Classic Soaps Santa Barbara

[thomaswak]

I am looking for some examples of characters gone, but not forgotten. Characters who died or left, but are still mentioned from time to time.
Were there any in Santa Barbara ? I know that Mary Duvall dying left with a big impact on some characters. But was she mentioned after her passing?

 

[Thinker]

Not all of his dirty dealings came to light. Gina was the only one who found out that Kirk had replaced Eden's birth control pills with dummy pills. But she never told Eden about it. Even though Kirk wasn't a drug trafficker when he was married to Eden (he would become a drug trafficker after divorcing Eden and spending some time in prison), he still had access to fake birth control pills.

I forgot to mention something. There was a scene that had Mark and Mary in it, and Mary requested that Mark write a new prescription for antibiotics for Eden. She said that Eden didn't trust the pharmacy the original prescription was written for because that's where she had gotten her birth control pills. So, it's not clear if Eden felt the pharmacy was bad or she actually suspected Kirk had done something with the pills.

 

[Monzo]

Soap Opera Digest has an eight-page feature on Santa Barbara in its January 16, 2023 issue: four-page synopsis and a four-page interview with A Martinez, in which he talks primarily about Cruz & Eden and the international success of the soap.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

Soap Opera Digest has an eight-page feature on Santa Barbara in its January 16, 2023 issue: four-page synopsis and a four-page interview with A Martinez, in which he talks primarily about Cruz & Eden and the international success of the soap.

30 years off air this month! I can’t get my head around anniversaries like this, as it feels like some shows are only a few years ago and then I see the dates. Like, today is actually 26 years since the launch of Sunset Beach! I’m starting to feel rather old now.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

Random question time. In Ireland and the UK, Santa Barbara always aired in a 30 minute format (including ads). Does anyone know if they just chopped the original hour long episodes in half or were they edited down versions, meaning not all of the action would have been seen?

 

[Daniel Avery]

It sounds like they would have to have done a bit of both. They would have split an episode in half, but for continuity they might have deleted some material, or perhaps shifted a scene or two into another episode. It also sounds like a logistical nightmare, and despite the effort, confusing to watch at times.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

It sounds like they would have to have done a bit of both. They would have split an episode in half, but for continuity they might have deleted some material, or perhaps shifted a scene or two into another episode. It also sounds like a logistical nightmare, and despite the effort, confusing to watch at times.

It does sound messy. Despite probably splitting episodes in two, the Irish run mirrored the American one (1984-1993) so I can only presume we never actually reached the end of the series here (it only aired sporadically in the UK, beginning 1988). They used to split A Country Practice’s hourlong episodes into two 30 minute segments too but that was two hours a week in Australia being broadcast as 4 or 5 episodes a week here, so the series ran more or less concurrently with most of the action intact (certain stories were dropped or edited down because of the adult content).

 

[Daniel Avery]

(certain stories were dropped or edited down because of the adult content).

Oh, yeah...I forgot that aspect. SB could be very "naughty" at times (I'm reminded of Gina and Keith, Lionel and Augusta, etc.) and downright gratuitous at times (Eden being raped by her gynecologist). The censors may have helped the editing process along by having some of the innuendo and outright 'naughtiness' excised from the final half-hour episodes.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

Oh, yeah...I forgot that aspect. SB could be very "naughty" at times (I'm reminded of Gina and Keith, Lionel and Augusta, etc.) and downright gratuitous at times (Eden being raped by her gynecologist). The censors may have helped the editing process along by having some of the innuendo and outright 'naughtiness' excised from the final half-hour episodes.

Sorry for the confusion, I was actually talking about A Country Practice being edited down because of content (it being originally aired in primetime in Australia vs daytime in Ireland and the UK). Although I wouldn’t be surprised if there were elements of Santa Barbara cut out for similar reasons, particularly on ITV. When Home and Away only hinted that Isla Fisher’s character Shannon was in a relationship with a woman, ITV cut scenes from that storyline. The result of this being Shannon appearing to have a rather sudden exit to Paris because a lot of the build up to her departure wasn’t shown on the ITV screenings.