sungrey

My bad on Lily. I had forgotten that story in late 1991-early 1992. And I call myself a huge SB fan. Sheesh.

I remember that picture very well.

The ridiculous thing about the story, which I mentioned earlier but will repeat for those just joining, is I think it was done for shock value. The problem was how pointless the whole thing turned out to be. Aside from a few random scenes with other women, Todd McKee's story as Ted pretty much ended with Hayley's death. I wasn't surprised to see him leave the show a year later. Then, when Ted came back two years later as Michael Brainard, he eventually fell for Lily, whose evangelist background was completely forgotten by the writing team.

I think a lot of what happened in the 1987-88 period had to do with the ongoing war between NBC and the Dobsons. I remember Bridget saying that she wouldn't have killed Hayley because Gina wasn't as interesting when she was being a pure bitch and Hayley kept her vulnerable. How true Bridget was on that count. Bridget also thought Stacy was a very good actress. No complaints from me there. When Stacy started out she was a little green but very easy on the eyes and she caught on very fast. Some of her stuff during the rape was pretty powerful.

Stacy's an example of how being fired from a soap can be a blessing. Save for a couple years (1993-94) she's worked pretty steadily in movies and TV, mostly as a guest star. She'll pop up three or four times a year on various shows.

Thank you thank you thank you! And it was a crime that they killed off this character just about a month later. God, SB could be so good yet so infuriating at times.

The scene where a chill comes over Gina is so sad:

Oh God. I still have trouble sitting through that. Hayley was one of my favorite characters and I almost gave up on the show when they killed her off. Happily, Stacy Edwards is still acting. Some show needs to hire her for a regular role!!

Carl, do you have the interview SOD did with Stacy just before she got written off SB? It would have been December 1987, I believe.

I will have to dig out old Digests re Hogan and Sunny but I think they were involved romantically.I do recall a review at the time, which criticized the handling of the story.I think that when David Forsyth left the show,Hogan and Sunny parted on good term but when he returned a few months later he was now interested in Liza and the previous relationship was pretty much ignored.Blame the merry go round of writers.

As for Sherry Mathis leaving,I think her contract was up and she chose to leave.

Paul, I remember what happened with that story. Digest ran a piece on dropped stories and changes in story direction. This was when Nick Nicholson became executive producer of Search and during the initial press conference Nick mentioned they had a great story for Hogan and Liza. I want to say that Marcia McCabe was quoted as saying she'd felt like she'd been hit in the face with a pie, and David Forsyth went to him afterwards and asked what the reason was for breaking up Hogan and Sunny. Nick couldn't give him one.

It was decision-making like that mess that killed Search, and for that matter other shows.

Circa late 1989/early 1990, I believe. SB pulled the same thing General Hospital did when Lucy Coe, the mousy librarian, was revealed to be a sexpot character. I knew Debra London wasn't plain looking underneath what she wore to the office.

My God, Roberta Bizeau was dynamite to look at... not only that, Flame was just so unpredictable. She'd haul off and say something you didn't expect and it was just so jaw-droppingly stunning (and funny, at times... Flame's lines could be a hoot). Like other housecleanings, though, Flame was gone in the fall of 91 (I believe... it was the same time they wrote off Frank Runyeon, another one of the wasted actors who was so good on SB yet got jack squat to do).

ITA about Kerry Sherman, the actress that played Amy. She and Richard Eden had really good chemistry and Richard was a great actor when you gave him the right material to play (his scenes with Nick Coster and Jed Allan about finding out he was really Channing because Minx switched the babies were superb).

I must be a huge Santa Barbara fan because in my DRTV blog "Somerset", half of the actors are from Santa Barbara. I've got John Beck, Stacy Edwards, Lane Davies, Robin Mattson and Nick Coster in roles (Nick largely because he's reprising his Robert Delaney character... lol)

Thanks, Juniorz. SB was one of my all-time favorite shows and it always pissed me off when they would have the periodic housecleaning of characters because a lot of times they swept characters away that never should have been dismissed. The Elena story was one of my all time favorites, and I wonder how much more Sherilyn Wolter could have done with the role, but she was introduced by April and gone by September 1987. Guess we'll never know.

John Allen Nelson was a fantastic Warren... he looked like he could be Nick Coster's SON, for crying out loud... and they gave him absolutely nothing to do.

Carl, it wasn't that they didn't want the character dead. I think they were looking for something dramatic, pulled a name out of a hat and voila, instant character death. To be fair, it wasn't just Hayley. They did it with a few other characters... Amado in 1991, Sasha in 1990, Andrea in 1988, Mary in 1986, etc.

