If ever you're in my arms again...
From the minds of Bridget and Jerome Dobson (soap opera screenwriting power couple who had previously worked on General Hospital,note Guiding Light, and As the World Turns, where they created well-remembered characters), Santa Barbara was a Soap Opera that centered around the eponymous city in California, airing on NBC from July 30, 1984 to January 15, 1993.
Five years ago, working-class Joe Perkins was accused of the murder of C. C. Capwell Jr., son of the rich and powerful Capwells. When, after five years in prison, Joe is released, he will start a fearless fight to prove his innocence and regain the love of his ex-girlfriend, Kelly Capwell, while the eccentric Lockridges and humble Andrades also have some unfinished business with the Capwells.
Even though it had a (for a soap opera) pretty short run, its impact can be felt in the contemporary and posterior soaps, especially in Passions. While it had pretty stereotypical soapy plots and characters, Santa Barbara always had an offbeat, humorous approach and a slow, introspective pace more akin to a prime-time soap or even a straight-up serious drama, which (though not always successful), helped to differentiate it from other soaps.
While (after a rough start) the series had a steady and growing viewership, and quite a success overseas (especially in Spain, Russia and France), as well as several wins in the Daytime Emmy Awards, just as quick as it gained viewers, Santa Barbara lost them, and coupling that with an insane Revolving Door Casting and several offscreen dramas in the writer's room, the series canned its last episode (its 2,137th), in 1993, having a relatively early demise.
Notable for jumpstarting Robin Wright's career. Also notable for being the first American program to air in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
This TV show has examples of:
- The '80s: The quintessential 80's soap opera. Not only did the sets, fashions and hairstyles scream "Eighties"; the show also took an effort in reflecting the "modernity" of the era and the values that embodied it and the younger generation (women's independence, shameless flaunting of money, progressive politics...)
- '80s Hair: And how. The soap started in 1984, and though it mantained some holdover hairstyles from The '70s, it couldn't escape the fashions of the era: the women's hair (specially in the younger actresses) is puffy and savage, while several of the men wear toupees and even several A Flock of Seagulls hairstyles.
- Alternative Foreign Theme Song: Bizarrely enough, the French translation used Peabo Bryson's "If Ever You're In My Arms Again" as the theme song, but changing the lyrics to French ones referring to the show and sung by Giles Sinclair.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Played With. When the earthquake hits Santa Barabara in Episode 75, Kelly gets caught in rubble and pretty injured. She is then rescued by Joe and, since they both know their feelings for each other, the don't just declare their love: they get married on the spot!
- Awful Wedded Life: Played With. Lionel and Augusta Lockridge have a dysfunctional, tempestuous relationship, but in the end, they really love each other.
- Beta Couple: Ted and Laken can be seen as this to Kelly and Joe, since their effortless young love contrasts to the complicated relationship between the other two, and they have a great amount of screentime devoted to them.
- Once Eden and Cruz become the show's main couple, the beta changes too: Brick and Amy's complicity and genuine affection contrasts the tumultous yet loving relationship of the other two.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Several but, interestingly enough, always with a twist:
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Augusta and Lionel Lockridge are always arguing and hurting each other; that is, when they're not having fantastic sex! The twist comes with the fact that they are married. - Eden Capwell and Cruz Castillo start up this way, having verbal battles and icy stares. The twist comes with the fact that they are exes and used to work together as spies.
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- Betty and Veronica: Crops up several times but, as in the previous trope, always with a twist:
- Right from the start, Kelly has to decide between Peter Flint (the next-door type nice high school teacher), and Joe Perkins (a rugged working-class ex-convict who presumedly killed her brother). The twist comes from the fact that Joe is also her First Love and only wants what's best for her, while Peter used to be her teacher and may be more interested in the Capwells fortune and prestige than in her.
- For a couple of episodes, Joe has to choose between next-door type and high-school peer Sally Taylor or ex-girlfriend, soon-to-be-married Kelly Capwell. But, while he doesn't feel anything for Sally, Kelly is her True Love.
