juniorz1

But YAAAAYYYYY!!! Mitch Blake!

Shoot, I was hoping to see Kathleen McKinnon in the cast. Any chance you'll tell us which version of each character is in the cast? Like the characters that had more than one portrayer, which actor do you have in mind when writing?

Wendy was nice enough to PM me a link to an interview with Marcy Walker Smith from a magazine in Edmond, Oklahoma, where she now lives. Even if you're not a fan, check it out. It tells a really interesting, sweet story that I didn't even know, as a lifelong fan of hers. Enjoy! http://www.edmondoutlook.com/archives/m.blog/27/view/1082

I did and agree with Carl- she must have been a sub. I can't, however, figure out any rhyme or reason to the order the actors are listed in the credits, unless it was in order of appearance of the cast for the day and then the rest of the contract players directly underneath them. I always followed soap credits so I knew the system each different show would use, but I guess I wasn't paying too close attention to Loving's at this time because I'm baffled. Thanks for posting. It's sad reading of all of Perry Stephens' hopes and dreams for his life knowing that he died so young. My aunt, who works for local ABC Affiliate Channel 7 in Buffalo, has a picture of herself and Stephens in the mid-to-late eighties when he was a guest on AM Buffalo. I can attest to his being well over 6 foot and his blue eyes were just as gorgeous in the picture as they were on TV. And Loving became my Grandmother's soap after Search went off the air, so I ended up following it through watching it with her at her house (I was an NBC boy, so Search was natural for me to follow- Loving was my first non-NBC soap) and quickly was watching it on my own at home (I tried Generations when it started, but couldn't get into it, although it didn't help that I really was hooked on Loving at the time). Anyhow, I always liked Stephens' Jack (I wasn't fond of his replacement) and thought he had a certain warmth about him. He was taken too soon.

Luke/Laura may not have happened, ATWT may not have had its glory period in the late 80s/early 90s, my beloved Santa Barbara may have never hit the airwaves...... Some proof there that things happen for a reason. I was hoping to get to see some of the Dobsons' GL work on the classic dvd set, but their work (mostly?) aired before the 1979 cut off date of the pool of material Soap Classics had to choose from. Though I did hear that GL does have random existing episodes before '79 saved, just not all or even most of them.....

I agree with you- I wish in some of the interviews the blogger would ask more (or at least some) questions about the interviewees' work on other soaps.

http://pierin26santabarbara.blogspot.com/search/label/exclusive%20interview For those of you who haven't checked out Pierin's Santa Barbara Blog, or who haven't recently, there's a great interview with former long-time SB script writer Frank Salisbury. Check it out- it's a great read.

Do you mind elaborating some on the Rich/Frangione/Malone situation? And what was the horrendous way in which Malone's firing was handled?

That was the idea yes, but they cast Phyllis Frelich (the deaf actress) as Sister Sarah during the strike, which nixed the whole thing. The character was never intended to be deaf originally, so that was that.

I don't think she was made a victim in the storyline so much as the premise of the storyline made no sense for her character. SB wrote and played that rape storyline as a he said/she said. There were plenty of grey female characters they could have used for that story and Julia was the LAST one I would have chosen. We'd watched Julia for years. The characters on the show had known Julia for years. She was many things but delusional was never one of them. For that story to work, the audience had to maybe think twice as to whether the female character confused sex for rape or called it rape over guilt for sleeping with Dash. Gina, Santana, Flame, even Kelly would have made sense to use. But NOT Julia. I, and no other fan of the show (or character on the show for that matter) would EVER buy that Julia could possibly do that so it was frustrating for all of us who saw it as and knew it as a HE LIED/SHE DIDN'T storyline. But a victim she was never played as. No victim kidnaps her rapist and forces him at gunpoint to FINALLY admit to her that he did indeed rape her. That's why Julia rocks and NLG ROCKED that sequence! ABSOLUTELY! If it weren't for Julia and Nina Arveson's Angela in that last year and a half, I might have tuned out myself. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Cruz, but they did him no favors pairing him with Kelly, and a TERRIBLY RECAST one at that. I know for a FACT that the Dobsons wanted her from jump. But Anne Howard Bailey/Chuck Pratt wanted Samantha Eggar (who never aired because she couldn't handle the rigors of daytime) and Shirley Anne Field and they won out. In fact, this was the beginning of the end of the Dobsons at SB. To be honest though, I preferred Field's Pamela. She was exactly what I had always imagined Pamela to be. Dusay was a little too OTT for my taste. No, I don't. I don't think they ever tried to recreate her. Victoria Lane was meant to resemble her somewhat to attract Mason (and in a strange way I thought she did) which was mentioned on air. But Victoria DEFINITELY was never intended to be a recreation of Mary. Having seen Linda Gibboney's Gina now (when I started watching, Mattson quickly took over), I actually think Victoria was more of a recreation of Original Gina.

