My Exclusive Interview with FORRY SMITH

Forry Smith is a former professional athlete who was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in 1976 as a wide receiver. After a short stint with the Bills and the Seattle Seahawks, Forry returned to his hometown in Waterloo, Iowa, and began his second career as a high school English teacher and varsity football coach. After seven rewarding years in the teaching profession, he decided to make a career change. Lured to Hollywood with a passion for acting, Forry spent the next twenty years in pursuit of the often elusive dream. During that time, he booked dozens of guest-starring roles on nighttime television, countless commercials, a handful of major motion pictures, and in 1992 a two-year contract on Santa Barbara as Reese Walker. He fulfilled one of his dreams a short time later, writing and co-starring in his own movie Paparazzi… a film he was asked to write by Mel Gibson. Forry and Mel worked together on the film We Were Soldiers and experienced several run-ins with the paparazzi that inspired the film.

You came to Santa Barbara in March 1992 and you remaines with the show until its end. Can you tell us how you got there? Even the audition. All you can remember, please.

The producers had done a nationwide search for my character and couldn't find the right Reese Walker. When I came into the room, the head writer, Pamela Long, said I was exactly what she was looking for...

The Walkers

In the USA “Santa Barbara” always remained in the bottom of the rankings ratings. Together with Kim Zimmer, Sydney Penny and Eric Close you were part of the last-ditch effort to save the show.  Maybe they think that some new blood could be good for the show. Do You felt this kind of responsibility? Do you have some pressures? Which was the atmosphere around you?

SB revolved around two rich families and the producers thought bringing in a blue-collar family (not rich) would strengthen the audience. They were right. I never felt any pressure to save the show, and the Walker family became very popular with the fans. It's too bad NBC gave up on us when our show won the EMMY 4 out of the 8 years it was on the air. They were cheap!

Reese came to Santa Barbara and stealed (as a joke) the vintage car that Kelly has given to Cruz. Then slowly the Walker family came together. Despite being close friends, soon the rivalry between Cruz and Reese explodes. Reese was jealous of the relationship between Cruz and Jody. In reality, however, what about the relationships between you and A?

A and I were instant friends. We hung out together... loved rehearsing together. He's a great guy who is very talented and I will always cherish our friendship. I also continue to have a great relationship with all the members of my Santa Barbara family... Eric Close probably is the closest to me. I miss them all very much and wish them nothing but happiness.

Eric Close and Sydney Penny

Reese had two children: BJ (actually Cruz' daughter ) and Sawyer. BJ was the daddy's girl. Reese was always very protective of her. Instead, the relationship between Reese and Sawyer was much more conflicting. Both of them have a passion for boxing. Is box also your passion? Can you give us a professional and human portrait of Sydney Penny and Eric Close?

Boxing was NOT my passion. I was a professional football player (American football). Sawyer loved his father very much and was always competing with him (me) to show him (me) he was better. In real life, Eric and I don't compete over anything. We're very different and have tremendous respect for each other's talents. Sydney Penny loved horses...loved to ride. I'm sure she still does. She's very athletic and one of the sweetest women you'll ever meet. I LOVED working with her.

Kim Zimmer played your wife, Jodie. Reese was extremely jealous of her. And we can not blame him. Kim Zimmer seems to be a true force of nature. How was it working with her? 

I loved Kim. It was my first experience at doing daytime television, and she had already won a couple Emmy's as Best Actress on Guiding Light. She taught me so much. She IS a force of nature, but they hired me because I wasn't afraid to stand up to her! Kim and I had great chemistry together, but I was always very respectful of her real-life husband. The intimate scenes can be very awkward. I think you truly have to care about the person you're acting with to make it work. I love Kim and miss her very much. We were all very sad to see the show cancelled because we were all so close.

