Santa Barbara (TV series)

Santa Barbara
An image from the opening title sequence of Santa Barbara (introduced on July 30, 1984).
Genre	Soap opera
Created by	Bridget Dobson Jerome Dobson
Starring	Series cast
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of episodes	2137[1]
Production
Executive producer(s)	See here
Location(s)	NBC Studios Burbank, California
Running time	60 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Original run	July 30, 1984 – January 15, 1993

Santa Barbara is an American television soap opera, first broadcast in the United States on NBC on July 30, 1984, and last aired on January 15, 1993. The show revolved around the eventful lives of the wealthy Capwell family of Santa Barbara, California. Other prominent families featured on the soap were the rival Lockridge family, and the more modest Andrade and Perkins families.

The serial was co-produced by NBC and Dobson Productions until February 1985, when New World Pictures joined NBC and Dobson as a production partner. The newly created partnership, New World Television, then served as the distributor for the show.

NBC usually pitted the serial against General Hospital on ABC and Guiding Light on CBS in the same time slot across all markets.

When NBC canceled the long-running soap, Search for Tomorrow, in 1986, the network launched their "NBC Daytime... It Will Excite You" campaign, which aired their three-hour block of serials, Another World, followed by Santa Barbara, and ending with Days of our Lives in most markets across the U.S. This campaign led to NBC dominating the daytime serial ratings for the remainder of the 1980s.

Santa Barbara aired in over 40 countries around the world.^[2] The show's popularity continued to rise, and it even had fans in the White House. In 1985, when character Augusta Lockridge was blinded following a tunnel collapse, Ronald Reagan sent actress Louise Sorel a letter saying he and Nancy were praying for her and hoped she recovered.^[3] Santa Barbara has won 24 Daytime Emmy Awards and was nominated 30 times for the same award. The show also won 18 Soap Opera Digest Awards, and won various other awards.^[4]

In 1993, NBC replaced Santa Barbara with game shows Scrabble and Scattergories. Shortly before the program was canceled by NBC, New World Television tried to shop Santa Barbara to other broadcast and cable networks, but failed to find one that would air the show.

Plot

Santa Barbara was notable for having a central plot around which many of the others revolved: the murder of Channing Capwell, Jr. This killing takes place five years before the series actually begins, at which point Joe Perkins, jailed for the murder, is paroled and returns to Santa Barbara determined to prove his innocence and renew his relationship with Kelly Capwell, sister of the victim.^[5] Over the course of the soap, almost every major character would be accused of the murder of Channing Capwell, Jr. or find their life involved in it one way or the other: from his illegitimate son to his mysterious, presumed dead mother, and his homosexual relationship.

Production

Santa Barbara began on an uneven foot, with one reviewer deeming the series "the worst program on television... maybe ever." ^[6] However, creators and executive producers Bridget and Jerome Dobson tightened the show's cast among a handful of popular characters and proceeded to kill off or write out weaker links and supporting characters via a natural disaster and a serial killer storyline. When a major earthquake hit Santa Barbara,^[7] core character, Danny Andrade, slept through the entire thing. Minx Lockridge was unfazed, saying that the 1984 Santa Barbara earthquake was nothing like 1925. She was later locked into an empty sarcophagus. Luckily, her grandchildren were around to let her out and she escaped with merely a bruised ego.

The supercouple, Eden Capwell (Marcy Walker) and Cruz Castillo (A Martinez).

