The Enduring Legacy of Santa Barbara: A Conversation with Robin Wright (1986)

Santa Barbara remains one of the most beloved American soap operas of all time — a series that blended melodrama, comedy, romance, family intrigue, and unforgettable characters into a daily ritual for fans around the globe. First airing on NBC in 1984, the show told the intertwined stories of powerful families in sunny Southern California and went on to win numerous awards during its long run. 

At the heart of this world was Kelly Capwell, portrayed by a then-young actress new to screens: Robin Wright. Today a Hollywood icon, Wright reflects on her formative years on Santa Barbara in a 1986 interview, offering insight into her early experiences and how the show helped shape her career.

A Breakthrough at 18

Robin Wright landed the role of Kelly Capwell when she was just 18, after several auditions. Being cast felt like a dream — and a shock — for the young actress, who had no formal acting training. Early on, she described working on the soap as “like getting paid tohave your acting lessons in public,” emphasizing the intensity and constant demands of daytime television work. 

Kelly Capwell was a central figure on Santa Barbara, a privileged but passionate woman caught in the complex world of family expectations and dramatic romantic twists. Wright’s portrayal quickly won attention, leading to Daytime Emmy nominations and a Soap Opera Digest Award for Outstanding Heroine. 

The Challenges Behind the Scenes

In her interview, Wright also shared candid reflections on the challenges of working on a long-running soap opera. From shifting storylines to cast changes and intense shooting schedules, she highlighted the hard—but educational—nature of the work. Parts of Santa Barbara’s production were fast-paced and often unpredictable, which Wright found sharpened her skills as an actor. 

She also spoke about how Santa Barbara helped her understand her own strengths — and limitations — as an actress. The experience of performing dramatic scenes daily, under tight deadlines, taught her the discipline and emotional range needed for later roles on film and television.

From Daytime to Global Stardom

Although Santa Barbara was just the beginning, it set the stage for a remarkable career. Soon after leaving the soap in 1988, Wright transitioned to film and television roles that would bring her international fame — such as Buttercup in The Princess Bride and Jenny in Forrest Gump. Later she would captivate audiences worldwide with her portrayal of Claire Underwood in House of Cards, earning Golden Globe and Emmy recognition.

Wright’s journey from daytime television to award-winning Hollywood star stands as a testament to the training ground that soap operas can provide. Without Santa Barbara, one of the most compelling actresses of her generation might have taken a very different path.

Why Santa Barbara Still Matters

More than 40 years after its debut, Santa Barbara continues to be celebrated by fans for its bold storytelling, memorable characters, and emotional depth. Its legacy lives on not only in reruns and nostalgia but through the careers it helped launch — especially that of Robin Wright. 

Whether you’re a longtime fan or discovering the series for the first time, Santa Barbara offers a fascinating glimpse into the heart of soap opera drama — and into the early career of one of Hollywood’s most respected actors.

Here you can see a video interview that Robin Wright gave in mid 1986, just before leaving the show for shooting the movie "The Princess Bride" (1987).

Remembering Terry Lester (ex Mason Capwell on "Santa Barbara") on the 20th anniversary of his passing

 

Terry Lester in the 80's

Terry Lester suddenly passed away on November 28, 2003, exactly 20 years ago. He was only 53 years old at the time.

Lester debuted on the showbiz in 1974 as an extra on the catastrophic movie Airport 75. But Lester's big break came when he joined CBS daytime soap The Young and the Restless in 1980. He originated the role of Jack Abbott. Lester was so popular that Y&R creator William J. Bell wrote an entire family for him.

In spite of his popularity, few years later Lester felt his role on the show was steadily declining and in 1989 he not only quit but also went to the daytime press and blamed the boss young daughter, Lauralee Bell (who played Christine Blair), for his dwindling role. He felt the excess airtime given to her came at the expense of both himself and other actors.

In the meantime Lane Davies, who originated the role of Mason Capwell on Santa Barbara in 1984, left the show on July 1989, giving the producers the hardest job ever: replacing such a beloved actor in a such acclaimed role.