Kim Zimmer and Forry Smith

Jealousy erupted to the point of separating Reese and Jodie. So Reese has an affair with Andy Klein. But during the last episode of the soap, Jodie and Reese came back together. It seemed like a happy ending a bit 'rushed. If the soap had not been canceled, do you think that Pam Long would have break the couple Reese and Jodie?

Are you familiar with the expression "star-crossed lovers"? Reese and Jodie would have tried to get back together, but there would always be something in the way that would prevent it. I think they were a great couple, but it was always more fun to watch them struggle. In daytime television, when a couple finally gets together, it tends to get very boring. As an actor it's much more fun to play a character who is in conflict than a character who has an easy time.

In 2004 you wrote and co-starred in your own movie “Paparazzi”, a movie you was asked to write by Mel Gibson. How did you find yourself in the shoes of the writer? In the film you play Deputy Walker. Is it a tribute to SB or was a coincidence?

I was in a movie called "We Were Soldiers" with Mel, and we were filming near Atlanta, Georgia. Everywhere Mel went, the paparazzi were all over him to the point of him wanting to chase them away. I told him I would write a movie where the star gets to kill a few of them, and he laughed and thought it was a good idea. I named my character Deputy Walker as a tribute to my character on Santa Barbara. Several people noticed that I had done that! I thought no one would really notice.

In 1992 Paul Rauch was the executive producer of the show and Pam Long was the Head Writer. Which are your memories of them?

Paul Rauch was a very hard man to please at first. Every actor he hired had to prove himself for a few months before he would move on to the next actor. He yelled at me one day for having my hands in my pockets, and I yelled back at him. He never bothered me again. When the show ended, he confided in me that I was one of his favorites. Pam Long was a great writer. She knew exactly what every actor's strengths were, and she would write material that best suited those strengths. I would work with either of them again in a minute!

My Exclusive Interview with SUSAN MARIE SNYDER

She is most notably recognized for her role as Julie Kinney Wendall Snyder on CBS' soap As the World Turns. She portrayed the role from 1989 to 1995 and returned shortly twice in 1998 and 2002. Prior to joining the show, Susan had a starring role on another soap, NBC's Santa Barbara. She was the second actress to portray Laken Lockridge, from 1987 to 1988. Snyder has starred in two feature films, in 1986 she had a brief appearance in Ruthless People, which starred Danny DeVito and Bette Midler and she played the role of Mare in 1988 sequel Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers alongside Pamela Springsteen. She has retired from acting and legally changed her name to Suzenne Marie Seradwyn.

You came to SB in 1987. How did it happen to you?? Can you tell us about your audition? What they told you about the character of Laken?

Originally, I auditioned for the role of Laken (#1) in New York City, when SB was a brand new show.  I can remember working very hard on the audition; coached by a talented, actor friend of mine who, apparently, gave me some real bad direction because the casting director did not like my interpretation of the character. About two years later, I had moved out to LA and the part came up again only this time, they wanted a much different version of the Laken (#2) character.  There were about five ladies present for the call back.  I knew I had given the best audition I could give. Needless to say, I was absolutely thrilled to have gotten my first long-term, contract as a player on the soaps.

Julie Ronnie 

Laken back to SB after two year absence with a new face (yours), but especially with a new character: Julie Ronnie's Laken was just a teenager who could not rebel against her domineering mother, Augusta, she was too submissive and without malice . Your Laken was much more confident.  I remember a scene in which she swims completely naked in the pool of Ted Capwell to seduce him..  In summary, Laken changes and becomes a true bitch (with all due respect). Do you liked going into the shoes of a character like that?

I don’t think I ever saw Julie Ronnie’s portrayal of Laken, though, of course, I knew about the character’s history and radical personality shift.  I just played the character how she was written and I was directed. I justified everything she did in the name of love.  She believed Ted was her true love and nothing or no one was going to keep her away from him. I liked playing someone who was so different than me.  It was a challenge to make her real and sympathetic. 

Laken’s relationship with her father Lionel (Nicolas Coster) undergoes some tensions when he decides to marry Caroline (Lenore Kasdorf). Can you make a human and professional portrait of Nicolas Coster and Lenore Kasdorf?

