Santa Barbara Discussion Thread

[Manny]

I watched it religiously for years... but I stopped watching during the last season. I will never forgive myself that I never saw the final episode.

And even though I was a kid, I still remember some scenes very clearly... like Kelly pushing that guy through the window, Elena being killed, Elena pushing Eden off the cliff into the snow, Mason and Julia in the forrest having sex (I believe it was their first time..).....

And here is one unpopular opinion: I hated Cruz and Eden.. LOL Everyone in Croatia loved them, I hated them. They were SO annoying.

I was a Mason and Julia fan. And a Kelly fan. I loooved Robin Wright in the role. Kelly #2 was bad, but then Carrington Garland was awesome too. Eileen was such a miscast. I didn't know at the time who Eileen was. I hated her too.. LOL

[MichaelGL]

What about this 4 Orphan storyline? Sounds interesting from the name.

[Manny]

Hmmm.. I remember that 4 guys were together in an orphanage (Derek Griffin, Stephen Slade, Craig Hunt and Ethan Asher)... and now they've met again in Santa Barbara. And they thought that their friend from the orphanage Cassie Benedict was dead, I believe.. but then she turned up alive... Did they believe that they killed Cassie? I don't remember...

I did watch during that time, but that part faded in my mind.. lol

[Wendy]

Actually, if I recall, the tunnel caved in and Cassie was thought "dead". But before that, she was a foster kid to the Capwells or something (been so long) and teen Mason was jealous of the attention she received. They argued in the tunnel, and there was some cave in and Cassie "died", I think. (I think this was one of the reasons Mason began drinking.)

And the Four Orphans (Craig: John Callahan, Steven: John O'Hurley, the Derek actor [heh], and Ethan: Leigh J. McCloskey) I THINK suspected Mason had intentionally murdered Cassie - or, at least, Craig did...and hated Mason for it and tried to seek revenge.

And teen Mason in the flashbacks with Cassie in the tunnel (around '90) was played by none-other than a then-virtually unknown Leonardo DiCaprio [TL was Mason then, so a blonde Mason fit! ]!

[DRW50]

For many years I have had a memory in my head of Eden and Cruz on a boat - I think - and Eden talks about how she keeps seeing hands. I guess this was about a murder. What was that about?

[Paul Raven]

1989 Summary

Cruz was on the trail of the man who raped Eden. C.C. threw a costume party at the country club in hopes of flushing out the rapist, and Cain's girlfriend, Andrea, was killed. Cain was charged with murder, but later released. He left town, as did Major Phillip Hamilton.

Eden was relieved to learn the rapist was not the father of the child she was expecting. She gave birth to a baby girl, Adriana, in a cave after the helicopter taking her to a hospital made an emergency landing. The newborn had an unusual birthmark on her arm. The poor infant was kidnapped — by Dr. Zack Kelton, Eden's rapist. Cruz chased Zack into the mountains. During a scuffle on the edge of a cliff, Zack fell to his death. Eden didn't believe Zack's dying declaration that Adriana was dead. In fact, the baby had been sold on the black market to a couple in Paris, Ric and Hollis Castillo. Ric was Cruz's troublemaking younger brother. While Cruz pursued Kirk Cranston, Eden's deranged ex-husband, who was also after Adriana, recurring dreams about her child drove Eden to Ric's place in Paris.

Sandra, a psychic, helped Cruz with his investigation, and became obsessed with him. Cruz rebuffed Sandra's advances and joined his wife in France, where he located the doctor who had removed Adriana's birthmark. Confronted about the baby's origin, Hollis admitted that she bought the baby on the black market because her inheritance depended on her having a healthy child. She handed Adriana to Eden, then slipped into the Seine and drowned. The Castillos — widower Ric included — returned to Santa Barbara.

Another Castillo relative, Cruz's father Rafael, entered the picture, at an Acapulco hotel where he performed a magic act. A competing magician, Mephisto, kidnapped Rafael and in exchange for his freedom, Rafael gave him his greatest illusion. Eden convinced the elder Castillo to reconcile with his sons and move to Santa Barbara.

Robert Barr, the right-hand man of a Las Vegas mobster named Tonell, arrived in town to engineer a takeover of Capwell Enterprises. His real objective was a reunion with Eden. They'd been in love as teenagers, and Barr couldn't forget her. A case of amnesia had blocked out Eden's memories of Barr and their summer on the island of Sirenas. Eden had also repressed the memory of the murder of a man named Raoul. Robert had served five years in prison for the crime, believing he was taking the rap for Eden. Santa Barbara mayoral candidate Jerry Calhoun, a childhood friend of Mason's, was found to be the culprit after a re-creation of the night of Raoul's murder on the Capwell yacht. Jerry jumped overboard and drowned. The crime solved, Cruz fretted that Eden still loved Robert. Castillo lost his job, thanks to Tonell.

Mason's split-personality, Sonny Sprocket!, tried to sabotage Mason's wedding to Julia by having her catch him and Gina making love. A humiliated Julia left Mason at the altar and turned to Father Michael for comfort. Mason emerged and went to talk to Julia. When he saw her making love to Michael, he was devastated. Julia and Michael agreed that what happened was a mistake. Still, the padre left the Church.

