Santa Barbara : wings, dramas and mysteries

 By Isabelle Caron, Télé 7 Jours, 1989

 Home   Cette page en Français  

Do you want to take Mason Capwell for husband ? Yes answers tenderly Gina. But suddenly Mason, the son of the terrible C.C. Capwell collapses. Somebody, hidden among the guests, has just shot him. Gina precipitates like Jackie Kennedy at the time of the Dallas attack. It is the panic and, very quickly, the injured one will be transported to the nearest hospital. In the coma... Stop ! says the director in his micro since a cabin from where he supervises the shooting. While waking up, Lane Davies smiles : "The producers and the writers of Santa Barbara are the most imaginative that I met. They always manage to surprise us." Debbie Bachtell, who is charged to coordinate all the production, approves : "Our success is due, above all, to this art of rebounce which we require from them and also to the actors who really became the heroes they play at the point to have difficulties to get rid of them !"

Robin Mattson, who plays the role of Gina, the young tearful wife, in dress and heels, has great difficulty to walk in the vast studios of the network NBC, located at the heart of Los Angeles... "My dress is splendid." As for the weddings of Kelly-Robin Wright and Eden-Marcy Walker, the producers asked Richard Bloore, their designer, to draw a dress of dream, with pink satin, embroidered with satin, spangles and little pearls with a train of ten meters long : "He chose the western style, said Robin, since Mason takes himself for a cow-boy. I have the shoulders naked as in saloons..."

Thousands of costumes

Richard Bloore, the costumier, in his cave where he permanently keeps more than 1.000 dresses and costumes and 300 pairs of shoes. "When we have seen them too much, we offer them to fundations. Sometimes the actors borrow them for an evening or a trip. A Martinez thus took me a smoking to go to France..."

This episode will not be aired, in France, before at least two years. In the United States, the network NBC proposed, these days, the 1150th episode whereas TF1 is only at the 400th one. With 25 % of ratings, this network unearthed a soap-star become a real society phenomenon. A survey of the very serious French institute Médiamétrie classified it favorite show of the 8-16 years old children, but the Santa Barbara passion reaches a public from 7 to 77 years old and all the social conditions : "In the whole world too, explains Mary Andersen, the press coordinator... Our bulky mail shows it. We had to engage three secretaries to help the actors to answer it..."

Lane Davies, the hero of the day, thus receives until 100 letters per day, of which a lot from France : "Undoubtedly, he says, because I am a complicated character, almost insane by moments. With me everything can arrive." He belongs in any case to the family by whom everything arrived : the Capwells. It was enough, indeed, that Channing, C.C. Capwell's son dies in strange circumstances so that two clans tear : the Capwells and the Lockridgse. In a universe more pitiless than in Dallas, but where love is always the strongest.

Dominic Messinger, director of the music in his studio : "I compose some tunes and I take some famous songs."

Before arriving there, how many complications. Thus Mason, by marrying Gina, marries the ex-wife of his father : "I even was, said Robin Mattson, Mrs. C.C. Capwell twice. We divorced and get married again." Mason is the son of the first marriage of C.C. Capwell with Pamela. C.C., divorced with Pamela, married Sophia (Judith McConnell). With Sophia, C.C. has another son, Ted played by Todd McKee and two daughters Eden Capwell, the beautiful Marcy Walker, and Kelly Capwell, played by Robin Wright then Kimberly McArthur...

Originally Mason was to marry Julia Wainwright, with who he has a daughter, Samantha. But suddenly in front of the priest, Julia said not ! To be avenged to have surprised him the day before in Gina's arms. Mason suffers, indeed, of split personality and believes from time to time to be Sonny Sprocket, a cow-boy, hero of his childhood. "When I am Sonny, I hate my father C.C. Capwell because at the age of 6, he forced me to remove my cow-boy costume I loved so much." Then Mason-Sonny decides to be avenged. He discovers that in C.C.'s enterprises, a chemical caused the death of twelve workmen. They all suffered from a cancer. He steals, then in C.C.'s lawyer's safe, the evidence and resells them to his father for 10 million dollars. Furious, C.C. threatens to remove from Gina, he suspects of being at the origin of this blackmail, the guard of her adoptive son. Gina thus decides to marry Mason and succeeds in it... The Capwells attend the ceremony to try to prevent it and it is there that appears the mysterious gunner. "It is very simple, says Lane Davies while turning the pages of his scenario to go back in memory the following scene. And it is necessary to go quickly..." Here we play 43 minutes of dream per day. In the United States,  it is indeed the duration of each episode, which lasts one hour advertising included : "It is thus necessary to shoot one episode per day, explains Debbie Bachtell and everything must be regulated at the exact minute."

Five scenario writers on line

Five scenario writers work exclusively for Santa Barbara, helped of many "ideas givers". They witness all the shootings to better see their heroes living and then to write the next episodes "on line", by listening very often the reflexions of each actor. Each episode is shot three weeks before its airing and is submitted before to a "critical sequence".