Beautifully stated. I think it helped some that we had Terry Lester in between and while Terry was a great actor, he just wasn't Mason. I think that was part of it. The other part, IMO, was that Justin Deas had left and they needed a scene partner/comedic foil for Robin Mattson. Frankly, the best part of the story was the climax. My heart kind of broke for Gina. Though she & Keith were her definitive coupling, Gina always had a special love for Mason. But as usual, Gina went about going after him in all the wrong ways.

Oh no, it was TERRIBLY unpopular and it dragged on forever. It wouldn't surprise me if it played a (small) part in Lane's leaving. His performance was fantastic as always, but Mason, of all characters, did NOT need a separate personality. He was FAR too entertaining on his own and though Sonny's reactions to the SB residents were sometimes amusing, it ranks easily as my least favorite of all Lane's storylines. Hell, ANY Mason's storyline for that matter.

Excited to get things going, though it's taking a little longer than normal though. It is happening, make no mistake!

You know, I always wonder if Justin Deas would have stayed. At the time, Deas's departure left a HUGE hole in the canvas that never got filled. LOL, I used to have an SB t-shirt.

Exactly, though I actually enjoyed his pairing with Katie because of that presence he has. That, and I truly loved the sweet, initial Matie stuff, especially Montana with Jack & Carly. Yeah, 2004 was also the Carly/Jack/Julia II story, which sucked. The Julia II murder and Carly/Lily stuff in spring 2005 was MUCH better.. And I LOVED JPiss's 2005 ATWT. LOVED the Baby Switch, Gwen's introduction, Iris Dumbrowski, Matie Reunion, Zach Roerig's Casey (the bratty little bitch that he was that year lol!), Paul/Emily, Lucinda's Breast Cancer, Luke's Drinking, Keith/Lily/Holden, I freakin LOVED ATWT that year and for me, that was the last time it was truly great, though I reallly enjoyed the 2nd half of 2009 all the way to the end. I thought Passanante made some real strides that year and I even kinda liked the Krietzman stuff (including the INSANE Mick/"James" (Tom Pelphrey) storyline) when he came on board. But it helped that I fell in love with Barbara/Henry and thought Colleen Zenk rocked 2010! ^^^THIS!!

Actually, Megnot subbed for Lisa Peluso for a few weeks (maybe a month?!?) in 1990, so she & Savage did in fact appear together. This article was probably written during that time.

Just got my ATWT DVDs for Christmas! SO excited. Can't wait to have a marathon one day this week! .

