j swift

I don't pretend to know what the Dobson's motives were, but I think it was a mistake not to relay more on Grant's (CC's brother) side of the family rather than keep recasting Capwell kids and finding the various long lost children of CC. Eileen could have been Courtney and Madeline Capwell's older sister.

After posting in the recast thread it got me thinking about Kelly Capwell. Robin Wright's Kelly was an unevolved ingenue just there to be saved by men. Her Kelly had very little personality until she met Pearl. She and Eden were like two princesses in a castle and neither was jealous or envious of the other. I just re-watched the episodes after Joe dies, and Eden tags along while Marcello tries to therapize Kelly in the tropics. Eden is much more concerned about the threat of Marcello than she is with Kelly's weakened emotional state. In fact, I don't recall one scene of them alone together consoling each other. Then we get the first re-cast and during the Jeffrey/TJ period, Kelly is still just a pawn in a plot to be saved every few months from sure death. Carrington plays the dynamic with Eden and in my opinion, really knocks it out of the park when playing with Roscoe Born. Playing against Roscoe as Quinn pretending to be Robert, Carrington never seemed dumb. In fact, she was the only one who could tell the difference between the two brothers. Then, Eileen is cast and Kelly becomes oddly interested in Capwell Industries, Cruz, and a few murders before ending up with Conner. It is weird that Kelly never had a kid or a career. She never had a specialization. She was never consulted on the family business. I think CC valued Ted's advice more than Kelly. It just seems like if they were going to lay the future of SB on Kelly after Eden left than they hadn't set her up independent enough to carry the mantle. Besides Robert Barr's house, I can't think of a significant period of time when she didn't live in her father's mansion. Eden was the apple of CC's eye, Mason was the runt, Ted was the fun-loving younger brother, and Kelly lacked a distinct personality. I would submit that Gina, CC, Ted, and Warren were redefined by their recasts, but Kelly remained ill-defined no matter who played her.

I'm not sure if you intended to discuss temporary or permanent recasts but I thought that I would tackle recastings amoung the Capwell Clan of Santa Barbara CC - Jed Allen balanced the gravitas and the sexiness of CC. By contrast, Paul Burke seemed like mutton dress as lamb when he was going after Gina and Peter Mark Richman looked like a lecherous old man with Santana. Charles Bateman played CC's stern side well, (especially in the scenes when Mason outed Channing), but he lacked the sex appeal to force Sofia to choose between him and Lionel. Kelly - I prefer Carrington Garland, even over the original Robin Wright, mostly because she played the dynamic between Kelly and Eden. Two girls growing up in a single-father household would have tons of issues with competition and sexuality. Carrington played that motivation more than the others in the role Ted - he was such an underdeveloped character that the switch from Todd McKee to Michael Brainard just seemed like a de-SORASing of Ted Gina - Robin Mattson brought a sensitivity to her relationship with Brandon that was not there when Linda Gibboney played the role. I think if Gibboney had persisted with her manic/panic style of acting than Santana would have been a much more reliable alternative to raise Brandon and Gina probably wouldn't have lasted until the end. The worst recasts: Scott Jenkins as Warren brought a skeeziness to the character when he tried to seduce everyone he met. He was such a miscast that they even threw away the set used as Warren's bedroom and never re-used it. John Novak as Keith Timmons was too young and he only played the angry Keith, not the clever/funny Keith. And Tea Leoni, interesting actress, unfortunately, brought in to wrap up the Lisa Dinapoli storyline and then disappear.

You are correct because Eden's first wedding happened before Mary's death, so they must have rebuilt and then abandoned it once Johnny's opened.

Eden's Orient Express burned down during her first wedding to Cruz and they never rebuilt it. Maybe Mary was haunting the hallways? It took SB a few trys to find a central meeting place for the characters. The Beach Bar was too youthful and too seasonal. La Mesa and The State Street bar were very small sets and filled with riff-raff like Gina's drug pusher. I am always amused that every bar/cafe had to have a pay phone for characters to call each other. I will give the scab writers credit for revisiting Mark's death later with Mason when they found the remains of Pamela's lover and Scott's father. That story was poorly finished but an interesting callback all the same. I appreciated that throughline that CC supported the nunnery because they had provided childcare to the Capwell children; presumedly when Rosa was out sewing her wild oats.