“	We think of having succeeded since we are today the only soap whose ratings increase unceasingly. The others stagnate or lose televiewers. We just have now to gain the head of the group. We have to reach this objective in seven years. However, our first purpose remains to tell attractive stories with rich characters to give pleasure to our public. The only way to get it : to still work harder by saving this marvellous team spirit which already saved us.	”
—Bridget and Jerome Dobson [8]

By concentrating on such popular characters as Eden Capwell and Cruz Castillo, C.C. Capwell and his wife Sophia, Mason Capwell and Julia Wainwright, Gina Blake Lockridge, Augusta Wainwright, and Lionel Lockridge, the program managed to achieve critical acclaim as well as slowly but surely rising ratings. The show was famous for its comedic style and offbeat writing. For example, in July 14, 1986's episode, former nun, Mary Duvall McCormick (Harley Jane Kozak), was killed by having a giant neon letter "C" (for "Capwell" atop the Capwell Hotel) topple on top of her while she was standing on the hotel roof during an argument atop the hotel (this was later referenced in the American Dad! episode "Homeland Insecurity"^[9]), and despite an irate letter-writing campaign by the show's fans (and an offer from the soap to come back), Kozak was reported as saying that she had "no desire to return to SB", or in fact, any other daytime soap. Another example from 1989 involved Greg Hughes (Paul Johansson) having a dream while unconscious about Mason and Julia being aliens and being taken to "The Capwell Zone".

Controversy

In 1988, the Dobsons were locked out of NBC studios after repeated attempts to fire the head writer. They sued, and were eventually allowed to return to the program, but the magic was gone. Ratings never recovered, even as the show won three Daytime Emmys in a row for Outstanding Drama Series. The first of those wins involved a mini-melodrama of its own as Jill Farren Phelps (who had replaced Mary-Ellis Bunim as executive producer) shared the stage with Bridget Dobson, who raced on stage and captured the trophy a few seconds before Phelps could reach the podium.

Under Phelps' tenure most of the show revolved around Cruz and Eden. One controversial storyline involved Eden being brutally raped, and later discovering that her assailant was her gynecologist Zack Kelton, who had examined her after her rape. Leigh McCloskey, the actor that portrayed the role, stated that he was uncomfortable with the storyline as he felt that women had enough concerns about visiting gynecologists. After Zack's death, McCloskey returned as a new character, cold District Attorney, Ethan Asher.

Phelps left the series in the early 1990s shortly after being demoted and replaced by John Conboy as executive producer. Finally, Paul Rauch became the last executive producer (interestingly, all three would later be producers on the long running daytime series Guiding Light). Many important actors had left the series for one reason or another. Robin Wright was the first to leave in 1988 to focus on her skyrocketing film career, and her newborn child with actor Sean Penn. Later, Justin Deas left in 1988 to pursue a career in prime time television and independent films before returning to soaps in 1993. Lane Davies left at the end of his contract in 1989 due to a stressful working relationship with actor, Nancy Lee Grahn, eventually getting picked up by The Bold and the Beautiful. Marcy Walker left in 1991 to pursue other interests before returning to daytime on other soaps. Popular actress, Louise Sorel, was fired in 1991 because she did not want to have a romance with Dash Nichols, the man who had raped Augusta's sister Julia. Eden, Cruz, and most of the Lockridges had been written out while new characters played by stars from other shows such as Kim Zimmer, Jack Wagner, and Sydney Penny, took up most of the airtime.

Ratings continued to collapse as more and more affiliates canceled the program. The final episode aired in January 1993. In the finale, Sophia and C.C. Capwell moved towards a reconciliation, Kelly found love with Connor McCabe, and at Warren and BJ's wedding, unbalanced Andie Klein aimed a gun at the crowd; however, she was quickly disarmed and carried away by Connor McCabe. This was then followed by a roll-call list of the cast and crew. The final shot consisted of executive producer Paul Rauch standing in front of the camera, smashing a cigar under his shoe, and walking away. Some soap critics, such as Michael Logan, were deeply angered by what they saw as the crassness of the final shot.

