|
# 215 <9.10> Danny Early script drafts suggested that, in the opening scene, Emma and Sydney return in the morning of 12/25/1989 to the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion, having been interrogated by the police all night. That idea was dropped.  Mistake: When the episode opens, an old establishing clip of the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion is reused; it features Angela's black Mercedes-Benz 600 on the driveway (yellow arrow) although she gave up this car after season 4. A wrong clip from # 001 was selected in post-production because of the demand for a picture of a patrol car. That vehicle, a 1981 Dodge Diplomat patrol car ("Tuscany Valley Sheriff"), also gives away the age of the clip since the logo on the patrol car is the oldest one known from the series.
Labeling name: Danny as short form for Daniel — meaning "God is my judge" (Hebrew origin) — reveals Danny's attitude to accept a higher power ruling over his life. This very well alludes to the fact that Danny takes up a subordinate rôle to his alleged father and will even let Michael Sharpe fight Danny's love interest, Sydney.   Falcon Crest Winery Building interior set — inconsistency: The door of the front office leads to the catwalk above the barrel room. The air space as marked on screen grab 1 would be beyond the handrail. But the gray concrete floor of the movies studio's sound stage is visible here (yellow arrow on screen capture 2).The reason is that the office quarters were not built as an upper story of the barrel room, but as a separate set on the ground floor of the stage (refer to # 207 for details).
  The clip with the exterior shot of Sharpe's limo — a black stretched 1983 Cadillac Sedan DeVille here — crusing through San Francisco is stock footage from a movie library.The camera is placed on Drumm Street, following the car coming from Market Street (the building on the corner is the Matson Building, which posed as Channing Enterprises until the previous season), making a turn into Drumm. When the camera pans, where a view up west on California street offers a glance of the white triangular base of the 101 California Building (which posed as Gioberti Enterprises in seasons 6 and 7). The use of this licensed clip creates another mismatch with Sharpe's limo because the interior shots — as presented in the following notes — are filmed in the usual picture car, the stretched black 1985 Lincoln Town Car (see # 206). Also see below for a screen capture of the Lincoln Town Car in the current episode when Sharpe, Ed, Danny and Nick leave Falcon Crest. Similar inaccuracies happened with exterior shots of other limo models in # 207, 212 and 214 (compare there).  In the scene with Sharpe, Ed and Danny in Sharpe's limo, various streets of San Francisco can be seen through the back windows. The blue screen technique worked pretty well this time — this is a scene filmed entirely on the sound stage!The first street to be seen through the rear window is a view southeast on Columbus Avenue. The most distinct buildings to be seen are the Transamerica Pyramid at the corner of Columbus Avenue, Washington Street and Montgomery Street and the green Columbus Tower at the intersection of Columbus Avenue and Kearny Street.
 The close-up of Sharpe in his limo features a blue screen projection of the 2500 and 2400 blocks on Hyde Street (between Bay Street and Chestnut Street); the approximate position on the screen capture is across the T-crossing of Francisco street. The camera faces west while the limo is heading south. The concrete railing with Russian Hill Park in the background is visible.
 In the following close-up of Sharpe, Hyde Street with the concrete railing and Russian Hill Park in the background is visible again. They are a little further south now than in Sharpe's previous close-up.Mistake: The blue screen projection with the concrete railing in this and Sharpe's previous close-up are placed in the wrong order of the drive. Comparing both sides of Hyde Street, Sharpe's first close-up actually would have to be after shot of Danny at the intersection of Hyde and Bay and the following one with the three townhouses because the concrete railing and the park are further south on Hyde Street.
 In the following close-up of Michael, the visible cross street is Chestnut Street. The camera faces west while the limo is running further south on Hyde.Mistake: Giving respect to the actual location, this blue screen projection is in the wrong place also because the intersection of Hyde and Chestnut is actually located further down south — after the following cross street visible in the next close-up of Danny.
