Santa Barbara Discussion Thread

[amybrickwallace]

I can't even bring myself to watch that much of the final year of SB. Marcy leaving was bad enough, but A's departure was the nail in the coffin. It didn't even seem like the same program. Also, no way can I buy Eileen Davidson as Kelly. No way.

[DRW50]

If juniorz1 starts posting here again they will tell you all about Eileen as Kelly...

[amybrickwallace]

Heh. The article itself is interesting, but the fact that they hired her to play Kelly (canning Carrington Garland in the process) is all kinds of wrong, and just one example of why SB was such a mess in its final year.

[Khan]

Eileen Davidson looks as if she is grabbing her crotch, or about to. Either way, it probably does little to discourage the notion that she had undergone gender-assignment surgery. (Or maybe the pose was her tongue-in-cheek of acknowledging the rumors? Who knows?)

Wasn't Nicholas Walker on SB that last year as well? IIRC, he played the man who had molested B.J. as a little girl.

[slick jones]

ABW.. You know a lot about SB, do you know anything about the characters Frank Pressman[shannon's father], Father Luigi DeMarko [Vanessa's cousin the priest], or Irene the DA's secretary? Info about the characters or the actors that played them? Thanks!

[DRW50]

Yes he was on SB in that role.

Looks like an episode from the writers' strike period is up. Actually several are. Here's the first.

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[amybrickwallace]

That period in 1988 couldn't have been fun for them either, between the strike and the departure of original cast member Robin Wright. Gee, I wonder whatever happened to her...

[DRW50]

If only she'd had the career Kimberly McArthur has had.

I haven't watched that yet but Cruz and Eden having sex in some home they're looking at skeeves me out a little.

I'm curious to see more of the nun, as they originally wanted to cast a love interest for Mason, for another Mason/Mary redux. During the strike they cast that actress (Jane Frelich, I think) instead.

I wonder why the show never realized that without Harley Kozak there just was no point in redoing that story, what, 3, 4 times??

[amybrickwallace]

I know - it was like, let it rest, people!!

Kimberly McArthur - THAT'S someone I would love to know whatever happened to. She vanished without a trace, didn't she?

Cruz and Eden - save it for the houseboat, huh?

LOL

[DRW50]

So who were your favorite and least favorite SB recasts?

[amybrickwallace]

Hmmm...good question.

As sad as I was to see them go (and all separately) - I'm glad that Eden, Cruz, Amy and Brick were never recast. Well, there was a temp Amy for when Kerry Sherman went on maternity leave in 1985, but I don't think that really counts.

To me, while Robin Wright will always be THE definitive Kelly, I think Carrington Garland put her own stamp on the character. She looked uncannily like her on-screen sister Marcy Walker, and despite being a relative unknown, just fit right in, like she'd always been there.

But, I have to call the best recast SB ever had - Jed Allan. After a series of short-lived, unsuccessful CCs, SB struck gold when they got Jed Allan. He brought menacing, drama, romance and comedy to the role - entirely credible as the patriarch of the screwed-up Capwell family - and his chemistry with Judith McConnell (Sophia) showed that love, both physical and emotional, doesn't have to cease once one gets past 40!!

The recast that just made one go "huh?" - Janis Paige as Minx Lockridge. She was way too young to play the same role Dame Judith Anderson had originated, and didn't have the same aura of mystery and fun. I would have bought her as another Lockridge relative, but not as Minx.

