Together in their fantasies
By Susan Morse, Soap Opera Digest, 1987	Home   Cette page en Français

Once again, Santa Barbara's Eden (Marcy Walker) and Cruz (A Martinez) decided to get married. And, once again, they didn't. When Cruz was called out of town on police business unexpectedly, Eden flew ahead to Utah (the wedding site). A mysterious woman (Sherilyn Wolter), intent on destroying the couple's plans, followed Eden, threw her off a cliff and left her for dead. Seriously injured, Eden was discovered by a mountain man, Cain (Scott Jaeck), who brought her to his cabin to recover. Back in Santa Barbara, Cruz mourned Eden's "death". In the ensuing weeks, Cruz had a recurring fantasy in which Eden called out to him as he tried in vain to get to her. Eden, too, fantasized about being reunited with Cruz, though they always turned ugly when she thought of how she'd be a burden to him now that she was paralyzed from the waist down.

Santa Barbara supervising producer Steve Kent, who accompanied the actors and crew to Utah to shoot these sequences, remembers the experience : "We made a lot of phone calls asking, "Where's the snowiest place in the world ?" We ended up in Snowbird, Utah, where the snow was four feet deep, it was freezing and we had to wear special snow shoes so we wouldn't sink. We told the actors not to sneak off and go skiing because we were afraid they'd break a leg or something. Things were going smoothly until we were ready to shoot and A was missing. He had been a bad boy. We found him skiing."

A few weeks later, Marcy, A and Scott went on location to shoot Cruz's farewell-to-Eden scenes. In the story, Cruz arrived in Utah in an effort to let go of Eden; to say good-bye. He ended up at a lake, only yards away from Eden - though he never found her. Once again, Cruz and Eden had fantasies in which they were reunited. The site used for these scenes was Franklin Canyon Lake (nestled in the Hollywood Hills of California), which has served as a setting for many television shows. It's probably most recognizable as the lake seen in the opening shots of The Andy Griffith Show. Though the actors didn't have contend with freezing temperatures this time, they did have to plunge into the chilly water. For Marcy, who has been subjected to many natural terrors over the past two and a half years on the soap, the dip was a breeze. "As long as I have A by my side, I can keep all of this in perspective," she says. For the crew, they were faced with the unusual demands of locating a tame eagle and several cooperative butterflies.

While this was taking place, Robin Wright (Kelly) and Ross Kettle (Jeffrey) were shooting their own fantasy sequence. In their story, Kelly and Jeffrey were stranded at the lighthouse during a storm. Picking up on Kelly's bad mood, Jeffrey imagined a romantic setting, complete with candle-lighted dinner and violinist. Kelly was delighted and got caught up in his fantasy. Afterwards, the two declared their love, for the first time.