It didn't take long for Santa Barbara to realize that Terry Lester might the ideal candidate to replace Lane Davies. And just like that Terry Lester switched from the number #1 show in the Nelsen ranking to NBC, taking over the role of Mason Capwell on Santa Barbara, a show at the bottom of the Nelsen ranking. He stated “Santa Barbara is a show I truly admire. I've been watching it ever since 1985, when Robin Mattson (Gina) came on. I'm a big fan of hers.”

Davies and Lester in the 90's

While Davies was brown and beard, Lester was blonde and blue eyed. Nevertheless the Producers hoped to attract Lester’s fans to SB, which didn’t happened. SB Producers tried the same move in 1992, hiring actors like Kim Zimmer, Stephen Nichols, EileenDavidson, but once again the move failed and SB kept losing viewer and got cancelled in 1993.

However, Lester was a great actor, capable of empower Mason’s comic side (just think to the dark-comedic storyline of Mason and Julia hiding Sasha’s body in a fridge and later in the Capwell crypta). The Dobsons were gone by then and you can see the effect following Mason’s evolution -or rather involution-: no more drink issues, less powerful hard confrontation between Mason and CC, Sophia, Eden. We can say that Mason’s demons went on stand-by till the Dobsons came back in 1991. But at the time Mason was played by a different actor (Gordon Thomson).

Only one year since his debut on SB indeed, Lester decided not to renew his contract and in a carefully worded statement, Terry said only this about his decision: "One of my final resolutions in the last decade was to get a chance to work on Santa Barbara. And I'm grateful for having had this year living and working with people I've admired for most of my daytime career. But it's a new decade, and a time for exploring new possibilities and setting new goals. I'd like to thank everyone at Santa Barbara who has helped and supported me along the way."

What really happened? Probably Lester was not satisfied with his last storylines (the Oasis project, the affair with Cassandra, less and less comedic lines…). We never now.

By the way, thanks to Terry Lester's somatic colors, a young Leonardo DiCaprio was casted in 1990 to play young Mason in a flashback, during the controversial Four orphans storyline.

Lester kept his personal life under wraps but a 2003 L.A. Magazine article on former soap star Thom Bierdz outed Lester along with Michael Corbett and Bierdz, who made up a trio of Gay actors who worked on Y&R in the 1980s. Considering Thomson’s coming out in 2017, it means that 2 out of 3 actors who played Mason were gay. Not that this adds something to the discussion, it’s just a gossip info.

While it was initially reported that Lester died of a heart attack in 2003, it was later revealed that Lester died from complications related to AIDS. 

By the way during his SB days, Lester was very appreciated by his co-stars. I asked some of them a statement about Terry. Let’s see what they told me.

A Martinez (ex Cruz Castillo from 1984 to 1992): When I think back on Terry, it reminds me that Mason and Cruz had a lot less to do with one another, regrettably, at that point in the journey.  What I most hold from him is the grace with which he fielded the difficult task he inherited –– the of replacing Lane in the story.  It was a lot to ask of anyone, but Terry embraced it with his whole heart.  (Not to mention his formidable chops...)   He was a great talent and a great gentleman, and a credit to our show and profession.  I count it a blessing to have shared a place in the company with the man.

Joe Marinelli (ex Bunny Tagliatti from 1988 to 1990): We became very friends. He would eat atm y house twice a week. We spent a lot of time together and did a lot.

Peter Love (ex Ric Castillo from 1989 to 1990): I did not get to interact with Terry all that much to be honest. I did get to know him as a person though through the years at the awards shows and he was always a true gentleman. Very very nice man.

Sharonlee McLean (ex Annie DiGirolamo in 1990): Oh my gosh.  I loved him so much.  I do have such lovely stories of him on and off the set.  I also have some pictures that I think he would ok to share with the public.  What a gentleman he was. 

Watch the video below recorded for the Santa Barbara Blog by Sharonlee McLean. It's so much fun!

SANTA BARBARA: It's Not Over, Till It's Over

- Marlena De Lacroix Column   9/01/1992 - 

On or around Sept. 1, NBC is scheduled to announce whether it will cancel Santa Barbara. But as Yogi Berra said, it's not over till it's over.

