Santa Barbara Discussion Thread

[Jdee43]

I've been trying to watch Santa Barbara from the beginning on youtube and it's hard. After a little over a year, I'm finally through the first 13 weeks of it, through episode 65. It's so poorly written and cast. Characters change on a dime. Plots come out of nowhere and lead nowhere; there are hardly any pay-offs. And a lot of the acting is so bad. This show eventually gets better right? I was expecting much more from the Dobsons...

Through 13 weeks, I don't think Santa Barbara was that much of an improvement over the show it replaced on NBC, the mediocre Match Game - Hollywood Squares Hour..

Edited October 17, 2022 by Jdee43

[Keri]

1984 when it started was definitely rocky. For me it got better when Eden joined but honestly I wasn't into the early storylines much. 

Unless you're a Kelly fan, which I wasn't.

[Jdee43]

I thought the star of Santa Barbara's first few weeks was Louise Sorel. She was smoking; absolutely oozing charisma! But then in week 5, they brought on her character's husband, played by Nicolas Coster, and it seemed like she totally got neutered. It was Coster who now got all the fun stuff.

I like Nicolas Coster, but boy, was he waaaaay over the top the first few weeks he was on SB. I really wish the director had told him to tone it down. But perhaps Coster was trying to compensate for the lifeless, wooden actors they cast as his children. Julie Ronnie was beautiful, but unfortunately she had nothing; no spark, no charisma; again, nothing.

I liked Dane Witherspoon. It seemed he started off good, but then got worse as the weeks went on. I thought he did have enough charisma and chemistry with everyone that he deserved a chance to stay on and try to improve; it's a shame they got rid of him.

Making Peter into an ex-gigolo out of no where was totally ridiculous. The same with Cruz suddenly turning out to be a secret agent. 

Cruz was introduced as "Joe's best friend." That's funny as that's basically his character throughout the show, everyone's best friend. (I remember watching it as a kid, back in 1988 and 1989.) In the first few weeks, I thought Cruz had chemistry with everyone, everyone except Ava Lazar as Santana unfortunately. 

Ava Lazar is another one they should have kept on. She had so much charisma. I thought her best chemistry was with Mason. It was a real shame they didn't pair the two right away. Instead, they wasted her character by putting her with Cruz and CC (gross!), and making her obsessed with finding her child, a totally boring story. In the mean time, Mason basically had no story at all, doing nothing these first 13 weeks, except being a joke or punching bag for the other characters.

The decisions this show made were so poor right from the beginning. It's no surprise it continued to make bad decisions throughout its history.

 

 

  

Edited October 19, 2022 by Jdee43

[Liberty City]

Ditching Dane Witherspoon for Mark Arnold was a weird choice. Honestly, the Dobsons (along with co-executive producer Jeffrey Hayden) made some sh*tty decisions in that first year alone where recasts were concerned. But it seems like Witherspoon had a disagreement with the producers, which is what caused his firing. It seems like the Dobsons might have had a "our way or the highway" stance when it came to the soap, which is deadly, IMHO, especially for a new soap with no standing. With Witherspoon & Robin Wright, the pairing of Joe & Kelly had a genuine chance of being the TRUE supercouple of Santa Barbara, which I believe they should have been. Instead, they were ruined in the span of weeks.

I will sing it to the hills: Ava Lazar IS Santana Andrade and, with every single recast, the role got worse and worse. She had amazing chemistry with everyone she worked with, and brought a real regal position to the role of Santana. However, I disagree: the Brandon storyline was not boring. It's one of the standouts from the first year, and it's a shame they really dropped it once Lazar left the role of Santana.

As inconsistent and bad as they were, the Dobsons WERE Santa Barbara, no matter how infuriating they were.

I think it came from NBC trying to pull in the viewership, honestly, especially with the later castings of Eileen Davidson, Jack Wagner & Kim Zimmer. And we don't know it their deals were "huge" as you call them. They could have easily offered them, especially in the earlier years, the regular run-of-the-mill deals, and they accepted. I don't think the earlier castings of Robin Mattson & Vincent Irizarry were stunt-casting... if anyone was, in those earlier years, it would have been Justin Deas and later on Robert Newman.

[Marissa Gallant]

I finally FINALLY made it to the reappearance of Augusta. Boy did I miss her. I still don't care about Laura. But that's okay. 

I think maybe they were attracted to the show because it won so many awards. At the end, I think money was being thrown to save the show, but TPTB didn't understand enough to know that they were helping to kill the show. Remember Justin Deas left the show at the same time as several notable names. 

