R.I.P.: Bridget Dobson another brutal loss of one of daytime's finest

[Sapounopera]

Some thoughts:

SB would have been much better as a half-hour show.
I was madly in love with Mason Capwell as a kid and found his relationship with Julia fascinating. In my mind they were the show's real supercouple.
What was more fascinating was reading how many things Mason and Bridget had in common.
At one point SB became too "funny". I prefered the original, dramatic version of the show. 

The rumor about the Dobsons writing for AW, was it during the time it was rumored Mason and Julia would be joining the show?

The Dobsons's GL was amazing. Sophisticated, adult soap, I still watch.

RIP Mrs Dobson.

[DRW50]

There's a bitter irony in P&G hiring the Dobsons to salvage GL because they still cared so much about keeping the show alive, yet the main reason most viewers will have ever seen the work of the Dobsons on GL is because P&G long stopped giving a damn about their soaps. 

By the time I got an Internet connection good enough to properly watch WOST, it was paywalled or mostly gone, so the first time I ever got to really watch their GL work was on Youtube through the ClassicGL channel. Those clips reignited my love for GL after the '90s and '00s had washed most of it away. 

The guy who did that channel has, sadly, been gone for over 15 years now, but still, the clips remain.

Edited January 8, 2024 by DRW50

[Contessa Donatella]

AFAIK it's not a rumor but a fact.  I read it as a quote in an interview. All I know is that it was to have happened shortly after they were done with Santa Barbara. So, I came up with "Jan. 1993." When was the rumor about Julia & Mason? 

These are some notes I took in conversation with Patrick Mucahey last year. Typed them up last night. 

Patrick Mulcahey

Bad dialog could be good dialog if there's little enough of it.

Father/son relationships

Conflict between fathers & sons is unavoidable because one party wants independence & one party wants power.

He adored Mason & couldn't do or say enough about the character.

Loves to have 2 people alone in a room & we get to eavesdrop on what they say.

What was his favorite dialog that he got to write? After the Dobsons came back, they asked me to do 2 dinner party scenes & they turned out really well.

Jerry has his very own style & he learned from him!

He had moved to San Francisco to write plays & wait tables.

Bridget called him & hired him.

In the summer of 1984, people began to die. He knew he needed to keep his health insurance. He said he was too slow, too stubborn & too much a perfectionist.

Not only that, but he poured everything he had into every single script because he didn't know how long he would be alive to finish writing it. Bridget & Jerry had so much faith in him.

Mason & Julia

Eden & Cruz: It was never intended to put them together. She flounced off & he tackled her.

Writing for Justin Deas.

The secret is that the writer gets to speak through these people.

He begins hearing people talk & then writes down what they say.

Is there anything you'd like to redo?

In soaps the scriptwriter doesn't get to say what the show will say.

Focus groups & research are both a blessing and a curse.

I forgot to type in this: 

He & Marcy Walker had been to a play read through & after they walked together, somewhere, and a car drove up beside them & people screamed, "DIE, LIZA, YOU BITCH!" 

Edited January 8, 2024 by Donna L. Bridges

[Khan]

Actually, @Sapounopera, I thought SaBa's sense of humor helped the show stand out from the rest of the pack.  (Another reason why I would've loved to see the Dobsons head-write AMC or OLTL).  But I do agree that there needed to be more of a balance between the humor and comedy and strong storylines that would have a real impact on the canvas.  Too often, stories on SaBa were wrapped up much too quickly with little to no lasting effects on characters.

Edited January 8, 2024 by Khan

[soapfave06]

I wish I could see more of her work as I absolutely fell in love with GL in the era of the Dobson regime courtesy of the brief DVD releases which I am forever thankful for. They really had the show set up canvas wise only for it to be stripped away. 
 

It is difficult to find a good diving in episode of SB as I struggle to find cohesive playlists but the individual episodes are usually good. I would probably try harder to watch if the show was more cohesive outside of the certain actors and characters. But Mason and Julia have always captivated me. 
 

I would have killed to see them head write another series, especially had they returned to GL with Roger and Holly back or especially OLTL after Malone left. 

[Khan]

I agree.

[Sapounopera]

I guess shortly after SB was cancelled. So I guess... early 1993?

[BetterForgotten]

Given how they wrote SaBa when they were permitted to return (as if nothing had changed much since they were locked out), I wonder how they would have written those GL characters again after their progression during the Curlee era. Holly, in particular, was a much different character by then and Roger was more of a conflicted anti-hero if anything. 

[MichaelGL]

RIP Bridget Dobson. She shaped so much of my show GL, and made an lasting impact not just at GL but their other shows. 

I've always wondered how the Dobson's would have fared at THE DOCTORS after the Pollocks departed, replacing another couple who were writers and known for their long drawn and sometimes intricate stories. 

[BetterForgotten]

GL seemed to have success with husband/wife teams for some reason - Soderberg/Sommer, Dobsons, and finally Curlee/Demorest. 

Edited January 8, 2024 by BetterForgotten

[1974mdp]

I wonder if that was the "Capwell dinner" episodes where Mason brought Pamela, and the shows delved into the characters' histories. I remember loving those episodes when they aired.

[Contessa Donatella]

Well, then, yes, that was the exact same time frame. I can honestly imagine Julia in Bay City! 

[TEdgeofNight]

Just to be clear, the Dobsons were never signed to headwrite AW. There were talks, which happen all the time, but nothing was ever signed. 

[Manny]

Santa Barbara was my first American (daytime) soap opera that I ever watched. I loved it for a long time, but I didn't stay until the end. I don't know when exactly Bridget and Jerry Dobson left (when looking at the story), because I was a kid and I didn't really notice the major shifts or transitions in a story. 

My earliest memory was Kelly pushing one of the Hartley brothers out the window. And I do remember watching Kim Zimmer on Santa Barbara, but that was around the time I stopped watching, because I never actually saw the last episode. I just didn't like all the new characters that flooded that time (Aurora, Micah, Skyler, Tawny, Gretchen, etc), I did not enjoy Eileen Davison as Kelly Capwell (I never saw Eileen before this, but I hated her as Kelly) - loved her as Ashley many years later

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My all time favorite couple was Mason and Julia and I was pissed when Lane Davies left. I did not enjoy Terry Lester or Gordon Thompson. I forever missed Lane in the role. But I always loved Julia. I have this scene stuck in my head still, where Mason and Julia have sex in a forest, I want to say? She was wearing this bright purple sweater that he it took off and then they had sex. Weird memory for a kid to have lol 

Maybe this was the first time they had sex, so that's why I remember it?

In any case, Bridget gave me a lot of fun moments with Gina and Keith, lots of love with Mason and Julia, lots of drama with everyone else and most of all, she got me to fall in love with soap operas!  So thanks Ms Dobson! And RIP! 

Edited January 8, 2024 by Manny

[Khan]

Mason/Julia was my favorite couple on SaBa, because their conflicts always were internal rather than external.