Santa Barbara Discussion Thread

[Paul Raven]

There seemed to be a lot of panic when the ratings didn't fire up immediately.

A pity that the original structure was tossed aside and the Andrades and Perkins were dropped.

In the long run i think the show would have been better with fewer changes.

We know that Melissa Brennan, for example, had potential,a lot of posters seem to like Ava Lazar.

Maybe the Perkins parents could go recurring and Danny Andrade recast.

I think they just needed a steadier hand to gude them through the first year.

But with all the hype and money involved everyone wanted better numbers pronto

[Liberty City]

I agree with these two sentiments; recasting Gina, for me, ruined the role. It changed the character and I still don't like it.

I don't know. Bizeau Weiss stated, specifically, she signed a one-year deal, and that is the amount of time she stayed. Plus, Hickey only appeared from July 31 to August 12, so it sounds like they tried convincing Bizeau Weiss to stay for a limited amount of episodes and, when she didn't, they did a quick recast and just pushed Flame out of the picture.

I don't think the soap, itself, sucks or is horrible. Are there periods that are? Yes. That's natural. But I don't think a single one of us is sitting here stating, "Santa Barbara sucks as a soap opera," and if they have I missed it.

[Contessa Donatella]

No, I don't think anyone misunderstood about venting about a time on your show that was bugging you! It's still clearly your show - the good, the bad & the ugly! The whole shmiel! You can't see your name & not know that you love SB!

[Paul Raven]

NBC programming chief Brandon Tartikoff announced Santa Barbara in late Jan 84, so negotiations had probably been happening for a few months before?

In October 83 NBC was still touting Scruples as frontrunner for a new soap, so there must have been some BTS stuff that saw Scruples fall out of favor and SB be announced so quickly.

Scruples had been in development since at least early 83, originally for Fall 83, maybe before Brian Frons came on board.

There were lawsuits as a result  of Scruples being dropped from Pat Falken Smith as I recall.

[Contessa Donatella]

I have it in my head to try to come up with a canonical list of characters that the Dobsons created. I realize it may be impossible. But because of it I do random reading about them on different trips down the rabbit hole. Yesterday I hit pay dirt! No new characters, that would be hitting gold. Instead I found out what was underlying the double lawsuits. So, we knew that they wanted to fire Anne Howard Bailey & she had a contract clause that only NBC could fire her. Absurdity ensued. But, one more step, WHY did they want to fire her? Here's why:

"It was impossible for Anne Howard Bailey to get inside my head, and I could not get in her head. She has a darker view of life than I do; I think she thinks of me as Pollyanna, and I think of her as Darth Vader." - Bridget Dobson

[j swift]

I don't think planning or development was an issue in the chaotic first months of storytelling, I think it was desperation.

In terms of preparation, NBC built a new sound stage for SB, there was a ton of promotion on-air and in print, the premiere episode was reviewed in the New York Times,  and there was a classic soap murder plot. 

However, we can't dismiss that NBC chose to unveil the soap as counter programming to the Summer Olympics on ABC.  Coverage in SOD at the time suggested that ABC soaps might never recover from the pre-emptions due to the games.  Remember that the 1980 games in Moscow were cancelled, so there was a narrative that the 1984 games would flop, and the loyal viewers of ABC daytime would lose interest after two weeks of nonsoap coverage and flock to the other networks.  Yet, none of that happened.  The 1984 games in Los Angeles was a huge success,  ABC had planned well by having cliffhangers before the games and plenty of promotion, and as a result the initial ratings for SB were very poor.

After touting the huge sums of money spent on sets and talent, it became clear that NBC and New World began to desperately scramble for ratings.  The earthquake, a cast cull, and an injection of more sex were the immediate solutions.  However, it was never enough to turn the ship around from the early failure to attract an audience. 

[robbwolff]

Not all ABC soaps were preempted during the 84 Olympics. ABC continued to air AMC, OLTL, and GH during the games, albeit at reduced lengths (40 minutes each). The only ABC soaps that were preempted and ended with cliffhangers were RH, LOV, and EON. A June 1983 article I read online said that ABC would continue to air soaps during the Olympics from 2 to 4 PM. If that's true, then the first 2 weeks of SB competed against the last 20 minutes of OLTL, the entirety of GH, and GL, which was on fire at that time.