I don't know enough to know if Vincent Izzary was a big name before SB, or if that came with his next big role.

[Keri]

I'm always surprised by how popular Dane Witherspoon was. I thought a stick of wood had more charisma and acting skill.

Like by all accounts he was a good person so I feel bad saying that but I found him unbearable to watch on SB.

[Contessa Donatella]

I never saw it either. And there were so many people there I did see IT on!

 

Zimmer was on one of her trips to Hollywood to see what else she could beat out of the bushes. Roscoe Born was just an actor, wondering where the next job is coming from. Both ED & Robin Wright were also just actors.

But, make no mistake they spent big bucks on this baby but they spent it upfront, like the soundstage they created for it.

[Liberty City]

Around the time of his casting, he had already been gone from Guiding Light after two-years after being written out as Lujack.

[dc11786]

Regarding how SB was able to afford big names, they had a relatively small contract cast. I've seen half-hour shows with more people on contract than "Santa Barbara" often had. I think this helped as they were able to offer more money. Also, the quick-burn of characters often meant a lot of these performers weren't receiving pay raises. I'm sure New World was also happy with the international sales and was probably happy to spend a little more on casting to help sell the show abroad. 

[Contessa Donatella]

A definite factor! They were doing so well & in so many countries that they could hardly believe it. It was like they had tapped into the wave of the future.  This was shortly after NBC had told all wannabe soapmakers that they would HAVE to bring international sales to the table to be considered at all.

[Marissa Gallant]

I'm going to shift things back to the reasons I love this show, since so many recent posts seem to just say it is awful. 

I'm at the end of 89 now. Augusta is BACK! Was it a surprise that she was the widow Tonnell? Because that wee, she manned the soap phone. And the mystery woman petting the Doberman should have been a dead giveaway since that was her first scene in the beginning. Then, in the hotel- there were 2 dogs. So glad that Breeze (my favorite character) got a playmate.  

She just saw CC at the Orient Express and said she wants a drink either a green one or a red one something Christmasy. I think we should ALL go into a restaurant this December and ask for a drink then say I don't know. Something green or red. There is only ONE Louise Sorel. 

Also JK about Breeze being my favorite. That's still Sophia 

[Contessa Donatella]

There were times when I didn't get to watch SB because not every affiliate played it all of the time. There were times when I loved & adored it. There was never a time I recall thinking it was terrible. My personal favorites were Lane Davies as Mason, Robin Wright as Kelly, Nancy Lee Grahn as Julia, Judith McConnell as Sofia, Robin Mattson as Gina, Justin Deas as Keith & the actor whose name I don't recall who played somebody Tagliari. Plus I loved A & Marcy as Cruz & Eden. About the only hunk of people I did not care for was Kim Zimmer's family. When asked for my vote for worst recast I always answer anyone besides Lane Davies as Mason & anyone besides Robin Wright as Kelly. Oh, and I loved Brandon & I loved Wanda DeJesus. Last but not least I loved Louise Sorel as Augusta. (Loved her on DOOL as Vivian Alamain, too.) Lane Davies used to always try to get a job at Pilot season where he'd get well paid for making the Pilot & ever how many episodes they contracted for but not actually be tied down to a contract for a show & fool that I was I would watch all those shows & some of them were real stinkers. Several were on FOX when it was first on the air. There was one in particular, THE CREW, flight attendants on a budget airline. Forgot! Love Roscoe Born!

Edited October 20, 2022 by Tonksadora
Roscoe

[Beach Climber]

I was never a big Kelly fan either and probably would have dropped the show if she was the main female lead. She always came off as either a spoiled princess or damsel in distress and those archetypes never appealed to me. SB had a lot of wealthy characters but Kelly in particular seemed like she floated through life, was great at everything, and well liked outside of drama with guys. Well at least until ED’s version where they did a complete 180 and wrote her as super career focused to the detriment of a personal life but she was annoying in a different way. 

[Marissa Gallant]

Loved Lionel from his first minute. 

I thought Peter the gigolo made perfect sense. He was a gold digger from day one. And he was her teacher for crying out loud. 

Santana and CC were very gross. 

I'm not sure how much power the Dobsons had. They wanted Jed Allan from the beginning. It was a suit who vetoed that. Imagine Jed and Ava though. That could have been full steam.

I wasn't there for the first thirteen weeks of any other show, so it might be that they were all bumpy. Some ideas work and some don't. 

Also- trust me. Augusta gets more fun stuff.

[Carlos Abad]

 

Edited October 21, 2022 by Connelly
Edited because I realized I was giving spoilers of another series. Sorry.