- And again, some episodes later, Joe has to choose between Nice Girl Kelly Capwell and vampy, femme-fatale Augusta Lockridge. And again, while he truly loves Kelly Capwell, the "safest" choice would be Augusta, since Kelly is to be married and doesn't want to hear from him, while Augusta actively helps and pursuits a relationship with him; though you could also argue that neither choice is safe, since Augusta is married to a powerful businessman and is a sufferer of Chronic Backstabbing Disorder.
- Around episodes 30-40, Santana is flirted to by both Mason (a smug, condescending and jerkass rich lawyer) and Cruz (an easygoing and affectionate oil rig worker), which would double as a Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor situation. She nonetheless decides to Take a Third Option in C.C. Capwell I. This gets restarted in Episode 60, interestingly, when she and C.C. break up, but then it gets subverted since she's really only trying to get information on her son.
- An overlapping one (though to be fair, by that point, the show had become a Love Dodecahedron), with C.C., Gina, Mason and Mary by Autumn 1985: Gina got married to C.C. sincerely loving him, but was tricked by Mason to sleep with him since she didn't know she was pregnant, and she wanted the Capwell genes. Since he's the only one who doesn't treat her like dirt, she ends ups falling for her husband's son, just in time for the arrival of Mary Duvall, whom Mason falls head over heels for (and she for him). From Gina's perspective, C.C. is the safer, saner option (the Betty), and Mason the dangerous one (Veronica), but C.C. doesn't really care or love her, while Mason is the only one who treats her like a human being. Once C.C. gets out of the picture, Gina gives the opportunity to reclaim the Capwell heritage to Mason and to have a commited relationship (Betty), while going with Mary would destroy every possibilty of that, and they are not really sure about their feelings for each other (Veronica). Mary, however, really gets him, while Gina is not really that profound. Phew!
- Both Sides Have a Point: Several conflicts have this, which makes them more interesting. The most notable is the plot concerning Santana and her baby. While she has every right to search and have him back, as C.C. point out, the child has his own life and family, and it would confuse him a lot if Santana told him the truth.
- Cast Herd: Adding to the neat division into the four main families, Santa Barbara also divided its characters into ages ("old", like C.C. and Augusta Lockridge and "young", where Kelly, Peter, Santana and Joe would fit). Notably, it also had a "teenager" herd (nearly unseen for a soap back then), consisting of Jade, Danny, Laken, and Ted. They literally split them up sending them to a Hollywood apartment early on (around the 3d episode).
- Character Development: Another defining trait of the soap was this. Santa Barbara wasn't afraid to stop the story in order to develop its characters.
- Contraception Deception: In a very well-remembered plot, Kirk Cranston knocked up Eden after replacing her birth control pills with placebos.
- Creator Provincialism: The Dobsons were Santa Barbara locals indeed. The show is, then, filled with references to Santa Barbara, such as the characters playing polo and riding horses, the Spanish architecture, the Marina... In episode 43, a ride on a plane serves as an excuse for showing several Santa Barbar-ian places and customs.
- Dame Judith Anderson, who played Minx Lockridge for the first four years, was also a Santa Barbar-ian.
- Delirious Misidentification: After some accident, Santana and Cruz were stranded in an abandoned building, and Cruz, while sick, made love to Santana, believing her to be Eden. Knocked her up, too.
- Divorce Is Temporary: In the case of Marissa and John Perkins, it is. Justified somewhat in that they divorced because of disagreement on Joe's innocence; once John starts trusting his son, Marissa starts to warm up to him.
- Ensemble Cast: A given, since this is a soap opera. Even though, this tropes gets zig-zagged; for the first 70 Episodes, the focus is very much on Joe Perkins and Kelly Capwell, who are the absolute protagonists and heroes of the story. But then, (seemingly because the Dobsons weren't very pleased with the results of their experimenting) they started losing prominence and the show became an ensemble piece... until a change in writers gave the protagonism to the main power couple, Eden and Cruz.
