It is often strange to people that I am still interested (much less obsessed) with a soap opera---especially one that began when I was only 6 years old and ended a mere 9 years later, shortly before my 15th birthday. So, a soap that has been off the air for 16 years. . .half my life. Why would I be so interested?
Santa Barbara aired after Days of our Lives and Another World. My cousin, Shayna, would babysit me when I was younger, and she would try to get me and my other cousin, Heather, to nap while she watched her soaps. I was not a nap kinda kid. Therefore, I had to sit and be quiet, and naturally I would watch tv with her, and soaps were on. I don't think I was interested so much when I was 6, but by the time I was 8, and especially 10, and then again at age 12, I was very involved. To make it even more interesting, I would spend a week or two with my dad and step mom in the summer, and she watched the same shows, so I was hooked. Did I like Days and AW? Sure I did. I had my favorite people, but nothing touched me so closely as Santa Barbara did.
So what made it special? As an adult, I have more insight into this than I did then, so I'll just start with the real draw for me: Cruz and Eden, played to perfection by the amazing duo of A Martinez and Marcy Walker. This couple became my dream. They were funny at times. They shared adventures, they loved, and the angst they had when they weren't together (as soaps so often do to our favorite couples--hey, even tv shows in general), was so real you would cry. Cruz and Eden were pure magic to me. The ideal couple that I wanted to be half of. I got my dream of going to Paris from watching them walk the Seine and dance in front of the Eiffel Tower. I got my dream of a victorian wedding from their wedding. I discovered the real Santa Barbara, and fell in love with it. I fell in love with Pebble Beach.
So in Santa Barbara's mere 8.5 years on the air, I gained an idealistic view of marriage (albeit one filled with villians, ex-lovers and stupid reasons to be apart), and this stuck with me. This stuck with me after Marcy Walker left the show, after A Martinez left the show, and ultimately after the show closed it's doors for the final time. It ended in 1993, before internet was popular, before ebay. It wasn't until many years later, well into the 21st century that I sat down one day and decided to google the couple and show that had been my constant companion throughout my formidable young years.
And that google search changed my life. I found out things I never knew: I was not the only person pining for the long lost show. I was able to locate clips of the show, and later find them on youtube. I was able to collect tapes, and watch them til they broke. More importantly, I was able to share the love I had for the show and this couple, with people who were just as crazy as I was. And I met a few really good people. People who I still talk to, and who I hold among my closest friends. The friendships aren't totally immersed in SB anymore, they've evolved beyond that. But I credit SB with the beginning of each of them.
I don't know if this begins to express how I feel about the show, maybe I'll be able to express that better in part 2. Stay tuned for that! I'm also planning to write up a blog about my Santa Barbara road trip. :)
You know what it was for me? It was that "perfect" man, who was always there to rescue the damsel in distress. It was the way he looked at her when she wasn't looking, the way his hand would reach out, instinctively, to find hers. It was all the little things that most people probably didn't notice, except for those of us obsessed enough to analyze every detail. It was that idea that there were good relationships out there, when perhaps the relationships in our own lives weren't so good. It was the hope that one day, maybe, we could find that Cruz Castillo type of guy who would brush our hair out of our eyes and wipe the tears from our cheeks.
ReplyDeleteI stumbled upon the online SB world the same as you did and I was amazed at how many people around the world were still thinking of SB. In fact, I've been able to see more episodes as an adult than I got to see as a kid...and the show has been off air for 20 some years!