Santa Barbara Discussion Thread

[Paul Raven]

[DRW50]

Is that how she looked when they fired her

[Paul Raven]

LOL At least it seems Ms Stevens hasn't gone for extreme surgery as some of her peers have.

[DRW50]

No, she hasn't. I think she aged pretty well - even about ten or fifteen years ago when they did one of those Dukes of Hazzard reunion movies, I thought she looked as good as Catherine Bach, or a little better.

[Paul Raven]

[DRW50]

I hadn't seen that before. Is that Eden at the end?

February 20, 1990 Digest.

[juniorz1]

OMG! That photo is from Lionel Lockridge's faux funeral, one of my favorite SB episodes of all time! I've been DYING to find in on youtube but so far, have had no luck. Where did you find that? You don't by chace have those episodes, do you? They're from the summer of 1990- some of Louise Sorel's funniest moments on the show were during that sequence!

Yes, that's Eden on the end.

Thanks so much for posting the Peter Love article! I LOVED him as Ric and thought he had amazing chemistry with Carrington Garland. I was seriously pissed when the show ended up pairing her with Robert instead because she and Ric were red hot. It took me a while to warm up to Kelly/Robert, though I eventually did.

Say what you want about Garland, but she had AMAZING chemistry with every man she was paired with on the show- Peter Love, Roscoe Born, and John Callahan. I'll never get over the Dobsons firing her and bringing on Eileen Davidson, the worst Kelly EVER. Yes, that includes Kimberlee McArthur.

[DRW50]

Why do you think they didn't go for Kelly/Ric? Didn't it seem like they struggled with Cruz's family (although I know the guy who played his father won an Emmy).

I'm glad you enjoyed the article. You're such a big fan I am never sure if you've already seen these but I'm glad you hadn't. I have one of Carrington Garland from around this time, if I can ever find it again. I really liked her when I watched the show back then - it sucks she never ended up on any other soaps.

Edited June 16, 2011 by CarlD2

[pierin_26]

When Dobson decided to replace Carrington Garland, Santa Barbara was experiencing a big drop in the ratings especially after Marcy Walker had left the show.

At that time the priority was to try to increase the ratings and when they knew that Eileen Davidson was ready to return to the daytime, they decided to take her to increase the ratings, given that Davidson was very popular at the time.

But they had to give her a prominent role and principal, or she would never have accepted it and they thought to Kelly.

Neither do I agree with this policy in Santa Barbara last year included a series of characters just to be able to enter very popular actors and actresses (Thaao Penghils, Kim Zimmer, Eileen Davidson, Stephen Nichols...)thinking attract the audience, staking everything on them and forgetting about historical characters (Robin Mattson on all).

The audience trickled to the bottom.

[Paul Raven]

[DRW50]

Thanks - this was one of the first articles I read about SB.

Do you know how the person who scanned that managed to get the full page? I never have been able to with Weeklys.

[teplin]

I could buy that Peter Love and A Martinez were brothers ... it's in the jeans.

[juniorz1]

I Carrington so much and am truly disappointed that she never got another daytime role. I know it wasn't from a lack of trying, as she was always on a list of contenders for roles, especially at Y&R. I believe she was 'thisclose' to being cast as Mari Jo Mason. She was a truly gifted actress.

As for them not going the Ric/Kelly route, it just didn't pan out. They brought on Roscoe Born as Robert Barr and decided to pair Kelly with him, pitting her against Eden. It was a brilliant move to finally have Kelly's feelings of inferiority to Eden be brought to the surface. As much as I wanted Ric & Kelly to be together, I absolutely LOVED Robert & Kelly together. Born & Garland were simply magnetic together and sold the hell out of that storyline. Plus, Carringron grew immensely as an actress by working with Roscoe. He's even been quoted as saying that he witnessed the strides she was making as an actress and that she worked extremely hard on that storyline.

Like I said, Carrington had boatloads of chemistry with ALL of her leading men- Peter Love, Born, and John Callahan. Her dismissal, for me, was one of the true Jump the Shark moments on SB. Garland was perfectly cast as Kelly, she looked the part (the resemblance between she & Walker was uncanny), and made me fall in love with Kelly all over again. She was very much different from Robin Wright's version and I loved her all the more for it.

Exactly. NONE of those characters caught on. It didn't help Davidson that they used her to pair Kelly with Cruz either. While I think it was a bad idea in the first place, A would have had far more chemistry with Robin Wright or Carrington Garland. Kim Zimmer was another bad choice- most SB fans already had a predisposition toward her because she was always in competition with Marcy at award shows (Emmys & SOD Awards). And then they go and pair her with Cruz also!?! Oy vey! Not to mention that she shows up at his high school reunion with nary a mention of Santana Andrade being there. Since long-time fans knew that Cruz & Santana were high school sweethearts, it rang false. Again, it made no sense, especially since Santana was back on the canvas at the time (given, she was played by the horrible Wanda DeJesus, who never really 'was' Santana). Thaao Penghlis was put in a convoluted storyline and Stephen Nichols didn't even begin airing until the show had already been canned.

The way to bring viewers back was to get Marcy back on the show, keep A Martinez, throw in a dash of Louise Sorel and Justin Deas and maybe they would have seen a ratings spike. NONE of those actors you mentioned were going to be able to do that and of course, they didn't.

Awww, thanks for posting that article- I remember reading it when the issue first came out (I believe it's in the Santa Barbara farewell issue, no?). Somehow over the years, I lost it and I'd LOVE to have it back so if anyone has that particular issue and would like to mail it to me, I'd SO appreciate it! Just shoot me a PM and I'll give you my address.

I must point out that, while I agree CC's "funeral" was one of SB's funniest sequences ever, that it was Keith, not Gina, who pricked CC with a pin, springing him back to life.

:lol:

SO true- some of the best asses in the business! In all seriousness, Peter Love had that same natural quality to his acting that A Martinez always had, even though he obviously was never quite as good an actor as A. I absolutely adore Peter though and LOVED them as brothers! Ric Castillo should have stayed on the canvas until the end.

Edited June 19, 2011 by juniorz1

[DRW50]

When I try to watch on Youtube I keep getting in the middle of some story about Kelly's memories of a "ghost city" - what was that story about?

Oh and did you see my question about the Castillos?

[juniorz1]

It was more a statement than a question, but yes, I saw it. The problem was the show never stayed committed to the characters. Yes, his mother and father were on the show for much of its run, though they were never major characters. Rafael was a vagabond of sorts and at one point, I believe they ended up recasting both parents, albeit at separate points, only to bring them back.

In the span of the show, they cast 2 brothers for Cruz and a sister. His half brother, Rafe, was on the show all the way until the end. His little sister Carmen barely lasted a year and wasn't very interesting.

Their best chance at having a long-term Castillo besides Cruz was with Ric and they dropped him for some reason. It probably had to do with the show pairing Kelly with Robert instead of Ric and them never going back to that. Ric ended up paired with Tawny Richards, the daughter of a couple of characters who were written as though they were going to be long-term and then dropped, I believe by the Dobsons. This was around 1990, when SB was a revolving door of regulars and the only ones who continued to stick were the characters already on the show (The Capwells, Gina, Julia, the Lockridges, etc...)

Ric really should have remained and been a spoiler for Robert/Kelly- in fact, I still think Ric & Kelly should have been endgame in that storyline. It's really too bad because Ric definitely had long-term potential for the show and could have been great with any number of characters, including Laken Lockridge when she returned in 1990. But SB never explored those avenues and it's truly unfortunate that they didn't.