- Banking on the exceptional memory and delivery of Lane Davies, Mason quickly became one of the de facto protagonists, appearing in nearly every episode. Similarly, Gibboney and specially Mattson's penchant for comedy and awesome acting motivated the writers to make Gina one of the central characters too. Add to that Eden's tribulations as the successor of her father's enterprises ─and specially her tribulations with Cruz, and you have an effective main cast of four. This would be true for most of the series until Eden's, and later Cruz's, departure.
- Everyone Went to School Together: Justified partly because several characters are around the same age and live closely, but the viewer surely can wonder how is it possible that four closely related families could also have children at the same time.
- The Ghost: Played With. The show had a tendency to foreshadow every important character's appearance several episodes before the fact, while also describing them. Cruz Castillo, Lionel Lockridge, and Eden Capwell all get this treatment.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Eden got pregnant by her sleazy husband Kirk after he tampered with her birth control pills. Because Eden was a "good girl", she wanted to continue carrying this baby until it was born. But she miscarried it, and she was sad about it. She said, "The baby would have been the only good thing to come out of my marriage. I really would have liked to have had it".
- Earlier on, it's revealed Santana had a baby with C.C. II. The possibility of having had an abortion is never raised, even though they are both teenagers and she's a housekeeper for his family. She does however mention it on a throwaway line, saying she "doesn't believe in abortion"; could imply she's Catholic, given she's Latina, and thus semi-justifying it.
- Around Episode 70, Amy Perkins learns she's pregnant with the baby of her ex-fiance. Though she briefly contemplates abortion, she finally opts for having him, despite her family not being very wealthy and her not having a stable job (thanks to said ex-fiance). The actress, Kerry Sherman, was indeed pregnant in real life, so the writers seemingly improvised her storyline around that, and rather masterfully too, since it gave the character something to do and very compelling complications to her storyline.
- Hijacked by Ganon: Before Cruz and Eden's wedding, there was a major story arc where a villainess named Elena first tried to murder Eden, then, once Eden returned and matters started looking bad for her, was shot, with Cruz accused of the murder. It turned out Kirk Cranston, the couple's arch-nemesis, was her mentor - including on how to commit suicide.
- Hopeless Suitor: At first, Danny is this towards Jade Perkins, always unsuccessfully trying to catch her attention.
- Inconveniently Vanishing Exonerating Evidence: After Kelly kills Dylan in self defense, the tape showing the incident ends up in Gina's hands, who uses it to deliver a Scarpia Ultimatum to C.C.
- Instant Messenger Pigeon: Early on, Ted gives one to Laken as a present; of course, the pigeon works instantaneously, without needing to let the pigeon build its nest or have a mate.
- It's a Wonderful Plot: In one episode Gina sees how all the lives she affected would have gone without her. Most notably, Mary would still be alive and living happily with Mason. Gina is horrified. Then she wakes up with a hangover. Her resolution? Drink less and don't mix drinks.
- Just Got Out of Jail: Deconstructed — Joe has just left prison; in other shows he may walk freely, but in Santa Barbara, he has difficulties finding a job and resuming relationships with old friends.
- Lampshade Hanging: The writers loved doing this.
- They even started making fun of the continous cast changes: on separate ocassions, characters comment on how "different" Santana and Brandon are right after they'd changed actors.
- Leitmotif: Whenever Kelly and Joe long for each other, Peabo Bryson's "If Ever You're In My Arms Again" is heard.
- Interestingly, a couple of episodes in, the main theme of the soap becomes one, being used in several tracks according to a scene mood (a technique that comes from old-time cinema and used similarly in Moonlighting).
- Eden and Cruz get one, too: James Dunne and Jill Colucci's The change in me is you. Later on, Natalie Cole's A little bit of heaven would also become their theme song.
