'' was an American
Soap Opera which ran on
NBC for 2137 episodes from
July 30 ,
1984 to
January 15 ,
1993 .
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.
Santa Barbara is notable for having a central plot around which many of the others revolved: the murder of Channing Capwell Junior. This killing takes place five years before the series actually begins, at which point Joe Perkins, jailed for the murder, is paroled and returns to Santa Barbara determined to prove his innocence. Over the course of the soap, almost every major character would be accused of the murder of Channing Capwell Jr or find their life involved in it one way or the other: from his illegitimate son to his mysterious, presumed dead, mother and his
Homosexual relationship.
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 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 locked 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 ), C.C. Capwell (
Charles Bateman , then
Jed Allan ) and his wife Sophia (
Judith McConnell ), 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.
The show was famous for its comedic style and offbeat writing. For example, in
July 14 ,
1986 's episode, former
Nun Mary Duvall McCormack (played by
Harley Jane Kozak ) was killed by having a giant neon letter "C" (for "Capwell" atop the Capwell Hotel) land on her while she was standing on the hotel roof (this was later referenced in in the ''
American Dad! '' episode "
Homeland Insecurity "), 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.
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) shared the stage with Bridget Dobson. Bridget Dobson 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 1990s shortly after being demoted and replaced by
John Conboy as executive producer. Finally
Paul Rauch became the last executive producer (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 ,
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 (
Eileen Davidson , the 4th actress to play the role of Kelly) found love with Connor McCabe (
Charles Grant ), and at Warren and BJ's wedding, unbalanced Andie Klein (
Krista Tesreau ) aimed a gun at the crowd. The final shot consisted of executive producer 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 . Santa Barbara was the first American soap opera to appear on TV in the Czech Republic after the fall of communist regime. The show aired on Premiera TV (recent Prima TV) and the Czech Republic was the first country among other former communist regime countries to present this show. Santa Barbara was also the most popular show in
Croatia and one of the most popular shows in
Slovenia during the 1990s, the term "Santa Barbara" is used in everyday life for any soap-opera-like real life situation in the four countries. Santa Barbara was also screened in the
UK and was the first country in the world to screen it as half-hour episodes instead of the usual hour long format. Furthermore, it was the first US daytime soap to be networked on a
UK terrestrial channel, launching in July 1987 on the
ITV network from 10am. Santa Barbara was eventually shown regionally, before being dropped in February 1989 when ITV bought the rights to the Australian soap
Home And Away . It was then picked up by cable and satellite broadcaster
Sky Television who also chose the screen it in a half-hour format from 1991 to 1993 in varying timeslots, however, the final episodes have never been aired in the UK.
Santa Barbara even had fans in the
White House . In 1985, when Augusta Lockridge (Louise Sorel) was blinded following a tunnel collapse,
Ronald Reagan sent Sorel a letter saying he and Nancy were praying for her and hoped she recovered.
NBC Burbank Studio 11 (the facility's first production)
Although Santa Barbara enjoyed considerable worldwide popularity, it never achieved the same heights in the United States. In its debut (1984–1985) season it finished in 11th place and 3.4, and edged up to 10th and 4.2 the next year. By 1987–1988 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, 1987–1988 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 1990s, some NBC affiliates 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.
Shortly before the program was cancelled by NBC, New World Television (the distributor) tried to shop the show to other broadcast and cable networks but they failed to find a network that would air it.
