Trivia / Santa Barbara

• Actor-Inspired Element: Cruz and Eden's relationship was an invention of both actors, Marcy Walker and A. Castillo. The writers, in fact, were not really confident in the idea of pairing up one of their WASP-y white protagonists with a latino, working-class man (they were meant to be paired up with Santana Andrade and Warren Lockridge respectively) but, since they perceived a lot of chemistry between them, both actors campaigned for the storyline to be picked up and ended being sucessful. Their relationship ended up being one of the most celebrated, popular and remembered stories on the show, so the writers' doubts were certainly unfounded!
• Cast the Runner-Up: Two instances:
  • Gina Gallego (Santana #3) had originally auditioned for this role and was liked by the producers, but chose to take the role of Diandra on fellow soap Rituals. When this one was cancelled, she joined the cast of Santa Barbara ─provoking the exit of Margaret Michaels.
  • Jed Allan did audition for the role of CC Sr., but was considered too young-looking. After trying with several older actors, Jed was called again, with the condition he played his role as that of an older man ─they even made him dye his hair white! He stayed for the rest of the run and his became the definitive version of the character.
• The Cameo: Fellow actors from NBC shows starred on episodic roles:
  • The fresh-faced protagonist from Knight Rider, David Hasselhoff, appeared on Episode 34 to help promote the show, playing himself and asking Jade to lend him the phone. Julie Ronnie, whom David talked at the onder end of the line, and played Laken Lockridge by that time, would appear on Kinght as a guest star ─as would several other actors from SB.
  • Nell Carter appeared also as herself on Episodes 240 and 242, being a guest at the Capwell Hotel. She was presented as the big star she was; by that time (1985), she was the protagonist of sitcom Gimme a Break!
  • Phylicia Rashad, who starred on The Cosby Show, offrered a powerful performance as the character of detective Felicia Dalton for three episodes (284 through 286). Oddly enough, Felicia was pivotal in one of the main plots, Christy Duvall's trial.
• Cult Classic: Not specially in the US, were it had a short-lived success, but on France. See below.
• Descended Creator: The soap's composer, James P. Dunne, appears on Episode 261 as a pianist/singer auditioning at the Local Hangout, the Orient Express ─and singing 'It All Begins Again', one of his tunes. He's not chosen, but Eden assures him he'll have luck.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: While the soap had a lot of success in Europe (as noted on the main page), its influence in France was really impressive for the era! The show has a cult following there, to the point that, when it was finally cancelled, several people sent letters to the channel that had the rights of Santa Barbara begging them to continue it!
  • It was also really popular in Russia, to the extent that a classic joke had a man emigrating to America and stating he'll live in Santa Barbara because he knows everyone there.
• No Budget: Unfortunately, NBC didn't provide a lot of budget for the series, and it shows in the early episodes.
  • Subverted somewhat, since the casting and the commercial campaign were given a lot of money apparently.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Not too long after her first appearence on the show, it's revealed Amy Perkins is pregnant. The actress that portrayed her, Kerry Sherman, was pregnant in real life, so the writers wrote around that. Interestingly enough, that would become one of the main plots of the second year of the show, though not in any way anyone expected.
  • Joel Crothers, who joined the cast as Jack Stanfield Lee on Spring of 1985, found out he had AIDS and became very ill, tragically dying on November of the same year. The writers decide to not recast and retire the character, seemingly out of respect, even though he was to have more relevance on the plot.
• Sleeper Hit: As noted in the description in the main article, while it had pretty bad ratings and reviews in its first months, it rapidly gained a big and unexpected following.
• What Could Have Been: Since his actor, Joel Crothers, was too ill to continue on the show, Jack Lee was retired and seemingly replaced with Kirk Cranston. It seems all of Lee's plots were given to Cranston, including romancing and later marrying Eden Capwell. Imagine the impact if Jack, who was the same social class and an old friend of her father, had been Eden's suitor! Since Julia was head-over-heels with him, this would have turned both women into romantic rivals, opening a really interesting relationship between the two.