Santa Barbara Discussion Thread

[Soaplovers]

When eden was presumed dead..didn't CC want to groom Kelly to work at Capwell?  Didnt she mention something about art..or design?

 

And oddly, EileenDavidson's take on Kelly reminded me more of Eden.  I would have just had her be an Eden recast... couldn't have been worse..imho

[amybrickwallace]

I don't recall about CC/Kelly re: Capwell Enterprises, but it's entirely possible. As for Eileen as a recast Eden, that would have been considered mutiny for fans. Recasting Kelly at that juncture was totally unnecessary, as Carrington Garland had proved herself popular with the audience. I just don't think Eileen was right for the show, and that's not any reflection on her as an actress. She was great as Ashley and Kristen. It's not just Cruz/A - I don't think she had chemistry with any of the Capwells, either. She was just the wrong fit on a show that was already beyond repair.

[Wendy]

 

As I said, I think TPTB realized they goofed with ED as Kelly, so Katrina was brought on to try to redo the Kelly/Eden dynamic. Alas, it failed miserably. I also recall reading the Dobsons first wanted Mason to fall for Katrina, too, to be attracted to her goodness and innocence a la Mary, another mistake by the show no one could ever fix. (And I am a huge Mason/Julia fan, but I know that killing Mary always left a black mark.) I feel bad for saying this, but when the Dobsons returned, it was as if they could not accept their characters had gone on without them and had grown and/or changed, so they wanted to reset the show back to 1986 or so, and that just wasn't going to ever happen. Hence their second stint being pretty much a disaster, maybe minus the 1991 Capwell Dinner.

 

And I realize Eileen Davidson is popular around the board, but I recall her inaugural interview in the now-defunct Soap Opera Weekly magazine after being cast as Kelly left a sour taste in my mouth as she disparaged the character, saying now that she had the role, Kelly's IQ points would go up. That did not sit well with me. So, in a perverse sort of way, maybe karma came back and got her, because she really didn't do so well in that role.

 

The show had a gem in Carrington Garland and cutting her loose for a "name" to desperately save the show will always be yet another black mark.

Edited April 29, 2019 by Wendy

[amybrickwallace]

Was Cassie one of those characters just shoved down the throats of the viewers? I'm not as familiar with post-1989 SB, but judging by how many times her face shows up in the thumbnails of YT videos, I'm going to assume that she was.

[Wendy]

 

Cassie came on around 1990, so she was not a Dobson creation. However, they seemed to paint her as some wounded victim, which forever makes me angry. LOL! All of her machinations NEVER came out.

[j swift]

My recollection is that Cassie and her four musketeers was a classic example of a solid idea that was poorly executed.  The story of Mary/Mason had already established that there was an orphanage that CC patronized because the sisters had a side business as nannies for the Capwell kids.  So, an umbrella story about the other children who grew up in the orphanage seems like a good idea.  Stephen was tied to Sophia because he was directing her life story.  Derek and Craig were in a triangle with Kelly.  And Ethan was the new district attorney which put him at odds with Julia and Mason. 

 

There was even an intriguing mystery when the story started that the audience didn't know why these men were connected or who the lady was that they were all protecting.

 

John Conboy was producing and Sheri Anderson quit as the writer just as the story was starting.  First mistake, one of the musketeers was cast with Leigh McCloskey who had just played Eden's rapist Zach.  Then, Richard Hatch who played Stephen had to be recast.  Then, right before the culmination of the plot Terry Lester left as Mason and was recast with Gordon Thompson because someone "forgot" to renew his contract.  Finally, the Dobsons win their lawsuit and return to the show.  By the 18th trip back to the Capwell tunnel, when the show finally got to the exposition of why the men were avenging Cassie's honor, most of the characters had been recast.  There were no opportunities for the show to use flashbacks to explain the plot because everyone had a new face.   So, one week Stephen is accusing Cassie of burning his film about the Capwells, then they both disappear...

 

The Dobson's wanted nothing to do with the current plots so they were dropped.  Concurrently, Gloria Monty was returning to GH and although there were multiple firings, every character got an exit.  Cassie was simply never discussed again by anyone in her family.  Much like her nephew Brick.   

Edited April 29, 2019 by j swift

[Wendy]

As an aside, I remember learning that Gordon Thomson was going to be Mason #3 by E!, of all things. The channel, before reality hell, used to have a newsy format, and host Ken Taylor did hourly soap segments, and it was during one of those where GT's photo was shown and it was announced TL had left rather abruptly. I was surprised, but I remember just being glad that Mason would be a brunette again. LOL! If I recall, it was E! that had that Pure Soap show with Shelley Taylor Morgan, too, later on.

 

ETA and a bit OT: I found a current pic of Shelley Taylor-Morgan from an article about some radio show she was hosting back in 2017. The face is still pretty much the same, but wow...bright hair!

 

Funny, though, that I always remember her more from Hunter as Sgt. Kitty O'Hearn than I do from the soaps. (Her first episode was on just last night, when Hunter went missing and she teamed up with McCall...and the villain was played by Joe Mascolo! A sort of Days reunion.)

Edited April 29, 2019 by Wendy

[j swift]

I was watching episodes on Youtube.  It was co-hosted by Michael Logan and his insane mullet. Here's a crazy piece of trivia, it was E!'s first live show because it was produced before the concept of screeners, so they were actually watching the shows and reporting on them the same day.  

[amybrickwallace]

 

Of course, SB and Hunter had Robert Newman in common. Between stints as GL's Josh Lewis, he was the second actor to play Kirk "The Jerk" Cranston (I believe Joseph Bottoms got booked to make a movie and was let out of his contract early and Robert Newman came in to finish Kirk's arc). He also played the guy who married Dee Dee McCall and left town with her when Stepfanie Kramer decided to leave the show. He's reviled by Hunter fans to this day just for marrying McCall. 

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[Wendy]

 

I was just going to respond with this. LOL! When the revival series began in 2003, his character Alex Turnan, went poof! McCall was suddenly still Dee Dee McCall, engaged to some other dude. (Of course he turned out to be bad or die or something and Dee Dee was again a cop with Hunter, this time in San Diego instead of LA.) So Alex doing a fade was celebrated by many.

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[amybrickwallace]

RN seems like a really nice guy in real life, too. Hopefully he takes the Hunter reaction to his character in stride. 

 

When Kirk was brought back for a couple of short stints to harass Eden and Cruz, it was Joseph Bottoms who played him. I remember reading once that Robin Wright had a big crush on him IRL, but I don't know if that was true.

[j swift]

I was trying to count the number of stories that used the Capwell-Lockridge tunnel as a plot device. 

 

I think of: (1) Channing's Murder, (2) the 4 orphans used it,  (3&4) the forged art in the tunnel was used twice in stories (once when JAN left as Warren, and later when Gina tries to con CC).  It's remarkable that different writers all used the same device.

Edited April 29, 2019 by j swift

[Wendy]

 

And there was something about "Capridge Water" at some point.

[j swift]

The tunnel withstood two earthquakes and fires in both homes.  I think the Capridge spring (which rejuvenated Minx from Dame Judith Anderson to Janis Wells) was at ground level above the tunnel, on the dividing line between the two estates.

Edited April 29, 2019 by j swift

[victoria foxton]

That's when Minx came back. She even joked that the Capridge Water deaged her.

Edited April 29, 2019 by victoria foxton