I recently re-watched the falling C episode and it doesn't hold up. Contrary to my memory, they never actually showed the C fall on her. It blows in the wind, and they stay on the roof so long that something was bound to happen. The twist is that it looked like Mason was going to be the one in danger based on the promo. Mary was the Job of Santa Barbara. Not only was she from modest means, but her sister was raped, her father died in an earthquake, and both of her brothers were killed in the same year. She was a nun who was raped, held hostage, accused of tampering with CC's medication, and forced into marriage with her impotent ex-husband. The man who she truly loved was an alcoholic and he was the only poor Capwell in town. I think the falling "C" was a fitting ending to such a sad life.

Today I learned: Mac got it on with Elizabeth Love? What a cad! ANOTHER WORLD: Week of February 28 - March 4, 1983 (a few weeks into the introduction of the Loves, right after Steve's death, and Rachel is blind) Felicia warned Cass she won’t tolerate him seeing other women; but he secretly bedded Cecile. Mac convinced Sandy to have a blood test. Using an accent, Mac got close to Rachel by posing as hospital administrator John Caldwell. Larry was pleased that RJ wants to follow in Bob’s footsteps and be a cop. Donna was interested to learn that Mac once loved her mother. Liz was smitten by Mac’s British novelist pal, Reggie Fearing. Rachel had therapy sessions with Linda Taggert. A couple of thoughts: (a)How did Mac find the time to be at the hospital every day and practice an accent? (b)How amazing would it have been if Peter Love was the red herring in finding out that Sandy was Mac's son? (c) Subsequent writers always forgot that Mac didn't move to Bay City until right before he met Rachel.

Looking back, SB is not a show that was remembered for its great twists which makes me wonder about the quality of the writing? It seems well established that the Dobson's quiffed the first mystery - Who shot Channing? - by stringing it out too long with too many red herrings and recastings. By the time Cruz solved the mystery one year after the start of the show, Joe had been dead for three months, and 18-year-old Channing Jr turned out to be a switched baby, father of a newborn, gay. thief, star student-athlete, who was blackmailing his neighbors. However, SB was always a show that seemed to clue in the audience rather than traffic in surprises. For example, viewers knew that Sophia was Dominic, Brick was Channing, and Brandon was Santana's son within the first weeks of the show. Even Pamela's return was less dramatic because she interacted with a few characters before she appeared in the courtroom for Elena's trial. I guess Madeline killing her husband was a bit of a surprise, but most murders were solved by the time they went to court. For every Robert Barr in a cage, we mostly got stories where main characters were falsely accused and their innocence was never in doubt. I'm not saying that twists indicate good writing, but it is difficult to remember any SB twist as particularly eventful. Good cliffhangers (the earthquake, Eden's fall, Elena's death, Dylan falling out of the window) but not really great twists.

I think the recast works mostly in the post-murder scenario. Jake forced Paulina to marry him in order to avoid prosecution (which as I recall is one of the few times in soap history where nobody was ever punished for her crime). Cali played the dynamic as Paulina was a victim to Jake's threats, however, at the same time, the writers were trying to resuscitate Jake as a romantic lead after he raped Marley. Judy's performance was much more like two con artists trying to one-up each other. I don't like any of the follow-up of Judy as Paulina, (including that they lost the thread that she had been raised in South America), however, I understand the need to play the character as more self-assured. I think it falls apart quickly with the introduction of Ian Rain because they try to play Paulina as a seductress again when she had already been played a bit ruffer. I don't think the Amanda/Paulina relationship should have built upon competing for the same guys. I would have preferred that their differences were based more in their upbringings with Paulina being more street smart and Amanda being more traditionally educated, and each learning the lesson of how to rely on each other's strengths. It did not work as well that summer when they were both flopping around the Cory pool (or the Harrison mansion) trying to out coquette each other to compete for a guy's attention. At those times it was difficult to differentiate Paulina from Vicky, and they should have been two distinct characters.

There were significant changes starting in 1981 with the Writer's Guild that standardized these types of roles in a writing team. So, stuff before 1981 could mean anything.

I think it is such a weird idea because neither series seems to be in regular reruns on non-antenna-driven channels so, how will young people drop into the concept? I doubt the average 20-year-old knows who Archie Bunker is, let alone recognize a recreation of Archie. I know the set is at the Smithsonian, but I don't know any other modern reference to the sitcom. I am intrigued, but I don't think that I am in the target demographic. I guess Norman Lear owns everything through his production company, but is CBS going to allow them to use archival footage, or will there be no illusion to the old series? Also, I'm OK with a live audience but hasn't Rent taught us that the actual show doesn't need to be broadcast live?

This is what I still don't get about the remake - are the characters destined to same fate simply because they share a name with a character from the original?

