. . . Maman raffolait des séries américaines de la télévision et
rien ni personne n'aurait pu lui faire sauter un seul épisode de Santa
Barbara.
How it all began . . .
. . . And how it all came to an end.
Santa Barbara really started out grand, improved over time, and then somehow along the way lost its footing. Kim Zimmer as a neo-Marcy Walker/Eden Capwell? I think not. No more Cruz. Lionel with Gina rather than Augusta. Gordon Thomson as Mason. Warren and B.J. as a couple. For realz?
At least there was Jed Allen and Judith McConnell, Nancy Lee Grahn, and, although not an original cast member, Jack Wagner as Warren Lockridge--inspired casting, that.
I've seen some argue that the last head writer, Pamela K. Long, "ruined" Santa Barbara. I don't think that was the case at all, although one could argue her talents were better suited to more traditional soaps like Texas and Guidling Light. I think she tried to save it, as did its creators, Bridget and Jerome Dobson. From what I can gather, NBC ruined it--or rather, never got the show in the first place, even though millions of us in the U.S. and around the world did. They fought with the Dobsons, they fought with New World Television, they under-promoted it, and they or New World locked out the Dobsons and put in more standard soap writers and producers who never understood the show's ethos.
Oh sure, Santa Barbara always struggled in the ratings compared to other shows. Its humor was arch and often topical, its characters complex and intelligent, its storylines sometimes outrageous and provocative. Yet, while still soapy, it handled itself with more style and finesse than most of the American soaps did previously and even hereafter.
I'll always love Santa Barbara for what it did originally and did best--its sense of place (California glamor in the '80s); its bold, classic storytelling (working-class hero Joe Perkins and saintly Mary Duvall against the elegance and cruelty of the entitled Capwells); its heart and soul (Mason as Hamlet, Cruz and Eden's love-conquers-all across class and color lines, Mary and Mason); and its humor (Gina and Keith Timmons, Gina and Mason, Mason and Julia, Sonny Sprocket, and so much more).
More than 20 years later, I still feel sad over the demise of Santa Barbara. It's that same sense of loss you feel as you get older, as the world changes, loved ones die or disappear, and you're not sure what, if anything, will replace them. I find that I yearn for Santa Barbara, much as I yearn for my youth, for possibility, for a lover, for the past looking toward an unknown yet exciting future.
I understand that it had to go. Nothing lasts forever, and it had become a flimsy shell of its former self. But oh, when it was on and when it was "on" . . . those were indeed the days of my life.
--Anne Wiazemsky
Hymnes à l'amour
How it all began . . .
. . . And how it all came to an end.
Santa Barbara really started out grand, improved over time, and then somehow along the way lost its footing. Kim Zimmer as a neo-Marcy Walker/Eden Capwell? I think not. No more Cruz. Lionel with Gina rather than Augusta. Gordon Thomson as Mason. Warren and B.J. as a couple. For realz?
At least there was Jed Allen and Judith McConnell, Nancy Lee Grahn, and, although not an original cast member, Jack Wagner as Warren Lockridge--inspired casting, that.
I've seen some argue that the last head writer, Pamela K. Long, "ruined" Santa Barbara. I don't think that was the case at all, although one could argue her talents were better suited to more traditional soaps like Texas and Guidling Light. I think she tried to save it, as did its creators, Bridget and Jerome Dobson. From what I can gather, NBC ruined it--or rather, never got the show in the first place, even though millions of us in the U.S. and around the world did. They fought with the Dobsons, they fought with New World Television, they under-promoted it, and they or New World locked out the Dobsons and put in more standard soap writers and producers who never understood the show's ethos.
Oh sure, Santa Barbara always struggled in the ratings compared to other shows. Its humor was arch and often topical, its characters complex and intelligent, its storylines sometimes outrageous and provocative. Yet, while still soapy, it handled itself with more style and finesse than most of the American soaps did previously and even hereafter.
I'll always love Santa Barbara for what it did originally and did best--its sense of place (California glamor in the '80s); its bold, classic storytelling (working-class hero Joe Perkins and saintly Mary Duvall against the elegance and cruelty of the entitled Capwells); its heart and soul (Mason as Hamlet, Cruz and Eden's love-conquers-all across class and color lines, Mary and Mason); and its humor (Gina and Keith Timmons, Gina and Mason, Mason and Julia, Sonny Sprocket, and so much more).
More than 20 years later, I still feel sad over the demise of Santa Barbara. It's that same sense of loss you feel as you get older, as the world changes, loved ones die or disappear, and you're not sure what, if anything, will replace them. I find that I yearn for Santa Barbara, much as I yearn for my youth, for possibility, for a lover, for the past looking toward an unknown yet exciting future.
I understand that it had to go. Nothing lasts forever, and it had become a flimsy shell of its former self. But oh, when it was on and when it was "on" . . . those were indeed the days of my life.