Nicolas was always a charming character. At times, so sophisticated and other times like a big kid. I guess he was a lot like Lionel. One of his big loves wassailing and diving.  I was fortunate to have been a guest on his boat a couple times when it was at the marina near the Channel Islands in California. As for Laken’s relationship with him…I recall a scene I did once where Laken opened up to Ted about how her dad had been gone on his adventures for so much of her childhood that she never really knew when or if he was ever coming back…?  I can’t say that I had much of an opportunity to work with or get to know Lenore too well.  She did come to a party at my house with her sweet daughter who must’ve been 10 years old at that time.

Few years ago Chip Mayer (TJ) has died prematurely because of an illness. What do you remember about him? Can you tell us some anecdotes?

I was sorry to hear about Chip.  He was a very gregarious and talented guy. I enjoyed working with him.  I knew he struggled with addiction.  It’s a terrible challenge and strain on everyone coping with it and not uncommon amongst creative-types, as we all know. The strange thing is that he is the third of my male, co-stars who have died prematurely.  Michael David Morrison, (Caleb Snyder) and Michael Louden (Duke Kramer) from “As the World Turns” both died in their 30’s and now Chip.

Laken's return seemed to be a first attempt to bring the Lockridge family back to the show. But then after just eight months, they decided to delete your character and the project was aborted. Why? What happened?

I wish I had an answer for you but I don’t.  No one ever told me why she was written out.

You've acted mostly with Todd McKee (Ted) and Stacey Edwards (Hailey). Did youk now that Julia Roberts auditioned for the role of Hailey? Do you want to share with us your memories about the relationship with these actors?

SB Cast in 1987

I didn’t know that Julia Roberts had auditioned for Hailey! That doesn’t surprise me much.  She and I were signed with the same management agency, R.M.G., in the 80’s.  We were friends and auditioned for a lot of the same things. Todd was a very nice guy. Tall and pretty goofy when he wanted to be.  Easy and fun to work with although he almost drowned me during a scene at the winery when he pushed me under in a vat of grapes a little too long. Stacey was a very kind, sincere and talented young woman.  She was great to work and hang out with.  She used to come up to my place in the Hollywood Hills for our various “girl’s nights.”

Bridget and Jerome Dobson are the creators of “Santa Barbara”. Which are your memories of them? Shortly after your farewell, they were fired by NBC because they wanted to fire the then Head Writer. Do You remember having experienced internal tensions? 

I can’t say that I ever remember meeting Bridget and Jerome.  I remember hearing and reading about the internal conflicts and politics with the producers but everything was so “HUSH HUSH” and mainly rumors that I didn’t know what to believe.

Although you did not shoot many scenes with her, you were on “Santa Barbara” along with Robin Wright (Kelly Capwell). Which are your memories of her?

I didn’t have much contact with Robin. I remember she had a three-legged dog that she used to bring to work with her.  She went off to make “The Princess Bride” when we were on SB. I was so jealous because I had a huge crush on Carey Elwes at the time!

Can you describe a typical day on the set of Santa Barbara ?

I would enter through the gate of NBC Studios in Burbank in the morning or afternoon depending on my schedule. I’d be running my lines in my head as I went to get my hair done, running my lines as I went to get my make-up done.  Sometimes, I would work with the talent coach they would bring in occasionally. We would rehearse our scenes just a couple times on set, break for notes and the snack cart, (all the while running my lines) get a touch-up on my make-up and hair, (run my lines) and tape the scene. Get notes or not  (run my lines) tape the scene again (or not) and move on to the next one. 

What is your funniest memory related to SB?

I recall one day I was walking down Hollywood Blvd. and I overheard some young women talking and gesturing towards me. They were arguing and the one girl was emphatically insisting to her friend, “That is NOT Laken.  Laken is FAT!”  Well, the camera does add 10 lbs on you.

