Carlos Abad

After 40 years, there are many Santa Barbara actors who have disappeared from our screens. But there’s still a few left who are still doing movies or TV shows. I love to watch them now in different roles than the ones they were doing on SB. Here’s is the trailer of the last movie with our dear Cruz (A Martinez) that was released on September 2023. It’s a movie with Bailey Chase and Amanda Righetti. And also there’s a trailer of the upcoming movie DAMSEL with our dear Kelly Robin Wright playing an evil character with Millie Bobby Brown and Angela Basset on the cast. I know this is not Santa Barbara. They are not Cruz Castillo and Kelly Capwell. But I love to watch them still working after these 40 years.

where are you watching from the beginning? please write me here or in private if you prefer. I need to find some episodes. thanks a lot.

For me the strongest years of santa Barbara were 1985, 1986 and 1987. This Emmy promo is narrated by Jed Allan and it shows some of the plots of 1987. love it!

love her as Pamela. RIP

Just watched this very recent interview of Robin Wright where she talks a little about Santa Barbara and her role as Kelly Capwell. She doesn’t say anything new, but I think it was an interesting interview of all her career. I enjoyed the talk very much. I thought maybe other fans would enjoy this interview so I post it here.

Hello Bali. Thanks for your response. But after reading your message, I have checked again those scenes. It’s episode 155. Augusta called her old goons, but I think she’s not talking about the Perkins explosion at all. She’s talking about episode 1 where she used her goons who attacked Joe first in the station bathrooms and then shooting at the bus. Here’s the episode I have checked. Watch the scene at 24:30. I think it’s clear Augusta is talking about what happened on episode 1 and not the explosion. For me it stills remains a mystery who throw the bomb.

About one year ago, I watched some random episodes from the beginning and I realized about that. These first episodes have a big difference from the later episodes. Here most of the cast appears in every episode. But many of them are just only featured in one or two scenes. But later this is not the way of doing the soap because every episode only focusses in a small number of characters and there are many principal actors not appearing during many episodes. These episodes from the beginning have about 15-20 regular cast actors and later the episodes only feature about 10 actors per episode.

Just watched episode 8: -This is the first episode of Renée Jones as Toni, one good friend of Kelly. I like her. I wish they have used her more. -I realized in this beginning they sometimes wear different outfits in the same episode. For example, Kelly has 3 different outfits and 3 different hairstyles. But in the future episodes they can be with the same clothes for about 6 or 7 episodes. -Beautiful scene between Rosa and Kelly. I wish they have used her more. Margarita Cordova is a good actress and she has good chemistry with all the Capwells. But they never gave her an important story, despite being a regular character. -Here C.C. says that Kelly looks so much like his mother, but in future episodes Eden is the one who is a Sophia lookalike. -Many extras in the party. I see that in this beginning they are using many extras. They spend more money than in future episodes. -This is the first time I feel sorry for Mason when C.C. makes his toast: To the beginning of Channing’s brilliant career. That was a great scene. -I wonder if Patricia, Mason’s date, is a prostitute or not. -Ava Lazar in these earlier episodes looks amazing as Santana. Sadly later on they made something really weird with her hair. -Nice to see a big star like Tim Robbins doing a small role. But in the tittle of the episode, they also highlight Janine Turner and I have no idea who she is. -Location scenes for Joe and Dominic which is always nice. I love when they shoot outside the sets. I think those scenes were shoot outside the studios. I have seen this parking in other episodes. -I like to see some scenes between Joe and his sister Jade. Those are good scenes and well acted by Melissa and Dane. Nothing to do with John-Joe scenes that are terrible and really bad acted by both actors.

Episode 7: -Very good episode, except for the silly stuff of Ted and Danny in Hollywood. -Love to see Lupe Ontiveros as the nurse in Acapulco in Santana’s scene. This actress has been in many things but I will always remember her as Juanita Solis on the first season of ‘Desperate Housewives”. The scenes between mama Solis and Eva Longoria were pure gold. -I think it’s funny C.C. likes so much Peter for Kelly and then he likes Kirk for Eden, two killers. Meanwhile he dislikes a lot Joe or Cruz for his daughter’s. I guess he’s not as smart as he thinks he is. But I really like Peter Mark Richman as C.C. Capwell. -Fake cliffhanger in the last episode because in episode 6 Kelly told Peter “Let’s get married right now. We can go to Las Vegas an get married’. But now she wakes up in the car and she says: “Peter, I don’t want to marry you this way”. 😀 -I’m used to watch fake exteriors set in soap operas like beaches, caves, gardens, woods and many more. There are some that look more real and better than others and I do accept that. But the fake polo field green screen with C.C., Kelly and Peter is just too much. It looks so fake and cheap. It’s difficult to take those scenes seriously with those “special effects”.

Yes. I know about Kelly and Mason. In fact later on they became 2 of my favorite characters. And the same happened with Eden. I remember not liking her very much at first because she was so bitchy and hateful. But later on Eden becomes another of my favorites. I’m with you about Ted. I loved the rape trial with Christy Duvall and I quite enjoy Hayley and Ted until Jake Morton appeared. I prefer the adult stories, have never been a fan of that teenager stories.

