mark.waltz
Considered the wittiest soap opera ever written, "Santa Barbara" was a combination of "The Thin Man" novels combined with a ton of the nighttime soap "Dynasty" thrown in. Even elements of "Capitol", an underrated soap on CBS at the same time, are obvious with its family feud set-up and the pairing of star-crossed lovers who couldn't get together, and when they did, their uniting was only meant to be brief. As well-written as "Santa Barbara" was (and exceptionally well acted), it lacked in a sold direction, often starting story lines then dropping them. In watching re-runs of this show, it is a show that had so much promise, made decisions both good and bad, yet created enough of a fan-following to bring it to cult status, winning several Emmys for Best Soap on the way and creating a super-couple in the beautiful Marcy Walker and the sexy A. Martinez.They didn't start off as the show's romantic leads. That was Robin Wright, the original Kelly Capwell, and Dane Witherspoon, the original Joe Perkins. Fickle writers saw the writing on the wall, and after re-casting Joe with "Edge of Night" veteran Mark Arnold, simply decided to kill him off! But "Santa Barbara" was daring, and had plots involving homosexuality, transvestism, male gigolos (serving female clients) and molestation. They also had the ultimate family feud, much like "Dallas", "Dynasty" and even "Capitol". The wealthy Capwells and Lockridges weren't out to kill each other like other wealthy rivals, simply just out-do each other in business. The first few years of the show gave a witty romantic storyline to the middle-aged Lionel and Augusta Lockridge (Nicolas Coaster and Louise Sorel) whose witty banter resembled William Powell and Myrna Loy's from the "Thin Man" series. Later on, Augusta's sister, Julia ("General Hospital's" Nancy Grahn) took over that part with her pairing with Lane Davies' Mason Capwell, the blacksheep of the family who was desperate to achieve his father's approval. Obviously, powerful C.C. Capwell (played the longest by the handsome Jed Allan) preferred his daughters, spoiling Eden and Kelly while chastising Mason (the son from his first marriage) and pretty much ignoring his youngest, Ted. The presence of Dame Judith Anderson on the show at the beginning created tons of publicity, but other than a few moments where Minx Lockridge revealed her secrets, she had little to do. However, when she was on, as she did in her film career as a supporting actor, she stole every scene she was in, even shooting C.C. in the butt with an old rifle filled with buckshot. This was obviously a salute to the film "Laura" in which Dame Judith was a major cast member. When Minx was re-cast later on when the Lockridges returned to the front burner for a short time, another familiar face from the movies and stage took over the part. Janis Paige brought new elements to Minx that explored her theatricality as well. While Dame Judith was known for her dramatic performances on stage, the much younger Paige was remembered for musicals, having gotten her start in musical films at Warner Brothers while Anderson was there as well, playing dramatic parts. Sadly, the fantastic Louise Sorel was never utilized as much as she should have been, but "Santa Barbara's" loss was "Days of Our Lives" gain. The comedy of words between Lionel and Augusta and Mason and Julia was combined with farce with the pairing of Justin Deas (D.A. Keith Simmons) and Robin Mattson (one of C.C. Capwell's ex-wives, Gina DeMott) who were allowed to cut up between their dramatic doings. "Santa Barbara" was probably the first soap to have some focus on a Hispanic family, the Andrades, but other than recurring appearances by matriarch Rosa and her daughter, the long-suffering Santana, they too were never utilized to their full advantage. Cruz Castillo's family also were seen on and off, but never made it past mid-burner, and that was only briefly.Still over the years, there were phenomenal performances by veterans of other soaps. Judith McConnell had been around for four soap appearances before joining as C.C.'s supposed late wife, Sophia, and "Capitol's" Marj Dusay was outstanding as C.C.'s first wife, Pamela. Sophia went from mystery lady to loving mother to used wealthy divorcée over her lengthy run on the show, but Pamela went from vengeful ex-wife to strong businesswoman to sudden psycho in a very short period of time. After divorcing Augusta, Lionel briefly found happiness with Caroline Wilson ("Guiding Light's" Lenore Karsdorf), while Mason found a brief angel in his life with former nun Mary Duvall ("Texas"/"GL" vet Harley Kozak). Late in the run, "SB" got two other "GL" stars, Kim Zimmer and Kristen Terseau, but by this time, the show was on its way down since both Marcy Walker and A. Martinez had departed the show. Recasts of Kelly were frequent, and the show ended its run with "Y&R" star Eileen Davidson playing that part.I think it will be the writing for which this soap will be remembered, classy and fun, with the casting exceptional. The show still lives on in re-runs somewhere, and fan fiction abound has kept the serial alive. I would like to think that C.C. and Sophia are completely happy now, that Kelly has found a new man in her life, Cruz and Eden have somehow reunited when she got her memory back, Lionel and Gina had an amicable divorce when both Augusta and Keith came back, and that a sane Pamela has made peace with her past and returned to town so she can be a loving grandmother to Mason's children.
