"THE CAPWELL ZONE": THE MOST MEANINGFUL EPISODE OF "SANTA BARBARA"

Please, close your eyes and Imagine the city of Santa Barbara populated by aliens with green skins, pointy ears, big lizards tails and talking in iambic pentameter. Ok, now open your eyes and tune on the episode # 1234 of Santa Barbara, 1989 season. 

You are about to watch one of the most original and clever episode ever written. Perhaps it was not fully understood. But I think that the episode # 1234, called “Capwell Zone”, is a true Masterpiece. And now I try to explain why.

Years ago, C.C. Capwell had a one-night stand with Megan Richardson (Meg Bennett). Nine months later, she gave birth to a boy and named him Greg (Paul Johansson). She proceeded to raise him alone, telling him that his father had been killed in the war. Over the years, Megan became a successful writer. When she turned up in Santa Barbara, it was to pen a novel about the town's most powerful tycoon, C.C. Capwell. Certain that he wouldn't remember their past alliance, Megan took this opportunity to get to know the man who fathered her son. When Greg showed up for a visit, C.C. took an instant liking to the boy - especially after learning that he was Greg's father. C.C. was sure that the rest of his family would welcome Greg with open arms. Instead, Mason, Eden, Kelly and Ted reacted negatively to the news.

This was the background.

Feeling like an outcast, Greg sat alone at the beach and contemplated ending it all. He was approached by Mason, who tried explaining the Capwells to him. His emotions getting the better of him, Greg grabbed a surfboard and ran into the ocean. Greg was pulled out of the water; unconscious. In this state, he dreamed that Julia and Mason were aliens. "We, Gregor, are Santa Barbs from the planet Montecito. We are a kind and helpful people, whose mission is to bring beauty, goodness, unconventional sex, occasional amnesia, general improbability and, overall, a certain polish to your dreary planet," said the aliens to a dumbfounded Greg by way of introduction. In my opinion, this step is the most intelligent and brilliant.

Thanks to the Mulcahey’s excellent writing, the representation passes to a metatheoretical level: Santa Barbara talks about itself and does it mocking about itself. In summary, as well as the Capwells become aliens and mock the "real" Capwells, even the classic soap opera turns into Santa Barbara, it enacts surreal situations and then it mock them and the whole soap genre. The self-ironic detachment: this is the SB’ absolute originality. This makes SB different (and better than) from all other shows. Only an EXTREMELY talented and visionary writer like Patrick Mulcahey could write an episode like this. Luckily, the aliens were played by Lane Davies and Nancy Lee Grahn, both of whom have a great facility for the English language. They took Greg to a new dimension, "The Capwell Zone", where he observed family members discussing the pros and cons of being a Capwell.

"Capwell Zone" episode - Greg wakes up on the beach and sees all the Capwells as aliens

June 20, 1989: "Capwell Zone" episode - #Greg (Paul Johansson) wakes up on the beach and sees all the #Capwells as aliens.

Pubblicato da Santa Barbara Blog su Martedì 28 maggio 2019

When Greg asked to see into the future, he witnessed the apocalyptic fate of the Capwell family and his own funeral. He heard C.C. talk about how Greg spent his whole life in a rage, never accepting the Capwells. Shaken, Greg asked Mason and Julia for another chance. Minutes later, Greg woke up, happy to be alive.

In Italy, each episode of SB was dubbed, and at that time I could not fully appreciate the greatness of the “Capwell Zone”. But when I saw the episode in English, I gaped because of the amazing writing. My God, who knows how much work there must have been behind that single episode! It's just brilliant. That represents an innovative choice in the representation of the dilemma that troubles Greg: accept or reject his new family?

Any other soap would have addressed this issue in a traditional way. The originality of Mulcahey instead gave us a new approach to testing a new narrative form. I would like to thank those who gave him this freedom to experiment and of course Mr. Mulcahey .... Thanks for giving to our minds a chance to peer into new horizons!

With immense esteem,

Pierpaolo