Santa Barbara celebrates its fifth birthday !
By Joan Mac Trevor, Ciné Télé Revue, 1989	Home   Cette page en Français

This Sunday July 30th, Santa Barbara will enter in its sixth year. Admittedly not a record in the history of American soaps, but a remarkable ascent, insofar as, began in the indifference in the United States, in 1984, it has just won, for the second consecutive time, the award of the best daytime soap of the year. To this success slowly torn off from a skeptic public opinion, Europe and France in particular, is not foreign. The success gained from the start the show on this side of Atlantic reflected soon in the United-States, where one started to convince oneself that if Santa Barbara had such an amount of success in France it is because there was probably a reason.

In five years, many actors crossed Santa Barbara, others settled there and are not ready to leave it. Many couples also destroyed themselves, others formed or are going to separate. Such is the life of a daytime soap, copied on reality and dependent to the moods and the sudden starts of the own life of its protagonists and its writers.

When the show began the conquest of the public in 1984, four families shared the intrigue with equal parts : the Capwells and the Lockridges, of course, but also the Perkins and the Andrades, of more modest social status, and whose presence was intended to make counterweight to the confrontation between the Lockridges and the Capwells. The center of interest of this first season was the return of Joe Perkins, that a presumption of crime had led in prison and who was languished to prove his innocence and to regain Kelly, his lover. As a first season could not finish without natural catastrophe, it was the earthquake which, extremely by the way, shook California and killed some residents.

The season 1985 began with one strong moment : the return of Sophia, disguised as a man, and who will soon appear as the author of the murder imputed to Joe. Rehabilitated, Joe could marry his Kelly, while Mary DuVall fell in love with Mason, and the police officer Cruz of Eden Capwell. But, when Cruz had the awkwardness of suspect Eden of attempt at attack on the person of her father, the young woman threw herself in the arms of the opportunist Kirk and married him.

While, even separated, Eden and Cruz reached gradually the row of star-couple, a new girl appeared in 1986 in Santa Barbara : Courtney, who was not going to be long in falling in love with Pearl. Meanwhile, liberated of the love which linked him to Eden, Cruz accepted to marry his ex-mistress, Santana, for the backup of her child. Kirk confounded, the following season will see the reunion of the couple Eden-Cruz and the birth of a new love between Ted and Hayley, Gina's niece, while Sophia and C.C. Capwell will get married. As for Mason, the appearance of the lawyer Julia Wainwright will make him turn the head like never...

While the characters of Santa Barbara caracole with two seasons in advance in the United States, Kirk always remains unpunished in Europe. The two next years will not miss of bounces and, just reward of the things, the love of Cruz and Eden will find its prolongation in Europe. A courtesy that the producers and writers of the most celebrated daytime soap willingly offer to these French fans who contributed to their longevity.