In the wings of the shooting of Santa Barbara
By Joan Mac Trevor, Ciné Télé Revue, 1987	Home   Cette page en Français

The authentic city of Santa Barbara is at 140 kilometers from here. Regularly, a team makes the journey to shoot there in natural sites some scenes of the show which made become famous in the whole world this town in border of the sea, in South California. The televiewers were not really a lot of to follow the network NBC by this nice sunny afternoon of July 30, 1984 when for the first time on the screen the Capwell family and the Lockridge clan presented themselves. Santa Barbara will celebrate soon its three years and, like the two precedents, the birthday cake will have the taste of victory. In the United States, Santa Barbara undoubtedly still gained more than one million of new fans this last year, and some places in the classification of the daytime soaps. Elsewhere, some other countries were reached by this fever which touches, in France for example, more televiewers than the News of 8 p.m. !

It is in Burbank, not very far from the famous Walt Disney studios, that Santa Barbara centered its headquarters. Impossible to miss the immense building of NBC, 3000 Alameda road, West of the city. In the center of the building, the network especially created for Santa Barbara a studio to the dimension of its success : 1800 m2, the largest ever conceived for a daytime soap. In the mazes of the studio 11, where is accomplished every day the exploit to record half an hour of spectacle, a wind of madness blows. A technician runs in the corridor, avoiding with suppleness a group of known faces, plunged in the reading of a dense scenario while waiting for their turn in front of the make-up workshop. A girl with splendid fair hair raises the head for one moment and lets see the irresistible blue look of Eden Capwell. "Hi, Ciné-Revoûw !", says Marcy Walker "I am glad to see you again. You know, since the interview we made together, I do not stop receiving letters from Europe. I did not believe that our Santa Barbara was so famous over there...! Do you come to see Bridget ? It is upstairs".

Bridget Dobson is the big boss of Santa Barbara. She directs since the beginning this soap of which she imagined all the characters with her husband, Jerry. Bridget Dobson bathes in the soap-opera since her childhood (her parents created another success of the American TV, General Hospital, today, irony of the fate, direct competitor of Santa Barbara). And she gave the taste of it to her husband, a former soldier reconverted into the production of nuts ! "My husband and me have a house in Santa Barbara, on the Californian coast. And the idea of the show came to us while thinking that it would be perhaps amusing to put in scene all the eccentric characters, uncouth and completely extraordinary we were surrounded of."

Since that, the Dobsons gave up their tiring shuttle between Santa Barbara and Burbank : 300 kilometers each day. They live today in Bel-Air, appreciably closer to the studio 11. Before her former neighbors inspire Santa Barbara to her, Bridget Dobson had accumulated more than twenty years of experiment as a writer to the service of some great soaps of the American television. Even if this mother of two big children, Mary and Andrew, works in the shade of the wings of Santa Barbara, she does not have anything to envy in charm and elegance to the stars of the show. "In fact, half of my personal wardrobe is inspired of Santa Barbara. I completely trust Richard Blewer, the private costume designer of the show. He deals with the purchases and keeps an eye on the arrivals of the most beautiful fashion shops."

The experiment of television learned to Bridget Dobson that the charm and the force of seduction of the characters are one of the basic ingredients of a success soap recipe. "The first thing is to bring together captivating characters. Then, the story comes itself. It must create the emotion on all levels and to hit in the heart all the generations, so that each televiewer finds himself in it and feels himself close to the characters. You thus need this starting idea, and also the confidence of the network, which must obligatory believe in you without to have seen the finished product. Fortunately, in what we are concerned, the current vice-president of NBC had worked six years with us before occupying this function. We thus had a significant ally in the place. The agreement was only a formality. Then, we worked during one year to work out a central topic around of which the various episodes were going to be articulated, to develop the characters, to look for the actors".

The selection of the actors is particularly significant for the success of a soap-opera. "I believe that they must be among the best actors you can find because they need a great storage capacity. Some actors of Santa Barbara must assimilate until 30 pages per night to be on the stage the following day. I do not know how they reach that point, but the dialogue of each character must be returned except for the word. I will never hire an actor because he is simply pretty. I first want an actor who can play. But if he can play, it is quite as essential that he has sex-appeal. The viewers must be able to fall in love with him. Sex is what motivates people. It is necessary to take care of it. Good actors are like rare pearls. Moreover, it is necessary to hold during several years the attention of the public. New faces are necessary to give oxygen to the show, to give it a new dash and to make rebound the action. We thus try to maintain the interest of the televiewer while preserving the spinal column of the story : the Capwells and the Lockridges. Besides the regular arrival of new characters makes only reflect what occurs in life !"

Sometimes the chance comes to contribute to give to Santa Barbara an additional perfume of authenticity. The very same day where was shot the famous scenes of the earthquake, a real shake (fortunately much less fatal) made vibrate the Santa Barbara houses ! But, no matter what happens, it is necessary to ensure the televiewer his daily episode. That supposes an impressive team, an infernal work rhythm and a rigorous discipline. Behind her smiles, Bridget Dobson has a certain authority. Whatever the qualities of the actors, in a soap-opera, there is no place for the whims of a diva. "I believe that an actor who takes the time to talk with the writer to try to improve or modify the psychology of the character is already sufficiently impregnated of his role so that we can care of his opinion. But this is not for this reason that I am necessarily agree with his proposals."

Until recently, Bridget Dobson, in addition to her producing tasks, still wrote herself many scenarios. But, overbooked, she had to leave to others the charge of her "child". "Since January, my husband and me passed let that work to other writers. Permanently, there are ten writers at the whole disposal of the show : three who have the responsability to guide the story and to trace the broad outline of it, seven or eight who fill the blanks and equip the skeleton. During a too long time, I was frustrated to work all alone on the scenario writing. I like the contacts too much. Also, I am perfectly in my element on a film set. Some days, I feel terribly proud of Santa Barbara and of its radiation throughout the world. Some other days, I would like to throw my car against a tree, so much I am disappointed of the work of the day. At these times, I pray the sky that none of my friends has the idea to follow the episode on television... But disappointments are rare".

...And enthusiasm is the rule in the team of Santa Barbara. Everyone feels there in family. And the news makes apparently quickly the turn of it. The seducing Nicolas Coster decided for the next holidays to come to see the Old continent again (he was born in England). "I want to make the turn of Europe. Do you have any addresses ? It appears that people know Santa Barbara well over there. Like Marcy, I received a lot of letters..."