By Isabelle Caron, Télé 7 Jours, 1988

Marcy Walker, all smiling in her clothing style Annie Hall (those weared by Diane Keaton, in Woody Allen's movie), speaks about the baby she is waiting for and regrets the absence of her companion, the cameraman Stephen Collins : "I would have liked as well as you you could meet him." She says to suffer from faintnesses, like any pregnant woman, especially the morning, which obliges her to leave the shootings : "I cause delays but, my baby passes above all."

In the garden of the old villa of the actor Don Ameche, seen in Cocoon, in full center of Encino, in the suburbs of Los Angeles, one celebrates the 4th anniversary of Santa Barbara. Each actress or actor who arrives, must sign on a large table, a kind of giant gold book which will mark the event. I sacrifice to the tradition, under the glance of Jill Farren Phelps. The executive producer announces to me that one also celebrates the Emmy gained, this year, by Santa Barbara." We are the best daytime soap for the year 1987."

Robin Wright, who left the show, made a point of being there. "I am happy to find all my friends, with whom I spent four marvellous years. I do not regret having given up the role of Kelly Capwell. I totally launched out in cinema and I am very happy." She however refuses to evoke her projects. "I am here to celebrate the success of Santa Barbara, not mine. But, say to the French televiewers, who continue to write to me, that I do not forget them and that they will see me again on the big screens very soon."

Jed Allan, the patriarch, who plays C. C. Capwell (he is the 5th actor to interpret this role), wonders whether he will be invited in France like A Martinez. "I want to go to Paris", he says while laughing. Kimberly McArthur, who replaced Robin Wright in the role of Kelly Capwell, is there, and presents to me the man of his life, the actor Greg Champion, son of the famous actor-dancers, Marge and Gower Champion. "I have the impression to have always been one of the members of this nice family", she explains. Todd McKee (Ted Capwell) arrived with Katie Johson, a top-model who officiates in Paris. "I intend to go to visit her", Todd swears, who remembers with happiness his last voyage in the French capital. Robin Mattson (Gina) is there with her friend, Robert Nau.

There are heroins and heroes everywhere, to make jealous the 22% of faithful ones who, each evening, watch Santa Barbara, on TF1. Members of the new Donnelly family, for example. The father, Arthur, played by Jon Cypher, the son, a priest, Father Michael Donnelly (Frank Runyeon) and the daughter, Doctor Heather Donnelly (Jane Rogers). Jane Rogers was accompanied by the actor Daniel Rojo, who will make a film with Kevin Costner. Frank Runyeon followed his wife, Anne, who has just had her third child... A Martinez is there too, with his wife, Leslie. "I will never forget the cordial greeting of Télé 7 Jours and all my French admirers." The producers benefit from it to recall me that they did not forget the project to hire a French actor, speaking English, for a role in the show. As for the French people of the town of Santa Barbara, they organized a festival and, as Jacques Chirac had noted it by receiving A Martinez at the town hall of Paris, they know, than in France, Santa Barbara is one of the shows the most followed.

"My family, in France, thinks that we cross Cruz, Kelly and Eden in the streets, entrusted to me a Marseillais. Then, lots of French from Santa Barbara, who did not watch the show, settle now in front of their television. Our family in France wants to know where we are arrived, here, since the airing, in France, has two years late. They want to know if Kelly married Joe, if Mason will return... We tell them everything and they tell it to their neighbors." All the French people who live in Santa Barbara know that this show does not show the real life of the inhabitants of the town. "Yes, we have the beach, a beautiful weather, a superb Spanish decoration, splendid houses, but contrary to the Capwells and the Lockridges, we work hard. In France, you have a false image of the life in Santa Barbara. But so much worse, this show made our small city very famous, and it is the main point !"

The writers of Santa Barbara prepare new surprises. Eden and Cruz frequently dispute and threaten each one to divorce. Kelly, who had asked officially for the divorce, decided to stay with Jeffrey, plunged in coma after a fight. A real Dallas !