It was always amusing to me the lengths that soaps would go through to have non-white second wedding gowns I recall when Blaine (AW) and Marlena (DAYS) wore light blue poor (GH) Bobbie had to wear pink and mint green and I recall Alice wore yellow to her second wedding to Steve(n)

two thoughts: There is a lot of talk about how bad Snatch Game has been. However, I think that what we remember are good individual performances, but someone has to be bad at it every season for there to be a show. I was impressed this year with the makeup that certain queens used to look like their counterpart. I am equally horrified at how few people remember Joanne Whirley. I also think that Rupaul's random judgements are part of the parody that Drag Race is trying to be. It seems like the fanbase gets invested in the competition and forgets that this show started as a camp version of Top Model and Project Runway. It seems as if some viewers are missing a key part of the humor which is that they are commenting on the state of reality competition. It is an entertainment show masquerading as a competition but somehow that gets lost in conspiracies about whom is sent home when.

I know the argument that Bethanny is a hypocrite with a double standard for herself and everyone else is not new. However, Tinsley's talk with Lu really got me thinking about what an awful friend Bethanny can be. Tinsley was refreshingly honest in saying to Lu that she realized that her lack of sympathy towards Lu's rehab was based on her anger toward her father. I appreciated that she wasn't apologizing, nor was she attacking, she was just saying that Lu triggered these emotions in her. In fact, if we read between the lines, Tinsley is warning Lu that when she watches the Berkshire episodes in seven months Lu might not like Tinsley's reactions, so she is explaining it in advance. By contrast, let's consider Bethanny and Jules. Bethanny was triggered by Jules eating disorder because she reminded her of her mother. However, rather than saying that directly to Jules, she teased her, disrespected every word out of her, and was generally not nice to her. Giving advice is actually perfect for Bethanny because she would rather talk at someone than with someone. Also, she was condemning Dorinda just last season for saying that death was worse than divorce and now they are bonding over widowhood (despite the fact that a few weeks before Denis died Bethanny was shtooping the hottest cater-waiter in New York and some guy in Boston the week after he died). On the BH front, the timeline of LVP's kitchen is very suspicious. I try to take the show at face value. However, given that we know she stopped filming with the ladies after the wedding, this kitchen reno could be happening on any day of the year. In other words, I do not believe she was demo-ing her kitchen on the same day as Kyle's shower for Camille because I don't believe that two film crews would be working on the same day if the entire cast was expected to be at one location at the shower. After all, Erika couldn't make it to the shower, but it was clear that her rehearsal was filmed on a separate day. I would bet that producers begged Lisa to come back and film solo scenes in her kitchen and in Vegas that could be inserted throughout the season, but didn't actually happen on the same day. I would further guess that she is contracted to film a certain number of days and when she refused to film with the cast, they went back and filmed her individually; which would really piss off the other ladies who would probably love to only have to film in their kitchens rather than go to another upside down infer-red goat yoga class. It is easy to insert scenes in BH because the weather never shifts. Sometimes in Potomac, they'll show two supposedly contemporaneous scenes and it is snowing in one location and humid in the other. But, I'll start looking for clues to see if we are really seeing things happen on the same day.

I feel like Carrie Genzel benefits from being a clever twist in the Dr Jonathan Kinder story. The team of Skye, Janet, and Erica were so fun to watch. However, in retrospect, the reveal that Kinder's wife Toni was actually Skye was dependant upon Carrie not acting as Skye had acted in the past which is a writer's cheat to try to avoid these types of comparative conversations. Then Skye fell back into her obsessive stalking of men with Edmund and she wasn't as interesting as when she was a part of Janet's coven.

Brandon and Adriana could have been the Ted and Laken of the late 90s. BTW, I just thought about Warren and BJ's age difference. BJ was Cruz's daughter whom he had in high school. So, she was at least eighteen years younger than Cruz, and Warren was the same age as Channing, who was Eden's older brother. So, there are at least twenty years between them. I know that I seem to be stuck on the ages of Santa Barbarans, but that one is gross considering that BJ's introduction was through a sexual abuse storyline. That finale just got a lot less romantic for me.

