Despite being on the air for only just under a decade, I look back at NBC’s "Santa Barbara," which certainly made its mark in the soap world and lured viewers into the rich and fabulous lives of California’s Capwell family and those in their circle.
NBC’s Santa Barbara was in the 80s, beginning to shape up into a fine soap. Amazingly, it has all happened in just the fashion the show’s creators/co-executive producers/headwriters, Jerome and Bridget Dobson, predicted it would just prior to its debut in July 1984. The Dobsons had said that their show would take time to gel. They said that the key to a good show would not be found in bikinied young bodies or exotic location shootings, but in finding the right performers to play original, distinctive characters. After dozens of hits and misses (at its first anniversary, the show had hired and fired 74 actors), that’s what has happened.
The actors Santa Barbara found to best create the characters the Dobsons had in mind are all soap veterans. Four inept CC Capwells came and went before the show finally found its actor Jed Allan (who had spent a decade on Days of Our Lives as Don Craig). He’s just what the Dobsons had in mind from the start – Blake Carrington, with sex appeal to spare. After many preposterous actress choices (including one blonde), the show finally found its fiery Mexican heroine, Santana Andrade, by hiring Mexican – American Gina Gallego, formerly of Rituals. Now Santana’s scenes with Cruz Castillo (A Martinez, one of daytime’s best leading men) in which they discuss their heritage finally make sense.
Even Robin Mattson, who was grating as villainesses Heather Webber on General Hospital and Delia Coleridge on Ryan’s Hope has been made bearable on Santa Barbara as another bad girl, Gina DeMott. The Dobsons have made Gina both humorous and stupid – the latter trait surprisingly refreshing as a motivation for a soap villainess.
Perhaps the most interesting and typically eccentric Dobson character on Santa Barbara is Mason Capwell, superbly played by Lane Davies. Abhorrent as CC Capwell’s stuffed-shirt son for the first few months of the show, Davies has since made acerbic Mason sympathetic and compelling. Yet, Mason still has a sophisticated Noel Cowardesque wit, and he is perhaps the only daytime character who slyly gives asides to the soap audience.
Written and finally played with wit and sophistication, Santa Barbara is coming into its own. It’s ready to take on its two time-slot competitors, Guiding Light and General Hospital, both of which have been in a creative slump. It’s going to be quite an interesting soap summer.
July 30, 1984 - January 15, 1993
The wealthy Capwells tangled with their equally wealthy rivals the Lockridges. CC Capwell was a powerful, greedy multimillionaire who loved having it all. His children were Eden, Kelly, Ted, Greg and adopted Brandon. The Lockridge family was led by the elderly Minx, mother of Lionel and Cassie.
Super couples:
Eden Capwell (Marcy Walker) and Cruz Castillo (A. Martinez)
Mason Capwell (Lane Davies) and Julia Wainwright (Nancy Lee Grahn)
Then child actor Leonardo DiCaprio did a week-long stint as young Mason Capwell in 1984. "Cosby" mom Phylicia Rashad appeared in three episodes in 1985. Tina Louise played Cassie Dunn in 1986. Composer and "Entertainment Tonight" host John Tesh played himself in 1987. Betty White popped up for three episodes as a waitress in 1988. "Wheel of Fortune" hosts Pat Sajak and Vanna White appeared as themselves in 1988. Actress Tea Leoni was a temporary replacement in the part of Lisa DiNapoli in 1989. NBA baller Charles Barkley played a bartender in 1991 and Comedian Bruce Vilanch appeared as a hippie priest.
The story for "Santa Barbara" began with the murder of Channing Capwell, Jr. (Robert Brian Wilson). Joe Perkins (Dane Witherspoon), jailed for the murder, was paroled and returned to Santa Barbara to prove his innocence - and rekindled his love with Channing's sister Kelly (Robin Wright). Over the course of the soap's run, almost every major character was accused of the murder or found their life involved in it one way or the other.
Nothing like a dramatic wedding to end any soap opera. At BJ (Sydney Penny) and Warren’s (Jack Wagner) wedding on January 15, 1993, unstable Andi Klein (Krista Tesreau) aimed a gun at the wedding guests, but was taken down and carried away by Connor McCabe (Charles Grant), who also ended up with Kelly Capwell (Eileen Davidson). Sophia (Judith McConnell) and C.C. Capwell (Jed Allan) moved towards making things work. At the end of the episode, viewers were left with the image of executive producer Paul Rauch smashing a cigar under his shoe and walking away.
Show creators and executive producers Bridget and Jerome Dobson were locked out of NBC studios in 1988 after repeated attempts to fire the head writer. They sued and were eventually allowed to return to the program. Louise Sorel was fired in 1991 because she did not want her character Augusta to have a romance with the man who had raped her character's sister.
Santa Barbara trivia:
* Won 24 Daytime Emmy Awards.
* When Augusta Lockridge (Louise Sorel) was blinded in a tunnel collapse, president Ronald Reagan sent her a letter saying he and Nancy were praying for her.
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