Santa Barbara Discussion Thread

[Contessa Donatella]

I believe it! Of course we could just look at her career & see why. She was that good! We were lucky to have had her. 

Edited October 20, 2023 by Donna L. Bridges

[Carlos Abad]

Hello! I think I expressed wrong because I’m a foreign fan and maybe my words were not the right ones because I don’t dominate the English language.  

I’m all for unpopular opinions and of course everyone has the right to have their own opinion.

I only tried to say that most of the fans that I have read on the sb fan sites love Robin Wright as Kelly and don’t care at all about the other actresses. In this case I’m with them. I have the same opinion “popular opinion”. I love Robin as Kelly and don’t care about the other actresses.

But I also have some thoughts against the fandom/groups which is not in consensus with most of the fans.

For example, I think Ava Lazar, Dane Witherspoon and Julie Ronnie are gorgeous looking. But at the same time, I think they 3 are terrible actors which makes them the worst Santana, Joe or Laken. And I think that’s also an unpopular opinion. So sorry if my message about Kelly/Robin sounded wrong. It was not my intention.

[Contessa Donatella]

There was nothing wrong about your post! You did well with the English language!

Just curious is all, what is your native country? 

[Carlos Abad]

España. Spain. 

 

[j swift]

@Carlos Abad No es necesario disculparse, todas las opiniones son respetadas en esta discusión.  Y, tus opiniones impopulares pueden ser más comunes de lo que crees.

OK, that's the best that I could do using Google Translate, turns out my parents were correct, I shouldn't have studied Latin in High School.

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[Contessa Donatella]

Thanks for replying. I am an American & I have lived most of my life in the South & the Southeast. Except for 8 years when I lived in Brooklyn, New York, which is upper Northeast. While I lived in NY I met many people who were in & worked on the soaps Guiding Light, As the World Turns, All My Children & One Life to Live. That was one of  many exciting things about that area. 

[Sapounopera]

That's what I thought back then as well. Now when I am watching random episodes I realize that Carrington is the best thing that could have happened to Kelly. She brought the character in the 90s era just like Kimberly Simms did with Mindy on GL. 

I adored Lane, I was in love with his Mason, both I thought that both recasts did the part justice and worked well with NLG, Robin Mattson and the Capwell crowd.

Now Ava Lazar on the other hand.. she will always be my Santana.

[j swift]

It is hard for me to estimate the degree to which Dobson's return or Gordon Thompson is to blame, but it always felt like the final recast hurt the character.  Watching Gordon play Mason, it is difficult for me not to be distracted by the similarities to Adam Carrington, especially because they were both rich men with daddy-issues. 

But, it feels like there are two things missing. 

(1) When Mason remarried Julia, there is a lovely scene where Mason and CC come to a peaceful resolution.  This feels like a one of the elements that the Dobson's missed by not reviewing what occurred in the years they were away.  So, when Mason brings Pamela to the dinner party which signals the beginning of the new Dobson era, it feels unmotivated given recent events (and using Pamela to out Cassandra as Lockridge was totally random).  There was still plenty of conflict to mine without regressing the character. Also, Terry's Mason and Carrington's Kelly shared a bond, so it felt cruel to bring the woman who terrorized Kelly back into the house just to make CC angry.  

(2) Gordon's Mason is remarkably sillier, and certainly less sanctimonious, than Lane's (to be fair, the silliness began earlier with the Sonny story).   But, I think that I was reminded of Adam because he only plays Mason's bombast, there's none of the depth that came from Mason's struggle with addiction.  Lane gave Mason a vulnerability because I felt his struggle to be better a father to Samantha than CC was to him.  Gordon came across as more romantic, but not as conflicted.

Edited October 22, 2023 by j swift

[chrisml]

I think the Dobsons are responsible for the problems with Thomson's Mason. The writing was so inconsistent and didn't take into account what happened during their absence. They also seemed to lose interest in Mason and try to push Warren. By the time Pamela Long was through, Mason ended up being a shell of what he once was. 

[j swift]

Agreed.

In retrospect, using Pamela as the linchpin of their comeback with the Dinner Party episodes feels like they're saying to New World and NBC, "see, I told you should've let us cast Marj Dusay as Pamela."

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Only, to write her off a week later and damage Kelly, Mason, and Eden in the process.

[Contessa Donatella]

Well, I think what should have happened is that NBC should've fired Anne Howard Bailey since the Dobsons wanted her off the writing team & they'd been pitched total creative control at the outset, only to learn that only NBC could fire her. But, still simple solution, NBC should've fired her. Once that did not happen & New World & the Dobsons sued & countersued each other, I just don't see a good solution coming out of that battle. It was an unholy mess. I go back to Bridget's statement about her & AHB & their philosophies. 

 "It was impossible for Anne Howard Bailey to get inside my head, and I could not get in her head. She has a darker view of life than I do; I think she thinks of me as Pollyanna, and I think of her as Darth Vader." - Bridget Dobson, about SB

Given that, it was not in any way unreasonable for them to want to fire her. 

[chrisml]

Exactly. The Dobsons could craft an exciting episode, but they had no feel for longterm plotting. They had very short attention spans. Their bitterness at New World, AHB and JFP meant they wanted to throw out everything that happened after they were locked out. it did a disservice to the actors and especially to the fans. If they had someone who cared about the show as an EP, it might have balanced out, but they had Paul Rauch who made it worse.

[Contessa Donatella]

Looking at their entire careers, I do not think they were guilty of not having sufficient attention span & I do think they ably did long-term plotting. 

Now talking about at this point in time after they won & got to go back to the show, empty victory though that was, I'm not disagreeing about anything that's been said. I am completely sure that they could not see the forest for the trees & were blind to the show! I only wish that they'd realized how hindered they were & had brought someone on to be their eyes & ears for them. What became of it was a sorry shame. 

[chrisml]

I can't speak to their work on other shows, but their work on SB feels as if they were making it up as they were going along in their first tenure. I can understand why they wouldn't trust anyone on their return to the show. I just wish they had put the viewers first. That's not to say I don't like some of their material on their return, but it felt insulting to viewers who had been watching during their time off the show. 

[j swift]

Here's Mason's final scene with Pamela in 1988, before the dinner party in 1991. 

Mason has been shot after Ben Clark takes the family hostage (this is the denouement of the writer's strike story where Mason was falsely accused of killing Mark McCormick after his skull was found, but really Pamela had killed Hal Clark, Ben's brother and her former lover, then Mason goes to investigate the nunnery where the bones were buried, and he is presumed dead in a fire, but really has a head injury and turns into Sonny).

Watch this and tell me why three years later, Mason would break his Mother out of the mental hospital, dress her up and bring her to dinner at CC's house (with Kelly, whom Pamela tried to throw off of a roof). 

The strike may have created the opportunity for a silly story, but at least Mason got some insight before his head injury.

Also, why do Scott and Heather find the weirdest time to have romantic banter? "Pamela killed my uncle and my dad just held her a gunpoint. By the way, you're awfully sweet, Heather"

Edited October 22, 2023 by j swift