Merry Christmas RTSB fans! Today, for Christmas, my dad is giving my mom a brand new laptop. Why is this significant you ask? Because I will be receiving their old one and setting up service in my apartment. Therefore, as promised, I can finally go back to writing 'RTSB' again full time. Once again, I will be using the upcoming weeks to re-read much of what I have written and continue on with no loss in story or flash fowards- we're picking up right from where we left off! I CAN'T WAIT to start writing it again. Look for some news items with story previews and perhaps an interview with a cast member or two to whet your appetites for the continuation of 'Return to Santa Barbara'. In the meantime, here's a link to the only Christmas episode I've written in the blog thusfar, from 2006 (I can't believe it's been 5 YEARS since I started doing this!!!) I was proud of it and the fun episodes I had written the week leading up to it, which was a break from the regular stories for some romance for CC/Sophia, Cruz/Eden, Keith/Gina, and Lionel/Augusta. They were my Christmas gift to everybody who'd come and started reading it as I wrote from the very beginning. Check it out!! http://boards.soapoperanetwork.com/blog/60/entry-2896-episode-28-christmas-eve/

I will be posting a news item with more details soon!

Well guess what everyone? Turns out, my mom is getting a new laptop for Christmas (shhhh!) and I will be getting her old one to take to my apartment!!! So, beginning sometime in January 2012, 'RETURN TO SANTA BARBARA' WILL BE BACK!!!! I CAN'T WAIT to start writing it again and hope you all are here and along for the ride!!!

Has anyone else notice that SoapNet is showing 'AMC' repeats this week at 3AM? Last night, it was the aftermath of Simone's death.

I found the scene I was talking about- watch this Carl. Marcy is CHILLING in it!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at42sbV5N_8

It was a GREAT storyline. Tori was Cruz's ex-girlfriend who had just returned to town with boyfriend Martin Ellis, having become a Hollywood actress. Years ago, Cruz's then-girlfriend, Katie Timmons (Keith's sister), was jealous of Cruz & Tori and ran into the ocean too deep. Katie was struggling out there but Tori claimed she was a strong swimmer and would be fine. After Cruz went for help, Tori looked on as Katie began to drown. Tori did nothing to help her and just let her drown out there. By the time Cruz came back, Katie had drowned. Cruz helped Tori cover up the fact that Tori had witnessed the whole thing and did nothing to help Katie. Years later, Keith blamed Cruz for Katie's death, when really, it was Tori's fault- Cruz had just helped her keep it quiet over the years. When Tori came back, Eden figured out there was a secret she & Cruz were sharing and Cruz came clean with her. Eden even understood Keith's anger at first and sort of took his side, as he had lost his sister because of this. But Keith had held the grudge against Cruz all these years and was tormenting him, so Eden was trying to get Tori to come clean with Keith and tell him the truth about what had happened. Tori was frightened of what Keith would do to her, even possibly press charges, so she wanted to wait before revealing it so she could figure out exactly what she was gonna say. Cruz understood this, as he knew Keith and how intimidating he could be and how Tori might react around him, whereas Eden didn't. At this point, Eden runs out into the ocean to feign drowning to test Tori, just to see if Tori would come out and help her like she didn't do for Katie. It works (sort of ) and Tori runs out and saves her, swimming her to shore (Eden really does end up starting to drown). When Eden comes to, she sees Cruz comforting Tori, as the whole thing has reminded her of the incident with Katie and is jealous. There are some powerful scenes on youtube of Eden in the hospital telling Cruz what she saw when she came to. Marcy Walker is AMAZING in those clips. Anyhow, that's the jist of the storyline and it was also the basis of the Cruz/Keith rivalry and Keith's hatred for Cruz and why he always went after Cruz over the years. Thanks SO MUCH for posting this clip, as I've only seen it in French on youtube. SO nice to finally see it in English!!!

Where did that post come from? And where have you seen clips of Pat?

Ooooh, looking forward to watching these clips. I never cared for Denise Alexander's Mary (and she even got special billing!). I could never figure out what was so special about her, though I do see now that it was probably more Mary than Denise. However, when Soapnet was to start airing AW, I looked forward to seeing her, if only for nostalgia purposes. The funny thing is I reallllly liked the rest of the McKinnons, even Vince. All of their girls were interesting IMO.............well, MJ only under Kathleen Layman. Sally Spencer ruined that character IMO.