Santa Barbara Discussion Thread

[juniorz1]

Ok you guys- so I private messaged A Martinez the other night and told him that I was re-watching the split personality storyline and enjoying it.   Here is our conversation-

 

juniorz- Just wanted to share that I was watching Marcy Walker's exit story yesterday- the split personality- and you are all so good in it.  What a giving, generous group of actors you all were/are.  God I've missed that show.  Glad I don't have to miss it anymore.  Just thought I'd share.

 

A Martinez- Thanks for those good words, Greg.  It was among the hardest stories we were tasked with in the whole run- I actually second-guessed myself at one point for not quitting in protest- but it was our job to find a way through it.  And I think you hit on the key thing, which is that the esprit de corps, if high enough, can  carry everyone over the abyss sometimes.  Very much appreciate you sharing this with me tonight, brother....I miss that show, too.

 

juniorz- If you're talking about Cruz not recognizing Eden when she wore a Brown wig and glasses then yeah, I can't blame you.  Don't worry. The audience was savvy enough to not buy that part.  But the part where you recognize that Lisa was pretending to be Eden was so poignant.  As a viewer, I could see Marcy would do something very subtle with her eyes when she was Lisa.  I picked it up right away too and it was nice to see Cruz was smart enough to see it too.  I mean if I saw it, he had to.

 

A Martinez- You make a good point.  And yes, I was talking about the wig and glasses moment, and the dancing...... (he goes on to address something I posted on my personal FB page).......

 

juniorz- I just wanted you to k now that I was gifted the responsibility of being an actor from the moment I could speak.  I studied you all as a child when I watched SB- every story was a master class in acting, even where the writing my have fallen short.  The discipline and love of your fellow actor that it takes to commit to material that you sometimes don't believe yourself is so rare.  Even more rare is having the luck and good fortune of working with a company of actors who have that same gift and discipline.  What it is and was is magic.  Marcy's Emmy speech always stood with me- to be aware that what you're doing is magic in the moment that it's happening is not only rare, it's once in a lifetime.   Thanks for listening and responding.  That means a lot.

 

A Martinez- A pleasure.  Hope you had a fine weekend.

[NothinButAttitude]

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[DRW50]

 

Thanks for sharing that with us.

[juniorz1]

 

TRUTH!

 

A Martinez always used a Roscoe Born quote to describe Marcy Walker.  Here's the quote-

 

"A colleague of mine, Roscoe Born, always says that working with Marcy Walker isn't work.  You just look at her and wait for her to get to you and she does."

 

Man, there's so much truth in that.  I think there was a genuine love between those 3 actors like in no other storyline.   

 

Also, I have to say, Carrington Garland always said that when they put her in story with Roscoe Born was when she got her best acting training.  Or something along those lines.  But it's true.  She came alive in that story.  Her scenes with Marcy Walker were among the best in the show's run during that storyline and it made such sent that Kelly's resentments toward Eden would finally come to the surface in that situation.

[DRW50]

 

Watching the old clips again you can see how much vibrancy Carrington has as Kelly and how she made the role her own. Robin is very good as well, her work holds up extremely well and I don't think anyone else could have given all those "Kelly in peril" stories the intelligence she did, but Carrington suits the looser and more unfocused years of the show more.

 

Do you think that's why the Dobsons had an issue with her? Was Eileen supposed to be some return to an intelligent Kelly?

[juniorz1]

 

 

If I'm being honest, I think the Dobsons were trying to replace Marcy Walker without recasting Eden.  It didn't work.  One thing that sticks out in the Dobsons' interviews is that they have always said they write and create for themselves and not the audience.  They claimed at the time that they felt with Kelly having had 3 marriages under her belt, they felt it should show more on her face (i.e. she was too young).  It simply wasn't true and doesn't ring true.  Carrington was our 2nd Marcy- they already had a MW replacement and instead they didn't trust her.  Obviously they hadn't watched 1990 because Carrington was actually featured more prominently than Marcy that year- it was Kelly carrying the show on her shoulders, not Eden. (MW filmed a pilot and would have left had it been picked up but it wasn't- the writers and producers were preparing for that)

 

For my money, the best thing the Dobsons did when Marcy left was bringing in Nina Arvesen's Angela.  Had they not done that, I may have stopped watching, losing Marcy, Louise Sorel and Carrington within a month of each other.  I'm glad I didn't.  I do wish the Dobsons had written the show til the end and Pam Long and Kim Zimmer were never brought on.   I really think they were on a path to restoring the show to its former glory and had they continued, they'd have made more headway.

[Sapounopera]

Carrington Garland was a gorgeous woman and I liked her as actress, but she was never Kelly to me. Never. 

 

Many years ago I read that TPTB had considered recasting the part of Eden with Leann Hunley. Have you heard that?

 

I didn't mind Louise Sorel written out, I had stopped caring for Augusta (not her portrayer) years ago. 

 

Thank God for the Dobsons bringing back the old Capwell set. They tried to write ED's Kelly like Eden and had Catrina as the nu-Kelly. I also liked Wanda de Jesus as Santana, but I still missed Ava Lazar. 

 

For me the show's best years were from 1984 to 1987. By 1988 it had started becoming too dark and sad for me.

[DRW50]

 

Yes, Carrington reminds me more of Marcy than Eileen did; Eileen is a much colder actress and also more mechanical. (which is why she suited Kristen so well - I sometimes wonder if one of the reasons she seems somewhat ambivalent about Kristen is because it does suit her so well...) 

 

Why do you think they did such a poor job with that Kimberly McArthur recast? You'd think they had years to prepare for Robin leaving. 

