Wendy

In fall 1990, Jim DePaiva was in talks to play a Keith Timmons recast on Santa Barbara. He said he loved the role, but that they wouldn't give him enough chance to work outside of the show.

Glad it never came to fruition. It would have been as awful as it was with Jon Novak. Frankly, and I know he now scenery chews, I think the role began - and ended - with Justin Deas and should have just been left alone.

Who is that in the SB promo? Is that CG Kelly?

No, it looked like Michael Donnelly (Frank Runyeon) and Laura Asher (Christopher Norris) and drippy Greg Richards Capwell (Paul Johanssen) and Emily DiNapoli (Julie Condra).

Surprised to see a promo only focusing on the B-couples.

That Julia/Dash fan column was fabulous. God, as a Julia fan to the nth degree, I HATED that storyline.

Ahhh, you must have missed the episode where Cruz first finds Suzanne Collier. Toward the end of the episode, Eden's face appears in the window and, as she looks at them, you can see her mouthing the words "Good Bye Cruz. I Love You."

No, I actually do remember that! But time had dulled my memory in that I swore that aired before the Capwells got that letter from Eden (where the obvious stand in mailed it from wherever she was). But it was after? Are you sure? Because you're right in that changes the context!

That's Susan Marie Snyder, yes (so glad she ditched that hair at ATWT).

Well, to be fair, big hair was in during the '80s and out by the '90s (later in the '90s, that is). SMS is lucky that she can look good as both a blonde and a redhead.

Wow, eerie resemblance! LOL!

But seriously, the top photos: Is that Susan Marie Snyder (or whatever her name is now)? I know she was Laken Lockridge #2. And played her like a spoiled mega bitch unlike predecessor Julie Ronnie! (Shell Danielson, the final Laken, played her as strong but kind.)

I watched in real time. It wasn't easier. Janis Paige seemed like a good actress, but she was NOT Minx Lockridge to me. She was far too young. She should have been a Lockridge cousin instead.

JAN's Warren and RE's Brick were on the canvas together. They interacted intermittently since Brick was Minx's chauffeur. But not a ton or so it seemed. In terms of the reaction in discovering Brick was a bio Lockridge, the sibling angle was played up with Eden, Kelly, and Ted (with Mason, the quasi would-have-been stepbrother on the periphery) rather than Laken and Warren since Laken was off canvas and Warren also seemed to fade out.

As I had said before, Jack Wagner's Warren Lockridge bore little, if any, resemblance to John Allen Nelson's laid-back and seemingly charming Warren Lockridge. (I know there was another Warren briefly between the two, Scott Someone, but he was barely on screen before he left again, so I don't count him.)

JAN's Warren even looked and sounded like a Nic Coster clone, so if they ever tried retconning Warren's paternity then, it would never have flown. As it was, the story was a mess. And, as much as I loved SB for what it was, I was almost relieved for the axe before it was revealed C.C. was his father, which is where it was headed. Mixed doubles. Great. Not.

And Warren dumping the man that raised him because he was not his bio father and Warren was declaring himself a bastard SUCKED. I said elsewhere that Warren was right about being a bastard, but not in the way he thought! Lionel should have spit in Warren's face.

Though, it seemed to me all this was done so as to make Warren/Cassie not incestuous and gross. And it only made me resent Cassie for mucking up established history - not just with Warren and Lionel, but Minx. JW's Warren should have been revealed to be a fortune-hunting fake or whatever, because his version of Warren was just awful, and the ruination of Warren's close relationship with his father (which I still saw Lionel as!) was just criminal.

Great promo.

Never saw this before. Loved NLG's Julia. Thanks!

Carl, here is The Capwell Zone episode in 3 parts. (Someone else had it up, but it wasn't in English. Glad I did find someone that had it that way!)

Based on the length, I still don't think it is complete, but enjoy, anyway!

And the opening credits in a separate file:

Yes, Megan Richardson was Meg Bennett's character. She came to write a biography on C.C. but, come to find out, they were lovers apparently during the time Sophia was gone. Then her son Greg Richardson (Paul Johanssen) came to town and found out C.C. was his dad. I remember the awesome Capwell Zone episode done after he found out when he hit his head while surfing and dreamed Mason and Julia were aliens, etc. Patrick Mulcahey wrote it in iambic pentameter. He said that in SOD.

You're welcome.

Oh, and no, I don't think Brick was ever mentioned after Sophia was shot and lapsed into a coma. It's like poor Brick ceased to exist. (Much like Greg Capwell did. C.C.'s son with Megan.) I think Augusta made a veiled mention of him to Lionel at one point, but nothing explicit.

The only two I can help you with are:

Channing's boyfriend was named Lindsay, but I don't know what he did for a living, or I forgot.

And Eden left in a limo as Channing with Stephen J. Cannell as her unnamed limo driver. (It was an inside joke since Walker was leaving SB for SJC's new series, Palace Guard.) So she was roaming around. In the late years, we saw the feet of her (obviously a stand in) send a letter to Cruz along with divorce papers and a letter to the family, saying she was getting well but was not coming home to SB.

Since some of us were discussing Temp Lisa DiNapoli/Téa Leoni a page or two back, I figured I would post this as I just uploaded the scene. Some of Temp Lisa was on some new stuff I received. Enjoy!