- Local Hangout: At first, you have the beach bar and La Mesa, a Spanish-like bar were cocktails are served (and were Sally and eventually Kelly work as waitresses). Those are the hangouts most characters frequent; the beach bar is quickly forgotten and, by the second year, La Mesa is, too. The show retorts to the State Street Bistro, were most of them also hangout, oddly enough. That is, until Eden opens The Orient Express in the higher floor of her father's hotel...
- Loophole Abuse: In order to get the beachfront property of the Lockwells for his father's birthday, Mason finds and exploits one of these: turns out the original buy was made incorrectly.
- Lighter and Softer: As noted below, the first episodes of the soap were rather dark and filled with plot and jerkass characters. This direction wasn't at all what the writers had intended to do, so they made a soft reboot, making characters nicer (and wackier), introducing several romances without complications on the show (more importantly, Brick and Amy's couple), and making the plot looser and with quirky, fun ideas sprinkled throughout.
- The writers tended to change and alter the status quo of the show on the first episodes; while that remained a characteristic of the show, once CC II's murderer is revealed, they preferred to keep the characters in one place and alter it more gradually.
- The Masochism Tango: As noted above, Lionel and Augusta Lockridge tend to fight a lot and get into arguments. They, however, seem to like it.
- Monochrome Casting: Notably averted. In a landscape were most soap protagonists were WASPS, Santa Barbara chose to give relevance to several Hispanic and black characters from different socioeconomic backgrounds. While certainly not a pioneer, it made quite a distinction.
- Out of Focus: As noted above, the show fastly accumulated a lot of characters; that allowed the writers to focus on a handful for stretchs of episodes while relegating others to mere extras. It was pretty usual for an actor not to show up during several episodes.
- The show had a tendency to forget characters once they had completed their purpouse. Sudden disappearences were pretty usual in Santa Barbara, it seems.
- Relationship Upgrade: After much fooling around, Danny and Jade start a relationship in Episode 33. For added value, they sleep together that very same night (but don't have sex).
- As of Episode 44, this is also true for Kelly and Joe.
- Revolving Door Casting: And how! Either by leaving the show entirely or by changing actors, nearly every character had at least two changes of performers. By the end of the show, only one actress had remained for its entire run: Margarita Cordova (Rosa Andrade). And even she hadn't been present for some years! Given the soap only was on the air for nine years, all this cast changes may had had some influence on its cancellation.
- Running Gag: Several, oddly for a soap.
- 'This is Mrs. T. Mac Donald Lockridge. 'T' for 'Tiger''
- Whenever Laken and Ted try to "do it", something happens, be it a sudden illness or a family squabble... or both.
- Mason always has to do something 'very important' and interrupt his meeting with another character, though the importance of that tends to be just his momentary whim.
- Gina getting her hopes up in a situation the audience already knows is gonna get significantly worse.
- Kirk being called "Mr. Capwell" after his marriage to Eden, much to his chagrin. This gag culminates when Mason subverts it, calling her Mrs. Cranston... much to her chagrin.
- Scenery Porn: Not from the sets itselves (which, in fact, tended to be very sparse and cheap), but from the exterior shots and dialoge of the characters. They really made you wish you lived on Santa Barbara!
- From time to time the producers would shot on location, showing the natural beauty of California. Special shout-outs should be given to the abandoned Old West town were several episodes took place in the Summer of 1985.
- Shout-Out: The writers were from a generation that grew watching movie classics, and were pretty clever too, so they loved these:
- On Episode 210, just as Eden and Cruz are about to marry on the restaurant she owns on the top of the Capwell hotel, the basement catches fire and all the invitees (and several main character), have to leave battling the flames.
- In Episode 122, the Capwells learn Gina is addicted to painkillers, so CC gets her sent away to the Sanitarium. Before leaving, she takes a moment for saying she loves CC, and everybody too, and even a stranger. The filming and her clothes and haircut even resemble those of Blanche Du Bois.
- Kelly and Nick spend most of episode 227 spying on a suite of the Capwell hotel from a room on the opposite side of the street.
- Mason and Mary's love affair initially had a lot of references to Classical Era Hollywood romance movies. In episode 290, he mentions old movies where they would "go to the funfair" and say something stupid. Mary mentions the theme from Summer of '42 is one of her favourite songs she listened as a kid.