Cast and characters

Main article: List of Santa Barbara cast and characters

Cast on Christmas 1990
Cruz Castillo, Mack Blake, Eden Capwell, Julia Wainwright, Mason Capwell, Sasha Schmidt, Augusta Lockridge, C.C. Capwell, Kelly Capwell

Following common daytime drama practice, over the years the producers of Santa Barbara recast original characters multiple times. By the end of the series, almost every original long-running character had been recast, excluding only Eden, Cruz, Lionel, and Augusta. Out of those four, not one stayed with the show during through the entire run. The characters of Kelly and C.C. had the highest number of recasts, four. Some recasts proved successful, most notably Jed Allan (C.C. Capwell #4), Judith McConnell (Sophia Capwell #2) and Robin Mattson (Gina Blake DeMott #2), but many were upsetting to fans.

The first notable departure happened when Robin Wright ended her four-year run as the original Kelly Capwell, followed by the departure of Todd McKee as the original Ted Capwell, and the most shocking departure, the exit of Lane Davies as Mason Capwell. By 1992, most of the original characters had either been recast a few times or written out, and new characters arrived on the scene, causing the ratings to continue collapsing, until the show was finally canceled. In the final episode there were no original actors from the pilot, although many of the original characters remained, including C.C., Sophia, Kelly, Mason, Ted, Warren Lockridge, Lionel, Rosa, Gina, and Minx.

Crew history

Main article: List of Santa Barbara crew

During the first three years of the show, the main crew of SB stayed the same, with the Dobsons taking on a double duty as both head writers and executive producers. Jeffrey Hayden served as co-executive producer during the first year, and Mary-Ellis Bunim took over after him. In 1987, after the Dobsons were abruptly fired, the show's associate head writer Charles Pratt, Jr. received head writing status and Anne Howard Bailey joined him as the co-head writer until 1989, when Sheri Anderson took over that duty.

Jill Farren Phelps took over as the executive producer and kept the position until 1991. In 1990, Pratt was fired and replaced by another associate writer, Maralyn Thoma but her tenure, along with John Conboy's as the new EP was cut short the following year, when the Dobson's finally settled in court and returned to the series. However, they were also fired a year later, in 1992, when Paul Rauch was hired as the executive producer, and writer Pam Long was hired as the final head writer of the show. Long's introduction of new characters only pushed the series to its cancellation.

Executive Producers

Name(s)	Duration
Bridget and Jerome Dobson and Jeffrey Hayden	July 30, 1984 to 1985
Bridget and Jerome Dobson and Mary-Ellis Bunim	1985 to 1988
Jill Farren Phelps	1988 to 1991
John Conboy	1991 to January 1992
Paul Rauch	January 1992 to January 15, 1993

Head Writers'

Name(s)	Duration
Bridget and Jerome Dobson	July 1984–1987
Charles Pratt, Jr.	1987
Charles Pratt, Jr. and Anne Bailey Howard	1987–1989
Charles Pratt, Jr. and Sheri Anderson	1989–1990
Maralyn Thoma	1990–1991
Bridget and Jerome Dobson	1991–1992
Pam Long	1992 - January 1993

Ratings history

See also: List of US daytime soap opera ratings

Although Santa Barbara enjoyed considerable worldwide popularity, it never achieved the same heights in the United States. In its debut (1984–1985) season, it finished in 11th place and 3.4, and edged up to 10th and 4.2 the next year. By 1987, however, it was beginning to generate respectable numbers: it was still in 10th place, but achieved a 4.9 rating, the highest in the history of the show. (Incidentally, the 1987–1988 television season also proved to be the best ratings performance of the 1980s for NBC's daytime soap lineup, which had been in ratings trouble since the late 1970s). This growth in popularity was not sustained, although Santa Barbara remained above Loving until it was canceled.

Santa Barbara's ratings dropped dramatically when Lane Davies left the show permanently in the summer of 1989. Terry Lester replaced Davies as Mason Capwell in September 1989.

Broadcasts outside the United States

The show's popularity in France spun off a storyline in which Eden Capwell (Marcy Walker), Cruz Castillo (A Martinez), Kelly Capwell (Carrington Garland) and Ric Castillo (Peter Love) went to Paris to search after Eden's and Cruz's child.