 

What did you think of Keith? To me his value kind of ends once the Cruz in prison story is over. 

 

(watching that again recently I was surprised they actually touched on prison affecting his psyche and hurting him - soaps rarely do this because they want us to see the leading men as BAMFs)

[juniorz1]

 

I never heard the Leann Hunley thing but that wouldn't have worked.  The only actress I've ever seen that I could picture as a recast Eden is Brenda Epperson, who ironically took over for Eileen Davidson on Y&R.

 

Augusta was THE BEST.  I totally minded.

 

I disagree about Carrington.  She wasn't Robin's Kelly but she certainly made Kelly her own and I actually prefer her Kelly to all the others.

 

I totally see what you mean about ED's Kelly and Katrina, but I hated both of those characters.  ED's Kelly was just wrong, Wrong, WRONG!  They should have just created an entirely new character for her or cast her as Suzanne.  For me, she was never Kelly.  Never.  Cruz's last scenes and her histrionics on the airport runway were a low point in the show's entire run for me.

 

As I said, thank God for Nina Arvesen.  She was the only heroine besides Julia I really enjoyed during that time.

 

The Kimberly recast was too soon and they wanted her to still be Robin's Kelly, which she couldn't because she wasn't Robin.  Kimberly actually wasn't that bad but she didn't have the playfulness that Robin Wright had and therefore came off more cold.   Same with ED.   

 

Carrington was allowed to be different from Robin.  Still Kelly, but different.  After what Kelly had been through with Joe and Jeffrey and Pamela, it made sense.  Plus she looked like Marcy, their mannerisms were similar, as were some of their acting choices.  It was so uncanny that you believed they could be sisters in real life.  So the jealousy stuff coming to the surface, which is such a sisterly story but never would have happened with Robin, made sense.  Kelly was always in Eden's shadow, especially when it came to the love of their father and that of their older siblings.  I mean, think about how much was done with the Mason/Eden relationship and how little was done with Mason/Kelly.  Kelly was always closer to Ted & Eden, and Ted was absent during Carrington's entire run.  Perhaps that was why her jealousy came out more- the one person in the family that looked up to Kelly wasn't there.

[Sapounopera]

 

In some ways TPTB were always preparing CG to take over as the show's "new Eden" in case MW left. This is the funny thing with recasts; sometimes we hate the new actor, sometimes we like the actor and hate him in the part, other times someone new takes over and the character becomes a new person and we don't mind at all. BTW CG would have been amazing on Y&R 

 

I never felt that Kimberly McArthur was meant to stay for a long time. Perhaps they were interested in another actress (Carrington?) and wanted to help the audience accept her easier.

 

Keith was fun at first. After a while he and Gina became a joke like Jeffrey and Gloria.

[juniorz1]

 

I think you're dead on with both of those assessments.  I don't think they meant for Kimberly to be long-term either, just to continue the story.  As for Carrington on Y&R, I remember reading that she auditioned a few times for them.  Too bad nobody ever snapped her up.  I could see Carrington not being the best auditioner but she was such a hard worker and always had chemistry with her scene partners, especially her romantic ones (Peter Love, Roscoe Born, John Callahan).

Edited March 7, 2017 by juniorz1

[DRW50]

 

I think she also auditioned for Amanda Spaulding or Mindy Lewis on GL, and wasn't she also a contender for Vicky/Marley on AW? She would have done well in most of those roles. It's odd that she was cast by no soap after SB.

[juniorz1]

It's quite odd because she was popular on SB, the fans missed her (and Marcy) and some may have even followed her to another show, what with the dip in quality of SB in its final year.  

 

I have to say I'm watching a taped fan event with A & Marcy right now from  1991.   Tom Eplin is also there and at one point, he talks about how they used to watch SB on the monitors at AW (Linda Dano has also spoken on this- she loved A & Marcy and SB).   He says that the producers would look at the scenes and tell them, on a higher rated show, to watch how A was doing something and ask them to emulate it.   I just thought that was a real nice thing to say.   I've always been fond of Tom Eplin and thought he had chops.   Jake was a great character in his own right, probably my favorite, most complicated male character on Another World.

 

Anyhow, I've completed the split personality storyline and I'm happy to say it's so much better than I remember it.  Marcy was very lucky that Bridget and Jerry came back to right the ship at that point- otherwise, God knows where that story would have gone.   Marcy was always one of Bridget & Jerry's supporters and can be seen on her feet, along with Nic Coster, when Bridget gave her infamous Emmy speech.  You notice how In spell Bridget Dobson's name- well guys, that's how it used to appear in the credits, I've convinced myself!  No matter how she spells it now, she'll always be Bridget to me.

[juniorz1]

So I found this set of scenes from 18 years ago, but it's the scene between Ric and Kelly that I've remembered all these years.  Carrington Garland was new and still a little green here.   Peter Love, who played Ric, I believe had some experience from either Ryan's Hope or Capitol.  But this shows you what I mean about Carrington having chemistry with her scene partners.  This was her very first romantic pairing on her very first soap and she's a natural!!!

 

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[DRW50]

I didn't know that was her first. You're right, she is natural. They're a bit of an odd fit but they work. It's too bad it never went anywhere. 

 

So did future writers decide to just forget Greg and his mother ever existed? 

 

What did you think of Elena? Do you wish she'd stayed around?

 

Tori is so annoying and dull to me in most of the clips I watch of her. Do you think that's unfair?

 

This clip sort of feels like the best of Dobsons 1.0 (the Sophia and CC talk) and some of their poorer excesses (everything afterward...especially the music cues)

 

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