Mistake: This blue screen projection does not make any sense because, as the following close-ups indicate, they are actually still on Hyde Street.
 In the interior shot of the limo, Columbus Avenue is visible again through the rear window, just as at the beginning of the drive (reuse of the same clip).Mistake: This route is illogical. The limo would have to have started driving along Columbus Avenue all over again from back south within a few seconds, which is just impossible.  In the last close-up of Michael in the limo, the intersection of Hyde Street an Vallejo Street is visible. The camera faces west while the limo travels further down south on Hyde. The characteristic blue apartment house on Vallejo Street is no longer there; it was replaced with lower row houses in 1987 already (the stock footage used for the blue screen projection is older).Mistake: As good as the blue screen projection is this time from a technical standpoint, the various shots behind Michael, Ed and Danny do not match as far as the topography is concerned. Click here for a *.pdf file with a visualization of Sharpe's limo ride through San Francisco on a map.
  The upper floor hallways in the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion interior set are becoming more and more like a labyrinth: In the scene with Sydney and Danny, it is difficult to understand where she is walking along.In the long hallway, which led to Angela's bedroom (or incorrectly Emma's bedroom in # 213 and 214 — compare there; screen grabs 1, 3 and 5), a T-shaped crossing with another hallway (adjacent to Angela's / Emma's room — the multi-purpose bedroom set) is featured now; it has been known from # 207 and 208 (particularly from the scene with Charley wearing nothing but his briefs on his way to the bathroom) already and leads to double French doors (screen capture 2). Just before Sydney makes a right into that hallway, she is filmed from an angle in this episode to conceal the distinct wall niche behind her that is actually across from these double French doors. This is the reason why this hallway is hardly recognizable at first (compare screen capture 6 from # 208). Only understanding the camera operator's deceiving trick helps identify these French doors as the same ones featured in the hallway adjacent to Emma's bedroom as seen in # 207 (compare there for the position of that bedroom set) — screen grab 4. Just to give an overwiew: The photos in the left column show the same hallway set — up to # 213 without the door (compare # 214), but with a wall and a picture in that place (screen grab 5 from # 212). This used to be the hallway leading to Angela's bedroom; but since the final scene in # 213 (see there), Emma's bedroom has incorrectly been accessible from here. For more information about this interior set, also refer to # 220.
 The redressed Walton House at WARNER BROS. STUDIOS doubles again as the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion in exterior shots (compare # 209 for details).The perspective of Danny standing at the limo and Sydney at the window, however, does not match the real layout of the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion and its surroundings. The limo is parked right in front of the mansion's entrance on the driveway. The way Sydney looks down to Danny and the limo creates the illusion the mansion might have an additional wing in a 45-degree angle towards the driveway. The window, by the way, is a set, which does not match the architectural style of any of the windows in the real Villa Miravalle. The window and the wall behind Sydney are construction components rigged on a platform attached to a Titan crane next to the Walton House.
  Mistake: In the scene with Richard, Emma and Stan Wallis, the attorney, the close-ups and wide angle shots of Richard and Emma are from various takes that were combined in the editing process. This becomes apparent when Richard's left arm is not around Emma's shoulder in one moment (close-up) whereas it is in the subsequent frame (wide angle).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. Early script drafts suggested that Richard's lawyer, Julius Karnow, also be Emma's lawyer. Only in later rewrites, the rôle was replaced by Stan Wallis.
Product placement: Sharpe mentions Ferragamo, the fashion company.  Uncredited extra GARY MOERKE appears as the gray-haired Tuscany Valley gentleman again — this time as a catering service employee in Sharpe's office.It is his final appearance on the show. He played the same rôle in previous epsiodes (compare # 072, 073, 077, 080, 083, 088, 090, 091, 094, 098, 102, 111, 133, 136, 138, 164, 166, 167, 196 and 202). For details about the extra, compare # 072.
