Falcon Crest: Primetime Soap Cast Reunites at Paley Center

While General Hospital with Luke and Laura was ruling the daytime television in the 1980s, nighttime was filled with such continuing dramas as Dallas, Dynasty, Knots Landing, and Falcon Crest. While the casts of the first three have all gotten together for movies and specials, the cast of Falcon Crest has not. A special reunion was recently held in Beverly Hills.

Falcon Crest lasted nearly a decade, debuting in 1981 and leaving primetime in 1990. The series follows the feuding families in the California wine industry — the Giobertis and the Channings — and is set in a fictitious version of Napa Valley. The series stars Jane Wyman as the matriarch of the Channing family and was created by Earl Hamner, the same mind behind The Waltons.

The recent cast reunion was hosted by TV Guide senior editor William Keck at the Paley Center for Media. It was held to honor the upcoming thirtieth anniversary of the show, as well as promote the release of season two on DVD. Those in attendance at the reunion in Los Angeles had a chance to screen an episode and remember their time on the show more fondly.

Hamner, as well as surviving members of the cast — Robert Foxworth, Lorenzo Lamas, David Selby, Ana Alicia, Jamie Rose, Abby Dalton, Margaret Ladd, and Susan Sullivan – got together to reminisce about the nine seasons of the soap as well as Wyman, who died in 2007. Simon MacCorkindale, who played Greg Reardon, wasn’t in attendance and passed away two days after the reunion from bowel cancer.

Lamas expressed regret that he didn’t take more time to visit Wyman in her later years which she spent in Palm Springs. “I had a feelings that she was quite lonely at times. But I do remember she was such a wonderful mentor. She was a class act.”

What do you think? What are your favorite memories of Falcon Crest? Did you like it more than the other nighttime soaps?