Santa Barbara Discussion Thread

[Soaplovers]

I can agree with that.  Long did well on SFT, Texas and GL..because those shows were more warm and earnest.  SB was more west coast and quirky.

 

 

[amybrickwallace]

 

She was more suited to the NYC soaps. Anyone have any idea who might have been a right fit for SB as headwriter? I'm drawing a blank.

[BetterForgotten]

That last year was horrendous when they hired actors that were popular on other soaps to somehow reinvent  the show. Talk about a desperate disaster waiting to happen.

To be fair, she didn’t have a very good stint on OLTL either...

[Khan]

 

I blame that on network/EP interference.

 

 

Under the best possible conditions?  Maybe Henry Slesar.  Or Peggy O'Shea.  Or even Pat Falken Smith.  But, that's all presuming Patrick Mulcahey would have been unavailable or uninterested in assuming the reins.

[amybrickwallace]

 

He would have been perfect. Why hasn't he ever gotten a gig as a HW?

[BetterForgotten]

He did at GL, but it didn’t work out too well (mostly due to corporate interference).

[amybrickwallace]

 

Thanks, when was that? I'm not surprised to hear it ended the way it did. Too bad writers can't just write anymore.

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[BetterForgotten]

In the beginning of 1994, he was listed as Co-HW with Nancy Curlee and Stephen Demorest during their final months with the show (he had been in their staff since 1992). After they left in March of that year, he was listed as the sole HW for a few episodes, and then as part of another HW-ing team with a few others. He left GL by the end of that year. He described his HW-ing experience there as miserable, especially after Curlee/Demorest left.

Edited May 22, 2020 by BetterForgotten

[amybrickwallace]

I'm sorry to hear that. He's one of the great underrated writers of the genre.

[Forever8]

A must read from Patrick Mulcahey and Diversity throughout the Daytime landscape regarding the soaps including Santa Barbara.

 

 

 

[Khan]

He said, in those tweets, what we all have at least suspected: the networks have grown too conservative (and that's putting it, well, conservatively, lol) to take risks in anything, including how POC are written and portrayed.

 

Thanks, @Forever8!

[amybrickwallace]

Robin Mattson, Jed Allan and Judith McConnell presenting at the 1986 Daytime Emmys:

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[Manny]

This was my first American daytime soap opera that I watched in my life. I was a kid back then, but I remember so many moments and scenes that happened... it was so immensely popular in my country. At one point everyone was watching it. Even today, I think you bring up the names C.C. Capwell or Cruz and Eden to my generation of people or older, they will know what it is about. 

 

Show was so huge that during the war here, when people were in bomb shelters and without a TV, they were doing recaps over the radio so that people can listen while in the shelter.

 

There is also a funny story related to SB... while they were airing the storyline with Eden in the wheelchair, one old woman here went to the church and gave her priest some money so that he would hold a mass in honor of Eden walking again

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While I just hated the final years, I must say, I was a huge fan of the early and middle years. It will always be one of my favorite soaps.

 

My love for Robin Wright was born here. I was a huge Mason and Julia fan and still love both Lane Davies and Nancy Lee Grahn. Gina and Keith were so fun to watch as a devilish duo. 

 

I still remember Eden's rape and how violet it was. I remember dear sweet Hayley dying after being hit by a car. Crazy Elena Nicholas dropping Eden in those snowy mountains. I remember Mason being punched in the face, falling down behind a couch and once he got up, we had a new Mason actor

 

So many fond memories! 

[amybrickwallace]

SB sure did pack in so many memorable scenes, actors and characters in just 8 1/2 years. It only felt like a completely different show in its last year - with the absence of MW and AM, the (completely unnecessary) renovation of the Capwell home and too many new characters. 

[Manny]

Yes, they really introduced too many of the new characters. And not only new characters, but recasts of important characters...

 

Personally I never liked Gordon Thomson as Mason either or Eileen Davidson as Kelly, so having the two front and center also did not help as they did not feel like the established characters that I loved, but rather new characters. I was okay with Michael Brainard as Ted, but still... 

 

I felt like aside from CC, Sophia, Julia and Gina, you did not really have many long running characters...