The worst memory?

I guess my worst memory was finding out I’d been written out of the show and no one would talk to me about it.

Is there any SB’s scene that for any reason has embarrassed you and you did not want to play?

I had to get over any shyness and inhibitions I had in order to play this role. On my very first day on the set, they had me naked, in a towel and soaking wet in a rainstorm.

Can you tell us now something more spicy: a few secrets about SB? 

I can’t say that I paid much attention to gossip on the set.  Nothing comes to mind.  Everyone was very focused.  We worked very hard to get the amount of work done in the short time we had to do it.

Snyder on ATWT

In 1989 you joined the ATWT cast as Julie. Laken and Julie: Who do you prefer? Which were the differences between SB and ATWT?

I would have to say that I preferred playing Julie. Laken had great potential but was just never given the opportunity to develop her character and storylines.  The producers wanted her “light and fluffy; “ a trust fund, party girl-type without a whole lot of substance.  I  did find ways to allow her insecurity show through when I was given the chance. Julie was the exact opposite. Deeply complex and an emotional train wreck. Raised by her alcoholic, single-mother, she grew up in poverty on the streets of Seattle, WA where she learned to use her looks and body to get what she wanted. Soap Opera Digest voted her “The Worst Mother in Daytime Televsion.”  She gave birth to three children but didn’t have custody of any of them. She was ambitious and manipulative but she was also sweet and vulnerable.

What are your professional plans for the future?

I enjoy creating my own music and dance videos  and hosting the occasional BlogTalkRadio show called, PureMotherLoveLive.

Jane Sibbett (Jane) & Snyder in 2014

This interview is designed primarily for the Italian public. In our country, “Santa Barbara” was very much loved and followed. What do you know about our country? Do You want to say something to the Italian public who loved you and our Laken Lockridge?

I’m very pleased and surprised to hear that our show was so popular with an Italian audience! I had no idea.  Thank you for watching! I spent only 24 hours in Rome on my return from a vacation through Greece and Egypt.  It was way too short of a visit to get a real feel for the country.  I went to the Coliseum, Fontana di Trevi, ate some delicious pasta and that was about it.  I have longed to return to visit Venice, Florence and the Amalfi Coast.  One day soon…

My Exclusive Interview with BRIDGET DOBSON - Part Six

BRIDGET & JERRY DOBSON IN 2014

We’re coming to the sixth and final part of my interview with Bridget Dobson. If you have missed the previous parts, you can read them by clicking here. In this part she is going to tell about Eden & Cruz, the greatest supercouple of SANTA BARBARA. Then she'll discuss Mary's tragic death, an unpublished idea about an AIDS storyline, some behind the scenes details on shooting two SB episodes in Moscow and a funny and passionate tribute in occasion of the SANTA BARBARA's 30th anniversary (July 30, 1984 - July 30, 2014). Enjoy!

Recently some of the most respected and knowledgeable people in the soap industry (including Connie Passalacqua Hayman - Marlena De Lacroix - and Nelson Aspen) drew up the 50 Greatest Soap Couples’ ranking of all time. In seventh place we have Eden and Cruz (played by Marcy Walker and A Martinez). They get ahead of some very popular couples like Josh & Reva from GL, Bo & Hope, Patch & Keyla from DAYS. This is surprising considering that Eden and Cruz are off the air from over twenty years. How could you explain the strength of these two characters as a couple and as a single characters? Which kind of cliché have they broken up?

I like complicated characters.  (I am complicated myself)  In the early days of soap opera, characters were often too "pure" for my taste: evil or good.  It made me gag.  Nobody on earth is all one or the other.  A character's words and behavior depend on the circumstances, the tides of emotions that causes the reaction,  If it is written subtly, and well acted, the audience will understand, without it being spelled out,  if a heroine (Eden) is jealous or bitter, or a hero (Cruz) is defensive or ashamed. These are still very solid, attractive characters, forgiven and loved by the audience because the audience recognizes the truth and universality of the emotions they are experiencing.

