Ciné Télé Revue, 1988

The television market is in perpetual movement in the United States and its surprises are often rich in lesson. In a few years, New World Television, the company which finances Santa Barbara, thus became the third most important production company behind Universal (which produces Miami Vice) and Lorimar (Dallas). In 1985, its incomes amounted to 12 million dollars. Today, they exceed the 100 million dollars. The company is also at the origin of some very ambitious mini-series like Les Griffes du Destin (with Joan Collins) and Queenie (with Kirk Douglas), and has just repurchased the airing rights on syndication of Highway to Heaven, the show with Michael Landon.

But the rapid success of New World Television is a paradoxical phenomenon which causes curiosity for the professionals. Because, except Santa Barbara, rare are the shows of the company which became "hits" and which beats records in the ratings : Crime Story stagnates on NBC, Sledge Hammer ! is a defeat on ABC and Once a Hero was already canceled on the same network. Without forgetting the mini-series Monte Carlo beaten in all the surveys. How thus to explain the increasing and spectacular benefits ?

In fact, New World Television is distinguished from the others by its originality and its concern of making economies where they can be made without touching to the quality of a show. Originality first : the company is, for example, the first one to have thought of creating a TV show on the Vietnam war. And Tour of Duty is becoming the event of the year. Even if it does not go well in the surveys, Sledge Hammer !, a kind of parody of the character of Inspector a.k.a. Clint Eastwood, brought a new tone in TV shows. And the owners of New World Television are persuaded that this originality will end up by paying when the televiewers will get tired of the traditional shows.

But the directives of the company are the economies that the giants of the profession do not always manage to impose. It is difficult, from one day to the following day, to make admit to J.R. that his expenses will not be completely paid back any more or that the shooting of Dallas will be made in less expensive places. At New World Television, on the other hand, the team of Santa Barbara was reduced from 80 to 50 actors, the expensive action scenes were eliminated and the shootings are frequently done apart from Hollywood and even beyond the borders of the United States where the salaries are less expensive. To reduce the expenses, the company has no publicity department and hires workers affiliated to less expensive trade unions.

Lastly, New World Television does not hesitate to lose a little money at the beginning if there is the possibility of earning more afterwards. Recently, Universal refused to shoot Crime Story for NBC. New World accepted it, knowing very well that this show would not bring back to it one dollar in the first months, but that it had all the chances to be aired on the local stations and to be sold in the foreign countries. It is necessary to know how to calculate the risks...

 Télé Star, 1988

Fifty-three million dollars ! This is the considerable addition that Bridget and John Dobson, the creators of Santa Barbara, claim to the company New World and the network NBC, that they accuse to have hired a team of writers to replace them. Since January 1989, the creators of the show are excluded from the scenarios and do not have any supervisory powers. They started a lawsuit which makes much noise in the American television world. While all that, Santa Barbara could know some problems of imagination for the next episodes.