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# 211 <9.06> God of the Grape Cast and crew background: COLLEEN CARROLL, the writer of this episode, is the wife of co-executive producer JOEL SURNOW. This is an extremely bad and disgusting episode. The new producers and writers' ideas of a new direction for the program is just ridiculous. This is the definite beginning of the show falling into the abyss. After this episode is aired, the series, which has undergone a drastic loss of audience since the beginning of this season, will lose another 400,000 viewers.
Charley shouting "Stella!" before Ian exits the jetliner is an allusion to TENNESSEE WILLIAMS' "A Streetcar Named Desire" — quoting MARLON BRANDO's character in the 1951 movie based on the drama.
The original draft of the seasonal bible planned for Sydney to stay for the remainder of the whole season and to establish her as a new core character for the following year if the show had been renewed for a tenth season. JOEL SURNOW and SHERI ANDERSON wanted Sydney to become Angela's right arm in the long run. After her return, Angela was supposed to see herself as a young girl in the beautiful, but tenacious Sydney, who, in turn, was supposed to see herself as the next Angela Channing. For more details, check out # 227 (original cliffhanger plans).
 Interior set of Richard's house (despite the note in the bible, see # 206, probably not the ranch — just a guess?!) — inconsistency: The den with the fireplace (from # 206) that looked like the den at the ranch is now gone. As it becomes more and more apparent this episode, since # 207, there has been some sort of small den or living room now although the arch / entry is still the same element as used in the interior set in # 206.The fireplace and blue-gray wall (known from # 208 where it looks like a study) is, as # 217 will show, a part of the new bedroom set. The bed is on the wall opposite the fireplace. The house definitely looks like a small cottage with just a few rooms now. On one of the walls in this mysterious small living room, there is the characteristic picture or tiles (mostly gold, blue and gray; now split in two parts) known from Maggie and Richard's bedroom (also compare # 184).   Mistake: In the scene when Richard looks at the photos on the desk in his study at home, the photo folio mysteriously changes places: While it is standing more centered on the desk first, it is at the very edge of the desk in the subsequent close-up shot from Richard's perspective.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.  Falcon Crest Crest Winery Building interior set — inconsistency: From the barrel room, Sydney and Ian are seen standing at the interior window of the office quarters. A wall is visible quite close behind them. As seen from scenes filmed inside the office, however, this wall would be much farther back.The reason is that the office quarters are actually not built behind the catwalk on the sound stage. Compare # 207 and 215 for details. In this scene, CARLA GUGINO and DAVID HUNT are standing on a temporary extension of the catwalk.
During Sharpe's workout in the fitness area in his office at night, "A Night at the Bare Mountain" by MODEST MUSSORGSKI (1839 – 1881) is playing from the stereo. Original script drafts suggested RICHARD WAGNER's "Götterdämmerung" ("Twilight of the Gods") instead.
  Agretti Residence set — inconsistency: The kitchen, although still pretty similar, has changed: The window (towards where the patio used to be last season) looks different and the back door next to it is gone. There is a new French door in the wall where the refrigerator and the wine bottle racks used to be last season; they lead to the new patio known from # 209, as # 213 (compare the screen capture from that episode here) will show in detail.
Jace Sampson's wife is named Sarah. She is mentioned quite often, but never appears on screen. Sharpe's nickname for Walker is "Mr. Greenjeans".
 New Falcon Crest party grounds — posh formal gardens with a fountain and big stairways — are seen during the Bacchus festival; this is the only time these gardens are featured. These grounds can be seen from the Victorian Mansion as a scene with Pilar and Lance in their bedroom implies. Mysterious: Were these grounds built after the fire in season 8? Were the vineyards damaged in the fire replaced by these gardens?The filming location for these scenes is Greystone Park in Beverly Hills, CA; it is a public park next door to the Greystone Mansion. The seasonal bible compared the relationship between Chris Agretti and Sydney St. James, which will develop over the next few episodes, with SHAKESPEARE's "Romeo and Juliet". Richard pronounces Latin very well — and DAVID SELBY himself even corrected the misspelled CAESAR quote in the script (obviously written by an incompetent author) into the correct term: "Ex nihilo nihil fit." ("Out of nothing comes nothing").
 Uncredited extra BARBARA SMITH appears in this episode again as the platinum blonde Tuscany Valley socialite — at the Bacchus festival. She is sitting right next to her real-life husband PETER EASTMAN in this scene.For details about the extra, compare # 066. Compare # 221 for a list of appearances throughout the series.
  The initial script draft for this episode suggested Michael and Kevin be drinking wine. At least, this disgusting idea did not make it to the screen in a close-up in the end.Only with that in mind, it makes sense why Richard is so annoyed and heads towards the boys.
Season time frame: This episode depicts the events in November 1989 and apparently continues on the same day where # 210 left off. Mistake: On the final day of this episode, Frank says during the Bacchus festival that his nephew, Chris, will be staying with him for the summer. This is completely out of line and underlines the poor scriptwriting because the summer was over a long time ago. Or did the writer want to imply that Frank is about to lose his mind as a result of Genele's pressure? Or does Frank actually mean Chris will be staying until next summer? ← Previous episode... → Next episode... |
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