Santa Barbara report card : where it's been and where it's going
By Ellen Byron, Soap Opera Digest, 1985	Home   Cette page en Français

A little year ago, heralded by the kind of hype and hoopla television hadn't seen since Prince Charles and Princess Di's wedding, NBC unveiled its glamorous new entry in the soap sweeptakes, Santa Barbara. Scheduled in a time slot that had already spelled death for a number of shows, including Texas, the eager newcomer faced a very tough challenge : could this be the show to save NBC's ailing daytime lineup ? Would it steal precious viewers from its two formidable opponents, General Hospital and Guiding Light ? Would it maybe even knock General Hospital from its number one soap perch ? The tension was worthy of the best daytime cliffhanger !

Even now, it's too soon to predict the final outcome of the General Hospital-Guiding Light-Santa Barbara soap wars, but the one thing looks certain. Santa Barbara has survived the chaos and craziness that goes hand-in-hand with mounting a new daytime series, and may yet cut a formidable swath in its time period.

"I think it has gone from a show that was looking to forge an identity as a different kind of show, to a show that as achieved that goal" declares NBC daytime executive Brian Frons. Yet even he admits the show started out on shaky ground. "We all underestimated the physical nuts and bolts problems of launching an hour show, "he shares, "the problems of recruiting a large writing staff, cast and production crew, and finding people of quality to fill those roles. When we first started, I don't think we quite hits our goals."

For any soap, year one is always the toughest. First, viewers from other shows must be lured into sampling the new entry. Then they must get hooked on the series so they become faithful fans. Frons honestly assesses the biggest crisis Santa Barbara faced. "The biggest problem in the beginning was that the show wasn't good," he states. "If I had the chance to do it over again, I would not have put it on for several months, and fixed it off-screen."

Actor A Martinez (Cruz Castillo) vividly recalls the stress of Santa Barbara's early days. "At the beginning, we were facing a nearly impossible task," he sighs. "We had been hyped so much that the implication was this would be some amazing show right from the start. You can't ask human beings to start from zero and hit that kind of speed in a hurry. The pressure was ridiculous. You'd walk into this building, and you could cut it (the tension) with a knife. It was so intense that it was very difficult to do the kind of work you'd like to do, because you couldn't relax enough."

Santa Barbara also had to cope with several casting calamities. Disaster first struck only days after the show entered production. Lloyd Bochner (ex-Cecil Colby, Dynasty), the original C.C. Capwell, was felled by a heart attack and had to be replaced instantly. Peter Mark Richman filled in temporary while the producers tries desperately to find their ideal C.C.. Actor Paul Burke replaced Richman, but he wasn't comfortable with the rigors of daytime television, so the producers let him go and finally settled on veteran soap star, Charles Bateman. "It was tense at times, with three different daddies,' remembers Robin Wright, who plays C.C.'s beautiful young daughter, Kelly. "It was hard to walk up to someone else the next day. But we re welcoming, and we accept anybody. It's more a matter of the of the others getting used to us."

The show ran into trouble with two other featured roles, Santana Andrade and Joe Perkins. "In the case of Santana and Joe, we just felt that the characters did not come off the screen as originally envisioned by the Dobsons (creators of Santa Barbara)," explains executive Frons. Santana was sent out of the town while the producers searched for a new actress to fill the part. Mark Arnold, a former Edge of Night heartthrob, replaced Dane Witherspoon as Joe Perkins. The Joe Perkins / Kelly Capwell romance was slated to be the show's hottest storyline and the recasting of the part, followed by the character's demise, came as a shock to viewers. According to Frons, Joe's death had nothing to do with the quality of Mark Arnold's work. The problem was that the actor had only agreed to a short-term contract. As Santa Barbara's executive producers, Mary Ellis Bunim elaborates, "when Mark decides to exercise his option (and leave the show), we decided to terminate the character and open Kelly up to new stories and new romances."

The constant stream of personnel changes, both in the cast and crew, took its tool on other Santa Barbara regulars. "I find myself going through tremendous emotional changes when there are character and executive changes," comments Louise Sorel, who has portrayed the delightful Augusta Lockridge since the show's debut. "All of that has a huge effect, because you've just gotten to know something and suddenly, it's foreign to you. And you have to make such fast adjustments. You're trying to concentrate on one thing while twenty different things are going on. It gets very chaotic. It's like there's an explosion, and then the dust settles and you have to recoup."

Fortunately, by the beginning of this year, the dust at Santa Barbara finally started to settle. The show's first priority was hiring an experienced producer who would bring to the series the kind of daytime expertise it so desperately needed. "There's not a long line of producers who are willing to give up jobs on other show to come over and take a shot at an hour show in a very hard period," Brian Frons wryly points out. "Remember, NBC had launched three or four shows in this same time period and they'd failed. We finally got lucky because Mary Ellis Bunim's contract was up on As The World Turns." The courageous Bunim who, in addition, was once at the helm at Search For Tomorrow, jumped at the challenge. With her arrival, things at NBC's gorgeous new 18 000 square foot Studio 11, built especially for Santa Barbara, immediately began looking up. Not only was Bunim an accomplished daytime pro, her addition to the staff also reunited an extremely successful daytime team. "She and the Dobsons probably did some of their best work even on As The World Turns when I was there at CBS as a program exec," Brian Frons declares.

