SECOND PART: EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH FRANK SALISBURY (SB SCRIPTWRITER FROM 1984 TO 1990)

Today I am presenting to you the second part of the interview that Frank Salisbury has granted exclusively to "Santa Barbara Blog". If you missed the first part, you can read it by clicking here. Today we will discover some background on the tragic death of Mary, crushed by the big C. In addition, a delightful and nostalgic portrait of Dame Judith Anderson, the first memorable performer of Minx Lockridge, a reflection on the sadism of Augusta and much more.

Have a good reading.

The storyline of Eden’ multiple personalities was very controversial. Many people criticized it. Marcy Walker was not too excited about it. Who had the idea and who developed it? What do you remember and what do you think?

O.K. The reason I don't remember is  because I had nothing to do with it.  I don't even remember the storyline being created, or talked about, so something is wrong about my timeline.  I may have left the show sooner than I thought.  I know things were never the same with the Dobsons after they came back.  I don't recall Chuck Pratt being fired although of course he must have been.  I do remember their letting John Conboy go and Paul Rauch coming in.  But I don't think things were ever the same between the Dobsons and the higher ups at NBC.  They had won, but it turned out to be a phyrric victory...

Which storylines you're most proud of? And which ones you did not love and would not have wanted to write? There was a character you loved more than others?

It's almost impossible to reconstruct storylines now.   Frankly, I loved everything.  Mason could do no wrong as far as I was concerned, even if I'd let him. Eden and Cruz, Gina and C.C., Lionel and Augusta (pidgeon pie excepted), Sophia and C.C., the under-fives, everyone was so dear to me.  But especially Mason.  He's in Atlanta now and I still keep in occasional touch with him.

I dare to disagree with you about the pidgeon’s pie. Louise Sorel says it was disgusting and she did everything to avoid doing so. But the Dobsons were inflexible. I think it is a story very sadistic, but at the same time I find it funny. It makes the character more complex, outrageous and capable of doing everything. Can you tell us about the background?

Of course you may disagree with me.  But I felt at the time (and still do) that it was a moronic addition and one which completely killed Louise's character. It showed up in breakdown one day.  I may have had to write the episode, but either way it offended me.   Of course I had no say in the matter.  But I felt that it cheapened Augusta, who wasn't intended to be sadistic.  I know Louise was bothered by it.  Another example of the Dobsons' peculiar sense of humor.

Take a look at a criticism that was made by Soap Opera Digest. I would like to know your opinion about it: “Mental cruelty governs this show, which deliberately chooses far-out and unusual kinds of brutality to separate its lovers. Happiness is constantly interrupted by rape, torture, explosions, bomb blasts, fires, imprisonment, mind and personality-altering drugs, systematic revenge by thwarted lovers, and death - real and imagined. When SB writes itself into a corner, their way out is to kill the offending character in a bizarre manner. Out of such a need the Carnation Killer was born, the SB earthquake occurred, and beloved Mary McCormack was brained by the letter C from the collapsing sign above the Capwell Hotel. Daily violence is the rule. Whether its Mason being kidnapped, you can be sure someone is going to be in danger whenever you tune in. In SB's favor, not everyone is in trouble at the same time, usually”.

Well, here you have the Dobsons at work again. Together with the complicity of Chuck Pratt.  I remember especially the glee he felt over having the letter C fall on Mary.  I was writing breakdowns then and there was hilarity in the room when he suggested it.  (At least I remember his suggesting it.  Jerry might disagree with me.  But it was one of them.)  Killed by the Big "C".  It provided them with a couple of hours of laughter.  I confess, I never considered it a wonderful story climax, nor did I find it that funny.  But I had my stodgy moments, too.

Yes, not everyone was in trouble at the same time.  And, for God's sake, what do people expect of a soap?  To be entertained, made to laugh and cry and put through emotional wringers.  (I had always had trouble writing dialog that was deemed "too funny" until SB came along.  And then I was like a colt let loose in pasture.)  So if it was over the top at times, at least it made sense.  Which we can't say of PASSIONS, for example.   Each soap has its unique hallmark and if you don't like it, you don't watch. But let them be. 