The cameras are repositioned and on a stretcher, very sick, Lane Davies moves away towards the hospital, in fact towards the wings. At 8 p.m. everything stops and the actors greet me, starting with A Martinez who explains : "I must wake up early tomorrow morning and learn my text before getting asleep !" Debbie Bachtell, who regards all the actors of Santa Barbara as her family, tries to make them the easier life : "If one of them plays in the first scene early in the morning, I avoid giving him also the last scene in the evening so that his day is not too long."

Candidates for a role

A lot of young actresses, all lovely and really sexy, wait to be received by Barbara Claman, charged to choose the new "faces" of Santa Barbara : " We are looking for a lover for Dr. Scott Clark - a hero you do not know in France - to make his girlfriend jealous, also a doctor. We like this kind of "triangles" a lot in Santa Barbara. We ask the candidates to learn pages of dialogue they will play in front of us. The real audition, longer, will happen the following day. It is not enough to be beautiful to convince us."

Already, around us the decorators are being busy. Debbie shows them what they have to do during the night, to prepare, for example, the hospital room where will be nursed Mason Capwell, Kelly and Jeffrey's house and C.C. Capwell's office. Only Eden and Cruz's living room, where I settle with Debbie is permanent because each day, there is at least one scene played with them and at their home. The decorators never finish before the dawn when the first actors arrive. A real chain... I witness all these preparations by drinking coffee with the technicians.

Eden and Cruz's living room, the couple star of Santa Barbara, has been realized according to their plans. "We have the impression to be in our home", explain A Martinez and Marcy Walker. This one stops for three months, due to her baby.

At 3 a.m. arrives, also, the director of photography, Brian McRae. That is him who decides the day before, with the director who will film the episode of the following day - there are five directors, one per day - the exact place where will be held the actors : sat on the couch, upright on the terrace... He develops the intensity of the lighting : "It depends on the scene. A soft light for sadness, strong one if it is comic." Then, he returns to sleep for one hour or two before coming back to be ready for the first repetitions at 9.30 a.m.. The real shooting only takes place in the afternoon...

Carlos Yeaggy, the make-up man head, then welcomes me in the vast room he shares with his two assistants Dawn and John. He also has "a body make-up man" (arms, shoulders...) for the actresses only and two hairdressers. He is really mad about the heroins of Santa Barbara : "Marcy Walker, Kimberly McArthur and Nancy Grahn are so beautiful, have a so pure skin that they only need a very light make-up. Our men, from A Martinez to Jed Allan, all are very well tanned... That does not prevent me from using tons of powder. Under our great lightings, the actors do not stop perspiring. A big nose which shines on screen, it is ugly..." Carlos calls himself "the confessor" of all the heroes : "They speak to me a lot during the thirty minutes of daily make-up. I know their distresses, their sentimental problems. When they are sick, like Marcy Walker at the beginning of her pregnancy, I tell them jokes, gossips to make them smile."

Steve Nelson, the accessories supplier joins us. Here is a happy man. The only one, indeed, who do not complain about a budget by too limited : "I rent, I exchange and I buy with no limit ! I am the blessing of the producers." He shows me his cupboards filled until being unable to close them and I see crystal glasses, a splendid porcelain service from Limoges : "It is for the Capwells. The other families have some less beautiful ones ! They also have sheets in satin or cotton, it depends !" Steve Nelson is a former cook and that is him who prepares some dishes you see in Santa Barbara. "A Martinez is allergic to shells and everything that comes from the sea. When I serve lobster, I replace the flesh by chicken ! The difference can not be seen on screen. When the actors drink wine, it is grape juice and for champagne, I put cider ! Never strong alcohol during shooting." He also sometimes burns a turkey or a roast. Voluntarily. "The writers imagined that Gina was a bad cooker. Then I must get through their ideas..."

It is also him who distribute the various weapons to the heroes of the show : "Every evening, I close with keys the daggers and the revolvers. We never know ! It is besides me who learns them how to use them. And then, I change the flowers every day. With the lighting, they fade very quickly and all our plants are real. We refuse plastic..." The producers called him "Mr. Miracle" : "I find everything ! As well hundred butterflies for a scene with Eden as tarantulas or butterflies. I even rented Bubble, Michael Jackson's chimpanzee - who besides has been very capricious during the shooting, like his proprietor - a lion and a big pig. If one asks me tomorrow to find an alien, I will do it." In Santa Barbara, the imagination has always the power.

Impressive figures

The first episode of Santa Barbara has been aired on the network NBC in the United States on July 30, 1984 and since the show has been sold in the whole world, as well in Australia as in Zimbabwe. Each episode costs 400.000 dollars. Currently, the Americans can watch it from Monday to Friday from 2 to 3 p.m.. Santa Barbara won an Emmy award in 1987. There are 25 main actors whose pays remain very secret. They would be around 2.000 dollars per actor and per day.