Under Bunim's watchful eye, Santa Barbara has found its own distinctive style. "We've gone for a very glamorous, modern California look," states Frons. The sets are sleek and sumptuous, the atmosphere of the entire show is elegant and sophisticated. At long last, the Dobsons were able to woo terrific writers to the Santa Barbara stable, and now many scenes crackle with emotion and wit, a quality rarely found on daytime television. Says producer Bunim, "I think what sets this show apart, and what we're trying to capitalize on, is a "contemporariness" that other shows don't have, or have to a lesser degree. It's the fans, the spirit, the irreverence - mixed in, of course, with the basic tenets of good, solid emotional storytelling. It's an interesting blend of very hot romance, emotional situations, and the interaction of love-hate relationships. The fun and zaniness of Lionel and Augusta, the fun and zaniness of Mason. It's an unpredictable show."

Unpredictable is right. Who would have thought that Lionel and Augusta, Santa Barbara's haughtiest duo, would become so endearing ? Or that Mason Capwell would turn into a sexy, witty and irresistible villain ? This upstart show is proving itself a leader at putting unusual characters and relationships on the front burner, and is committed to taking daring storyline chances. When a long-lost Sophia Capwell resurfaced, she was disguised as a man. Kelly Capwell, still hurting from her husband's death, is slowly finding new romance with vulnerable and older Vietnam Vet, Nick Hartley. A new blue-collar family, the DuValls, has emerged, and the tarty, teasing, yet abused Christie charged an innocent Ted Capwell with rape. Brick Wallace has helped unravel a baby-switching mystery with Amy Perkins. But what about the Mexican-American storyline the network made so much noise about when the show debuted ? Although it went on the back burner for several months, it's gaining focus with Santana's return to town and her custody battle for her son Brandon, and the growing importance of the romance between Cruz Castillo and Eden Capwell. Says A Martinez firmly, "For my money, they took an Hispanic character and thrust him into a extremely important position on the show. To me, that's more important than telling a story about how different a Mexican family is. I think their commitment is beyond question."

The mood on the Santa Barbara set reflects the show's burgeoning success. Actors, crew members, and administration staffers hug each other affectionately as they pass in the hallways. "Everyone gets along so well. It's like a big family," reports Robin Wright. There are frequent parties and cast get-togethers. As the ratings climb and fan mail increases, so does the excitement of everyone involved with the show. Says Marcy Walker, who left the popular series All My Children to take on the role of heroine Eden Capwell, "When I first started, it was really difficult to handle. You get used to things working a certain way. On All My Children, at the most, I worked three days a week on the show, and that's when I had a really hot storyline. Here, we work long hours. But it's gotten better. The show has gone through a lot of changes, but I think they needed to do that, they needed to have the mistakes in order to find what they wanted. It's about them going through the process to get where All My Children is now. The things that go wrong don't matter as such as when something really good will happen, like the ratings will go up, or there'll be a picture of Robin or A in a magazine. You'll get really excited."

As more and more viewers get hooked on Santa Barbara, everyone on the show is finding their popularity increasing. Louise Sorel has one funny anecdote about being recognized in the least likely of circumstances. "I was buying hamburgers at McDonald's. It was seven o'clock at night, and I was wearing dark sunglasses and a hat. Suddenly a guy came up to me and said, "It's Augusta Lockridge ! What are you doing here ?!" He couldn't adjust to the idea of Augusta Lockridge going into McDonald's !"

A Martinez is somewhat discomfited by the hysteria his sexy character has started to inspire. "I've had people start screaming at me in the streets of Westwood," he reports with amazement. "In fact, I'm a little shy to go there on weekends now. It's strange to think that if I like to do that, I may have to reconsider." A has discovered from friends and fans that, "there seems to be a sense that we are (up and) coming, and that we're the one to watch. The percentage of people who check out this show and get hooked is astronomical, if my feedback from the real world is any indication. It seems like if you give this show a chance, it's got you."

And, although NBC has struck out on previous attempts to inaugurate a new soap opera, Santa Barbara's future looks fairly bright. The network seems to be behind the show 100 percent. Brian Frons reports, "we have the support of this company up to, and including, Mr. Tinker (Grant Tinker, Chairman of the board), who at an affiliate meeting, made it very clear that the network has a long-term commitment to making "a success." Nicolas Coster (Lionel Lockridge), veteran of countless daytime leading roles, including stints on Another World and One Life To Live, theorizes, "Every show I've been on that really went for quality, got somewhere. If Santa Barbara keeps interesting actors and writers, I think it will steadily climb and become one of the biggest shows on television. So, I would say, watch out General Hospital and Guiding Light - we're coming !"