And now your masterpiece: Eden’s rape! Rape is an act of violence, and that's exactly how Santa Barbara depicted Eden's devastating experience. Never on daytime has the brutality of the attack been so graphically portrayed. Eden found herself defenseless, terrorized and overpowered. The usual constraints and tentativeness that mark daytime-television fight scenes were absent. Originally, the script had more violence in it, but they made some cuts. On Oct. 5, 1979, General Hospital did a rape story line that has since gone down as a controversial classic among soap plots. It involved the characters of Luke and Laura, and it was termed a "seduction" rape, an oxymoron if there ever was one, since seduction and rape have nothing to do with each other. But, because the characters fell in love and eventually married, GH had to call it something. Santa Barbara, a soap known for taking risks, presented viewers with a realistic rape story line when the character of Eden (played by Marcy Walker) was brutally attacked. In the aftermath, she appeared on a talk show to describe the horror of what she had been through. On the show with her were two soap stars, "Link" and "Laurie," who had acted out a rape scene on General Clinic. An appalled Eden told these actors that they didn't have any idea what it was really like to be raped. The irony of this statement was not lost on me, nor was the thinly veiled reference to GH's rape story. You wrote (GH's) Luke and Laura story in the late seventies and You wrote later Eden’s rape. Can you tell us how this idea was born and then developed?

The Rape Scenes.  Odd how these things seem to have a life of their own.  Going back to General Hospital for a moment,  you're right about my having been involved in the Luke/Laura story.  Doug Marland came up with it in his last days on the show, and Gloria Monty was quick to take credit for it. I don't have much knowledge of the birth of the idea on SB.  I know only that it was thought up and then distributed to the writers.  And we each did our best with what we were handed.  Judging from the severity of the piece I'd assume it was pure Dobson. We don't really know we're writing something that will live forever, at the time.  And as to the backstage story I'm afraid I wasn't privy to it.

Bridget Dobson said that through Mason she could somehow portray and resolve the conflicts she had with her parents.In my opinion, Bridget Dobson was able to remove the cover of Pandora's box. What was your contribution to the character of Mason? Is there something intimate that you have transferred into Mason?

George & Martha

I have gathered over the years that Bridget had severe problems with her family, though she was never explicit about them.  An offhanded remark, an allusion now and again, certain of her actions, were all I had to go on.  I never heard her speak of Mason in any particularized way.  For myself, i always felt that Mason was an extension of me.  I identified with him completely, though, in fact, we could not be farther apart or more unalike.  Early on, when Bridget would call and compliment me on a script or a certain scene I  told her of the affinity I felt.  I remember saying apropos of the Lockridges that I had in mind  George and Martha (Edward Albee) and wrote them accordingly.  And that Mason was my better half.  She said I should keep up the good work.   You know, of course, that her father and mother. Frank and Doris Hursley were the creators of General Hospital, so she comes by her calling naturally.

The Dobsons' daughter, Mary, was a writer on the show for a while. Did you ever meet her?

It's true that her daughter, Mary, worked on the show; however, I had no contact with her.  We met once at a party at the Dobson's house in Bel Air, but that was the extent of my exposure to her.

Dame Judith Anderson as Minx Lockridge was one of the most delicious "things" in the history of SB. But why she was so little used on the show? Which is the reason? Patrick Mulcahey told me that Jerry Dobson told him that she used forget her lines, so they put some signs on the set on which she could read her lines. But she could not see very well, so she could not read it. So when she forgot a line, Nic Coster tried to help her, for example saying: “Mother, you're trying to say that Augusta is acting like a dog in heat?”. Do You met her? Do you have any anecdotes?

Dame Judith was a wonder.  I had loved her since seeing MEDEA some years previously, and had a chance to actually meet her at a Christmas party at the Hollywood Palladium...I think that's where it was held.  It may have been the theatre on Hollywood & Vine.  In any case, I sat with her and told her how much I admired her and she very graciously accepted.  She asked if she had managed to mangle any of my lines and I said no.  Then she smiled and said, "Give me time, dear.  I will."  I think they had painted themselves into a corner with Judith, though.  She had to be chauffered back and forth to her home in Santa Barbara by limo, and she needed a good bit of catering-to when she was on set.  Louise was a favorite of hers and they became quite close.  But the truth is, she wasn't able to handle much in the way of dialog.  It's a pity about actors whom you've loved who get to this age.  They're really only a shadow of their former selves. I know the Dobsons were quite fond of her, and, indeed. so were most people she came in contact with, but you couldn't really give her a whole scene to play.  As we learned, to our regret.  I recall quoting some two or three lines from Medea for her as a kind of nostalgic tribute, but she couldn't manage them.

To be continued...

Pic #2 is taken from Capridge.com