• In Australia, the show aired from 1987 to 1994 on Channel 10.
• In Austria, the show aired on ORF from 1996 to 1997.
• In Bulgaria, the show aired from 1994 to 1997.
• In Cameroon, the show aired in both French and English from 1990 to 1993, on CRTV. A neighbourhood in the capital city is named after the series.
• In Canada, the show aired all episodes from 1984 to 1993, but only in the regions served by NBC affiliates that supported the show until its end. In addition, the whole series aired in French on TVA for broadcast in Quebec. Since TVA did not air the show during summertime, the French translation in Quebec lasted 12 years instead of the original 8¹⁄₂ year span on NBC.
• In China, Hong Kong, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines and South Korea, all episodes aired on Star Plus from 1990 to 1999.
• In Croatia the show aired from 1990 to 1998 on HRT1.
• In Cyprus Santa Barbara aired in 1992 on LOGOS TV, and in 1993 on ANT1 until 2002 when it was completed.
• In the Czech Republic, it was the first American soap opera to air on television. It aired on Premiera TV.
• In Egypt, the show aired on M-NET from 1996 to 1998.
• In Estonia, Santa Barbara aired on Kanal 2 and basically kept the channel on the air. It ended in 1999.
• In Finland, the show aired from 1994 to 1999 on Nelonen.
• In France, the show ran 1044 episodes from 1985 to 1994 on TF1, and from 2000 to 2001 for 106 episodes on TF6.
• In Germany, the show aired 2123 episodes under the title California Clan from 1989 to 1997 on RTLplus (as of 1992: RTL Television). It also aired repeats from 1998 to 2000 on TM3. Two CDs of the music from the show were released.
• In Greece, the show aired on MEGA Channel from 1990 to 1996.
• In the Netherlands, the show aired on RTL4 from 1990 to 1991, and from 1992 to 1999.
• In India, the series was aired on Hong-Kong based satellite TV channel Star World from 1993 to 1997.
• In Ireland, the show aired on RTE One from 1984 to 1993.
• In Israel, the show aired briefly from 1995 to 1996 on Channel 2.
• In Italy, the show ran all 2137 episodes from 1989 to 1990 on Rai Uno and from 1991 to 1999 on Rai Due.
• In Japan, the show aired entirely on Star World from 1990 to 1999, and also aired on SkyPerfecTV from 1991 to 1999.
• In New Zealand, the show aired from 1988 to 1995 on TVNZ.
• In Norway, the show aired almost all episodes (except for the last two years) on TVNorge, from 1988 to 1998. The last 4 years the show ran the episodes were split in two half-hour episodes instead of the original hour long episodes.
• In the Philippines, the show aired on GMA Network.
• In Poland, the show first aired from 1990 to 1992 on TVP2 (149 episodes), and was later bought by ATV1, aired from 1997 to 1999.
• In Puerto Rico, a non-incorporated territory of the United States, it aired on Channel 18, which at the time showed American series such as Remington Steele and others in English.
• In Romania, the show aired from 1994 to 2000 on TVR2.
• In Russia, the show was the first American program to air there after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It aired on RTR from 1992 to 1999 and from 2000 to 2002.
• In Slovenia, the show aired on POP TV from 1995 to 1998.
• In South Africa, the show aired entirely on SABC3 from 1987 to 1998.
• In Spain, TVE1 aired 520 episodes of the show from 1989 to 1991 when they refused to buy more episodes even though the show was very popular. However, Antena 3TV bought the rights to the show and continued airing it right after it concluded on TVE1 in 1991. It aired until 1996 with several breaks in between. The show never concluded due to failing ratings attributed to constant timeslot changes.
• In Sweden, the show first aired on TV5 Nordic from 1991 to 1995, and briefly in 2000 on TV4.
• In the United Kingdom, the show's episodes were split in two half-hour episodes instead of the original hour long episodes. It aired from 1987 to 1990 on the ITV network, usually at 10:00, although some regions showed it at 12:30 before the lunchtime news. When ITV dropped the series, Sky Television picked it up and it aired on Sky One from 1991 to 1993^[10] in an afternoon slot, before briefly switching to the Sky Soap channel in 1994. Santa Barbara was always shown in the half-hour format in the UK.
• In Zimbabwe, the show aired on ZBC TV1 from 1991 to 1997.