Worst recast - Eileen Davidson as Kelly (bad idea, never should have happened), and Mark Arnold as Joe Perkins. Neither of them were/are bad actors in the least, but were asked to live up to the impossible task of filling big shoes. I feel bad for Mark Arnold because the need for a recast Joe was totally unnecessary. In just three months, Dane Witherspoon had created an appealing character trying to prove himself in society again after wrongful imprisonment - and the way his shoulders would slump and his head would sag after trying to convince true love Kelly and his father really conveyed that he was carrying the world on his shoulders. He and Kelly had just come together again when the role was abruptly recast - the Dobsons saying that they didn't think Witherspoon had on-screen charisma. Were they watching the same show we were? Or maybe were they afraid that the white hot chemistry between Witherspoon and Wright, which had spilled over into real life, would somehow fizzle out and ruin the show? Those two basically single-handedly carried the show through the first three months, and were already very popular with fans. That's a goldmine for a brand-new show. Getting rid of one-half of your show's premiere couple is like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Anyway, Dane Witherspoon's last airdate was exactly three months after the premiere, on 10/30/1984. Mark Arnold's first was the very next day. He was basically already coming in with two strikes against him. The chemistry between Kelly and Joe that had been there with Witherspoon was just not there with Arnold - not that it was necessarily his or RW's fault - chemistry is either there or its not. Everyone from RW to the fans were angry about the sudden recast and lashed out at MA. I don't think it was necessarily a personal thing, but a testament to DW's popularity and that he was let go for no good reason. I think the producers quickly figured out that they had made a big mistake, because Joe was more or less moved to the backburner until Joe and Kelly's wedding and the Carnation Killer storyline, from January to March 1985.

Mark Arnold had only signed a 13-week contract because he wanted to be available for the new Teen Wolf movie that was going to be made with Michael J. Fox. Rightfully so, the choice was made not to recast Joe again, and he was killed off. By that time, Eden and Cruz had emerged as SB's signature couple, a title they still hold to this day.

I wonder how things would have turned out for Dane Witherspoon had SB kept him on. Would he and Robin have stayed a couple in the long run? Would he have moved on to bigger acting opportunities like she did? Would Joe and Kelly have remained one of the tentpole couples of SB, and how would that have affected the popularity of Eden and Cruz? After a similar disappointing stint on Capitol, Dane Witherspoon eventually left show business altogether and moved to Denver with his second wife (now divorced), with whom he has two teenage sons, pursuing a career as an independent businessman.

[amybrickwallace]

Here's a great Eden & Cruz montage video, set to a great song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dck4NtBk_gE

[DRW50]

Thanks.

Watching the 7/15/88 episode...

Kimberly McArthur isn't bad at the family stuff but at drama, she's just flat, no charisma, no real connection with the family. She looks like Jane Sibbett, who had exited the show a year before this.

I love that the realtor is hitting on Cruz and when he says he's married, she casually asks if he will cheat. He casually says no, and she says well, I like you anyway, let's get you this house. And he says OK. You gotta love the 80s.

That Natalie Cole song when Eden walks into the old house is terrific. I love the comedy scene of her flashing that maid (?). Just a throwaway scene too. You don't get that now.

The convent story is so confusing. Are they really building a story off made up backstory with characters who hadn't been on the show in several years? NLG looks baffled.

Gina surprisingly self-reflective there. You could see how much Brandon loved her.

[amybrickwallace]

Natalie Cole's "A Little Bit of Heaven"? I loved it so much hearing it on the SB clips that I bought it off iTunes.

Yes, the 80s. Part of the fun of watching SB is to see the hideous fashions and hairstyles of the day. Thank goodness the rest of the show is timeless!!!

The only other I thing I know about Kimberly McArthur, other than that she was the one unfortunate enough to be RW's first replacement, is that she was once a Playmate. Ironically, I saw a clipping of her "turn ons and turn offs" from that time, and one of her "turn offs" was soap operas. HA!!

Her Kelly was indeed bland and she had no spark with the other Capwells. Then again, she was in a dog of a story (the TJ affair and the dissolution of her marriage to Jeffrey). At least Carrington Garland had the fortune of starting fresh in Paris!!

[DRW50]

You have good taste.

I still can't believe they had sex in that hot tub. And Cruz's ridiculous melodramatic "I can't wait" faces as he tore off his clothes. I had to laugh. Too bad the realtor didn't pop in to ask for a threesome.

Did Mark ever appear in the convent story or did they just say they'd found his corpse?