 License plate number of Danny's blue 1987 Ford Mustang III Convertible: 2NBO647 — the same number as on Angela's white Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II in season 5 and early season 6, on Peter's silver / brown Rolls-Royce Corniche I Convertible in season 6 and on Peter's white Lincoln Town Car limousine in # 151 (compare # 132 and 151 in particular)!By the way, the car itself is the very same prop used as Pilar's car in season 8 and the vehicle Carly drove once in season 7 (compare # 191). Sharpe's new modern house is introduced (balcony set). The exteriors of the house will be shown in # 219 for the first time.
 Product placement: When Richard and Lauren are at the soda shoppe, an ad for Chapman's Ice Cream, a real ice cream company, can be seen in the background.The soda shoppe was a permanent interior set at LINDSEY STUDIOS (now VALENCIA STUDIOS) in Santa Clarita, CA.  
Interesting prop: One of the bottles in the courtroom (in the middle) is an old bottle the prop masters surprisingly dug up: A Falcon Crest Cabernet Sauvignon from 1984.Detailed information about this wine label and many others is available in the Show – Production Office – Wine Label Gallery section. Previews are available for the general public; for DFCF members, the wine labels are available in high resolution.
  Actor RICHARDSON MORSE appears as a judge again. Inconsistency: Whereas he was called Russell Cavendar in # 122 and 124, his last name has mysteriously changed to J. Weyborn now.Also, the last name Weyborn is misspelled in the end credits. While it is correctly written "Weyborn" on the name plate on the judge's bench, the end credits list the rôle as "Weybourn".
 Uncredited extra GAYLE FRANK plays the court stenographer again — this time in the civil lawsuit between Sharpe and Emma at the Tuscany County Courthouse.It is her final appearance on the show. She played the same rôle in previous epsiodes (compare # 017, 018, 054, 057, 078, 091, 098, 122, 154, 180, 182 and 204). For details about the extra, compare # 017.
  An old clip of Riebmann's limo driving along River Road (from # 071) is reused. It is used to pose as Sharpe's limo in the current episode — a black 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood 75 (screen capture 1). Just like before with the Cadillac Sedan DeVille earlier this episode (see above), this creates another mismatch because the interior shots of this limo ride are filmed inside the usual stretched Lincoln Town Car again.The blue screen technique for the scenery seen through the rear window and the side windows (filmed on the sound stage) has improved, compared to the previous episodes. But the marks on the road as seen through the windows of the limo are wrong: There are no marks on River Road at all. This mismatch is caused by the use of different filming locations. The footage used in the blue screen projection (screen grabs 2 through 4) is the very same as featured in the scenes with Emma and the Habermans in # 171, with Rosemont in # 181, with Richard in the police car in # 206 and with Lance and Pilar in # 209. The Tuscany Valley country road seen in the projection is Oak Knoll Avenue outside Napa (driving from northeast at approximately the intersection with Big Ranch Road in southwestern direction); it is stock footage LORIMAR shot during earlier location filming in the Wine Country. Edited scene: Before Emma leaves the Falcon Crest Victorian Mansion, she and Richard are sitting in the living room, looking at photos of Angela. This part was edited in post-production. Season time frame: This episode opens the night of 12/24-25/1989. The following scene depicts the events on 12/27/1989, which can be concluded from the officer's statement that it has been 48 hours (re: Charley's disappearance). The end of the episode (day 5) must be in January 1990; before the first meeting of Emma and Stan Wallis, her attorney, some time must have gone by. If there were not a few unseen days, the hearing in the lawsuit between Sharpe and Emma would be on Saturday, 12/30/1989, which would be completely unrealistic. ← Previous episode... → Next episode... |
Shortcuts to this episode's
The exterior shots of the offices of Channing & Sampson are the former Bank of America headquarters (nowadays 555 California) in San Francisco. The shape of the windows as seen in the interior shots (compare # 209), however, does not match the exteriors.