    I loved writing "bad" characters, because I could make the character do something kind and generous, let him puff himself up for his goodness, and yet trust the audience to know he's still "a bad guy." The opposite is true for characters like Cruz and Eden.  In real life, non fiction, have you ever known an "evil" person who didn't think he was good?  Or a good person who thought he had no bad qualities?  How do you feel about yourself?  If you are "pure" life would be very predictable and very drab.

    Marcy and A are consummate actors who got into their characters and made them their own.  Sensitive writers pick up an actor's personal qualities (a stutter? a flirtatiousness?, a sense of comedy? a macho bravado?) and incorporate them into the character. All in all, the creative interaction between the team - actor, writer, director - makes the character better than it was on paper.  I have been stunned by how much better a scene or a show turns out when everybody contributes to the creative process.  Eden and Cruz are pieces of my husband and myself.  They are as attached to ourselves as we are.  And they ( we)  are improved (given more depth and nuance) by the creative process.

Mary Duvall, the former nun in love with Mason, was one of the most popular characters of daytime. She was the first, true love of the tormented Mason Capwell. Many believe that killing her was a big mistake, do you agree? But all can still remember the sadistic, shocking, unexpected, extravagant way she was killed off: crushed by the big C on the Capwell Hotel’s roof. According to Sigmund Freud, there are no accidents in life, so I’d like to ask you what the C really stood for.

In this case, Freud was right.  The writers, those unmitigated monsters, tried hard to make Mary's death the most painful it could possibly be.  They imagined every kind of death - knifings, shootings, beheadings, accidents of every kind - and they were excoriated by those who overheard (without permission to listen in)  in elevators and restaurants as they contrived to make Mason writhe (good drama!) in agony.  Death must be potent.  The inevitability of death is the most dreaded part of love. When they hit upon the Big C, it was symbolically perfect.  Capwell.  CC Capwell.  Mason’s father.  CC was the person Mason loved and hated and envied most in the world.  The tenderness and competitiveness of the father/son relationship was eating Mason alive.  Mason's father, CC, was responsible (he created the sign, he was the big C of Capwell)  for Mary’s death.  The C that haunted Mason and loved him and tormented him and elevated him....that C caused Mary's death in the twisted minds of the writers, who laughed all the way to the bank. This is fiction, baby.  If you feel it, it must be working. (One has to be tough to enjoy the mayhem one causes.)

Recently I was reading a note (dated September 1985) addressed  by you to Brian Frons in which you proposed a  brief AIDS storyline, involving a supporting character: Sister Isabel, Mary’s Mother Superior. But that storyline never aired. It’s curious, cause in those days a real Aids story occurred to the SB cast: in fact Joel Crothers had to left the show, dying few weeks later, due to the Aids related complications. The year before, Rock Hudson (who starred on Dynasty) died, causing a contagion’s big fear among  the cast. Do you remember how it happened on SB and how you and the cast reacted (mostly Nancy Lee Grahn who was Crothers’ love interest on SB)?

One day, as we were planning to launch SB, Brian called and said he and the President of NBC-TV wanted SB to have a story involving AIDS.  Jerry and I resisted.  It certainly was a topic in the headlines.  But it was scary and depressing.  We felt the viewers would not watch a show that depressed them.  At that time not enough was known about the disease and generally it was considered a death sentence.    Maybe 10 telephone calls went back and forth. It was another major argument.  Then Brian pulled out the big blunderbuss, which he seemed to wield with great pleasure, and said that the network would refuse to put SB on the air unless we told an AIDS story. Period. A red line drawn in the sand. So Jerry and I concocted the least painful aids story we could think of: a 98-year old nun, with an impaired immune system, about ready to expire, contracted AIDS.  We hated this story.  So did NBC, it turns out. We got on air anyway. Red lines, it seems, aren't what they used to be.

