Wendy

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.

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

Maybe not a rewrite, but just a stupid plot point? Either way, Ric was not a Castillo. Do you remember when Carmen Zapata was recast for a time with Karmin Mucillo? Around that time, it was revealed Carmen had an affair with Harlan Richards (a baddie business guy on the show) and Ric was actually his son - and Ric was in a tepid romance with his own half-sister (played by Julie St. Claire) and didn't know it. When he did, he left town. And stupid Rafe was Rafael's spawn with some unknown woman, so he was a Castillo. On another topic, SB really liked the name Lisa. In uploading some Mason/Julia stuff tp my YT account last night, around the time Mason went to rehab for his alcoholism, I had forgotten about Mason and Julia's secretary, Lisa DiNapoli, played by Tawny Kitaen. (And who always took me out of her scenes, even if her acting was okay, as all I could see was her writhing on a car in that Whitesnake video!) Yep, a simple baby names book would have been helpful.

I was admittedly meh on all the characters who were not Capwells, involved with the Capwells, or interacted with the Capwells from years past (of which there were few) by '92-ish, so Bridgette Wilson's Lisa made no real impression on me, either way. I admired Pam Long (one of the only times I did) for actually trying to use Lilly/Lily's (sp?) con history. But Paula Irvine took me right out of it as I still think she was miscast and far too young after Lynn Clark's RM-lookalike version. As an aside, Lisa. We had just come off of the Lisa/Eden debacle. Had this writing staff never heard of a simple baby names book? Another aside, I did like that Lisa also made Rafe miserable, but I think that is simply because I hated Rafe, never bought him as a Castillo, and hated that the show ditched the (IMO!) much superior Castillo brother (even if the dumb rewrite said he wasn't), Ric.

I still have that issue packed away somewhere.

No, I don't! But it shows how much that awful IQ line stuck with me, huh? I believe you when saying that Michael Logan may have talked about Kelly's IQ, but ED was the first I had read of it, and maybe it did not translate well in text, to give ED the benefit of the doubt, but her remark about it to me sounded so...snide! And I don't even exactly recall WHEN in '91 ED was hired, as I would love to look up the old issue on eBay. To this day, it galls me that the show let CG go for ED. And, you're right, ED clicked with no one. She maybe had a glimmer with Charles Grant's Connor, but certainly nothing to write home about.

I never knew SB was supposed to get a new opening. I'm kind of glad that never had the chance to happen. The opening was one of the last (pathetic) reminders of what the show used to be before Pam Long and Paul Roach...er, Rauch...annihilated it. Memory association, if you will. And it had that "California" vibe to a T.

I think A Martinez leaving caught everyone off guard since there was this interview with Pam Long who says she would never had taken the SB job if she knew A Martinez was going to leave. So my guess is, she did want to do something with Cruz and Jodie but, again, that is just my guess. I have not heard about Robert Newman returning to the show at all. As for Carrington Garland returning, that would have been great, but again, I doubt TIIC would have admitted to that mistake even if SB went on. BTW, come to think of it, ED's SOW interview did allude to the fact that she was supposed to cross paths with JW's Warren (I never heard of CG's Kelly doing so), but it never seemed to come to be on screen unless I blocked scenes out, which is certainly possible since ED's Kelly (and JW's Warren, IMO!) were not exactly memorable.

CG's Kelly, IIRC, was fired shortly before JW's Warren even aired. Or, maybe just after he debuted. But I know CG was gone just as JW's Warren came on canvas. I also don't remember any true scenes with ED's Kelly with him, either. If anything, ED's Kelly was tested (and failed miserably with) Stephen Nichols' zen therapist Skylar Gates. Nichols didn't last long. Wrong role. ED's Kelly seemed to be a chemistry void whereas CG's was a chemistry magnet with every male. The only guy ED's Kelly seem to click a little with was her final pairing with Charles Grant's Connor McCabe. But Carrington clicked with whichever guy Kelly loved that day, a blessing and curse since her chemistry with everyone had the writers make Kelly into a fickle flake. (I loved her short flirtation with Peter Love's Ric Castillo just prior to Robert, frankly. But then Kelly/Robert took off...) The Dobsons seriously made a huge mistake firing CG because, to them, she looked "too young for all that Kelly had been through". As I have said elsewhere, I found that very ironic since Carrington Garland was actually two years older than Robin Wright. And, as I said here and elsewhere before, I kind of liked that ED failed as Kelly after basically insulting CG's version by saying Kelly's IQ would finally go up in her first SOW interview after she was hired. Then again, there is not much the Dobsons did right during their second stint.

I'm one of the few who liked GT as Mason. (Most think Mason stopped with Lane Davies. And Terry Lester? Good actor, wrong role.) But I do think since he was the original, that Lane Davies best defined the character. There is a bunch of Lane Davies as Mason up on YT or at his web site - with the Mason Chronicles - if you are ever curious.