As a soap-world observer, I've felt obligated to watch the show because it's the work of two longtime soap-world heavyweights, executive producer Paul Rauch and head writer Pam Long. And what a collection of major-league soap talents are also gathered here: Kim Zimmer (Jodie), Jack Wagner (Warren), Nicolas Coster (Lionel), Robin Mattson (Gina), Gordon Thomson (Mason), Nancy Lee Grahn (Julia), Thaao Penghlis (Micah), Jed Allan (C.C.) and Judith McConnell (Sophia), among others. If SB is canceled, the casting directors of the remaining 10 soaps will be dancing in the streets.

In the last few months, the most important name in the whole equation has been Pam Long. Staying true to the strengths of her writing on Texas and Guiding Light, she pushed aside the wealthy, sophisticated Capwell family and brought to the forefront her own creation, the middle-class, emotion-filled Walker family. One soap critic has bitched loudly how out of sync with SB's past style Long's new material has been. No sh--, Sherlock! This is exactly why Long was hired: That old stuff wasn't working! Dying soaps always try outrageous measures when the cancellation notice is in the mail. Mating Long to SB is like grafting the head of a giraffe onto a horse. Despite all good intentions, you'll never get a thoroughbred.

Jodie (K. Zimmer), Cruz (A Martinez) and BJ (Sydney Penny)

Long hasn't had enough time to totally rework the show, but evidently she's trying. The only glimmer of what she and Rauch hope to achieve has been her sole success - the B.J. child-abuse storyline, which incorporated Jodie's confession to Cruz that B.J. is his natural daughter. This beautifully produced sequence was filled with Long's trademark emotional intensity. On dramatically half-lit sets, the characters got to spill their guts all over the screen. (Long's personal motto is "Go for it.") I couldn't help but notice, though, that much of the sequence's success was actors who were giving their all. Weren't Sydney Penny (B.J.) and molester Nicholas Walker (Frank) superb? The confession scenes showcased Zimmer and Martinez, a charismatic pair who could have been the show's future in Martinez were not leaving to join the cast of L.A. Law.

If Long could bring the emotional intensity of this sequence to her other stories, SB just might have a scintilla of a chance of survival. (And a last word about Martinez: He makes acting look so easy. Through eight years of good and bad on SB, no other actor has delivered as consistently. Wasn't the soap world lucky to have Martinez as long as we did? Now we've got to give him back to prime-time TV.)

But let's face it - the rest of Long's work has been abysmal. Long's worst crime is that she's forgotten that one of Zimmer's big selling points as Reva Shayne Lewis on GL and as Nola Dancy on The Doctors was her sex appeal. Policewoman Jodie is portrayed as a frump. Hey, 40 isn't fatal!

Gina (Robin Mattson) and Lionel (Nicolas Coster)

And as I've written before, SB's recent tries at "humor" are a travesty. Watching two favorite daytime actors, Mattson and Coster, as "jesters" Gina and Lionel doing everything but stand on their heads to get a laugh breaks my heart. Gina Jeans, indeed! By the way, Ballymoor was baloney. Grahn and Thomson should sue. Long (who on GL invented the "Dreaming Death" disease and cured Johnny Bauer of terminal cancer) should stay away from the occult or any topic that's more convincingly concocted in a supermarket tabloid.

I should really stop myself here, but, of course, I won't. I can write so much more about SB's weaknesses. All those boring summer teen stories...why doesn't Forry Smith's (Reese) acting live up to his hunky looks? Will Warren ever chuck his attitude?...SB is now nothing more than boring, average soap opera.

Marlena really hates to hit a soap while it's down. Colorful Rauch and Long have been two of my favorite soap-world personalities for more than a decade. They will resurface inevitably on other soaps. SB derailed long before either arrived on the show. If SB is canceled, you'll hear lots of chest-thumping as journalists scramble to explain the reasons why in print. As someone who has written extensively about the show for eight years, I'm not looking forward to its demise. Perhaps Sept. 1, California Gov. Pete Wilson will grant SB a stay of execution. 