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/wmaeveaC1E0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Ohhh how I wish SoapNet would start showing Santa Barbara

It will never happen seeing that Soapnet seems to be on borrowed time and, more importantly, the music prevents it from re-airing in the states. Internationally, though, music laws seem less stringent. But Rick Rhodes, SB's music director, once offered to re-score the show so it could air, but he died before it could happen.

Thanks Wendy! What did you feel about the Santana recasts and CC?

Santana seemed to change with the wind. Under original actress Ava Lazar, she had a strong streak and seemed savvy enough. But with each subsequent recast, she devolved from savvy to shrew, and a weak shrew, at that. And after the sh*t C.C. pulled to keep her from Brandon, no way did I ever buy their romance at the end. And the fact that C.C. knocked her up just as "son" Channing did ages ago was just...icky. But Wanda De Jesus was just too "hard" and too old for that role, anyway.

Speaking of recasts, it took four or five tries, but Jed Allan OWNED C.C.

As an aside, I never understood why Rosa stayed working for the Capwells after the crap pulled on her family. I guess the pay really WAS that good. LOL!

I was going through the history of the show and it seems ALOT of the roles were recast. It seems the vast majority of the original cast was replaced at some point with new actors. How did fans feel about this? Did you feel overall the casting was good or did the replacements not compare to the actors they took over from? Mason, Kelly, CC, Ted, Gina, Santana, Joe, Sophia, Warren, Laken among many others were recasted at least once or multiple times.

Some were fine (Mason seemed to never lose popularity under Terry Lester or Gordon Thomson, even if he seemed miscast with TL), some recasts worked once but bombed if recast again (Kelly; worked with KM to CG but not CG to ED), and some just seemed odd. Jack Wagner's Warren bore little resemblance to John Allan Nelson's Warren and had his history altered. Paula Irvine's Lily Blake/formerly Lily Light was the polar opposite of Lynn Clark and was frozen in age. Michael Brainard's Ted lost the sweetness Todd McKee's version had, and with the recasts, at least the Capwells, you also lost the "warmth" between the siblings, IMO. (Except for Mason and Eden. But Mason and Ted used to be close. I think it was because LD/TM were buds. They even gave each other noogies on screen. Can you see GT/MB doing that with each other?)

As for CG's Kelly and Eden, they were good. Almost as good as MW/RW, to me. But then, I loved CG as Kelly as much as RW. MW/CG played the closeness well (see the Paris stuff) unlike Marcy with Kimberly McArthur. And when it turned to rivalry over Robert, it was believable enough. I never felt anything regarding ED's Kelly whining about "poor Eden" because they had zero history or scenes together.

And then there was the WTF casting of Janis Page as Minx. She would have been great as a Lockridge cousin or whatever, but Minx? No. FAR too young. And Cassie screwed up HER past, too.

In short, I guess it depended on timing, story, and the popularity of the predecessor. But, yeah, I think having so many recasts was an issue, at least by the end.

I have never personally dealt with this site, so take this as a disclaimer of sorts, but some of us were talking about that final commemorative SOW SB issue when the show ended, and this site has it if anyone is still looking for it:

Santa Barbara issue at Soap Opera World

ETA: Whoops! Just saw (in small print, naturally) it is out of stock. My apologies. But it seems to have a lot of different issues.

Speaking of that Paris remote, I had forgotten that the closing credits were once done over a shot of Paris versus the usual California backdrop. Very cool:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/HF1MnzkSA-4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The above video reminds me of just how non-SB-like SB was by this point. The cancellation was a mercy killing.

Anyway, I recently bought (or, rebought, as I had it waaaaay back when but got rid of it!), the SOD issue with Marcy Walker writing a diary of her time on-location in Paris back in '89. I had forgotten how funny MW could be in print. Nice pictures, too.

Geez some of these scenes are so anguishing to watch. These Mason/Eden dynamics fascinate me. Were they saying the only reason she stuck up for him was because she was mentally ill?

I'd only ever seen Marcy and Lane Davies together but she and Gordon also work well.

This is a wonderful, if heartbreaking, scene with Mason and Eden. They may have sniped at each other, but when the chips were down, they also had each other's backs. I think Mason and Eden's sibling relationship was the most interesting among the Capwell kids.

Was Téa Leoni subbing for Tawny Kitaen as Lisa DiNapoli on SB ever mentioned? From sultry redhead to subdued blonde. (TK had married David Coverdale of Whitesnake - whose video for "Here I Go Again" made TK infamous - and went on her honeymoon, so TL filled in.)

It is somewhat old, from 2009, but a French SB site has a nice little interview up with Carrington Garland, (ex-Kelly Capwell #3). The interview is in English and there are a few pictures. She looks the same except older.

And in one of the photos, it looks like she is with Constance Towers (Helena, GH).

Someone at TWoP says that the actress who played Michael's very brief possible love interest, ex-nun Greta MacAdams who was on in 1989, was dead. (I don't think recently. It was brought up in discussion about Terry Lester and Michelle Nicastro.)

Anyone remember hearing about this? I know she was a minor character on the show, but if true, that's sad.

ETA: I checked IMDB and there seemed to have been an issue about this. The last post on her message board on the IMDB page says she is alive. One other post had her married to Mark Lamura. So, I have no idea.

Can't find the ATWT DVD thread (and I never watched the show, to be honest), but I was just at TVShowsOnDVD.com, and it says a "Carjack" DVD release is coming, in case no one knew:

DVD info