Santa Barbara Discussion Thread

[MarcyWalkerFan]

Hahaha....no Tomatoes here ((-; Agree on the over reliance part and to think that SB had such great Actors at their disposal.

It may also be a Chicken and Egg situation, the initial ratings for the show was not great, so the writers tried to stick to the few "success points" from the show to which the audience responded to and probably overdid it. I mean they did have Julia/ Mason/Mary, CC/Sophia, Lionel/ Augusta, Ted/Hayley not to forget the many love interests of Kelly over the years...but for some reason always kept coming back to C & E.

[MarcyWalkerFan]

Agree wholeheartedly on the makers doing a complete 360 from this very ambitious, highly opinionated and feisty woman that Eden was to a damsel in distress. The show starts of with Eden trying to prove to CC that she is capable of handling Executive position in Capwell enterprises to her becoming a detective/ TV journalist/ Jewel thief (Split personality I am looking at you!).. 

It would have been nice if A & Marcy would have been given individual storylines more often rather than just clubbing them as a "Supercouple", which eventually was the undoing of the show.

[dc11786]

From an Ismael Carlo interview on the Santa Barbara Le Site Francais. Carlo seems innocent, but the treatment of Ruben is pretty wild. In the Bible, he is described as being at the same level of C.C. with having dreams for his children and then he is later ignored and said to have abandoned Rosa and the kids without even a real exit plot. 

I like the idea of Santana and Brick because Santana was so obsessed with her childhood fascination with Channing Jr. that her connection with Brick made psychological sense. I also though having her raise Johnny would give her the chance she never had with Brandon. 

Santana easily could have become involved with others. I'd be curious to see how she would have done in a triangle with Kelly and Ric Castillo and/or Kelly and Robert Barr. I really liked the suggestion in 1991 that the Andrades had their land which became the Oasis Hotel swindled by C.C. Santana becoming a major player in the business world was some equivalent to Brooke Logan and the BeLieF Formula in terms of potential to rock the show's core. 

Keith to me is a successor to Kirk, who himself was a successor to Jack Lee. I also prefer Linda Gibboney / Ava Lazar Gina/Santana dynamics so its hard to enjoy what Gina Gallego's Santana becomes even though I think she is more than capable of playing a stronger Santana. I know Mattson's Gina is more memorable to most (and certainly there longer) but I like the more neurotic Gina who is present in 1984-1985. 

I'm not sure how invested the Dobsons were in Warren as a character. He was originally set to be killed off after being revealed as Channing, Jr.'s murderer. I don't think the change occurred because of an intense desire to save John Allen Nelson, but rather because of the dramatic potential of revealing that a mother shot and killed her own (presumed) son.

I haven't seen the bits that suggest that Warren might be C.C.'s son, but I don't doubt it. At times, I suspect they were also considering John Beck's David Raymond as Warren's biological father. Years ago, I suggested the less convoluted (or maybe more convoluted) rewrite would have been to have Eden as "Channing Jr." kidnap Minx before Eden fled Santa Barbara and have him deviously reveal to Minx that just as Minx had switched him at birth, "Channing Jr." had manufactured the evidence that Cassandra was her daughter.   

[Carlos Abad]

Interesting post that I've read on facebook.

August 2, 2024 Santa Barbara 40th Anniversary Reunion

These are the Santa Barbara Stars that are expected on the Reunion:

Co-Creator/Head Writer: Jerry Dobson

STARS: Lane Davies (Mason), Nancy Lee Grahn (Julia), A. Martinez (Cruz), Judith McConnell (Sophia), Louise Sorel (Augusta), Harley Jane Kozak (Mary), Robert Thaler (Pearl), Robin Mattson (Gina #2), Joseph Bottoms (Kirk #1), Steve Meadows (Peter Flint aka the Carnation Killer), Richard Eden (Brick Wallace), John Nelson (Warren Lockridge #1), Sherilyn Wolter (Elena Nikolas aka Eleonor Norris), Terri Garber (Suzanne Collier), Ally Walker (Andrea Bedford), Michael Brainard (Ted #2), Robert Brian Wilson (Channing jr), Ava Lazar (Santana #1), Peter Love (Ric Castillo), Joel Bailey (Lindsay Smith)

WRITERS/PRODUCERS: Mary. Dobson, Patrick Mulcahey, Cortney Simon, Michele Val Jean Chris Dunn

DIRECTORS: Rob Schiller and Peter Brinckerhoff AND MORE!!!