Remembering DANE WITHERSPOON

"Maybe not everybody knows that…" - Flash interview with Dane Witherspoon from 1985 circa.

Cult Soap for the Nineties: SANTA BARBARA

- Soap Opera Digest _ July 11, 1989 - 

SANTA BARBARA is unquestionably the biggest cult soap since DARK SHADOWS. Its ratings never make headlines, but one would never know that by the way the show’s followers talk about it. This is a loyal, vocal group that literally salivates over all the day-to-day action. 3ddly enough, many of these viewers are the same folks who have watched ALL MY CHILDREN or AS THE WORLD TURNS for years, but they discuss the happenings on these shows in more reserved tones.

Of course, there is a fundamental difference between DARK SHADOWS and SANTA BARBARA. While DARK SHADOWS was obvious camp (a Gothic horror poof with werewolves, vampires and time warps), SB doesn't fit neatly into any one category. Through most of its five years on the air, it has been an unlikely blend of Hamlet, MARY HARTMAN, MARY HARTMAN, SOAP, WHEEL OF FORTUNE and Waiting for Mr. Goodbar.

Sure there have been serious moments. Cruz and Eden Castillo (A Martinez and Marcy Walker) dealt with Eden’s rape with new level of dignity and maturity for daytime television — no soapy histrionics here. either Michael (Frank Runyeon) struggled convincingly as he questioned his commitment to the cloth (this was not a “guilt” storyline).

Nonetheless, SANTA BARBARA became known mostly for its raunchier, funnier elements. Gina (Robin Mattson) wasn't just a vamp, she was an exhibitionist. Mason Capwell (Lane Davies) put away an average of a fifth of scotch per episode, yet was never too tongue-tied to deliver an erudite dig. And who could forget the much missed Lionel and Augusta Lockridge (Nicolas Coster and Louise Sorel), who proved that sex was not only alive after forty, but could be more fun than ever?

In the past year, the show got even nuttier. Gina became entangled with a crossdresser named Bunny (Joe Marinelli). Mason was felled with amnesia and took on the alter-ego of redneck Sonny Sprocket. It was a hoot, but one began to wonder how much farther SB would go just to get laughs. We half expected Gina to become a nun, or Redd Foxx to show up as a long lost brother to millionaire C.C. Capwell (Jed Allan). Also, for far too long, the Capwells were the only family in town, and the writers seemed capable of writing for only one couple — Cruz and Eden.

           

But then, SB shifted gear and turned into a good old-fashioned romance, reinstating a classic soap ingredient — the love triangle. In their search for infant daughter Adriana, Cruz and Eden crossed paths with psychic Sandra Mills (Miranda Wilson), who is obsessed with Cruz. Feisty Sophia (Judith McConnell) is rethinking her independence from C.C. with the advent of romance novelist Megan Richardson (Meg Bennett). Mason, recently married to Julia (Nancy Grahn), has been facing his drinking problem with the very interested support of Lisa DiNapoli (Tawny Kitaen). Dr. Scott Clark (Vincent Irizarry) is caught between Heather (Jane Rogers), who is pregnant with his child, and a rekindled high school romance with Lisa's ex-hooker sis, Celeste (Signy Coleman). Michael — minus the collar — is reminded of his past with Laura Asher (Christopher Norris), wife of suspender-clad DA Ethan Asher (Leigh McCloskey).

For SANTA BARBARA, this is pretty conservative stuff. Now that affairs of the heart have taken over, characters once again are allowed to sit and philosophize occasionally to examine their relationships without flippancy or risk of interruption. At the same time, the show never gets dreary. Mason and Julia enjoy sexual romps at the office; Gina still hurls her barbs; it is still great fun, but no longer absurd.

Charles Pratt jr.