Arthur Vasey
This series was shown on ITV from the start, as part of a new network daytime package on ITV, as opposed to regionally shown films and Sesame Street (and schools programmes, during term time).It was shown daily (the first episode was repeated in the afternoon) at 10 am.It was quite unusual for any terrestrial channel to screen US daytime soaps - they were a mainstay of cable TV, which was still in its infancy - the best the BBC could manage at the time was re-runs of Dallas. ITV relied on Australia for most of its daytime soap output by the mid 80s - other than Take The High Road, all the daytime soaps were Australian (Emmerdale was now on in the evenings and other shows were no longer being made).Santa Barbara was networked (unusually for ITV - all imported programmes and even UK reruns tended to be shown round the regions) to begin with and shown five days a week (most soaps - UK or imported - were rarely on more than twice or three times a week).It was subsequently split around the regions - but ultimately discontinued and has never been shown subsequently - we never found out who killed Channing or how it progressed after a Christmas episode (not properly, anyway).There were so many cast changes - at least three (I've later learnt that it was four) actors have played CC Capwell - Peter Mark Richman (billed as such in Santa Barbara, but as Mark Richman in earlier roles), Paul Burke and Charles Bateman have played the Capwell patriarch - two actors have played Joe Perkins (Dane Witherspoon and Mark Arnold) and two actors - should it be "actresses", as he was later revealed to be a woman, and even later to have been the supposedly-deceased Sophia - that was the last episode I saw - when Lionel showed CC Sophia in that one way window, which they mistakenly called a "two-way mirror" - have played "Dominic" - Rosemary Forsyth (originally credited as "M Forsyth" - perhaps to hide the fact he was a woman) and, once "his" identity was discovered, Judith McConnell.The cast changes often occurred partway through an episode - an announcer would say "The part of CC Capwell is now being played by Paul Burke" and, in another episode, "The part of CC Capwell is now being played by Charles Bateman".# As for the Joe Perkins switcheroony, the announcer said "The part of Joe Perkins is now being played by Mark Arnold".
Syl
Santa Barbara came on with the hopes of changing the daytime industry and it did to many respects. THe Dobsons should be applauded for their soap. Sadly, Santa Barbara was on NBC which does not care for it's daytime audience. As an Another WOrld fan, I can say that network does not show the respect of daytime drama audiences by canceling one of it's soaps. Santa Barbara tried to be like other soaps just when it came out but it didn't work. Then, they brought together Cruz and Eden played by A Martinez and Marcy Walker. They were very good together. The casting was beyond to describe. The cast included Dame Judith Anderson, Janis Paige, Nicolas Coaster (a soap vet to say the least), Sydney Penney, Nancy Lee Grahn, Louise Sorel, Jed Allan, Jane McConnell, and the list just goes on. When you are a favorite of Jill Farren Phelps, you become quite active on the show. Just to say that Grahn and Allan both joined General HOspital since Santa Barbara. The writing was witty and weird, brilliant and sometimes sloppy at the height of Santa Barbara's fame. But sadly, this show became a casualty of daytime's losing audience. Most people don't stay at home during the days like they used too. There are daytime audiences like me willing to tape while at work. I'll just wonder what it might have been if Santa Barbara had been allowed to grow old and gracefully. Santa Barbara won't be forgotten anytime soon. We still have a bit of it on General HOspital.
