Santa Barbara Discussion Thread

[Carlos Abad]

I cannot believe it: Paula Kelly, Marj Dusay, Roscoe Born and now John Callahan.

It’s a terrible year for Santa Barbara actors.

[Capridge]

Yes it's really terrible.

The Craig/Kelly/Robert triangle was really fun and it's sad to think that both men have died so young. And so soon after each other, too.

[amybrickwallace]

 

What's really scary is that this is only April.

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[j swift]

I'm endlessly fascinated by the Lockridge family.  In my experience, they benefit from not having as much screen time because it was always a treat when they were the focus of an episode.  Whenever a SB writer or producer vowed to get back to basics in SOD, it always meant a return to the Lockridge household.

 

Today I was thinking about Lionel's relationships with his kids.  Lionel and Warren were close from the beginning.  Warren had his odd/Oedipal relationship with Augusta.  In the early episodes, he was always "c"-blocking her from sleeping with Joe Perkins and Peter Flint.  Then, once Lionel returned, he idealized his father and tried to emulate his swagger and demeanor.  Heck, he even borrowed Lionel's tux to wear to Channing's murder party.  Even when Warren was recast, (first with Scott Jenkins during the horrid period of Lionel's marriage to Caroline and later with Jack Wagner), his story always involved interactions with Lionel.

 

However, I struggle to remember a single scene between Laken and Lionel.  There are the infamous episodes where Augusta cooks Laken's bird and her mother was a constant distraction in her love life with TJ.  Yet, Laken wasn't even present on the day that Lionel returned to Santa Barbara in the early episodes.  CC and his daughter's relationships were explored throughout the series.  But, I have no idea of the dynamics between Lionel and Laken.  Did she resent his time away from home?  Were they not close because he was not around a lot during her childhood?  Did Ted or TJ remind her of Lionel in anyway?  We'll never know.

 

Those who portrayed Laken were never gifted actresses which may have limited her storylines.  But, I just thought it was intriguing that Laken and her father never had any significant interactions.

Edited April 7, 2020 by j swift

[Wendy]

 

Not sure they were "not gifted" more than the writing for Laken was just never there. Consider that both Susan Marie Snyder and Shell Danielson (Laken #2 and #3, respectively!) went on to have popular roles as Julie on ATWT and Dominique on GH, respectively, and I think they would have been fine if they had any important material to play.

[Capridge]

Yeah, the Lockridges were very fascinating. Laken might have been the least interesting of that all, but I liked her a lot. The actresses were good too, but were never given a real chance to shine.

 

But actually, there were many, many scenes between Lionel and Laken over the years. There were scenes after the pigeon incident where Lionel is trying to keep Laken from running away from home and the subject of his many travels comes up & she made it clear that she didn't understand why he had to go away so much & she didn't like it. There just wasn't much tension between them, because Laken always had a good relationship with him whereas her relationship with Augusta was a lot more complicated. Which is probably why Laken/Lionel scenes were less memorable.

 

But it was always made clear that they were close. When Lionel was suspected of killing Channing, Laken always believed he was innocent. Their relationship briefly changed when Laken returned in 1987 and started disapproving of Lionel's new relationship with Caroline Wilson. Also, Lionel didn't approve of Laken meddling in Ted and Hayley's marriage. But even then, they remained close. And in 1990, Lionel was pretty much the peacemaker when Laken & Augusta would get into fights.

 

I'm not sure if Warren borrowed Lionel's tux though. I'm pretty sure that Sophia/Dominic tried to frame Lionel by planting evidence in his tux not knowing that it was Warren's tux.

Edited April 22, 2020 by Capridge

[j swift]

The tux is a rather convoluted red herring of the Channing murder mystery.  Warren wore Lionel's tux to Channing's party in order to convince Channing not to follow through on his plan for revenge against Lionel.  Channing knew that Warren had stolen coins from CC's office that were recovered from the sunken treasure of the yacht named The Amanda Lockridge and he threatened to expose Lionel and Sophia's affair at his party if Warren didn't return the coins.  Warren threw on his father's tux, climbed over the fence that divided their homes, and went to the party.  But, when he attempted to return the coins, the door to CC's study was locked from the inside.  Unbeknownst to Warren, Channing was already dead inside the room (we learn this detail during Cruz's reenactment of Channing's party).  

 

At the start of the series, Warren has the coins in his locker at the beach where he was working as a lifeguard.  Then, Warren threw the coins into the fireplace of the Lockridge living room but someone (later revealed to be Dominic) mysteriously retrieved them from the fire.  Once Lionel returned he told him about the coins and they decided to dive for the sunken treasure from the Amanda Lockridge.  Warren taught Summer how to dive, at the same time Eden was trying to get Cruz to teach her how to dive, and Lionel struck up a friendship with Elizabeth Peale, whose father Sir Richard Peale had studied the treasures of the Amanda Lockridge.  Lionel winds up diving for the treasure.  They set up a party at the museum to uncover the results of the dive.  Lionel wears the tux to the party and Sofia/Dominic tips off Cruz that the stolen coins are in Lionel's jacket.  Cruz arrests Lionel which is why the Lockridges celebrate Xmas in the Santa Barbara jail.  But, Lionel was later freed when Warren admits to the Cruz that he borrowed the tux that night.

 

Meanwhile, between the sunken masterpieces on the yacht and the stolen art in the tunnels between the Lockridge and Capwell estates, both families needed to learn to just rent a storage container at the local U-Haul lot and avoid all of these long lost family heirlooms. 

