'' was an American
Soap Opera which ran on
NBC for 2137 episodes from
July 30 ,
1984 to
January 15 ,
1993 . The show, which won many
Emmy awards, was famous for its comedic style and offbeat writing. For example, in
July 18 ,
1986 's episode, former
Nun Mary Duvall McCormack (played by
Harley Jane Kozak ) was killed by having a giant neon letter "C" (from a sign saying "Capwell") land on her while she was standing on a building's roof (this was later referenced in
American Dad! ), and despite an irate letter-writing campaign by the show's fans (and an offer from the soap to come back), Kozak was reported as saying that she had "no desire to return to SB", or in fact any other daytime soap.
The show covered the exciting, eventful lives of the wealthy Capwell family of
Santa Barbara, California . Around the Capwells there are several other families, from the rival Lockridge family to the more modest Andrade and Perkins families, whose lives know the same torments.
The series began on an uneven foot, but creators and executive producers
Jerome Dobson and
Bridget Dobson proceeded to kill off most of the show's worst actors via natural disaster and a serial killer storyline. When a major
Earthquake hit Santa Barbara, core character Danny Andrade slept through the entire thing. Minx Lockridge (
Dame Judith Anderson ) was unfazed, saying that the 1984 Santa Barbara earthquake was nothing like 1925. She was later knocked into an empty
Sarcophagus . Luckily, her grandchildren were around to let her out and she escaped with merely a bruised
Ego .
By concentrating on such popular characters as Eden Capwell (
Marcy Walker ) and Cruz Castillo (
A Martinez ), Mason Capwell (
Lane Davies ) and Julia Wainwright (
Nancy Lee Grahn ), Gina Blake DeMott Capwell Timmons (
Linda Gibboney , later
Robin Mattson ), Augusta (
Louise Sorel ) and Lionel Lockridge (
Nicolas Coster ), the program managed to achieve critical acclaim as well as slowly but surely rising ratings. But in
1988 the Dobsons were locked out of
NBC studios after repeated attempts to fire the headwriter. They sued, and were eventually allowed to return to the program, but the magic was gone. Ratings never recovered, even as the show won 3 Daytime Emmys in a row for Best Daytime Drama. The first of those wins involved a mini-melodrama of its own as the extremely controversial
Jill Farren Phelps (who had replaced
Mary-Ellis Bunim as executive producer) tried to claim an award for episodes that she'd had no hand in producing. Bridget Dobson, whose work garnered the award, raced onstage and captured the trophy a few seconds before Phelps could reach the podium.
Under Phelps' tenure most of the show revolved around Cruz and Eden. One controversial storyline involved Eden being brutally raped, and later discovering that her assailer was her gynecologist Zack Kelton (
Leigh J. McCloskey ), who had examined her after her rape. McCloskey himself stated that he was uncomfortable with the storyline, as he felt that women had enough concerns about visiting gynecologists. After Zack's death, McCloskey returned as a new character, cold DA Ethan Asher.
Phelps left the series in the early '90s to be replaced by
John Conboy and finally
Paul Rauch (ironically all three would later be producers on longrunning daytime series ''
Guiding Light ''). Many important actors had left the series for one reason or another (
Robin Wright ,
Lane Davies ,
Marcy Walker ,
A Martinez ,
Justin Deas ). Popular actress
Louise Sorel (Augusta) was fired because she did not want to have a romance with Dash (
Timothy Gibbs ), the man who had raped Augusta's sister Julia. Eden, Cruz, and most of the Lockridges had been written out while new characters played by stars from other shows such as
Kim Zimmer ,
Jack Wagner and
Sydney Penny took up most of the airtime. Ratings continued to collapse as more and more affiliates cancelled the program. The final episode aired in January
1993 . In the finale, Sophia (
Judith McConnell ) and CC Capwell (then
Jed Allan ) moved towards a reconciliation, Kelly (by that time
Eileen Davidson ) found love with Connor McCabe (
Charles Grant ), and at Warren and BJ's wedding, unbalanced Andie Klein (
Krista Tesreau ) aim a gun at the crowd. The final shot consisted of Paul Rauch standing in front of the camera, smashing a cigar under his shoe, and walking away. Some soap critics, such as
Michael Logan , were deeply angered by what they saw as the crassness of the final shot.
It has also run in several other countries across the
World . In Germany, it ran under the title "California Clan" from January 4, 1989 to October 17, 1997 on RTL Television (former RTL plus) (2123 episodes, because the first 14 episodes were not broadcast). In
France , it ran from
October 14 ,
1985 to
June 24 ,
1994 on
TF1 (1044 episodes) and from
December 19 ,
2000 to
June 1 ,
2001 on
TF6 (106 episodes). In
Italy , it ran with all its 2137 episodes from
April 3 ,
1989 to September,
1990 on
Rai Uno and from June,
1991 to
April 6 ,
1999 on
Rai Due . The show was also a smash cult hit in
Russia , being the first
American program to air there after the collapse of the
Soviet Union . In Croatia, Santa Barbara was the most popular show of the 90's and the term "Santa Barbara" is used in everyday life for any soap-opera-like real life situation in both countries.
Santa Barbara even had fans in the
White House . In the late 80's, when Augusta Lockridge (Louise Sorel) was blinded following a brain tumor,
Ronald Reagan sent Sorel a letter saying he and Nancy were praying for her and hoped she recovered.
Eric Stromer
Although Santa Barbara enjoyed considerable worldwide popularity, it never achieved the same heights in the United States. In its debut (1984-85) season it finished in 11th place and 3.4, and edged up to 10th and 4.2 the next year. By 1987-88 however it was beginning to generate respectable numbers: it was still in 10th place but achieved a 4.9 rating, the highest in the history of the show. (Incidentially, 1987-88 also proved to be the best ratings performance for NBC's daytime soap lineup in the 1980s, which had been in ratings trouble since the late 1970s). Unfortunately, this growth in popularity was not sustained although Santa Barbara remained above ''
Loving '' until it was cancelled.
In the early 90s, some NBC affliates tried airing Santa Barbara late morning timeslots. NBC's flagship station WNBC in New York moved the show from 3pm to Noon where it aired in its remaining years on the air. NBC replaced Santa Barbara with games show ''
Scrabble '' and ''
Scattergories '' before eventually adding a new soap, ''
Sunset Beach '', to its daytime lineup.