Joel was a wonderful person.  I was very concerned when he came into my office and said he had a lump in his abdomen that wouldn't go away.  I urged him to get medical help immediately. That was the last time I saw him.  As I wrote earlier, we didn't have enough knowledge of the disease so, probably, most members of the cast were both sorry about Joel and afraid for themselves.  Nothing more happened to anyone else, as far as I know.

In 1991 you and your husband finally back to the show that you have created. Shortly after your return, something new and never seen before happens on the show: it featured interviews taped in Moscow with Soviet citizens who resisted the failed August coup. An unexpected documentary turn. The storyline calls for Warren Lockridge (played by Jack Wagner) to journey to the Soviet Union to be at the forefront of that country’s emerging democracy. Can you tell us how this experience came to you?

Day after day, year after year, we were writing a show that was, sometimes, fun and emotionally relevant, but we were ignoring the fact that the world was changing.  I drove to and from the studio, each way one hour, listening to the radio, being stunned by news reports of the Iron Curtain coming down, the Berlin Wall being breached, etc.  Gradually it got to me.  I was on fire one morning when I burst into the studio saying, "We have to get relevant to the world situation. Astonishing things are happening, and we don't even mention them."  I was rabid.  We were too stuck in the old "soap" pattern. (Honestly, I think SB was better than that. SB was innovative and different, but it served my point to put it simplistically .) I said we needed to go to Moscow and talk to the people, mostly young, who manned the barricades and risked their lives to defend democracy against the Russian Army tanks.  I think there was close to a hundred percent agreement (Jerry being the exception) that I was crazy. But I went to the President of NBC, he listened, and, finally, agreed to give us $50,000 to go to Moscow.  If the cost of the trip exceeded that amount, he said,  it would come out of the Dobsons' pockets. So, excited about the prospect of doing something radically different, we decided to go to Russia.  We had to stretch to integrate this concept with the drama that was continuing on the show.  (I fear, in retrospect, that may have created a few bumps, a bit of a hiccup in the drama.)  It also involved a vast coordination with Russia TV, but they were more than eager to help, since the show was a huge hit in Russia.  Russia TV found the people in the Resistance who spoke the best English.  Jerry stayed in Los Angeles to take care of the on-going show, and I went to Moscow with a producer and a cameraman.  All we could afford.  (I remember walking through Red Square, past the Kremlin and toward Saint Basil's  cathedral.  There was a full moon.  I was with the camera man.  I said, "Gosh this is so romantic.  I wish you were Jerry."  He said, "Yes, I wish you were someone else, too."  Sorry.  I just deviated from my story!)  

The next day I interviewed each of the English-speaking resisters.  They were fascinating, moving, terribly brave.  They were fighting for something they believed in, against all they had been taught as young communists.  I was on fire, again, by the end of the day, so it was easy to stay up all night and write the script for Jack Wagner, who was coming to Moscow the following day.  We planned to film that very day.  We were on such a budget, everything was hurried.  Then I got a call from Jerry.  Jack Wagner had just arrived in Paris.  He called Jerry wondering why he was there.  He had missed his plane to Moscow and had clearly been partying at 50,000 feet.  Jerry sent him to a hotel in Paris, to sleep it off.  He arranged for Jack to come to Moscow one day late.  Which ruined our budget and the whole carefully planned schedule, but what else could be done?  I jumped to plan B.  In plan B, I would play Jack Wagner's part, asking questions of the Resisters, but the camera would never be on me.  The Resisters would be filmed.  Then, when Jack arrived, the camera would be on him (no Resisters would be present) asking the questions I had scripted, and it would later be edited in studio so it "looked right."  We knew it was possible that it would rain on Jack while the Resisters would be in the dry sunlight.  The power of show biz is great, but not great enough to influence weather patterns.  One last lump: the state-of-the-art camera that we brought from America didn't work , so we had to rely on a camera, vintage 1965 or so, provided by Russia TV.  It worked beautifully. 