This turn of events is largely due to the show's head writer, the underrated Charles Pratt, Jr., who has brought back the values that Bridget and Jerome Dobson (SB’s creators) instituted at the beginning. The relationship between C.C. and Mason has always been tragic. It is a classic representation of millions of fathers and sons who never really accepted one another; whose attempts to connect were marred by mutual disapproval and distrust. As C.C. bares his soul to Megan for biographical purposes, and Mason looks at his life through out-of-body experience in Heaven (followed by AA), this relationship shows signs of a new beginning. And thank goodness for the humanizing of Gina. She's still one sexy wench, but she is once again being portrayed as a survivor whose one constant in life is her love for her son, Brandon (Justin Gocke). She, too, is looking at her circumstances through a new set of glasses; envying the simplicity and innocence of the people around her. When she and Brandon were held hostage by the psychotic Kirk Cranston (played chillingly by Joseph Bottoms), Gina showed fortitude and savvy in setting Kirk up for Cruz's trap. The woman may like sex and money, but she's not a total dingbat.

           

These are examples of the wonderful “gray areas” that have made SB's characters so fascinating. Also better than ever is the overall caliber of the acting ensemble. Until recently, the cast was a combination of hits and misses. No more. The newcomers appear to be as strong as the veterans. Signy Coleman is absolutely endearing. Tawny Kitaen is one smashing lady — commanding in a self-assuredly feminine (never brash) way. Marcy Walker, Nancy Grahn and Judith McConnell also make for this brand of heroine.

SB's male actors are equally strong. A Martinez proves that TV cops can be vulnerable and believable. Todd McKee (Ted Capwell) is an appealing young actor who deserves more challenging material than the cutesy stuff he is often given. Frank Runyeon and Vincent Irizarry seem far more focused and comfortable with their characters than they were on their previous soaps (ex-Steve, ATWT; ex-Lujack, GL, respectively), and they have proven they can be super male leads. Lane Davies? This is a master. He is the pathetic clown, the sardonic Greek chorus, the idealistic lawyer, the mischievous lover. Give this guy an Emmy.

SANTA BARBARA has given its audience many moments of fun in what some consider to be a dour medium. And it’s still fun. The show is simply growing.

As SANTA BARBARA's Bunny, JOE MARINELLI is winning the Battle of Sexes

- Soap Opera Digest _ July 11, 1989 - 

Marinelli as Bunny

“I don’t understand high heels.”

Joe Marinelli is discussing the finer points of women’s fashions. Panty hose, bugle beads, gold lame. He’s not shopping for a present for his girlfriend or his sister. He’s telling me how some of these items fit him — the three-quarter gloves, the evening gowns — and how playing “mobster/cross-dresser” Bunny Tagliatti on SANTA BARBARA has changed his life.

Understand that there is nothing androgynous about Joe’s appearance. He has a broad face and nose, a stocky build, heavy beard, hairy arms — features not usually associated with women, but that's exactly why Marinelli got the part. “I asked the producers if they wanted [Bunny] to be a little feminine,” says the actor. Absolutely not was the answer. “They wanted somebody who was absolutely masculine. Bunny's got a heart of gold, but he will kill anybody.” Marinelli’s research into the phenomenon of cross-dressing gave him an education in one of the strangest of all sexual subcultures: heterosexual transvestites.

Marinelli as Bonnie

“It’s hard to understand,” Joe admits in his dressing room. “There are men who admire women so much that they enter the world of femininity. With Bunny, he’s trying to understand women better so he dresses up like them. If you’re rejected enough as a man, you can become the woman who does the rejecting. Bunny doesn’t want to be with another man, he just wants to be a woman and have that feeling of power that he thinks a woman has. There are groups, a couple of heterosexual groups, most of them in the East. They get together and talk about gender relief, as they call it, because of the pressure of the masculine world. [Cross-dressing] is a release of anxiety from that masculine role. A lot of them come after marriage, breakups, stuff like that where people feel like, ‘What did I do wrong? Maybe I’m not masculine enough.’ The men usually give the person they dress up as a name and they call her their sister. I call [Bunny's after ego] Bonnie. Bunny's going to take Bonnie out for a drink.” The asexual aspect of this type of masquerade still puzzles the Connecticut-born actor. “For a heterosexual [transvestite], it’s a lot more bizarre. It's truly deviant behavior, whereas I think of a homosexual doing it, there would be humor in it. There would be more sexuality in it.”

