Great DANE finds new home on CAPITOL

- Waycross Herald-Journal_ November 1, 1985 - 

When NBC spread its initial publicity prior to the premiere of SANTA BARBARA in July 1984, it seems everyone in the soap opera business was a buzz about that face – that absolutely divine soap opera face. The perfect blu eyes and exquisitely sculptured jaw belonged to the show’s leading man, a total unknown named Dane Whiterspoon. A big future for him was predicted by all. But nine months after SANTA BARBARA debuted, Whiterspoon’s face disappeared and Joe Perkins was being played by another actor whose face was much less than divine. The character of Joe was killed off less than three months later. The replacement was a shock for his following and even more so for Witherspoon, who’s shy and won’t comment directly on the circumstances leading to his dismissal.

“From the day the show started I worked 16 hours a day almost every day,” he recalls. Indeed, the character of Joe Perkins was used every single day from the start on SB and was the most overworked character on daytime television. (Heavy leads on soaps normally work no more than four days a week.)

“I was exhausted all the time,” he recalls. At the time it was rumoured that SB producers fired Whiterspoon because of his weariness, which they had caused. “I went to Mexico for six months to recuperate,” he says. “I had to mend myself.”

So it was understandable that Witherspoon was reluctant when John Conboy, executive producer of CAPITOL, offered him the role of hero Tyler McCandless om his show. Witherspoon says it was because of Conboy that he eventually relented. “He’s creative, sensitive and receptive to the needs of his actors,” he says. Whiterspoon still has a pleasant connection with his first soap. Although he’s shy talking about it he’s dating Robin Wright, who’s still on SB, playing Joe’s widow, Kelly Perkins.