SaBa: Did Kim Zimmer destroy the show?

[MarlandRulez]

Was Jodie identical to Reva? What gives, Santa Barbara viewers? Also wasnt it dangerous having Zimmer and Robin Mattson on the same show considering how similar they are? I always thought Mattson would be an ideal Reva recast!!!

[juniorz1]

What is this Marland? A Let's Bait Junior Thread?

Kim Zimmer didn't single-handedly destroy the show, no (Head Writer Pamela Long deserves much of the credit...) but she certainly didn't help. Jodie Walker was nothing like Reva Shayne. She was pretty dull, a lower-middle-class housewife. Actually, the ENTIRE Walker family was dull, a rare quality for an SB character, let alone an ENTIRE family.

Sydney Penny's BJ- BO-RING!

Eric Close's Sawyer- With a name like that, how interesting do YOU think he was? Sawyer Walker? Sounds like a [!@#$%^&*] fisherman to me.

Kim Zimmer's Jodie- Zzzzzzzzzzzz, here Jodie/Kim- here's a prop- go play in your corner now and chew on it.

Unfortunately, the only dangerous part of having Mattson & Zimmer on the same show was that Zimmer sucked up all the airtime while Mattson was an afterthought. When Pam Long brought Jodie & the Walkers on, they literally BECAME the show and all of the colorful, interesting, three-dimensional characters we'd come to know and love (CC, Sophia, Gina, Lionel, Julia, Mason) were severely backburnered.

To be quite honest, as much as I LOATHED Zimmer on SB, she wasn't the worst part of the final year for me.

That honor, of course, belongs to the one and only Eileen Davidson, who to this day rates as the worst Re-Cast of ALL TIME as SB's Kelly.

The thing about Kim is that she made it pretty obvious that she felt that she was going to be Santa Barbara's savior. Instead, she, Davidson and Pam Long together became the disease that destroyed it.

[MarlandRulez]

OH NO!!!!!

[SteveFrame]

I totally agree with everything you said but especially the statement. Funny thing is I never found BJ's boring - always rather enjoyed them.

Sorry couldn't resist.

As much as I love BJ's I didn't love that one.

[Tishy]

Kim Zimmer is larger than life as is Reva. Jodie Walker was and still is to me one of the most boring and painfully dull characters of all time. The Walker family was introduced and shoved down our faces in so many storylines it was ludicrious. What bothered me the most was the "love story" of Warren and BJ. It was like GH's Sonny and Emily, a trainwreck. I was so young, it seemed like child molestation to me because BJ seemed so young and Warren seemed so old.

Santa Barbara recast almost every person on that show which hurt it a lot. I agree with Junior, Eileen Davidson was horribly miscast. All I can remember is her wearing a stupid beret and wanting her off the screen. Even the Playmate Kelly was better than ED.

The last year was so out of control, it was painful to watch

[SeanM]

After Marcy Walker left in August 1991 the show became boring and uninteresting. Not becaus e Marcy was gone but the whole show changed so much, too many new characters, no use of history and bad recasts like Kelly, Lily and Ted. The only good thing were Lionel, Gina and Minx. I hated the Walker clan, we saw them almost every day, it was to much.

[Wendy]

I was a loyal viewer of Santa Barbara for a majority of the time the show was on the air. But once Pam Long came and got her fave, Kim Zimmer, to come aboard, in addition to the hack EP that was Paul Roach...er, Rauch, the show changed irrevocably for the worse.

First we had the HORRIBLE recast of Eileen Davidson as Kelly Capwell. No way in hell, if Marcy Walker was still there, would her Kelly ever have passed as the younger sister. (And it did not help that before even airing, ED shot her mouth off in SOW, basically putting down her predecessor [Carrington Garland - who should NEVER have been fired!], saying that Kelly would finally have some intelligence. Low.)