 

Also, Sofia's motivation was never sufficiently explained.  I know that she thought that Lionel did it, she wanted to exonerate Joe Perkins, and she didn't remember shooting Channing.  But why did she wait five years until Joe was released from prison to return to Santa Barbara?  Why go through the bother of putting on a disguise if both Joe and Cruz and had never met her? And why was her fragile mental state completely ignored once she stop using her drag king persona?   

 

I wonder if there was a re-write along the way, or if the Dobson's hadn't properly planned a solution to the mystery at the beginning of the story because so much of Pamela's backstory was a repeat of Sophia's past (including marrying European nobility, devoted stepchildren, returning to town in disguise, and emotional instability).

Edited April 24, 2020 by j swift

[AbcNbc247]

Love this song

 

 

[Capridge]

I'm watching this period on YouTube, but it kinda makes sense.

 

-Sophia "died" in May 1969 because she fell overboard. She didn't remember who she was for many years and was in a mental hospital. She eventually got out, remarried & thus Marcello became her stepson.
-In 1979, Sophia saw a photo of CC in the newspaper, which caused her to remember everything. She believed that Lionel had pushed her overboard all those years ago & was still afraid of him. So she set out to confront him at Channing's party before exposing herself to the family.

-Sophia disguised herself as Dominic, planned to threaten Lionel with an unloaded gun and accidentally shot and killed Channing instead. The horror of what she had done was too much for Sophia so Marcello hypnotized her into forgetting the trauma and made her think that Lionel was the killer. This made sense to Sophia since she already believed that Lionel had tried to kill her that day on the boat.

-Marcello took Sophia away from the scene of the crime, but the horror of her beloved son's death caused her to have mental problems again. She was committed to a mental hospital in Alaska this time, and she stayed there until about 1984. This is why she didn't try to exonerate Joe before.

-I guess she disguised herself because a) she was an actress and kinda enjoyed that sort of thing and b) it's not impossible that Joe would recognize her since he had been involved with Kelly and might have seen a photo of her "dead" mother at one point. (Cruz and Dominic never had scenes together, except for one where Cruz interrupted a meeting between Joe/Dominic on Cruz's houseboat and Dominic fled the scene immediately).

 

This is only partly correct but those episodes aired so long ago I can't say I blame you

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Channing knew that Warren had stolen the coins, but was going to expose him no matter what he did with the coins. So returning the coins was never a plot point. He didn't go back to return the coins, but to kill Channing (flashbacks of this were shown in episode 110 & 217). The door wasn't locked; he went in and saw that Channing had been shot. Before Channing died, Warren heard him whisper a word (which was connected to Lionel/Sophia but unknown to Warren).

 

Dominic retrieved the coins from the cemetery (where Lionel had hidden them), not the fireplace. But the Lockridges did burn the tux in the fireplace (episode 110) so maybe you got that mixed up.

Edited April 24, 2020 by Capridge

[Capridge]

ICAM!

Carrington Garland was extremely fun to watch and she had chemistry with just about everyone. Losing Marcy Walker, Louise Sorel, Carrington Garland, Roscoe Born and even Frank Runyeon (who had been there for four years) really hurt the show. Marcy and Roscoe wanted to leave the show and Frank was also ready to get out of there, but Carrington seemed happy to be there & Louise Sorel, well, her firing should never have happened either. It was so unnecessary. I guess they counted on Jack Wagner to save the show, but the stability of having Carrington Garland & Louise Sorel there would have really helped.

[rlj]

I could be remembering wrong but didn't Eden take a romantic interest in Lionel when she first arrived bac in in SB?

[pdm1974]

I think she did, but that story point was quickly dropped.

I don't know if I'm in the minority, but I always found the Lockridges more interesting than the Capwells. I'm not sure why TPTB seemed to have trouble writing for them.

I thought Carrignton Garland was actually the best Kelly and would have been the perfect replacement as the lead heroine after MW left the show. If the show really wanted Eileen Davidson they should have just given her a new character.

[Soaplovers]

I always viewed the Lockridges as a closer family....that at the core..were richer than the Capwells.  Augusta always felt she was 2nd choice to Sophia, Lionel always felt C.C. was more successful.....yet if both of them hadnt spent time keeping up with the Capwells..they would have realized what they had was good.

 

Laken #2 nor #3 weren't given enough time to develop...while Warren #1 was wasted yet had the most potential..while Warren #3 was given attention yet wasn't the best character to lead the show.

[j swift]

Lionel pursued Eden when they both originally returned to town in the first few months of the series because she reminded him of Sophia.  Although from Eden's first episode when she mistakenly skydived into Lockridge estate it seemed like the plan was to pair her with Warren.  Then, when the earthquake hit, Lionel turned his attention back to Augusta in order to support her during her blindness.  

 

In hindsight, not pursuing a Lionel/Sophia paring at any point in the plotline was a missed opportunity.  Like most, I would assume, Lionel and Augusta seemed like each others endgame because the actors were so charming and they exuded chemistry. They certainly made more sense than the eventual Lionel and Gina pairing which seemed to stem from the fact that there was nobody left for them to hook up with by the end of the show, rather than any actual character history. However, Sophia could have been a viable threat to the Augusta and Lionel's marriage, especially during her periods of estrangement from CC when she seemed to always choose the most unsuitable men in town.  

 

 

Edited April 25, 2020 by j swift

[Soaplovers]

I often think Pam Long would have done better writing the Lockridges..especially Augusta/lionel...than the Capwells.