McConnell as Dominic

The transformation of Bunny to Bonnie involves some technical magic from SANTA BARBARA’s makeup and costume departments. It takes two and a half hours to make up Marinelli, reports makeup artist John Maldonado. On days where both characters appear in the script, Joe's scenes in drag are taped first. His beard disappears with the help of Max Factor, his eyebrows are blocked out with spirit gum. “I leave some of his own eyebrows and I seal it with wax or with the spirit gum and then a fixative, which seals it so that it won't soak in,” says Maldonado. “It's a whole process.” It took some time for Joe to get used to the application of all these cosmetics. “At first his eyes kept moving back and forth and if people were talking, he'd move,” Maldonado remembers. “And I'd say, 'C'mon, you've got to work with me here, we're doing a woman's makeup so I've got to have your full attention.'” John, who had previous experience making up one of the cast as a member of the opposite sex when Judith McConnell (Sophia) masqueraded as Dominic, adds, “It's kind of tough to have a pencil going on your eyelid. Joe's getting better and better at it. I want to make him as pretty as possible.”

           

SANTA BARBARA hair stylists report that Marinelli is very fond of the red wig he wears when he crosses over into female territory as Bonnie.

Wigs cover Marinelli’s low hair line and the wardrobe has not been a problem at all. SANTA BARBARA’s costume designer, Richard Bloore, terms Joe “a perfect size fourteen. There are plenty of clothes to choose from. The only problem was getting the panty hose on, that was a little difficult.” When he was all put together (red wig, bugle beads, and three-quarter gloves to cover those hairy arms), Marinelli reports that the resident actors made something of a fuss over him. “The men reacted with a laugh,” he says, “and the women, they were in awe, touching me, touching my gloves, patting me on the ass.” He startled delivery boys in the hallway and had his niece believing he was only dressed this way for Halloween. For a guy who never paid much attention to clothes, playing Bunny and Bonnie has given Marinelli an appreciation of fashion. “It's like the first time you've ever tasted a really good wine,” he says. “You go, 'Ah, forget Gallo;'” He loves Bunny's silk pajamas, suits and monogrammed slippers. The role also inspired him to get his first manicure.

His success as Bunny/Bonnie comes after ten years of frustrating unemployment as an actor. Trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, Joe was naturally resentful at being ignored for so long. “Last year I was auditioning for The Sacramento Theater Company,” he says. “The auditions were done at The Old Globe in San Diego. I was falling asleep before the audition out on the grass in front of the theater, just dozing off a little, and I thought how the roles that I wanted to play — Macbeth, Othello — had diminished through the ten years and how they seemed so far away. But dreams can turn around. They can come back and happen.”

Marinelli as Joan Crawford

Now that he's proven himself to the show’s producers as well as the audience, Joe has been called upon to send up some very butch legends of the silver screen. His Joan Crawford was an absolute hoot. She served as God's receptionist when Mason (Lane Davies) went to Heaven in a memorable fantasy sequence. When Mason mistook Joan (in one of those flaming red wigs that wardrobe reports Marinelli especially likes) as the star of Mommie Dearest, Marinelli derisively snorted, “That was Faye Dunaway!” To prepare for his day as Joan, Joe rented a cassette of Crawford’s Oscar-winner Mildred Pierce. “I didn't want to imitate her,” he says. “I just wanted to note qualities about her voice, her intensity.”

J. Marinelli & R. Mattson

This spring, he played former Cross-Your-Heart bra saleswoman and movie star Jane Russell in a zany reworking of the comedy classic Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Bunny’s sometime girlfriend Gina (Robin Mattson) showed up as Russell’s co-star Marilyn Monroe. With her beloved sidekick Justin Deas (ex-Keith) gone, Mattson’s especially thrilled to have another outrageous companion. “I think Joe's very sweet and fun to work with,” she says. “They definitely did not want to bring in someone to compete with Justin or try to take his place. They decided to go in a totally different direction and I think that makes sense. And I’m glad not to be left in the lurch, but to be in a situation where they’re trying to find other venues for Gina. My story line has opened way up. I loved Justin Deas, but much of what I had to do on the show hinged on him and what he was doing and his schedule and his projects, and the writers were never 100 percent sure if he was going to be there and it made them, I think, a little afraid to write for us.”

