SANTA BARBARA Schemering, IMDb, Wesley Hyatt. Soap. Color. Hour. July 30 1984 - January 15 1993 created by Bridget and Jerome Dobson. Production Company Dobson Productions. NBC. Executive Producers: Jerome and Bridget Dobson; Jeffrey Hayden; Charles Pratt, Sr.; Mary-Ellis Bunim. Headwriters: Jerome and Bridget Dobson; Anne Howard Bailey. Producers: Steven Kent; Jill Farren Phelps; Leonard Friedlander; Directors: Gordon Rigsby; Norman Hall; Rick Bennewitz; John Sedwick; Gary Bowen; Andrew Weyman; Dennis Steinmetz. (2,137 episodes) SANTA BARBARA was NBC's last bid to compete against GENERAL HOSPITAL on ABC and GUIDING LIGHT on CBS. The show's early going was rough and included numerous changeovers in cast. Four actors played the pivotal role of C.C. Capwell within the first two years alone. The biggest controversy, however, arose in 1987 when NBC took creative control away from the show's producers, Jerome and Bridget Dobson, who spent three years trying to get it back. Perhaps in part because of these problems, SANTA BARBARA never really threatened the competition, although it did win three consecutive Outstanding Daytime Drama Emmys through 1990 and had a large international presence. . Santa Barbara revolves around the shock waves that ensue from Sophia Capwell's child by Lionel Lockridge, Channing, Jr. passed off as the second son of her husband, C.C. Capwell. Channing impregnates the maid's daughter, Santana, and as Sophia argues with her son about it, she accidentally shoots him to death. C.C. is furious at the loss of his son. Sophia flees the country, eventually returning disguised as a man, with the aid of second daughter Kelly. In the meantime, C.C. wants his new grandson, Channing's son by Santana, and to get custody of him, Santana is institutionalized. C.C. remarries that vixen too endearing to be a villain, Robin Mattson's Gina, and they adopt Brandon, Santana's baby by the late Channing. Santana tries to reclaim her son, but winds up with visitation rights. Brandon is happy with Gina as his mother, with his father being the man who was his grandmother's husband, but biologically not related to him at all. Gina and C.C. wind up divorcing, Gina remarries Mason, C.C.'s son by first wife Pamela. That marriage does not last, either. Sophia and C.C. reunite, but their remarriage does not last one year before they separate again. The enormity of Sophia's infidelity and the true paternity of Channing serve as the pretext for the disappearance of her most famous offspring, first daughter Eden. (Robin Wright left SANTA BARBARA for an extended period of time to play the lead of "Buttercup" in THE PRINCESS BRIDE.She was chosen by William Goldman, Rob Reiner and Cary Elwes out of thousands of ingenue's. NBC penalized by making her do without money she could have made off of it. She is remembered to this day as "Buttercup" in that cult classic.) While the extraordinarily popular actress who portrayed Eden (Marcy Walker) tried other roles in other productions, her absence was explained by her insanity at not being able to cope with the discovery of Channing's true parentage. CC Capwell is a multimillionaire who is very powerful and greedy man, who loves money and authority. His children are: Eden, Kelly, Ted, Greg and adoptive child Brandon. CC loves Sophia. Her children are: Eden, Kelly, Ted and Brick. CC's worst enemy is Gina. Gina is Brandon's foster-mother. She raises him. CC wants to do it himself. Brandon's real mother is Santana. Eden loves Cruz. Cruz is a policeman. Julia and Mason are divorced, they have a daughter Samantha. Lockridge family persecutes the Capwells. Minx Lockridge is an old lady, she is the mother of Lionel and Cassie. Lionel is in love with Augusta. They are a strange couple, just like Gina and Keith. There was an occasion while the Dobsons were being locked out of the studio when they won their first (of three consecutive Daytime Emmys but Bridget made it to the podium and began a gracious acceptance speech, while Jill Farren Phelps stood to her right looking glum.That's because she was the Interim Executive Producer and was thinking she should have been making that speech. Contrary to years of rumor, it was *not* a knock down- drag-out fight.It was just some decent "oneupmanship".