Then you had the Capwells and Lockridges, the very backbone of the soap, with all their quirks, shoved aside for the blue-collar coma-inducing Walker clan. Everyone - Reese, Jodie, Sawyer, and BJ - sucked. They did not fit with the fabric of the show, but that did not stop Pam Long. By God, she'd make them fit! Going so far as to retcon Cruz as having a child with Jodie back when they were teens (BJ) - and having Cruz leave the show not to find the love of his life, Eden, but for something to do with BJ. Utter crap.

And Julia and Mason, my fave couple, became wallpaper when not in some ridiculous mansion-ghost story debacle. ALL the main characters were shoved aside for the new family. In doing so, the quirky nature of SB was no more. Who wanted to see the Capwells and Lockridges when we could see Jodie and Reese? And add in that Jack Wagner's Warren [good actor, bad recast] had more chemistry with both Nina Arvesen's Angela and Karen Moncrieff's Cassandra [and I hated Cassie as she was the third wheel in Mason/Julia! But she and JW did have great chemistry!] but were BOTH shoved aside for BJ, and the suckitude progressed. And Sawyer, the son played by Eric Close, was just as boring. Hell, his girlfriend, Aurora, was a snooze. And even Aurora's father, Micah, played by none other than Thaao Penghlis, couldn't save it.

If you somehow ever see the finale, it is sadder than hell that it ended on a wedding for a couple [Warren/BJ] who, to me, sucked...and about some random woman [Krista Tesreau, Andie - scary I recall her name] trying to kill Jodie with bits of Mason/Julia thrown in...and the show ended with a whimper after having so many years of big bangs.

Pamela Long only cared about showcasing Jodie, much as Pam Long showcased Reva on GL. The trouble is, KZ earned it on GL. She did NOT earn it on SB. And in not doing her homework in what made SB stand out, Pam Long and Paul Rauch killed the show and made it mediocre to downright painful. (One example was Ted Capwell marrying Lily Blake [Lily Light, who did not age in five years!]. He DESPISED Lily and all that she stood for years ago with Hayley and whatnot. No way in HELL would Ted have ever forgiven her, let alone married her! Another was the DRASTIC de-SORASing of Minx, Lionel's mom. Janis Paige was a fine actress. But she was NOT Minx Lockridge by any means.)

(Rauch was just as bad, wanting Augusta [Louise Sorel] to fall for her sister's [Julia, played by NLG] own rapist. She balked. Augusta was made into a drunk, and Louise Sorel quit. Good for her!)

[David_Vickers]

I agree that Kim Zimmer DID ruin SB, along with Pamela Long and her focus of the lousy Walker clan.

I wholeheartedly agree. Eileen Davidson was too old to play Kelly and was probably SB's worst re-cast.

[DruRocks]

LOL, I knew Mulder woul be in here to bask in the Zimmer dislike

I wasn't an avid viewer so I'm not to keen on Zimmer, but surprised of the dislike for Eileen. I never was a fan of her on DOOL in the dual roles, but didn't see much of her on SaBa.

[Wendy]

I still remember when Santa Barbara, in this period, tried ED's Kelly with Stephen Nichols' Skylar Gates! I had never seen Stephen have anti-chemistry before. But wow, that was bad. No wonder he was only on SB for like six months before going poof!

On the upside, I still recall a few random scenes with NLG's Julia, and they had a nice vibe even before GH.

[Toups]

"SaBa".........are you kidding me? LOL It's "SB."

[KLN]

SB? SaBa!

SaBa? SB!

SB! SaBa! SB! SaBa!

Let's call the whole thing off.

*dances*

[Bree]

The Walkers were horrible. The constant focus on them caused me to tune out SB for good and I never did get to see the final episode. They were too boring and one-note for a soap that focused on entertaining, over-the-top, larger-than-life characters. Then the writers tried to do a Cruz/Kelly romance and that went over like a lead balloon.

[KLN]

Bree, come to the SON chat linked in the OT forum!

[skiman12082004]

Kim Zimmer did not kill Santa Barbara, NBC KILLED Santa Barbara. The show changed dramatically without A Martinez and Marcy Walker, but it was still enjoyable. I always had hope that they would one day return. Unfortunately, they never had the opportunity to come back. After the Dobsons were reinstated at SB that was the final nail in the shows coffin.