[Contessa Donatella]

OMG! Well, that NBC plan sure backfired!

[robbwolff]

It really did. I believe that SB's first few weeks coincided with Reva baptizing herself the slut of Springfield.

[Marissa Gallant]

I'm watching the episodes where Kelly is after Robert, Cruz and Eden are in their what will they do phase, Sophia just met Steven Slade, and Augusta keeps flirting with CC. Augusta flirting with CC is possibly the weirdest. And there's actually chemistry there. She is a better height for Jed. Poor Judith had to have gotten a crick in her neck occasionally from looking up at him. 

That said, JM and JA had better chemistry. 

[Liberty City]

Augusta & CC would have been a cop-out, as much as I would've loved to have seen it. That being said, I always did imagine TPTB chem-testing Louise Sorel with Paul Burke & Charles Bateman during Sorel's first run as Augusta.

[Jdee43]

Melissa Brennan was really green on Santa Barbara. It also didn't help that her character wasn't that great. She did have a spark though, aka charisma, unlike say Julie Ronnie; so it was not surprising that she eventually became a star in soaps on another show with a better character, a character that suited her more. 

[Marissa Gallant]

I think Louise Sorel is just a spark that ignites chemistry with everyone. I am VERY glad that CC and Augusta didn't become a thing. But she does sparkle. And she is taller so wouldn't have needed to strain her neck as much. 

I always have to think to remember which of the first two CCs is which. (I honestly try to block 2 from my memory.)

And YES!!! To Melissa Brennan! I loved Jennifer Horton so much that I didn't even remember Jade. I think that the Perkins were not as well rounded of characters as the other families on the show. I didn't like John at all. Marissa was okay, but she did get more interesting as a widow. Amy was GREAT though, but she wasn't there for the first few weeks. 

We didn't even get enough of the Andrades to get an opinion. They made the horrible mistake of pairing the beautiful Ava Lazar with creepy #2, and I think that was the nail in her grave. Shoulda put her with Mason. Also shoulda NEVER had #2. 

But I wasn't there for the beginning of Days, General Hospital or Y&R, so I can't say if their first few months were smooth or bumpy. I do know that Jed Allan's autobiography says he wanted CC from the beginning and the suits at the network said no. Well, golly were they wrong. JA and AL probably would have blown the chemistry off the charts!

[Contessa Donatella]

I thought there  might be some people here who would be interested in this.

 

Llanview

@LlanviewPA

On Monday to coincide with Halloween and celebrating #OLTL’s undeniably best villain, Mitch Laurence, I’ll also share a #MemoriamMonday to honor one of Daytime’s finest, Roscoe Born, who we lost far too soon. If you have any stories, quotes, scenes you’d like to share ...

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[Liberty City]

Well, in truth, Burke & Bateman were the third and fourth CC Capwells. Lloyd Bochner was cast first and never appeared, when Peter Mark Richman took over for the premiere. The only CC I block is Burke. He was not right in that role. You could tell he hated being that role.

Honestly, if the CC-Santana pairing were made from more of the standpoint of Santana using CC to find Brandon, then I would've been behind it, but they tried to make it a love story, which feels wrong. It parallels Victor & Sabrina on The Young and the Restless. It's a no for me.

I mean, just look how she shines in the role:

She was pure GOLD in the role! As for her pairings, I do believe Santana & Mason could have been something. Hell, I even think Cruz & Santana would have worked more between A Martinez and Ava Lazar than Martinez & Gina Gallego (who I HATED in her take as Suntunnah).

The beginning of The Young and the Restless was different from what it became. By the early 1980s, the original families, the Brooks & the Fosters, were phased out of the canvas, besides Jill Foster, and William J. Bell ushered in the Abbott & Williams families. The soap ranked low for the first two season years (#15, #13) and did not bump into the top ten until the 1974–1975 season; early 1974 is when Jeanne Cooper was introduced as Katherine Chancellor and things began to shift and change.