I am proud of this "crazy" on-location sequence.  It was a little wild.  It was a tribute to the Resisters.  And, if I remember correctly, it won the show several awards.  Also,  "Entertainment Tonight" did a piece on it. (Another unimportant deviation: our little troupe visited the "Lenin graveyard", in which all the statues of Lenin that had been torn down were lying around in disarray .  A Russian Army soldier sat in a truck nearby watching everything we did.  At one point I looked at him, and he motioned to me to come to his truck.  I hesitated, wondered if it was safe, decided I'd never know unless I went over to him.   I got in his truck.  He nodded.  I nodded.  He couldn't say anything in English, nor could I in Russian.  We grunted and smiled and nodded again.  Then I left, but not before he gave me his Army hat, brown and red, with a Russian newspaper folded carefully to stiffen the brim.  I see that hat every day now, as I eat breakfast, perched on top of an antique marble  lion, which I think came from Italy.)

After having definitely left the show in 1992, what happened to the Dobsons in the last 20 years?

After 1992, Jerry and I had to examine our lives, talk about where we were and what we still wanted.  Without regrets about the past, we looked for something totally different in the future: normalcy.  We wanted time for reading, painting, going to movies, making friends.  Even tiny things like going to a grocery store -it was such a joyful experience.  All the fresh fruit!  I hadn't seen it in years.  Los Angeles is not my idea of a "normal" city.  It is fun to visit, lovely vistas - sea and mountains,, the weather is great.  But the entertainment industry has twisted minds and hearts.  Making money and being beautiful are the ultimate successes.  Kindness is seen as a weakness.  Charity works if you do it for publicity. Scholarship is for nerds. Morality is old-fashioned and stupid.  Hypocrisy, greed, deceit are so prevalent that nobody thinks twice about them.. Of course these are generalizations and don't apply to every single person.  Just most of them.

So we needed to find someplace else to live.  We shopped for cities as a bride shops for a wedding gown.  After looking and looking, we found the best: Atlanta.  It fits us.  We have truly wonderful friends, and they are still teaching us how to live.  These are friends we trust and love.  Often we travel with them - to Europe, to spas, on cruises.  We have the privilege of interacting with friends almost every day.  Truth and scholarship and honesty and kindness are honored.  Morality, too.  My hobby of painting became a serious avocation here.  And how very supportive Atlantans have been of my art, which is mildly bizarre.  (At a gallery show in South Carolina someone came up to me and said my paintings look like "Santa Barbara", the tv show.  I agree, in a way I can't describe. I guess the same emotions creep out in writing and in painting.)  Jerry is in the process of writing a book.  He and I both play bridge, and we enjoy tournaments all over this country. We work out, physically, every day, so we both are "fit".  I have never been happier, and that's true for Jerry, I think. ( I have observed him becoming more openly and easily funny.) Atlantans embrace creativity, and nourish it.  I now understand why lots of great writers (my personal favorite, Tennessee Williams, but there are many others) have lived in the South, where the moss hangs low and the air is humid, where women know how to be women without cashing in on it, and men have a graciousness bred into them.  We've been here almost 20 years? Incredible.  It's gone in a whoosh.

Our interview is over, Ms. Dobson. We started in February 2012 and we are ending today, after more than two years. I'm sure that my questions were not among the best that someone asked you, but no doubt I was the only one to have the honor to ask you questions for so long. Could you share with us one last memory as a special tribute to the show and its 30th anniversary?

