Wendy

Well, print commentary (as you'd see when you click the link), but still, great to read Lane's thoughts on some of the scenes and actors.

Does anyone watch The Mason Chronicles over at Lane Davies' site? He even offers commentary for the "retro" week clips versus a more "recent by SB standards arc" that runs concurrently: Retro with commentary: http://lane-davies.c...icles0096.shtml Current (the current stuff gets a video added each day, M-F): http://lane-davies.c...hronicles.shtml It circles back around, so whatever you missed, it will likely get re-posted down the line.

I'm curious, too, since, besides the '80s clothes and hair, I think Santa Barbara was a soap that held up remarkably well!

Maybe, but hammy is better than boring or sanctimonious, which, to me, summed up his role as Michael Donnelly on Santa Barbara a few years later.

Wow, I disagree. And while the last year did have shitty writing, up until about '90/'91, SB had anything BUT. With the writing Emmys to show for it. But as with everything, I guess it is tomato, tomahto.

Merry Christmas! <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/5PFtF99Z4K8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Oh, bad does not BEGIN to cover this. By now, of course, ED was Kelly and this was off the heels of the disastrous Kelly/Cruz pairing. Think of an SNL parody of a soap and magnify it times ten. It was a stereotypical pearl-clutching shriekfest. In short, basically another redux of "It's A Wonderful Life". I say redux since Cruz already did the same scenario in 1989. And don't apologize. I like to fill in blanks if I can!

I love Louise Sorel, but I think Augusta floundered once the Dobsons were locked out. Probably why she left (only to return periodically). I don't think Pam Long "got" the Capwells/Lockridges, either (minus Warren, who was revealed to not even be a true Lockridge - which I called BS on), since they all but disappeared in any important capacity under her watch.

Julia was more casual when not in court. Much more relaxed than Alexis is/was.

Gotta love '80s fashion sense or lack thereof. Since David wasn't the culprit, maybe he didn't know about the dumbbell, since Courtney did it? Otherwise, I have no idea. Plot contrivance 101? :-)

SB ripped off the movie "Jagged Edge". Mason goaded Julia into representing David against the murder charge (of killing Madeline), Julia fell for him, managed to get him off, and then went they went away she found the bloody dumbbell that killed Madeline and David did other suspicious things including trying to break the bathroom door down with an ax when Julia locked herself in to avoid him. But as the ending went, Courtney Capwell confessed to killing her sister in self defense. I think David Laurent just slithered out of town, but I'm hazy on that part. (And I notice the clip says '86, but everything in the clip above seemed around '85 to me. Maybe it ran a while? Been so long...) By the way, the guy Julia talked to early in the clip was Pearl.

Judging by Julia's hair (sorry, but it is true!), around 1985, when she first appeared.

I love that Mason/Julia scene. While Lane Davies will always be my favorite Mason, Gordon Thomson did a great job!

Carrington Garland was an awesome Kelly Capwell. It still confounds me that she was fired for Eileen Davidson, who, while a decent actress, was all wrong for that role by a mile.

Actually, even if the writing was meh by then, I thought M/J competing for the judge position was a good idea in theory, and played to their competitive natures. But the writing was on fumes by then and it was about the time Pam Long started ramming the Walker drips down the audience's throat, etc. And Mason/CC, at least, still seemed tenuous. That was, aside from Julia, Mason's "meat". His issues with his father. Had the good writers still been there, I think a lot could have been done with Mason. His last GREAT stuff, IMO, was that disastrous Capwell Dinner in '91. Gordon Thomson was the closest to capturing Mason's real essence there since Lane Davies. ETA: I do believe I have some old SOD/SOW (read: before SOD/SOW turned to [!@#$%^&*]) issues lying around someplace. Can't promise that, but I think so. If I do, if I ever find them, I could scan some things, too. And thanks for yours, Carl!

Actually, from something else I'd heard or read, Sarah was supposed to be yet another possible Mason and Julia foil/love interest. But then came the '88 Writers' strike, a deaf actress was cast, and it all changed from there. Also in '91, Maria Ellingsen's Katrina was also supposed to catch Mason's eye per the Dobsons. Which, sorry, yuck. Mason looked like her father. And NBC canned the Dobsons again and that was that. The Dobsons once said they always saw Mason as tragic. And while I get their show was taken away, he had changed in their absence, and doing the Mary thing again and again with the sweet women seemed pointless. (They had referred to Mason/Julia as star-crossed lovers, which implies sadness or whatever with that term, IMO.) But frankly, by the end, I thought M/J had fit and were one of the last prominent links to old SB that were left...which wasn't much. Sadly.

This show seemed to have a fascination with nuns: Mary Duvall, Greta (the one with the article just posted - briefly recall her with Michael a bit), and Sister Sarah when Mason looks into Mark's death. Then there was SB's answer to the "Thorn Birds" with Father Michael the priest to round out the other side. Too bad Michael was dull until (IMO) he hooked up with Flame (long gone from the priesthood and back to being a cop).

To whoever asked about Pearl, he was...quirky, as many B characters (or even A characters) on SB were. I may be wrong, as it has been ages, but I believe the character was revealed to also have come from some wealthy family, but he chose to walk away from it all and marched to the beat of his own drum. There are some clips on YT where he is peripherally involved with the Tori/Mason/Julia arc when Pearl babysits Chip (I have no idea why - at the time, Chip was thought to be Tori and Mason's) and Julia comes to see one or the other (unusual triangle in that the women were sort of friends) and heard poor wet Chip screaming as poor Pearl is pretty clueless and Julia must take over.

With today's notification, add Martha Madison pinch hitting for Rebecca Herbst as Elizabeth Webber.

If I recall from SOD years ago, it was something thrown around by the network, but nothing came of it.

I was just coming to post this. I'm stunned. She was also in When Harry Met Sally, Harry's girlfriend who introduced Harry and Sally. To die at 50 is too young. Seems disrespectful to say this now, but I will always remember frozen Sasha in Mason and Julia's freezer as Michelle sang "Am I Blue?" over the scenes. May she RIP.

Yep, I do believe they also had a daughter.

BTW, someone asked for the birth order of the Capwell sibs. I am also including Elena, as technically, psycho or not, she was CC and Pamela's offspring. So... Mason Elena (guessing here based on timeline!) Channing (Sophia and Lionel's - thought to be CC's...and only found NOT to be Channing at all! Brick Wallace was the real Channing.) Eden Kelly Ted Greg (That drip played by Paul Johanssen in '89 - CC's kid by Megan Richardson, played by Meg Bennett!) The timeline for Greg did not seem to fit for me, but hey, it was a soap. ETA: Right before SB's demise, I think it was heading for changing Warren's paternity to CC with Augusta! Sort of late SB's answer to Channing. Frankly, I'm glad the show got the ax before that happened. Warren #1, John Allen Nelson, was almost a Nicolas Coster clone. I know recasts change things, but I think that was best left alone. I think the only reason the show toyed with it was due to Mason and Warren's new-found animosity over useless Cassandra.

I remember reading an actress named Robin Dearden was almost signed for that, not Chapman. I read it in some old SOD article. When was Chapman approached?

I just remembered the very short run of Ethan Erickson as temporary Dr. Patrick Drake on GH back in April 2008. What is odd is, during his three or four episodes, I do not recall ANYONE addressing him as Patrick directly.