Santa Barbara Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

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[Soaplovers]

Unrelated to Santa Barbara, but on Tubi.. Marcy Walker's short lived series Palace Guard is there to view in all its short lived glory

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https://tubitv.com/series/300004619/palace-guard

[chrisml]

Patrick Mulcahey talks about writing for SB:

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[DRW50]

Thanks. Has he ever spoken about their return?

[dc11786]

He has. He was gone from the show by the time they came back having left early in Conboy's run. He has said Bridget asked him back to do the two episodes of the Capwell dinner party from hell. I cannot remember if this was mentioned in one of his printed interviews like WeLoveSoaps or his video interview with Alan Locher. I feel like he implied he and Bridget had had a falling out, but I could be wrong. 

[Contessa Donatella]

He also told me on Twitter when it was good. Basically I wrote down every word he said. Yes, to returning to write the 2 dinner parties. Not a word about anybody falling out with anyone else. (And he did talk about for just one example Marland/Potter/GL his firing Jane Elliot.)

[DRW50]

Thanks. I had forgotten he'd left by that point.

[Wendy]

Mulcahey was responsible for writing the very odd, but also very memorable episode of SB called "The Capwell Zone", where drippy newfound Capwell son, Greg Richards Capwell (son of CC and Megan Richards, who was played by the late Meg Bennett, who was - of course - Robert Guza's wife; I believe he was head writer of SB at this point?), had...I think hit his head after surfing and dreamed that his new brother, Mason, and his wife, Julia (of course), were aliens. They spoke in iambic pentameter the entire episode while Greg got a sometimes funny, sometimes sobering glimpse of Capwell family dynamics. If I recall, that episode gave the show and Patrick Mulcahey another Emmy.

Which makes me mad all over again at just how quickly GH gave him the boot fairly recently, especially after writing so wonderfully for that show later in the '90s. But I guess good writing and stories that make sense aren't something that GH - or most soaps - are interested in, anymore, more's the pity.

[Liberty City]

Ugh; reading this, it is infuriating how short his return to General Hospital was and just how differently it could have gone with actual creatives in charge (a.k.a., not Valenini/Varni).

Same. I'm infuriated right now, honestly.

[DRW50]

What I saw of his writing was a mess, although I did appreciate the return to longer scenes. Still, I would take him over the current writers (or most of their writers for many years now) and it was clear he was being sabotaged.

[Jdee43]

What they did to the Capwells they'd later do to the Quartermaines on GH, claim the family was super toxic when the family really was not.

[j swift]

So true, it always makes me angry when they would assume CC was a villain, meanwhile he was the one who was cheated upon.  And how many single men raised four young kids in the 1970s?  CC was devoted to his kids, and we never saw any reason for them to blame him for their past.

[DRW50]

The Quartermaines started out as toxic, then became much lighter, then became very toxic again, then became lighter again.

It seemed to all go one way with the Capwells, probably due to some of the unpleasant and unnecessary retcons like Eden's DID.

[chrisml]

I never could make sense of the Capwell family history. IT seemed to change when it suited the writers. CC and Sophia's relationship also came and went depending on which new story was being told.

[DRW50]

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Was this a strike story? It reminds me of the Nicole/Cass haunted house story around the same point. What did people think of the story?