 

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/santa-barbara-40th-anniversary-reunion-tickets-927696724877?aff=oddtdtcreator&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1k9lCEQc9fE7RNVnHV4VxOKi6ILam2b-fI_fd1W_obMGlYwZlBQLHEbro_aem_ZmFrZWR1bW15MTZieXRlcw

 

 

 

[Wendy]

This, I sort of doubt. Most of Beck's story involved his crumbling marriage to Angela [as the show tried to hype up some mystery in how Angela's sister Marilyn - who the viewer never even met! - died, and David's involvement]. That, and his obvious mooning over Julia, who still was in love with Mason.

I don't recall anything about David being mixed up with Warren as a possible father. Although Angela was the connection between the two men and their stories.

I always thought Warren/Angela did have chemistry. A shame the show sacrificed that for drippy BJ. I know Cassie also loved Warren, but because of the family connection [or what was thought to be!], it was forbidden and eventually drove Cassie insane. But if not Angela? The revelation - even if I hated it - could have let them reunite. They did seem to spark, too. (And I say this as one that resented that Cassandra never really paid for manipulating Mason and Julia when she first started. That was never brought up!)

For whatever reason, the show put JW/Warren with the woman he least connected with. (No slight to Sydney Penny, who was awesome even as a little girl as Young Meggie in The Thorn Birds and as Julia Santos on All My Children. The role of BJ Walker was just a drain.)

Edited June 21, 2024 by Wendy

[Liberty City]

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[Liberty City]

Jerome Dobson just confirmed there is "legal footwork" being done to get Santa Barbara on streaming.

[tonymidnight]

Just how can a SANTA BARBARA fan read the show's original bible?   

[Wendy]

Oh, I'd love to see SB again!

[Paul Raven]

Re The Dobsons and SB. It's not like w the show had been running for decades and the original theme was lost.

They had created the show only a few years before but chose to jettison a lot they had established.

I get that once the show gets underway certain things don't work as well as anticipated but to write out entire families seems a bit drastic.

It feels like at times, they were more interested in showing how out there they could be instead of relying on good solid storytelling.

[j swift]

I don't doubt him.  Nor will I bore you with my opinion about repeating classic soaps.  But, given that the Dobsons famously sold their interest in Santa Barbara, I wonder why he would be involved in the discussion to have it offered to a streaming service? 

 

Edited June 22, 2024 by j swift

[Jdee43]

The Dobsons pretty much jettisoned the 4 family structure that they started the show with by January 1985, a little over 5 months after the premiere. They came up with a serial killer storyline to revamp the show into something different, the white carnation killer. The story came out of nowhere; it was set up in one day, and then dominated the show for 2 months.

The Perkins family was pretty much destroyed when Dane left; the same with the Andrade family when Ava Lazar was dropped. I guess the Lockridges were kept around a bit since the characters of Lionel and Augusta were so strong; and the Capwells, since the Capwell children were strong in spite of the recast CCs. In any event, the show had a very limited foundation after the revamp. Dane and Ava really were the heart of the show starting out, and it felt a little hollow with them gone.

Edited June 22, 2024 by Jdee43

[Efulton]

Dane and Ava should have ended up being the two biggest stars of the show.

Edited June 22, 2024 by Efulton

[j swift]

When we reviewed the contemporary reporting by Jon Michael Reed and Linda Hirsch from the Tumblr that posted their articles, they seemed to feel that New World and NBC, not the Dobsons, were pushing to get rid of the Perkins and Andrades.  The same geniuses that decided to premiere the show against the 1984 Summer Olympics, panicked when the ratings didn't improve over the first five months.  Unfortunately, their solution was to get rid of any traces of ethnic or economic diversity and focus on upward mobility. 

Edited June 22, 2024 by j swift

[chrisml]

That sounds about right for what a network would do. SB seems to have been interfered with constantly so it's hard to know who's responsible for what because the Dobsons haven't always been reliable in their versions either.