This is finished for A Martinez
By Isabelle Caron, Télé 7 Jours, 1992	Home   Cette page en Français

Here is again an episode that the producers of Santa Barbara would not have dared to imagine ! A Martinez comes to announce to them that he was going to be obliged to give up the part of Cruz in July, at the end of the eighth year, in the show that TF1 airs in France. After Robin Wright and Marcy Walker, gone for other roles, the producers know that this sudden departure can be fatal to Santa Barbara, whereas TV shows are at the mercy of the channels revolution.

For A Martinez, it is not a surprising decision. For a long time he dreamed to change of TV universe not to be labelled for life "Cruz in Santa Barbara". He already entrusted it to us in 1988 when Télé 7 Jours had invited him in Paris. Steven Bochco, the creator-producer of L.A. Law, had just to propose to A Martinez a role of lawyer, in this other success show, so that his decision is very quickly made. He even signed his contract in the greatest secrecy not to retrogress, knowing that he would be proposed a lot of money against the insurance to stay in Santa Barbara. A Martinez does not have the intention to betray his faithful fans while renouncing to Cruz : "I know that they will understand me and that they will watch me in L.A. Law, where I have already, in 1991, played a killer in an episode." He cannot however deny that this "bomb" in the universe of the American soaps falls at a very bad time. He has indeed just shot the key scenes of the new big love story of Santa Barbara, whose Cruz is the hero with the new Kelly, that is to say Eileen Davidson, deserter from The Young and the Restless.

The writers had a hard time to recover from the departure of Marcy Walker and thus of Eden, Cruz's wife in Santa Barbara. After having made live to him a short affair with Suzanne, Eden's childhood friend, then having made him divorce Eden (by letter !), they hit a big blow while letting get close Cruz and his sister-in-law, Kelly... But so that this attraction is not too fast, they let Cruz find again Jodie, a friend of youth of Santa Barbara. The time of a short hesitation full of suspense, which led him right in Kelly's arms. For hot scenes quite never seen yet in Santa Barbara. The place : a beach reconstituted in a studio !

At every love story in Santa Barbara, the network NBC launches a survey towards the televiewers : whereas the Suzanne-Cruz love story had been badly perceived, for Kelly-Cruz, it is a plebiscite. The producers thus try by all ways to keep their precious actor. A Martinez proposed to them the "last chance solution". That they arrange to him a "special" timetable with, every week, two days of shooting for Santa Barbara and three days for L.A. Law. However, that seems impossible, would be this only on the technical level. A Martinez will leave Cruz with regret, the one he calls "my brother of heart". A Martinez is not at the end of his dreams yet. He shot in several TV pilots which, if they are accepted by the networks, will be shot next year. At 43 years old, he did not finish making talk about him !