I appreciate Charlemagne's point, but I think the Breakfast Club, in general, undermines their credibility when they use homophobic language so casually; especially when discussing his innocence of sexual assault. I feel like they should have denounced the use of gay rumors to embarrass Kelvin based on his masculinity and denounced the implication that engaging in the rape of a man, (or a woman), is the same as sexual orientation. Kelvin is obviously a horndog bastard, but to try to use gay sex to demean him maligns the culture because it equates his violence toward women with having sex with a man

I think it is so unique for the time, (as well as in the history of soaps), to have a young female character like Ashley with no "true love." Characters have switched true loves, or found new true loves, or have had multiple true loves, but Ashley either had other women's leftovers (Victor and Brad) or duds who were never going to be long term solutions (Blade and Steven). Sharon has Nick, Traci had Brad, and Lorie had Lance, so it is weird that over thirty years Ashley never had an "endgame" love of her life.

A few pages back I remarked that I would have preferred Santana to stay as Ava Lazaar played her in the pilot. She was an interesting mix of Euro-glam and Nouveau-riche with her big white hat and her job redecorating the Capwell Mansion. I think she would have been a much more interesting counterpart to buttoned-up-Eden if she was always sexy and glam. Once Santana became an addict and then had her psychotic break she was too pathetic to be an actual threat to Eden and Cruz. However, it seems to play well into Gina and Brandon's relationship to keep Santana on the outs because he forever tied Gina to the Capwells. To be fair, when they write Brandon off before the end of the series, it is CC who pays for his education, even though Gina goes on to marry his grandfather Lionel.

I've always found it odd that Ashley and Victor were not each other's endgame. When they first coupled in the 80s there was a lot of dialogue about how their love differed from his relationship with Nikki because Ashley was more of a partner. Victor always made a point of respecting Ashley's intelligence and education. Ashley's relationships from Blade to Steven Lassiter seemed to exist only as an inhibitor to a relationship with Victor. It created opportunities for Victor to save Ashley and then for them to reunite. Nikki was often portrayed as immature and self-centered, especially during her first period of drug addiction after her horse accident, and that seemed to justify Victor's attraction to Ashley. I guess over time (and various writers) Nikki has developed more respect from Victor, but I really always thought that he would end up with Ashley; until she left.

Random thought: Dinah's 2004 reintroduction through the identity theft of Cassie's credit was clever.

Angel seems like such a minor character in the history of Santa Barbara, but I just looked him up at the French Santa Barbara Website and his impact was remarkable. http://santabarbara-online.com/angel2.htm He is responsible for the exit of Danny Andrade; an original character. He got Santana hooked on drugs, which becomes part of her ongoing storyline. He is there for the introduction of Keith Timmons and is the first obstacle in the Keith/Gina coupling. He was accused of Elena Niklos's murder and became Cruz's lifelong nemesis. He was also a red herring in Eden's Adriana kidnapping. I appreciate the range that Robin Mattson brought to Gina. Linda Gibboney played Gina as constantly in a panic (to be fair her Gina was addicted to pills at the time). There is one unintentionally funny episode when everyone learns that Brandon is Santana's son and one by one all of the Capwells tell Gina to shut up or go away. However, Robin got to play funny, tragic, and maternal Gina. I didn't care for Ethan as a character, but Leigh McCloskey and Robin Mattson were really sexy together and it was a credible turn from a vixen to a victim, once Laura started trying to set Gina on fire. Also, kudos to CC in retrospect. He stayed devoted to Brandon throughout the series even though he learned that Brandon was actually Lionel's (or Brick's parents) grandson when he was a toddler.

Hayley and Skye are interesting counterparts. Both found out that Adam was their rich father when they were no longer children, but Skye settled into the Chandler lifestyle so much easier. Skye immediately took on the Chandler name, I think Hayley was always a Vaughn. Hayley stayed in touch with her mother and her side of the family (including Uncle Porkchop), whereas Skye was never as invested in a relationship with Rae. They had such little overlap, but it is interesting to think about what they must have thought of each other.

That's my favorite thing to read. I'd like to embroider it on a pillow. I found it interesting that she assumed the audience already knew. It was so smart to use her relationship with the audience in order to avoid giving more of the story. She said that she was moving into her own place and everyone on site and at home knew what she meant, and suddenly they're all insiders. Today she mentioned talking to Charlemagne, which I found interesting. On the Breakfast Club yesterday, Charlemagne acknowledged that Kevin (or Kelvin as they call him) was responsible for dredging up his prior rape allegations this summer from seventeen years ago. So, when Wendy mentioned going to dinner with him today she was sending another easily decodable message to her fans about her changing alliances. She is very clever to stay ahead of the story without divulging anything that would be unappealing to her image. I think a Breakfast Club Interview would be scintillating, and it is the only venue that would be credible to her fanbase.