SANTA BARBARA has moved away from the transvestite story to concentrate on Bunny’s very own soap opera triangle with Gina and Vanessa (Denise Gentile), the granddaughter of a hitman who tried to kill Sonny Sprocket. Vanessa did her own masquerading as a man — Vance — and Bunny renounced his own mob connections to be with her. Joe notes ironically that while the press has spilled plenty of ink about the romantic angles of Bunny/Bonnie’s life, they “never print that I don't have a girlfriend.”

Not that he’s worried. “I’ve waited ten years for an acting career to take off so....” For now, it’s the “full swing career” that’s taking up his time. He no longer has to support himself as a carpenter or cab driver. “As an actor I knew I wanted to create a lot of characters,” Joe Marinelli says with a smile. “I never knew I'd be creating a lot of female characters.” On a show as unpredictable as SB, his next female incarnation is anybody’s guess. It could be anybody from Carol Channing to Lady Bird Johnson. There is someone, however, Joe would like to try on for size: Bette Davis. That means more high heels. Joe groans at the thought. “They're fine for a couple of hours,” he says, “but at the end of the day, it's like....”

Millions of women can relate.

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. 

Succes of SANTA BARBARA is up to DANE WITHERSPOON

- Miami News_ September 1, 1984 - 

If the new NBC soaper “Santa Barbara” catches on, credit the kids. The majestic Dame Judith Anderson may give the afternoon drama veneer, but her presence is fleeting. So far, her major contribution to the area is a homegrown avocado with the Anderson profile implanted on the skin. No, those gangly California kids, raised in the sun, lurching about, guided by emotion since their brains remain untrained, epitomize life in the elegant California beach town, the jewel of the West. Happy-go-lucky Ted Capwell, running off to savor Hollywood and girls, ought to attract Midwestern kids with his friendly puppy dog manner and good looks. That’s what they grow on California beaches, by the hundreds. One to be taken seriously is Joe Perkins, the oil rigger’s son, the ex-con accused of murdering an offspring of the powerful Capwell tribe. Even Joe’s dad walks out of the house when son comes home to find the real culprit. At the outset, Joe Perkins carries the soaper, the sneered-upon hero, the good guy who must prove himself. If Joe brings yawns, SB sinks.

So the burden is upon Dane (Joe) Witherspoon, the Texas boy, raised in the oil business, an All-American type always on the high school podium gathering in the awards. But Dane sounds like one of the show’s characters, rejecting the oil business for the actor’s life in San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater (ACT). Soon Dane is in L.A. playng the nice, earnest youth on “The Waltons” and “Eight is Enough”. 

Instead of growing soft, enjoying the attention, Dane felt dissatisfied and pulled out of town, returning to join Dad back in Michigan exploring oil and gas sites. “I travelled around with my Dad checking out oil leases in courthouses and libraries,” Dane recalls. “It was mostly time by myself, something I needed.”

Soon Dane was back in New York, making the acting rounds, auditioning and failing, a man who had found his calling and would continue regardless of the rebuffs.

In Los Angeles, Whiterspoon and a friend decided to make and sell costume jewelry to survive. After the business took off, along came the role of Joe Perkins. Just in time. Witherspoon is a fan of rock musician Bruce Springsteen. His hero is coming to town to give one of his lifechanging, heart-stopping four-hour concerts. And those tickets cost money. Will Dane have to work late on opening night? Witherspoon laughs: “I’ll get there somehow.” He has his priorities straight. 

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.

Low-Rated SANTA BARBARA Soap Takes Chances That Pay Off

- July 28, 1988 | Los Angeles Times - 

Daytime soap operas are usually thought of as the most formularized of melodramas. So what was going on the other day on the NBC stage in Burbank where “Santa Barbara” is taped?