Actually, if I recall from reading, the casting of Pamela was just one of the issues that started the Dobsons on the road to being locked out. They wanted Marj Dusay to begin with, but the writers wanted a British actress by the name of Samantha Eggar. From what I read, to allow for Pamela to be written for and for the writers to be enthused, the Dobsons acquiesced. However, Eggar quit before she even started taping as soap demands proved to be too much for her. That is when Shirley Ann Field was cast. I have no idea why she was let go, as she seemed fine to me. Maybe that was the issue, though? Maybe the show wanted a slightly insane Pamela from word go and felt Ms. Field was too "together". Because Marj Dusay certainly brought the OTT crazy angle. That said, it is ironic that the Dobsons' choice would remain in the role until Pamela was phased out for good in 1991. (While I loved that Capwell Dinner in '91 with her there, I was watching older clips of LD's Mason, and it seemed like after the Hal Clark mess, that Mason had washed his hands of his mother, so I don't get what caused the turn-around, mother or not.)

I am one of the TWoP posters. And it was in SOD that the Dobsons brought Katrina Ruyker/Maria Ellingsen on as a love interest for Mason. The Dobsons even had them in a scene discussing Mary. But GT looked like her father. Then the Dobsons were fired, and that was that. The Dobsons made a point of saying Mason and Julia were star-crossed lovers, and they seemed to like Mason when he was forever unhappy, never quite staying happy. I think their second and last tenure had proven that much! Ditto Sister Sarah supposedly being younger. The strike casting killed her as a Mason/Julia foil. I recall reading that, perhaps in SOD, or maybe TV Guide, but it was out there. And I was the one who claimed Mason/Ted were more distant with the recast Ted and Mason. But, as I also said, it made sense since Lane Davies and Todd McKee were friends in real life and even went on a European trip together once both left the show. I remember SOD had pictures.

To be fair, though, AW did seem to have some...odd recasts. There was Robin Strasser to Victoria Wyndham, but it worked. I will say Nancy Frangione and Susan Keith were vastly different. Whether the change worked is up for debate. But that also is the case for Lorna Devon going from tough but vulnerable Alicia Coppola to more soft/regular soap heroine type with Robin Christopher. That was jarring. As was going from Sandra (Ferguson) Reinhart to Christine Tucci, who were night and day in appearance and style, and made even stranger with redheaded Laura Moss and then back to Sandra Reinhart. AW seemed much like its (supposed-once sister show) ATWT in recasting roles with actors who were nothing like the original actors. Sometimes, it worked. Sometimes, it didn't.

As an occasional AW watcher (it was a'ight...but I was more of a Santa Barbara gal and would watch as I waited for 3:00 p.m.!), what is the deal of the behind-the-scenes stuff alluded to with Chris Rich, Nancy Frangione, and Laura Malone?

I know she had her issues with drugs, but she is one I never thought would die like this. May she RIP.

Yeah, I get that. But I also believe Pamela was a character used best in small powerful doses. And for her longer run, the ending was memorable, what with C.C. trying to kill her and Mason (for once) defending his father and telling C.C. that Pamela wasn't worth it, etc. Her final appearance at the ill-fated Capwell Dinner in '91 was fabulous.

Scherra, I'm glad you are enjoying the clips. I have some more to upload and will. I just tend to space things out, if I can. Although it is painfully obvious from my channel that I am an unabashed Mason and Julia fangirl. Hee. Cruz and Eden were the signature fairy tale, but I much preferred the warts-and-all pairing of Mason and Julia. And I will agree that Lane Davies just personified Mason Capwell, good and bad. I did come to appreciate and like Gordon Thomson's more openly devoted version of Mason (as is also obvious on YT), but for all that, I found Lane's version more...something...and I think you hit on a small piece of that. How Mason was so tangled up inside with Lane playing him, that expressing himself outside of a courtroom or under an influence of alcohol was always a struggle and infinitely complex. It was when he was not in lawyer mode or drunk that he was left with...himself...and Lane played Mason, for all of his bravado, as insecure and unsure of himself and his place in his family - or in his romantic relationships. I think, under GT, that trait only stayed when dealing with C.C., but it used to be his default setting with everyone. I cannot speak for scherra, but Lane Davies' last year was filled with Sonny Sprocket. I'd say that is a low point right there. (It was amusing back then, but watching it now, it tended to grate after a point.) I understand WHY that was done (Lane and Nancy's issues, which are now well known), but surely something better could have been written. Oh, well. At least LD/NLG both grew up and buried the hatchet later on - and not, incredibly, in each others' backs. ETA: Scherra, I had already mentioned this in the thread, but in case you did not see it, you should check out The Mason Chronicles, if you haven't, at Lane's site. There are two time lines, a "current" story arc, and an earlier "retro" arc. The retro arcs sometimes have (textual) commentary to go along with the clips. MC - current week: http://lane-davies.c...hronicles.shtml MC - retro: http://lane-davies.c...icles0097.shtml And don't worry if you start in mid story. The clips always circle back around again. If you are a fan of NLG, Nancyfan.com has M&J's story from The Baby Contract onward, too.

Wish this was in English, but still a cool entrance for Eden!