(The Dobsons had previously had a spectacularly successful writing career on GENERAL HOSPITAL in the early 1970s. Bridget was the daughter of Frank and Doris Hursley, creators of the show. After maintaining good ratings on that show the Dobsons were snatched up by Procter & Gamble to spruce up GUIDING LIGHT. They worked w onders on that show for 5 years, then created miracles on AS THE WORLD TURNS, becoming the most sought after team of writers in daytime television.) Set in Santa Barbara, where the Dobsons used to live (except when they lived in Atlanta, Georgia) the drama traced the lives and loves of 4 families: the blue-blood Lockridges, the powerful Capwells, the middle-class Perkins, and the Andrades, a low-income Hispanic family. The serial opened with a party in 1979 where Channing Capwell, Jr. was murdered after an argument with his sister Kelly's fiance' Joe Perkins. The scene jumped forward to an engagement party for Kelly and the opportunist Peter Flint in 1984 where it was learned that Joe Perkins, Capwell's alleged killer, had been set free. The release caused havoc among the seaside community, particularly for Kelly Capwell, who was torn between Joe and her memory of Channing's death. The show was taped in new $12 million production facilities in Burbank. In its premiere week the glamorous new soap about Beautiful Blonde People ran opposite ratings-grabbing Olympic games; with its first episode only receiving a 4.2 rating and 13 share. The Dobsons soon found their footing with two dazzling anti-heroes: Lionel Lockridge, whose roguish charm was exceeded only by his penchant for mischief, and the envious, cryptic Mason Capwell, whose ironic self-knowledge provided the city with a one-man greek chorus, commenting dryly on all the drawing-room intrigue. By 1987, this delicious black comedy had become a cult hit and the slowly rising ratings began to reflect that status. SANTA BARBARA was superbly romantic in its star-crossed love story of the WASPy Eden and the Hispanic Cruz. In a great erotic fast dance, Eden shook her blonde mane like a stoned-out Lady Godiva. It certainly was dramatic (the death of Mason's "salvation," Mary Duvall, proved to be an extremely unpopular event with viewers-probably the biggest boo-boo in the Dobsons' career). "There is a slight bit of perversity in us. That's me. That's my husband. We're ambivalent people. We always strive for purity and always miss." (Robin Wright took a large amount of extra time off from playing Eden in SANTA BARBARA to star in the movie THE PRINCESS BRIDE.) There was the long-running romance of blonde Eden, a TV news anchor, and her dark handsome lover, lawman Cruz Castillo. He stayed with Eden until they wed in 1988. Also fascinating was Mason, a lush who felt his dad did not love him but who came up with plenty of comments on the goings-on around him, including his own troubled relationships with ex-nun Mary Duvall.) The manner of Mary's death-a "C" from the rooftop of the Capwell hotel fell and crushed her-struck some viewers as blackly funny and some as an example of poor taste, and prompted many to speculate on its possible significance.) In 1988 the emergence of some weird alternate personalities. Among the latter was Mason's other personality Sonny Sprockett, whom his girlfriend attorney Julia Wainwright, found living in Las Vegas, and Bunny Tigliatti, a transvestite involved with the mob who rented all of Gina's rooms when Gina made the former Lockridge mansion into a bed-and-breakfast. Dr. Zack Kelton was the "Video Rapist" who attacked several women including Eden. Mason and Julia had some ups and downs due to his personality problems. Julia dated environmentalist Dash Nichols. The love between Julia and Mason and between Eden and Cruz was about the only constant. In 1990 the Dobsons having regained control of the show, returned to make sense of the mess. NBC kicked the Dobsons out again early 1992 as it became the lowest rated soap. In October 1992 NBC announced its cancellation despite its continuing international popularity. The show aired in 48 countries, making it the most watched serial. (The final shot was of executive producer Paul Rauch stepping into the spotlight on a bare soundstage and rubbing out his cigarette butt.)
Review of Santa Barbara
