Santa Barbara Discussion Thread

[GSGfan2017]

Andrea was raped and murdered.  However, Cain merely left town.

[Sapounopera]

Before leaving town didn't Cain have one of the most disturbing storylines ever?

 

A young woman called Ming Li was posing as his long-lost daughter from his days in Vietnam. She had been hired by Phillip Hamilton, who was obsessed with Andrea and she was trying to seduce Cain, her "father". 

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[juniorz1]

Yes that happened too.  It was pretty gross and a boring storyline, even if I did kind of like Major Philip Hamilton (Warren Burton)

[Sapounopera]

I hated Phillip Hamilton and I couldn't stand Warren Burton on GL either 

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While discussing the show and remembering different eras, storylines etc I realise that it would have benefited from a very strong producer who could keep the writers in line and make sure that they don't lose so many beloved actors every fix months.

 

Another problem was the hour format. The show had a rather small cast of key characters (the Capwells, Gina, Cruz, Julia, Santana, Keith, -Brick &Amy?- and the Locridges) Being a half-hour show would have saved us from all these secondary isolated characters who had their six-month story before being written out. 

Edited June 10, 2017 by Elsa

[juniorz1]

 

Actually I felt Ted was better defined in the later years, when Michael Brainard played him.  He was turned into somewhat of a cad and a playboy, which I rather enjoyed.  His pairings with Lily and Angela were both successful, though I hated him with Katrina.  They even tried him with Suzanne Collier.  His relationship with CC was given more depth and strengthed, and he was finally a character I (and I think the audience) were actually interested in.  I prefer his version to Todd McKee.

[juniorz1]

 Speaking to the 3 PM time slot (and quoting a 9 YEAR old post lol), I actually think that SB benefited from that and could have continued to benefit from it.  Many young people that were in school rushed home to watch the series and caught it because it was at 3 pm.  This was a generation that had no established ties to GH or GL or any other soap for that matter.  Many of the die-hard fans I've encountered are now in their 30s and early 40s.  I actually believe that much of its core audience were brand new soap viewers, the very viewers NBC would be courting after its demise.  It's really a shame because when DAYS started catapulting in the numbers (summer of '93), SB was already gone and I think they could have done very well had NBC held on just a bit longer.  A DAYS/SB pairing I think would have gone over well and captured the generation of viewers that advertisers ended up striving for.

[GSGfan2017]

What if Another World had been cancelled in the early '90s instead of Santa Barbara?  What if Santa Barbara managed to last until, like, 1999?  Would there have been a decline in production values?

 

I personally wish that some Santa Barbara episodes had been shot on location in Australia.  The Great Barrier Reef lies off the eastern coast of Australia.  Hint, hint!  

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https://youtu.be/Vrbd75GlMLU

Edited June 10, 2017 by GSGfan2017
Wanted to put space between sections

[NothinButAttitude]

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I haven't seen any clips of Michael Brainard as Ted, but hopefully, I'll stumble across some soon enough. Glad that they seemed to invest in him a bit more later down the line. Again, I never got why Ted was the 'black sheep' to the writers when Todd McKee was the in the role. 

[Cat]

 

Oh ITA that SB benefited from a 3PM slot (in the same way Sunset Beach should have, but it was shafted by a 12PM slot in many areas). Kids I knew in middle school watched Santa Barbara when they came home early on Friday afternoons. GH was for the 20- or 30-somethings at that time. I was in Boston, and our NBC affiliate did not even broadcast Another World (though the Worcester affiliate did; I only discovered the brilliance that was AW after it was cancelled, on YT). So Days came on at 2PM and Santa Barbara at 3PM. They were a package deal, and I watched both and loved both, sometimes going back and forth on which soap had the most compelling SLs of the moment. Both were LA-based (you could tell in the way they filmed, and in the acting: less actors with theatre on their resumes, primarily TV actors, and sometimes method-actorly). Both prioritised romance, so they were very complimentary partners. Indeed, after SB was cancelled, I kept up with Days, into college, where in the 90s Days was Must-Watch TV among the students. 

 

What prevented SB from being renewed in the end is that it lost some very important lead and supporting actors who were beloved by the core audience, and that's why it's viewing figures fell. To specify, I'm talking Lane Davies and Marcy Walker (and Justin Deas too) -- they were so strongly identified with the characters they played that they had trouble taking off as different characters on other shows (AMC apart). Losing tentpoles Mason and Eden was a fatal blow -- they held up two different sets of A stories during their entire run! And Eden leaving the canvas because she went nuts was... unsatisfying and depressing for me as a viewer. I know they recast Mason with Gordon Thomson, arguably one of the best recasts of the day. But Lane's imprint on the character was strong, and his chemistry with NLG had been powerful and visceral, that GT's chemistry with NLG looked more buddy-buddy than lover next to it. 

 

With the loss of those two, what to do? Refocus attention on Kelly, a character whom the writers never could quite define properly? She never quite took off though I loved her under Robin Wright's tenure. The Capwell clan was reduced in importance. They recast a lot, to the point where it was hard for lapsed viewers to get back into the show. The big mistake was to totally shift focus on a bunch of big-name new hires: Kim Zimmer, Sydney Penny, Jack Wagner. TPTB sort of expected to show up and shine their star power and SB would automatically be saved. I think long-time viewers rebelled after that. They felt they were being force-fed newbies.

Edited June 12, 2017 by Cat

[Cat]

 

omg THANK YOU for posting this episode which I consider peak SB. As a kid I shipped Kelly & Jeffrey hard, but for me this episode showcases a lot of really strong actors at the height of their powers. Nicolas Coster (Lionel), the underappreciated Kristen Meadows (Victoria), Justin Deas, Robin Mattson, Robin Wright, Marcy Walker, Lane Davies, A Martinez.... As OTT as the scenes were, I could watch Justin Deas and Robin Mattson slime their way around the Capwell characters any day of the week. It created a nice balance so that the Capwells didn't 'win' all the time. Lane Davies could recite his lines in his sleep, the way Mason handles deep sarcasm with actually caring for his sisters' (and brother's?) well-being is a fine balancing act. BTW his line to Gina "And everywhere that Timmons went, his lamb was sure to go" was GOLD. 

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 And props to Robin Wright, a model-turned-actress at the time, who was building on the talent that makes her a powerhouse actress today.

Edited June 12, 2017 by Cat

[NothinButAttitude]

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Edited June 13, 2017 by Nothin'ButAttitude

[NothinButAttitude]

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[GSGfan2017]

Cat, did Marcy Walker impress you as a certain type of actress?  Before she began working on Santa Barbara, Marcy played Liza Colby on All My Children, which was mostly produced out of New York.

[NothinButAttitude]

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[NothinButAttitude]

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