In 1983, before SB was on the air, Jerry and I were incredibly busy.  Starting from scratch - literally starting with a blank piece of paper - and creating an hour-long per day television drama (it was cut in half for some European distribution), was the most thrilling and frustrating and enormous task we had ever tackled.  We weren't just creating the show that aired, which you know, but we were doing behind the scenes stuff that needs to be done: the "business" end; negotiating details of contracts, specifying which sets to create first, keeping an eye on the payroll, hiring directors and producers, writing casting scenes for every part, deciding on the logo and billboards, etc.  In addition, and this was the most difficult, we had to have an on-going working relationship with a number of executives at NBC, executives whose own jobs were on the line if this project didn't fly. (For the rest of this tale, I will refer to the NBC executives as the "SUITS")   Large egos were (and are) endemic in Hollywood SUITS.  Every one had all the answers.  They were all drama experts, or so they seemed to think. Privately, Jerry and I were pleased - even ecstatic - when they got off our backs for an hour or two.

     One afternoon we were at our home in Los Angeles creating away, bubbling over with ideas and excitement.  Things were going well. And then the gate bell rang.  We were not expecting anyone.  We looked at each other.  Should we answer the bell or pretend we're not home?  We answered it.  Big mistake.  The SUITS had arrived unexpectedly.  Damn.  The SUITS again.  How dare they just barge in without warning?  Things were going great and...We opened the front door and two of the most powerful and egomaniacal SUITS entered.  We four stood awkwardly near the front door, under the entry chandelier.  What did they want, we asked, finding smiles somehow. They said they wanted to talk storylines again.  Ugh.  How could we get out of this?  We were desperate not to do what they wanted to do.

      Then suddenly I remembered: my bathtub upstairs was filling with water.  "Gentlemen, I'm so sorry.  I have to go upstairs and turn off the bath water."

      Jerry was on to me: "Darling, I can do that. Stay here.  Let me do that."

      I said, " No, I'll do it.  I was planning to take a bath and wasn't expecting company.  I'll be back shortly."

      Jerry: "I'll do it, sweetheart. No problem."  I could hear the determination in his voice.

      B: "It's MY bathwater."

      J: "Yes, but I'll turn it off."

      B: "No you won't."

       J: "Yes I will."

      B: "No."

   I turned and ran up the stairs as fast as I could.  Jerry followed.  I went up to the first landing, turned left.  Jerry followed.  The SUITS were watching in horror (They were thinking, "These are the people we entrusted with the show?") and astonishment.

   I ran, fast as I could, into the bedroom and around the big bed to the right and right again toward my bathroom.  Jerry cheated: he jumped onto the bed, ran across it, and entered the bathroom before I did.

      B: "No..ooooo"

    Jerry jumped into the nearly full tub with his shoes and socks and pants on, took a couple of steps in the hot water, and turned the faucets off.

      B:"Are you crazy?  Are you out of your mind?" I was hissing and yelling at one time.

      J: "I told you I'd turn it off, and I did."

       B: "We have guests downstairs."

     J: "I know."  And then he laughed.

      We trudged out of the bedroom.  The SUITS were still there, their jaws having dropped slightly. I could see them through the glitter of the chandelier.  Jerry followed me, dripping wet, down the stairs.  He was squishing and splurging on the oriental carpet.  His pants were sopping up to the knees.  I was mortified, but I think Jerry was just a little triumphant. This was, for him, or so he pretended, just business as usual.

      It was a rare moment:  the SUITS were speechless.  One of them swallowed hard and managed to ask one question:  "Any chance you could create a character like Jerry?"  And so it was....Lionel Lockridge was born.

There is a postscript to this story.  We work out every day at a gym, and yesterday one of the men there, a SB fan, said to me (without having heard the story), "I was trying to think of who Jerry reminded me of...and I finally figured it out.  He reminds me of Lionel Lockridge."  How perceptive.

- THE END -

MIRANDA WILSON's Special Tribute to SB's 30th Anniversary

Miranda Wilson (Sandra Mills on SB) agreed to celebrate the SANTA BARBARA 30th Anniversary with a special greeting dedicated to all of us. I really wish to thank her because she could have not consider my request, but she was very nice and helpful. 

Great woman and great actress!

Thank you, Ms. Wilson. 

Let's Celebrate SANTA BARBARA's Anniversary!!

Enjoy the clip!