Santa Barbara Discussion Thread

[amybrickwallace]

Thanks. I can't see TL or GT as Sonny Sprocket. Or with Mary. Or with Gina.

[Xanthe]

I don't think amnesiac Mickey Horton dissociated exactly when he called himself Marty Hansen on Days. Similarly amnesia also caused Jake McKinnon on AW to think he was Bunny Eberhart. 

[Liberty City]

Returned to Santa Barbara for the first time in about a month... and honestly, I didn't miss it. I can see why this soap didn't work out... the Dobsons and their teams really destroyed the soap, and Jill Farren Phelps' desire to forefront the bore of Cruz & Eden is such a turn-off.

[amybrickwallace]

TPTB definitely put all their eggs in one basket with Eden/Cruz. I liked them and the chemistry between AM/MW, but they definitely got overused to the detriment of everyone else.

[Carlos Abad]

Which episode are you on? I ask you to know better what you are talking about. I'm now near 940 and I have lost all the interest. But I’m still watching.

[Liberty City]

I finished off on 880.

[amybrickwallace]

That time period (spring/summer 1988) wasn't that great. Eden/Cruz didn't get a great story after the wedding until the rape that fall. Then you had TJ and both Kelly and Sophia fascinated by him - ugggggh. I think Gina and Keith got married around this time and their Wheel of Fortune appearance is around the 950s.

Edited October 4, 2021 by amybrickwallace

[Beach Climber]

I was a Cruz/Eden fan but they were definitely used too heavily. I think my main issue was the times the show had them be pretty much the entire story. Having them be the lead couple would have been fine but the other characters spent most of their scenes talking about them. 

[amybrickwallace]

it was also in the summer of 1988 that Robin Wright finally left and was initially replaced by Kimberly McArthur. KM was very green, but not necessarily bad. She was thrown into that awful TJ story, so any SB fan should cut her some slack for that.

[Marissa Gallant]

I'm on 522, and still very intersted. But 86, 87 are my favorite years

Oh, My Favorite Year. Someone should write a song about that.

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[amybrickwallace]

1987 SB was hit or miss for me. The Utah story went on too long and the Elena story never reached full potential, but the Eden/Cruz in Hawaii jaunt and Eden's return home paralyzed were well worth watching. I actually think Kelly's tough love speech to Eden in her wheelchair was one of Robin Wright's strongest moments on the show.

Edited October 4, 2021 by amybrickwallace

[j swift]

I agree that the mountain portion of the Eden/Elena story went on too long.  It was so much more fun when Eden returned and spared with Elena. 

Elena was written with my favorite type of bitchiness, where she would be so sweet that sugar wouldn't melt in her mouth to Cruz, and then cruel to Eden.  So, every time Eden tried to tell people that Elena was awful, she just looked jealous.  It played so well on Eden's history that she would be envious of the attention that Cruz and CC paid to Elena, that they just chalked up her reaction to Eden's insecurity.  When, as an audience, we were in on the reality that Elena was awful. 

The writing and performance balanced the line of Elena being unhinged and it going slightly unnoticed without making Cruz and CC seem dumb.

[amybrickwallace]

Sherilyn Wolter definitely pulled off the bad girl who messed with people's heads. I just wonder why they got rid of her so fast.

[j swift]

Well as I’ve mentioned previously, Elena was written into a corner, with no future as a love interest. Also, with the battle over casting Pamela, there may not have been support for characters from a prior regime. Finally, as a big name at the time she might have signed a limited contract 

[amybrickwallace]

Sherilyn Wolter never got another promising soap role again, which is too bad. I always wondered why she never reprised Celia on GH. In any case, her last listed imdb role was in the mid-1990s.