Devil with the blue polka-dot dress on

After sharing via Facebook my vivid dream involving cast members from the '80s soap Santa Barbara, one of my friends pointed out something that I had completely missed: That vivacious heroine Eden Capwell Castillo (played by the great Marcy Walker) and doll-faced Mrs. Beasley (late of the '60s show Family Affair) were perhaps separated at birth.

Or at the very least doppelgangers operating in different spheres and times, only discovered through the magic that is summer daytime reruns.

The resemblance is uncanny, I'll grant you that.

Nevertheless, Mrs. Beasley may have worn it first--two decades before in fact--but Eden Capwell wore it best.


Plus Eden had big hair and Cruz Castillo (played by hunky, sensitive spitfire A Martinez) as a love interest while Mrs. Beasley had to put up with being alternately fondled and ignored by Buffy and Jody and no doubt just fondled by Mr. French when nobody was looking.

Simply no contest. Viva Santa Barbara!

Call me Randy Capwell Lockridge Perkins Castillo Andrade Capwell

The higher the hair, the closer to Randy
Newman. Marcy Walker as Eden Capwell.

Last night's very vivid dream: I was hanging out with cast members from the late, great '80s soap, Santa Barbara--specifically, Marcy Walker (Eden Capwell) and Carrington Garland (Kelly Capwell no. 3). I noticed that they were speaking English but with different accents, i.e., not American ones.

I asked why.

"Oh, didn't you know?" said Eden/Marcy. "They dub our dialog with different accents to appeal to international audiences. We have British accents when we're shown in Britain, Australian accents in Australia, etc."

She demonstrated. "This is how I sound in Australia: 'Struth!'" she exclaimed in a very Aussie voice, but then the rest of the conversation was spoken in an accent of undetermined origin, maybe Japanese or Eastern European.

"So who dubs my voice?" I asked, as I was apparently on TV in international markets as well.

"Randy Newman," reported Kelly/Carrington.

"Randy Newman?! Jesus, couldn't they find anyone else?"

"It works very well," Kelly assured me.

I tried dubbing my own voice in imitation of Randy Newman. "Love?! You don't know the meaning of the word!"

Both Eden and Kelly winced. "That's not Randy Newman. That sounds like Droopy, the cartoon dog."

I practiced and practiced and finally got the accent right but had to sing all my dialog, sounding like a bluesy white crooner imitating a bluesy black crooner.

In other words, I totally nailed Randy Newman's voice.