- It even gets lampshaded by Augusta, of all people. She mentions how CC II's murder reads like an Agatha Christie novel to her. Cruz (the resident policeman) does indeed reunite most of the main cast on the scene of the murder in order to reenact it (though that gests Justified by the circumstances of the murder itself).
- Being the cultured jerk he is, Mason liked to quote the classics: on several ocasions he says lines from Shakespeare (specially from Romeo and Juliet).
- In Episode 349, Augusta mentions ironically that Lionel and Sophia see themselves as Tristan und Isolde.
- On Episode 350, Nick mentions Kelly he wants to gift her Hearst's castle to her —he even mentions it was originally a gift for Marion Davies.
- Sickeningly Sweethearts: Ted and Laken have their moments. Whenever they're together, Kelly and Joe too.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: Mason and Gina have this kind of dynamic. Makes sense, considering they started 'dating' because he tricked her into sleeping with him in order to have a baby with the Capwell DNA.
- Slow-Paced Beginning: The first 30 or so episodes had a glacial pace, and are filled with exposition and reexposition of the main plot. Fortunately, the soap picked up speed pretty soon after that.
- If one considers CC II's murder the start of the show, this applies too: the plot took almost a year to resolve itself (that's 217 episodes in-universe) and was the jumpstart to several other and more memorable plots. Most fans agree in fact that the show really hit its stride after the murder mistery resolution.
- Standardized Sitcom Housing: Funnily enough, the Perkins' home is like this, even having a door coming directly into the living room. The rest of the houses seen in the soap are appropiately more varied.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Kelly and Joe are presented as this.
- With their Romeo-and-Juliette-like rival families, Laken and Ted fit this trope even more.
- This was a revolving door of a trope in the series: Eden and Cruz, post their breakup, gradually become this.
- The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: When Julia shows up, it quickly becomes apparent that she and Augusta have this kind of relationship. Augusta is the vapid, flighty older beautiful sister, and Julia is the studious and mature ugly one. Julia has however been working out...
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: Around episode 27, when Ted and Laken leave them alone, Jade tries to invoke this with Danny on their apartment.
- Denser and Wackier: While the show never took itself too seriously to begin with, up until the earthquake episode there is one central plot taken very seriously and the universe of the soap is a Darker and Edgier place akin to the 70's style of "urban" soaps, with pimps, murderers, both central families ruthlessly exerting their power on Santa Barbara... the Dobsons weren't too pleased with the results and opted to emphasize the humorous and wackier aspects of the story, and thus the Santa Barbara that everyone loved was born.
- Earlier on the soap, the events and injuries that the characters faced were taken very seriously and there was a realistic danger for them. That didn't last too long.
- The personalities of the characters veered more on the morbid, jerkish side. Over the course of the first 100 episodes or so, they were gradually softened till they all had their quirkiness and every character had a sense of humor about themselves. This was specially noticeable on Augusta and Lionel Lockridge, which started being far darker characters and quickly became the funny sidekicks of every other plot. Conversely, Mason became the huge jerkass that defined his character for the rest of the soap, while he had been sneakier and more pitiful early on.
- The tone of the show's plots was also altered: from a point on, nearly every one had some humor injected into it, and quirky ideas thorughout (like a Renaissance costume party aboard an European train in the middle of a baby's kidnapping plot). The stories also moved far more quickly.
- We Have to Get the Bullet Out!: Subverted. When Peter gets gravely injured during the earthquake because he gets shot, he spends several episodes teetering between life and death at the Hospital, instead of instantly being cured once his bullet is removed.
- Will They or Won't They?:
- One of the driving questions of the first one hundred or so episodes. Kelly and Joe have clearly still lingering feelings for each other, but will she ever be able to forgive him?
- Once Kelly and Joe's squabbling is resolved, they get replaced by Eden and Cruz, who get an up to eleven WTOWT.