Awards

Year	Ceremony	Award(s)[11]
1993	Daytime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series
1992	Soap Opera Digest Awards	Best Death Scene: Daytime: Marcy Walker
1991	Daytime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Achievement in Hairstyling for a Drama Series Outstanding Achievement in Lighting Direction for a Drama Series Outstanding Drama Series Directing Team Outstanding Drama Series Writing Team
	Soap Opera Digest Awards	Outstanding Lead Actor: Daytime: A Martinez
1990	Daytime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Achievement in Lighting Direction for a Drama Series Outstanding Drama Series Outstanding Drama Series Directing Team Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series: A Martinez Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series: Henry Darrow
	Soap Opera Digest Awards	Outstanding Comic Actor: Daytime: Joe Marinelli Outstanding Comic Actress: Daytime: Robin Mattson Outstanding Daytime Serial Outstanding Lead Actor: Daytime: A Martinez Outstanding Lead Actress: Daytime: Marcy Walker Outstanding Storyline: Daytime: Eden's Rape Outstanding Super Couple: Daytime: A Martinez and Marcy Walker Outstanding Supporting Actress: Daytime: Jane A. Rogers
	Casting Society of America	Best Casting for TV Soaps
1989	Daytime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Achievement in Hairstyling for a Drama Series Outstanding Achievement in Makeup for a Drama Series Outstanding Drama Series Outstanding Drama Series Writing Team Outstanding Juvenile Male in a Drama Series: Justin Gocke Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series: Marcy Walker Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series: Justin Deas Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series: Nancy Lee Grahn
	Soap Opera Digest Awards	Outstanding Comic Performance by an Actress: Daytime: Robin Mattson Outstanding Heroine: Daytime: Marcy Walker
1988	Daytime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series Outstanding Drama Series Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series: Justin Deas
	Soap Opera Digest Awards	Outstanding Actor in a Supporting Role: Daytime: Nicolas Coster Outstanding Hero: Daytime: A Martinez Outstanding Heroine: Daytime: Robin Wright Penn Outstanding Villain: Daytime: Justin Deas
1987	Daytime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series Outstanding Guest Performer in a Drama Series: John Wesley Shipp
	Young Artist Award	Exceptional Performance by a Young Actor in a Daytime Series: Brandon Call
1986	Soap Opera Digest Awards	Outstanding Actress in a Supporting Role on a Daytime Serial: Harley Jane Kozak Outstanding Villainess in a Daytime Serial: Linda Gibboney
	Young Artist Award	Outstanding Young Actor - Regular Daytime Serial: Brandon Call
1985	Daytime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Achievement in Graphics and Title Design

See also

Main article: Supercouple

References

1. ^ Santa Barbara: Final Episode, NBC. URL last accessed 2008-06-16.
2. ^ Santa Barbara in other countries, Fan site, last accessed 2008-06-16"
3. ^ Popularity of Santa Barbara, Project 80s, last accessed 2008-06-16"
4. ^ Emmy Awards for Santa Barbara NBC, URL last accessed 2008-06-16
5. ^ Joe leaves prison, Joe released
6. ^ Uneven show, Video Link
7. ^ SB hit by an earthquake, Earthquake
8. ^ Santa Barbara : le site Francais
9. ^ Mary's death, C Falls on Mary
10. ^ http://tvlistings.thetvroomplus.com/listing-1266.html
11. ^ Awards for Santa Barbara, IMDb. URL last accessed 2008-06-16

External links

• Santa Barbara at the Internet Movie Database
• Santa Barbara at TV.com
• Santa Barbara on TV.com
• Capridge.Com Fansite for the show.