close-up of the boys (screen captures 2 and 3), the camera on Richard, which is the boys' POV from the car, is too close to him. The car has been farther away from him on screen grab 1 already.
 
In early script drafts, the cliffhanger scene was staged in the living room of Richard and Maggie's ranch house; Richard only walks out of the house when Maggie and the kids leave, then goes back into the house, walks through the empty home, then exits onto the patio; he sees Maggie's car and two police cars. These original plans were changed to include more exterior shots.
 

The patrol car driving along the Channing Ranch driveway for Richard's arrest is a Dodge Diplomat.

 
After location filming in the Napa and Sonoma Valley was stopped in the last season, Saddlerock Ranch — as the last remaining major filming location outside the studios — is featured the last time this episode.
 

JOANNE BROUGH quits her duties as a regular staff member. She will be back as a consulting producer in name for season 9, but will no longer have any real influence on the show.

 
This season's executive producers, especially MICHAEL FILERMAN and CAMILLE MARCHETTA, failed to keep up the show's high standards. After their unsuccessful season, LORIMAR revives their revolving door policy again and will bring in yet another new crew for the next season. MICHAEL FILERMAN, however, will be paid a full exec's salary next season again due to a particular clause in his contract, which cannot be invalidated as long as the program is still in production.
 
 

 
 
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