Humor gives SANTA BARBARA an Edge on Soaps

- October 15, 1989 | Chicago Tribune - 

The sky is seriously gray, wind is blowing every which way and waves are crashing on the rocks. It`s the kind of day brooding was invented for, a perfect setting for Hamlet.

Instead, the cast and crew of NBC`s witty daytime drama Santa Barbara are gathered along the strip of Olive Park near Navy Pier. They`ve come here from the land of stucco and palms to include Chicagoan Patricia Masterson in two SB episodes, as part of a prize she won in a sweepstakes promotion.

Today, the plot involves hypnotherapist Heather (played by Jane Rogers) and her ex-fiance Scott (Vincent Irizarry). They`re playing a scene on a lawn near the water filtration plant.

Forget how cold it is. Scott has laid out a romantic picnic lunch, and a blanket bundle impersonating their month-old baby is parked under a nearby tree in a carriage.

Heather, who finally learned to trust Scott, only to be rejected by him when his high school sweetheart unexpectedly showed up in Santa Barbara, has come to Chicago for a job interview. Scott has followed her here.

After shooting their scene, Minneapolis native Rogers and New Yorker Irizarry puff on their respective cigarettes and talk shop in the back of their trailer.

“Soaps are such a fast-paced medium,” says Rogers, looking sophisticated in a silk suit. “You can`t go back and say, `Can I do that again?`, especially if everything is technically right with the scene.

“When we did the closeup today with Vincent, I felt really there for him, and I felt very good about it. But when it came to my closeup, airplanes were going by, and I was distracted. Unfortunately, it`s very hit and miss.” Irizarry, a method actor who studied with Lee Strasberg, nods in agreement.

“In a play or movie, you have a two-hour script with a beginning, a middle and an end,” he says. “You know where your character`s coming from, where he`s going and how he gets there. With soap operas, it`s a lot of middle. You never know what`s going to happen. All of a sudden, they`ll tell you you were a . . . uh . . .”

Rogers interrupts: “A mass murderer.”

“Right,” Irizarry says with a laugh. “Or that you were born from robots.”

As far-fetched as that might sound, how about a gangster who`s a cross-dresser? Santa Barbara has one. And if that sounds off-the-wall, it`s intentional.

From its beginnings six years ago, Santa Barbara in direct competition with decades-old The Guiding Light on CBS and General Hospital on ABC, has used humor as one of its strategies to attract viewers who wouldn`t normally watch soaps.

So far, the strategy seems to be working-at least on a critical level.

This year, the series, which focuses on the lives and loves of the Capwell family, won eight daytime Emmy awards. But the show`s success isn`t yet reflected in the Nielsen ratings.

Program spokesman Eric Preven says that the college students and working people who comprise the bulk of SB`s demographic tape the show.

Regardless of ratings, Santa Barbara continues on its merry way with characters such as conniving designer Gina, California golden girl Eden and her semi-psychotic brother Mason (who has just been re-cast with Terry Lester, the former rascal Jack Abbott on The Young and the Restless). Mason is married to soft-touch Julia, played by Skokie native Nancy Grahn, a Goodman Theater alum who this year won a best-supporting-actress Emmy.

Add to the mix handsome Hispanic policeman Cruz (A Martinez), who is married to Eden, and you have daytime TV`s first interracial super-couple.

After a lunch break, outside the canteen, Rogers talks about Heather`s romantic liaison with Scott.

“Our love scene on the beach, the way it was shot, Vincent wasn`t even there,” she said. “I`m supposed to be looking at him, but I was looking at the camera.”

The conversation is interrupted by stylists-Rogers walks out of the trailer with her shoulder-length brunette hair considerably fuller than when she walked in. The equipment van rolls into the park, and Irizarry jumps off without a moment`s notice.

They`ll spend the rest of the day shooting ``pickup`` scenes atop the Hancock Building, inside the State of Illinois Building, outside Daley Plaza and at a posh Near North hotel.

By the end of today`s episodes, Scott and Heather are still at a standoff. Scott wants her back in Santa Barbara, but makes no promises. Heather, Rogers says, is not ready to forgive him for messing around with the first girl that came by after they were engaged.

But Heather doesn`t get the job, and she`ll return to the land of stucco and palms, and so will the crew of Santa Barbara.