Santa Barbara Discussion Thread

[Marissa Gallant]

Yeah, this is a valid assessment. 

[Marissa Gallant]

Not sure if this has been answered, but YouTube has most of the beginning. Look for the Kelly Eden Capwell channel. She has 4 channels under different names, but they all have the same content.

I could listen to Jed read a phone book and be happy about it. I love that man's voice.

I am not sure any actor could have saved Warren and Maggie because the character of Maggie was terrible. That was sort of the nail in the coffin for poor JAN. 

I think the show tried to keep the Lockridges. But once the Dobsons were locked out, Augusta had left. Letting Louise go was a HUGE mistake. Then Nic Coster left. When they brought them back, too much of the original audience had left, and the new audience didn't care. It didn't help that they were charactatures of the Old Lockridges. When you have Augusta and Lionel, you want it ALL- charisma, comedy, drama, heart. 

If the 2 kids had been on par with those 2, who knows, maybe the Capwells would have disappeared. Doubtful once Jed was CC. 

[Beach Climber]

I felt the same way about the Lockridges. Lionel and Augusta were great but I never connected much with Warren or Laken no matter who was playing them. The first Warren looked and sounded like Lionel but I found him dull, the second one was even worse, and Jack Wagner was playing Jack Wagner. Whereas with the Capwells, Mason, Eden, and sometimes Kelly all drew me in at one time or another. Ted was the only odd one out for me. It made it a lot easier to center the show around them

[Marissa Gallant]

I'm FINALLY through the Paul Burke episodes. Yikes!!! I did love Bateman. I think he was very good, especially after his predecessor. Jed will always be my CC, but Bateman was very good. He was great with the whole cast. 

I also love Danny and hate what they eventually did with his character. If they had to have him decend into drugs, that would have made a great storyline for some talented actor.

Also, I came up with a new fun way to start a reboot. Robin Wright (as herself- famous actress, because you know she'll never come back for good) checks into the presidential suite and somehow finds that two way mirror. She then sues because the hotel has used it to spy on people for 40 years. 

And also also- in Bateman's first episode, he and Eden move the gazebo. Eden says she doesn’t know why since they'll never use it anyway. And I'm laughing because they use that multiple times a month for YEARS!

[victoria foxton]

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[Jdee43]

I finally got to see the earthquake, starting with episode 76, 11/12/84. They really should have just gone ahead and killed off most, if not the entire cast, and start the show over again. That would have been interesting. Instead they just continue with the same lukewarm stories, and kill off only one person, John, played by Robert Allen Browne. Granted, he was probably the weakest actor on the show (and that's saying something!), but there was so much more deadweight they could have gotten rid of. Ted, Danny, CC (ruined by multiple recasts), Joe, Peter should all have been killed. I'd rather have seen Joe go in the earthquake, then the exit they ended up giving him.

Under Dane, the character of Joe was the star of the show. I don't quite understand why they would recast him with Mark Arnold. In no way does Arnold have the kind of charisma about him that screams star, like Dane had, where you'd build the entire show around him. They probably should have just retired the character of Joe with Dane, have him disappear in the earthquake or something. 

Edited March 22, 2023 by Jdee43

[Marissa Gallant]

I couldn't disagree more. I love CC, Ted and Danny. The show would have been awful without CC. Bateman won me over. Jed was better, but Charles was good. I didn't think Dane was a very good actor. I actually think he was terrible and have never seen the charisma other people see with him. Peter could have gone. I don't really buy that CC would have been happy with Kelly marrying her high school teacher! 

[Keri]

I also think Dane was terrible. But I also hated Bateman. I thought he was very stiff, wooden, a very limited actor. I can't stand watching a lot of his scenes with Mason. 

Jed was able to convey a lot more complex and mixed emotions, especially re Mason At least to me.

I do agree Bateman was better than the previous guy.

I also thought they should have killed off a lot more during the earthquake- but just a lot of the secondary or tertiary characters.

[Jdee43]

I've only seen Bateman in 19 shows so far. He is an improvement over Paul Burke, but Burke was so bad, that's not really saying much. 

Bateman is stiff and wooden. His scene before the earthquake, where he's harassing Santana and having a fist fight with Mason, is so bad, I wouldn't have minded seeing him killed off. Or, since the character is important, maybe just put into a coma. They do that anyway a year later.

Getting rid of CC would have at least given Mason a storyline. It's 16 weeks into the show and Mason still doesn't have one!

[Jdee43]

One of the most random moments I've seen on the show is in episode 77 where veteran film and TV actor John Ireland briefly pops up playing himself as a victim of the earthquake. I wonder what was behind that. He's literally shoved aside once Eden and Cruz appear, in an unintentionally hilarious foreshadowing of what's to come on the show. 

Santa Barbara 1984 seemed to really want to court veteran prime-time TV and film actors, for either a few appearances (Alejandro Rey, Phillip Abbott), or for a few weeks stay (Virginia Mayo, Ray Walston). They also had Dame Judith Anderson, Paul Burke and Peter Mark Richman as regular cast members, all long time performers. 

Edited March 28, 2023 by Jdee43

[Marissa Gallant]

Bateman was stiff, but I feel like he eventually loosened up. There was definitely some good, subtlety to his acting. I think the hurt when he first sees Sophia was well done. He had chemistry with Gina and Sophia. I'll always feel a bit sorry for the actor because of the way he was fired. 

I also think his acting during the final reveal of who shot precious Channing was very well done. He was controlled while Judith McConnell was not. It created contrast- inward processing vs outward. 

I think the stars were there in the beginning to help draw fans in. You also forgot Virginia Mayo and Ray Walston. I always thought it was fun. 

[j swift]

Despite the fact that CC was played by multiple actors with a blustery persona, he was actually a bit of a soft loser.

He was the second choice of both of his wives.  Pamela dated his brother first and Sofia was infamously in love with Lionel prior to romancing CC.

We never saw him be very vicious in business transactions.  Yes, his oil rigs were a pollution risk, and Maggie's husband was injured, but CC was never portrayed as negligent in either situation.  He went on to build a hotel and a polo club without incident.  And, if anything, his companies were easily taken over by Robert Barr, so he wasn't a brilliant tycoon.

Finally, until we met Megan Richardson, it was assumed that CC stayed single for the entire period of Sophia's absence in order to raise his children.  Ted and Eden have exchanged memories of CC's high standards, but he was never a tyrant.

So, it is ironic that Bateman, Richardson, and Jed Allen played him as such a domineering force when the story as written for CC is that he was nepo-baby who failed both at love and in most of his business endeavors (the hotel never thrived, the casino sunk, the oil rigs were blown up, and nobody went back to the polo club). 

[Marissa Gallant]

I've been thinking about this. I'm not sure I agree about CC. Pamela wanted him back. Yes, Sophia dated Lionel first, but she chose CC. She broke it off with Lionel. Then she fell off the boat. When she came back, she wanted CC- NOT Lionel. Yes, 88 ruined Sophia and CC, but no one liked that year. Grant talked about how CC increased the Capwell fortune by millions. Meghan only wanted CC, but fortunately, she was dying. 

[j swift]

Agreed, I may have been a bit too sassy when I wrote that.

[Marissa Gallant]

It's allowed. I get that way at times too. I get that way when people say Sophia left. The original storyline was that she was taken. To me there's a BIG difference between the two.