In one scene being shot for airing Tuesday, actor Justin Deas as sleazy Dist. Atty. Keith Timmons, clad in a grass skirt, convinced new bride Gina (Robin Mattson) to leave their bedroom immediately to catch a honeymoon flight to Hawaii--still wearing her wedding-night lingerie and a mint-green facial masque. In another, deaf actress Phyllis Frelich was using sign language to respond to questions being asked of her character Sarah, a nun whose disturbing dreams may reveal a murderer's identity.

Clearly, this is a show that is not afraid to take chances: Roles for deaf performers are a television rarity day or night, and the Gina-Keith scene, with its deft timing and sight gags, seemed more appropriate for a sitcom than a soap.

Just as clearly, the break from tradition is paying off. Lowest rated among the networks’ daytime serials following its premiere four years ago this week, “Santa Barbara’s” ratings are up 23% since last year--it now ranks ninth among the 13 soaps--and it recently won an Emmy as TV’s best daytime drama series, besting such veteran competitors as 32-year-old “As the World Turns” and 18-year-old “All My Children.”

“It would be unfair and untrue to say that other soaps are not good,” said actress Marcy Walker, who plays Eden Capwell. “But the Emmy is an acknowledgment that we belong in the top league.”

The serial also picked up Emmys for Deas as supporting actor and its second consecutive nod for outstanding music direction and composition.

According to Bridget Dobson, who created “Santa Barbara” with her husband, Jerry, the show was meant from its inception to stand apart from others of its genre.

“We wanted to take risks,” she said. “Otherwise, we knew the show would die in that time slot, as other soaps and game shows had.” (It airs weekdays at 2 p.m. opposite ABC’s popular “General Hospital,” which was created by Dobson's parents, Frank and Doris Hursley.)

“So we created two competitive families, the Capwells and the Lockridges, who were psychologically complicated but also psychologically and emotionally valid. We took the core of our own inner souls and put it on screen, for multifaceted characters with multidimensional personalities. That there was humor made the show unique--each character has a sense of humor.”

The attempts to differentiate the show take many forms.

“We move faster, have a more rapid pace than other shows,” said executive producer Jill Farren Phelps. “Our stories often begin and finish in the same day. There's less of that 'tune in tomorrow' to find out what happened.”

“We wanted to make sure it was the most contemporary show on the air,” said Brian Frons, NBC's vice president of daytime programs, who asked the Dobsons to create the show. “We wanted dialogue on the cutting edge, a new kind of musical sound rather than violins and organs, a warm California look--which our first lighting director, Kirk Witherspoon, gave us.”

An example of the series’ contemporary bent: the long-suffering romance and recent marriage of Walker’s golden girl character and the Hispanic detective Cruz Castillo, played by A Martinez. Castillo was conceived as “someone with a tremendous sense of morality and a heroic background,” according to Frons, to reflect the Hispanic influence in Southern California.

The romance came about as a “fortunate accident,” Walker said, as other characters left and a chemistry developed between the two that viewers noticed and liked. For his part, Martinez recalled, “there had been a prevailing sense that there was a risk involved in putting us together, but somebody stood up for it. On the other hand, it does play on the old cliches--lovers from the wrong side of the tracks, ‘Lady and the Tramp’.”

On the opposite end of the romance spectrum from the idealistic Castillos are the villainous duo Keith and Gina, the chief practitioners of the comedy that has become a “Santa Barbara” trademark. The couple, whose wedding airs Monday, has staged pie and mud fights, wreaked havoc as contestants on “Wheel of Fortune” and parodied everything from mythology to “Moonstruck.”

“We'll look at the script in the morning and say, ‘They want us to do \o7 what?\f7 ‘” Mattson recounted. “Some actors would be uncomfortable appearing the way we do, but I think if you just go with it, take it and run, it can be very winning.”

DEBBIE BACHTELL gets organized

- Pulling all the pieces together, before they even happen - 

I think this is a very interisting article about Debbie Bachtell, Santa Barbara’s Production Manager and her key role on the show. Enjoy it!

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