Product Details

• Actors: Jane Wyman, Lorenzo Lamas, Susan Sullivan, Robert Foxworth, Ana Alicia
• Format: NTSC, Full Screen, Color, Mono, Subtitled
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 1.0)
• Subtitles: English, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 4
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• DVD Release Date: April 20, 2010
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (110 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005JOA4
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,042 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Falcon Crest: The Complete First Season" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Nineteen eighty-two was a very good year for prime-time soaps. Dallas, in its fourth season, revealed who shot J.R., Dynasty heated up in its second season with the addition of Joan Collins, and Falcon Crest made its auspicious debut. Neither as wickedly fun nor campily over the top as its predecessors in its inaugural season, Falcon Crest added a touch of class to this genre of infinite guilty pleasures. The venerable Jane Wyman, a casting coup, stars as Angela Channing, the iron-willed matriarch who will stop at nothing to maintain her power as head of Falcon Crest Winery and the surrounding Tuscany Valley. Robert Foxworthy, not the snappiest grape on the vine, costars as Charles Gioberti, Angela's nephew, who inherits a share of the winery in the wake of his father Jason's death. He moves west to make a new life for his troubled family, including wife Maggie (Susan Sullivan), a freelance writer; hotheaded son Cole (William R. Moses), an aspiring archaeologist; and angsty teenaged daughter Vickie (Jamie Rose), especially unhappy in her new surroundings. "I can't breathe in that house," she complains to Cole in the episode "Dark Journey," just before running away to San Francisco, where she unwittingly becomes enthralled to a pornographer. Falcon Crest was referred to as "Dallas with grapes," but there is one key difference. Larry Hagman's J.R. took great and gleeful pleasure in plotting his rivals' downfalls. Angela is a tough old bird, but whether she's hiring Charles's disreputable former war buddy to sabotage his crop or undermining his campaign for the County Board, she seems to get no particular kick out of her machinations to drive Charles and family out of the valley. What she and Falcon Crest needed was a more formidable and equally cunning opponent. Enter David Selby as Richard Channing in season 2. Until then, we have Lorenzo Lamas as Angela's spoiled nephew and dangerously eager coconspirator and plenty of dark secrets and uncovered family skeletons to propel the season forward, principally Charles's growing suspicions that Angela isn't telling the truth about his father's death (well founded, as the audience knows from the pilot episode). One Very Special Episode features Lana Turner in her first screen role in more than a decade as Chase's mother. Anyone hoping for a Dynasty-esque catfight between Turner and Wyman will be disappointed, but the two screen legends are great verbal sparring partners. A special shout-out, too, to Chao-Li Chi as Chao-Li, Angela's very faithful butler and chauffeur, as well as Ana Alicia as Melissa, who livens things up as a scheming wine heiress who loves Cole but submits to an arranged marriage with Lance. Though it serves up some cheese with its wine, Falcon Crest has aged well, and its first season can be savored in episode sips or in one intoxicating gulp. --Donald Liebenson

Product Description

Uncork the complete first season of Falcon Crest, the popular, long-running series centered on the rich vineyards and richer people of Northern California’s wine country. Academy Award® winner Jane Wyman stars as winery matriarch Angela Channing, who will let nothing – family, honor, the law – stand between her and power. Co-stars include Robert Foxworth as Chase Gioberti, Angela’s upstanding nephew and rival, and Lorenzo Lamas as Lance Cumson, Angela’s scheming, playboy grandson. Meet the characters… indulge in the lifestyle…savor the first of nine seasons of vintage television melodrama.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

69 of 72 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A vintage classic that needs to be on DVD!! May 5, 2005

By Joseph C. Jones

Format:DVD

Of all those great prime-time soaps from the 1980s, the one that I watched religiously was "Falcon Crest," a gripping tale of love and ambition, greed and power amidst the vineyards of California's (fictional) Tuscany Valley. Featuring a phenomenal cast including Jane Wyman, Robert Foxworth, David Selby and Susan Sullivan, not to mention smart, complex scripts and possibly TV's greatest theme music (by Bill Conti), "Falcon Crest" is a must and I hope it gets a DVD release soon!!!

57 of 60 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I will keep "WHINING" Until falcon crest is released on DVD May 4, 2005

By Tommywood

Format:DVD

Okay, Dallas and Dynasty have now been released on DVD, now it is time to release the BEST of The Prime Time Soaps on DVD, FALCON CREST! Falcon Crest really set themselves apart from the rest of the pack! The Characters were Rich in Style and Complexities and the scenery was Breathtaking! Casting Jane Wyman as Angela Channing was a major coup. Falcon Crest has such a Gothic Feel to it, I dont even think the Words Soap Opera does it justice. More Like a Machivallian Play! Please Release this on DVD!

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars IF WINE GETS BETTER WITH AGE, THEN IT'S TIME WE UNCORK "FALCON CREST" March 30, 2006

By Forrest C. Hopson

Format:DVD

One of the best prime time soaps, "Falcon Crest" is at the top of the "got to have it" list, of prime time soap fans everywhere, when it's finally released to dvd. Leading a stellar cast of talented actors is the undisputed Queen of cunning, scheming, and conniving, the incomparable Jane Wyman (Johnny Belinda, Pollyanna). The head of a vast California wine vineyard estate, Wyman controls her family with the same iron fist that she uses to control her business. The cast includes Robert Foxworth, Susan Sullivan, Lorenzo Lamas, and David Selby. From the beginning of this flamboyant tale of wealth and extravagance, you'll get swept up in the lives of Wyman's TV daughters, the quite and elegant Abbey and the kooky, but sweet tempered Emma. Robert Foxworth and Susan Sullivan play the new neighbors who become the thorn in Wyman's side from the beginning. "Falcon Crest" was a worthy frontrunner with TV's "Dallas," "Knots Landing," and "Dynasty," giving it's fans a weekly dose of some of the best plot lines and including new and interesting cast members. Some of that cast included handsome and debonair talents, Simon MacCorkindale and Parker Stevenson, beautiful and mesmerizing Ana Alicia and Morgan Fairchild, and a list of Hollywood film legends that no other prime time soap has come close to beating. Lana Turner, Rod Taylor, Celeste Holm, Cliff Robertson, Gina Lollobrigida, and that's just to name a few. To sum up this review, "Falcon Crest" is an essential part of television's prime time history and one of the best and eagerly anticipated tv to dvd releases mentioned for release. All we need now is a release date....