I haven't posted here in a long time, but I thought I'd post here with my knowledge of Santa Barbara and my love for the show.

While SB was one of the must-watch shows in 1984-1989 (its last years were good, but by 1992 you could tell the quality was going downhill), it could be one of the maddening shows when it came to characters leaving or being recast.

It's no secret that I LOVED Hayley. Like Juniorz1 pointed out, the character wasn't supposed to be the villainess or the victimizer, but Stacy Edwards had an effective acting style. They threw so much at the character and during the rape story she was just so damn good. Then several months later they killed the character and I almost flipped to Guiding Light five years early. Not only did Hayley's death effectively kill Todd McKee's screen time on SB, it almost brought down Gina. Bridget Dobson said she never would have killed Hayley because Hayley anchored Gina and Gina wasn't as fun to watch when she was a pure bitch. Still, NBC/New World prevailed. It's interesting that when they brought Lily Light back in 1991 with Paula Devine playing the role, they dropped the minister angle and she was essentially filling the Hayley role. As for Stacy, like a lot of good soap actors she found work (and a LOT of it) in prime time. She's still around today.

Lenore Kasdorf being let go was disgusting. Lenore was a great actress and given time I think her relationship with Lionel could have taken off. Instead, Caroline died and Lionel was reduced to window dressing (and subsequently left the show for two years).

I know we never would have gotten Lane Davies' marvelous chemistry with Nancy Grahn, but Harley Kozak being written out of SB was an all-time screwup as well. Mason as tragic hero was more interesting, but when he was in love the character was quite sweet.

Kind of a jarring change, isn't it? lol

This was the first of the P&G soaps to undergo a facelift to the opening and closing credits. Most of the shows didn't do their facelifts until late 1981, when AW, ATWT, Search and GL all pretty much changed their openings at the same time and Texas changed theme songs.

It was a typo. I meant when he left and was replaced. Supposedly they let him go because the show was too intelligent for the viewers and the network wanted it dumbed down.

About Raven: she was ok, your typical soap vixenish character, but the show became a showpiece for her, Schuyler, Jody and her BF whereas it was previous to that a showpiece for well written stories no matter who they starred.

And I think that was ABC's doing. They wanted more of a serial with the supercouple format where it was the couples that solved the mysteries, not necessarily complex characters like Adam Drake. As it was, it wasn't bad at all because Larkin Malloy and Sharon Gabet had tremendous chemistry and Lois Kibbee played well off both of them. Lori Loughlin was downright gorgeous (she still is, too -- the years have been VERY kind to her), and she had great chemistry with Charles Flohe. Once Lori left, it wasn't quite the same.

As for Slesar leaving, Lee Sheldon didn't get it at first. His pacing was very uneven (he'd often switch days in mid-episode, which is usually a daytime no-no) and he was having trouble grasping the daytime formula. Toward the end of Edge's run, he started to sharpen up big-time, but by then it was too late.

God, what a wonderful show this was. I still get goose bumps with some of the storylines on it.

I was an NBC soap watcher back in 1984, so I thought what the heck, I'll give this show a try. I was hooked from day one. The shooting of Channing Capwell, the whole Dominic/Sophia business, the Carnation Killer plot -- there was a lot of good stuff in its first year. Yes, the acting and the day-to-day plotting were wildly uneven, but on its best days this show was a lot of fun to watch.

It was around the fall of 1985/winter 1986 that SB exploded into an absolute must-see soap. Robin Mattson came aboard as Gina, Jed Allan as CC... the confrontation scenes between CC and Mason were extremely well written and Jed and Lane Davies acted the hell out of them.

The biggest problem the soap suffered from was too much turnover. If it wasn't an exec producer departing, it was a writer. If it wasn't a writer, it was an actor. Some of the actors fired, you could see coming. Some of the exits were mind-boggling (oh hi, Harley Kozak!! Tell Stacy Edwards and Marj Dusay that they both got screwed next time you see them, will ya?)

By early 1992, when Marcy Walker was gone and the shift to the Walkers had occurred, the show had lost it. It was still much better than a lot of what is on today, but back then the change in focus was what killed the soap. Well, that and all the network interference.

When I think of the lineup NBC could have had on if it hadn't stuck its mitt in the cookie jar, I get pissed. Then I remember the good old days and a show like SB. RIP.

I won't play spoiler for you guys, but wait until you see later in 1980. It REALLY gets good.