Bunny stopped cross-dressing in order to win Gina's heart, to no avail. Gina and Sonny successfully bilked C.C. out of ten million dollars. As revenge, C.C. sought permanent custody of Brandon. During the battle, Brandon learned that Santana was his natural mother, not Gina. Sonny offered to marry Gina to provide a more stable home, which would look good in court. At the wedding, Bunny's Uncle Mario hired a hit man to shoot Mason (for his nephew's sake). After an out-of-body experience, Sonny disappeared and Mason reunited with Julia.

Ethan Asher, the new DA (and Zack Kelton lookalike), arrived in town with his wife, Laura. Years earlier, when Michael was a Boston cop, he had romanced Laura. In a shootout with criminal Leo Mitchell, Laura's son, Jamie, was caught in the cross fire and killed. Anxious for revenge on Michael — who had also fatally shot Leo's brother —

Leo escaped from jail and turned up in Santa Barbara. In a showdown at the Beach Bar, Leo was killed. His body disappeared. Michael was thrown in jail, although Laura had really killed Leo, ostensibly to save Michael's life. Once Leo's body was recovered, the bullet in his body didn't match Michael's gun, and he was released. When a betrayed Michael learned that he had taken the rap for a murder that Laura committed, he ended their affair.

Scott and Heather's romance hit a snag when Celeste DiNapoli, Scott's high school sweetheart, got a job at the clinic. Scott broke up with Heather and proposed to Celeste — then Heather discovered she was pregnant. Scott's engagement to Celeste went bust when he found out about his intended's past as a hooker. He hoped for another chance with Heather, but she didn't want anything to do with him. Heather gave birth to a boy and named him Mike. She did agree that Scott could be a part of their son's life. Heather, Mike, Scott and Celeste all left town.

C.C. learned that a one-night stand eighteen years earlier, with Megan, the author of his autobiography, resulted in the conception of their son, Greg. Greg fell in love with Emily DiNapoli — sister of Celeste. Megan, who was dying of leukemia, left town.

TJ sold the Lair to Bunny and headed for Palm Springs; Bunny's family pressured him to marry a woman named Vanessa but he refused; Ted went to find Mason in Europe and didn't return; Jeffrey and Kelly divorced and he left town; Kelly had a brief flirtation with Ric; Mason and Julia finally got married.

[Sapounopera]

Santa Barbara had lost me by that time.

Eden's rape story and her search for her presumed-dead baby was way too depressing for me. The entire Cain-Andrea-Philip Hamilton-Ming Li storyline was very tasteless, there was no reason for Megan and Greg to show up, Bunny was too much, boring Sandra, boring DiNappoli girls, don't get me started on Ethan-Laura-Michael and Heather-Celeste-Scott. Who was in charge of the show back then?

I was a huge Cruz and Eden fan until Robert showed up and for the first time I wanted Eden with someone else

Santa Barbara never recovered from the loss of Lane Davies and Robin Wright. We had two other GREAT Masons, but Kelly was no longer Kelly to me.

From what I understand Santa Barbara's JumpTheShark moment happened sometime in 1988 for me.

Thanks for the great summary!

[DRW50]

I saw a few clips of the Carnation Killer story -- that was the story that was supposedly designed to write some of the bad blonde actresses off the show, right? What did you think of it?

I saw a clip of Gina's sister, Summer. The actress seemed AWFUL, but do you think the character should have died? Was she ever mentioned after her death?

This was pre Robin Mattson, right?

[Bright Eyes]

Was there ever any major SORAS'ing on SB?

[Paul Raven]

The only child on SB during that time was Gina's son Brandon and I think he pretty much stayed true to his age,

The other chidren born on the show were not aged significantly over the years.

[BoldBeauty]

I only got to watch 1 year. From episode 1 and a year forward. Then the reruns I was watching stopped airing because of some problem with a new company taking over the rights. That was so annoying because the first year of Santa Barbara was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I especially loved.....

Those 3 are still 3 of my top 10 soap characters of all times. Heck, even top 5. There were scenes with Lane, Nicolas and Louise in scenes together and those are still among my favorite scenes. Such talent and comedy.

Also, the relationship between Mason and CC was extremely fascinating!!!

I loved the humor of SB. It wasn´t like today´s over the top campy silliness. It was a helluva lot more fun. Like when Mason set up an office for himself in a coffee shop and hogged the payphone for himself. Or the shots Mason, Lionel and Augusta fired off at each other or other people.

And I will never forget when Mason outraged at CC stormed into CC & Gina´s bedroom with a sword and threatened his father.

I will forever love SB!!!!!

[SFK]

I was watching Carson Daly, something I never do, and they had Marina Orlova from Hot For Words on there. She said growing up in Moscow, she was obsessed with Santa Barbara and she'd look at the beautiful seaside mansions and cottages and the folks who wore jeans and tank tops and would say, "I want to live there!" Santa Barbara was her American dream.

[DRW50]

I was watching some clips from when Stephen Nichols was on the show. Such a soothing voice but such a dull character. This was Pam Long, right? All this ridiculous overly earnest, pseudo-intellectual dialogue makes my brain hurt. Everyone seems to be trying so hard to be so restrained. It doesn't seem much like Rauch or Long at all.

I like Janis Paige and I thought, "It's nice that Janis got to be on a soap" but then I read that she was playing Minx Lockridge? Really?!? How do you see Judith Anderson and say, "Hey, I know who can fill her shoes...Janis Paige!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuMhMOgdhkM&feature=related

[DRW50]

How long was Michelle Phillips on the show? I never knew she appeared on the show at all. I thought her only daytime role was on Search for Tomorrow.

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[dm.]

It was a dayplayer role, per various sites.