Episode 6: -I’m enjoying these episodes very much but I can get why some viewers are struggling with the first months of Santa Barbara. -Messy edition sometimes. The whole episode seems to be taking place during the night but there’s a C.C. and Rosa scene about minute 18 in the Capwell set that it seems to be taking place during the day. There’s so much light and all the other scenes in the Capwell set of this episode are very dark. -The Capwell set is too empty compared to future episodes. They need more furniture and decorative elements to make it look real. -In this episode they are developing a love triangle between Danny, Jade and Warren, but that never happened. I guess that was the story they planned according to the first promotional photos of the show. -The ending scene of the last episode with Joe and Kelly reunion was strong, but the scenes of this episode in the yacht are a disappointing continuation with some poor acting and poor writing.

Episode 5: -I like the clear lighting of the sets in these earlier episodes. Later in 1988 the sets were darker and brown and I didn’t enjoy that. -C.C. wants a military school for poor Ted. He’s so soft and a sensitive teenager. It won’t work. -The Capwell Enterprises scene with Peter, Kelly and Joe seems to be a real building and not a set. I think that was filmed at the offices of the studios. -Later on Kelly becomes one of my favorites, but here I don’t like her very much, the same that happens with Mason who I like him more later on. Here Kelly is too soft, quiet, sweet and passive. But at least she has great taste in music. She puts on her radio cassette the song Time after time by Cindy Lauper. I think Lauper is one of the best singers from the 80s. -The ending scene with Joe and Kelly finally meeting after all these years is a great way to finish this episode. -John Perkins is again shouting and hating his son. I cannot stand him. He’s the worst! -I also love the song from Vangelis Alpha that is present in Santana scenes. -This is the first episode of Veronica. Here she’s a recurring character but later she will be a regular one. But it won’t last because she receives a carnation from her boss. -This is also the first episode of Ruben Andrade but he does nothing remarkable during all his episodes. -I think everything is working in this beginning, except the teenager’s story. I’m sorry to say this because I really like Todd Mckee and Melissa Reeves, but if they deleted all the Ted, Danny, Jade, Laken scenes the episode would be so much better. -Santana has a spicy revenge with Mason and her chili peppers. I like her. I don’t like him at all. Lane Davies is great in the future episodes, but right now Mason is probably one of my least favorite characters after John Perkins.

Just watched episode 4. These is what I think about this ep. -They have beautiful locations with Joe, Peter, Kelly and C.C. I love when they shoot in exteriors. -I guess it’s true that they played that Joe and Kelly song so many times that it loses the meaning, the magic. -I’ve read that the scene where Peter Mark Richman confronts Dane Witherspoon and his men thrown him into the water is a reshoot. They actually filmed that scene with Lloyd Bochner. -Mason pretending he has left the house and then coming in and spying Santana in her underwear is so wrong. He’s so creepy in these episodes. I don’t like him at all. -The scene where Augusta hits the waitress is so good. She’s one of my favorites from these earlier episodes. -Then we have Augusta and her pussycat Breeze in La mesa. That’s another great scene. And she has chemistry with Joe. I guess Louise Sorel has chemistry with everybody. She’s is giving so much life in these earlier episodes. -And a mystery that was never resolved. Who thrown the bomb on the Perkins house? They never addressed that subject. -This is the first episode of Dominic and while Judith is for me the one and only Sophia I think Rosemary Forsyt is a lot better playing a man than Judith.

-I never liked Cain as a character and it felt so wrong and forced when they made him Cruz and Eden’s best friend after all he did to Eden in the cabin. Some Eden and Cain scenes are so violent that they’re really hard to watch. Then Cain was the best man of Cruz in the wedding and that role belonged to Pearl who in fact didn’t attend the wedding. But I’m not a fan of late 1987 and 1988. -Maybe the actors don’t read the posts here or in the soap community forum. But I’m following Instagram pages, facebook fansites, facebook groups and there are some actors who write often on the posts. I have seen many comments of A Martinez, Jane Sibbett, Miranda Wilson, Kathy Shower, Suzanne Marshall, Joe Marinelli, Louise Sorel and more. One of the actors who commented the most was Nicolas Coster. And he was so funny in his comments and he had great opinions of some of her female co-stars: Harley Jane Kozak, Julie Ronnie, Robin Wright, Louise, Judith & more. My impression is that Nicolas Coster got along with most of the cast, except for one actress. Also I have read comments of Judith, Lane and Carrington, but they are not the most active. They seem to be more private, less engaged with social media.

Just watched Santa Barbara Episode 3. Maybe in a few months, I will catch you, Bali and Shirlaine… 😊 -Hot, Stormy, Breathtaking! I just love the promos. ❤ -I will get a little shallow in this episode because we have a lot of shirtless for the girls and gay fans (Ted, Danny, Warren, they all look great) and also we have a lot of girls in bikini for the heterosexual fans (Laken, Jade, Kelly). Not a big deal, but this caught my attention. They all looked great and very young. They all were babies and gorgeous! -I really dislike John Perkins, but on the other side I really like his wife Marissa. I wish they have given her a proper storyline, but that never happened. -We can see in this episode that they were trying something between Warren and Jade. In fact, they had lots of promotional pictures together posing as a couple. I don’t know if a story between them would have worked. But it’s sad that we will never know, because this was a story that was dismissed without trying. -I also like the friendship between Ted and Jade. Todd and Melissa work very well together. -Mason is acting very creepy with Santana. He seems like a stalker. Sorry, but I cannot like him here. -One of the best scenes of this episode is the confrontation of Rosa and C. C. The ‘Who do you think you are?” scene is just amazing. Peter Mark Richman and Margarita Cordova are great in it, but sadly it leads to nothing. -One thing I don’t know: Santana had Brandon in Acapulco before or after Channing’s murder? -I love the song ‘If Ever You're in My Arms Again’. I don’t mind that it appears every 10 minutes.