"In a lot of ways, working on SB has been one of the most wonderful experiences in my life as an actor.  I have done some of my most satisfying work there.  When Jerry and Bridget Dobson were writing the show, I was the most talkative man in soap opera history, but there was also a lot of dark exploration, which I enjoyed.  Every writer has characters through whom they see themselves, and I think Bridget and Jerry saw themselves through Mason.  I love what I do for a living, and I was glad to have a job and a fascinating part.  Nancy Lee Grahn is a very good actress.  She's funny and feisty, and we got along very well.  Marj Dusay was a treat to work with, too.  The show had a strong group of actors and an extremely nice crew.  It will be sad to disband such an intense team of gifted and dedicated people!"

 

"I always thought Santa Barbara was a very good show and liked the work on it.  But when I went in it seemed to be just going to hell in a hand basket.  I truly believe they had their problems within the show, and they just more or less hired me to get rid of the character.  Pamela was the baby of the Dobsons, and when they had their struggle [with NBC, which resulted in their outster from the series they had created] somebody had to take it over, and by then the character couldn't go anyplace.  It evidently was so much politics, and if I had known that it would have helped me feel a lot better.  I thought Pamela was going to be a wonderful character, and she might have been had the Dobsons stayed.  It felt good to return, because there was something of real substance for me to play, and I was much more comfortable.  I liked the way the Dobsons brought Pamela back and where she was coming from.  It's a shame the show was canceled and I'm sorry for all my buddies there."

 

"Santa Barbara called me because I had a following from The Young and the Restless, and that was very flattering.  I felt pretty lucky to be working with such tremendous group of people, who were working very hard and doing some really terrific work.  It was challenging and also a lot of fun."

 

"As an actor I liked the freedom that I felt on that show, but I look back with mixed emotions.  I liked a lot of the work I did, but I'm sad I was caught in that revolving period of indecision.  I thought my character was very interesting, and I could explore a lot of the darker sides of him, which I liked.  Unfortunately, the show was going through a pattern of not committing to any particular storyline, because I think there were just too many people in the creative kitchen.  One of the wonderful things the show had was comedy, but during the interim that I was there I watched all these great comedic characters - and I use the word characters strongly - just disappear, and it was frustrating.  One reason a lot of the actors who were there with me at the time went over to Santa Barbara was because of the comedy, but all the wonderful humor, the richness that was singular to SB, was just gone.  But I've never had a bad experience in daytime.  I loved the people I worked with on the show.  In fact, many of them remain very close friends.  I'm always sad when a show gets cancelled, because it means you've got 20 contract people who are out of jobs, and that's too bad."

 

"Joining Santa Barbara was more than I ever expected it to be.  I certainly didn't expect to just walk in here and be plunked down in the middle of every storyline going.  I like BJ very much; she's probably my favorite character [of all the ones] I've ever played.  I feel very fortunate I've been given such wonderful stuff to do.  Everybody here is so talented, and it's very pleasant to be working with people you like.  They don't come here with their own personal agendas and just do their work and leave.  We genuinely enjoy being with each other and doing things outside of work.  It didn't take long to get used to daytime.  One of the major reasons I wanted to check out this medium was the opportunity to work at my craft on a daily basis, and that's exactly what the last seven months have given me the opportunity to do.  I love being an actress and being around other people who do the same thing.  Everybody welcomed me into the fold, and our working relationship is really perfect.  These are friendships that I intend to keep."

"I had a great time while I was on the show, and the only reason I left was that I felt I had other things I wanted to do.  I decided to do the show to begin with [because] I thought the character was great and seemed to be unsoaplike.  Plus, I didn't have to shave or cut my hair!  The show always had such interesting writing - it never really seemed to take itself too seriously and had such a great sense of humor to it, with great comic characters and strange and bizarre situations, which I think it lost the last couple of years.  Santa Barbara was way ahead of its time, and it changed too much from what was its success.  It's too bad the network couldn't stay with it.  It was a great run while it lasted, and I hope it's not forgotten."

 

"Before I joined Another World (as Reginald Love), I worked on Santa Barbara for a week.  I did six episodes as CC's brother Grant, and it was a lot of fun.  I always thought it would be a good opportunity to bring some conflict to CC's storyline, but for some reason they never brought the character back.  I really liked the show, and would have loved to return."

 

"Santa Barbara was refreshing because it pushed the limit.  There was a lot of talented actors over there, and it was fun to watch them create.  Everybody was so talented and so different.  I was inexperienced when I got the job, but what a place to start!"

 

"Working on Santa Barbara was fun, and one of the easiest jobs I ever had in my life.  I'd come in two or three days and do this fluff, and I was sorry that it ended so abrubtly.  I felt like they didn't seek the full potential of the character - for whatever reason - but if was a good time for me!"

 

"My feelings are a little confused, because the show that was cancelled was not Santa Barbara.  It became something else, just an entirely different show.  What I remember very fondly is a show that was a family, headed and nurtured and created and supported by a wonderful woman named Jill Farren Phelps (formerly executive producer).  It was the Dobsons (Bridget and Jerome, SB's creator, and former head writers and executive producers) who actually brought my character in and supported me in the role, but the true genius behind the creation and the nurturing of all of the characters was Jill, who was the one behind the scenes making the show work.  She was the one who helped create it, and she was Santa Barbara; I have only great, fond, wonderful memories for a show that left a very special place in my heart.  What we had was so warm, wacky and so wonderfully confusing sometimes, but that was the charm of it.  The family atmosphere with everyone there was initiated and maintained by Jill, and I missed it from the first day I left the show."

 

"Pamela Capwell Conrad was a woman who was beautiful, witty, wily and throughly unscrupulous.  [She was] a woman with all the infinite charms of an ageless Helen of Troy - capable of launching a thousand ships.  That is what enchanted me about the role.  However, it was a nightmare when I left.  It was a really sticky situation, and unfortunately I was caught in the middle of the politics."

 

"Elena was my most challenging role, and it was really fun to play that wicked a character.  During the day I would run rampant as Elena, then I'd go home and be very sweet.  At the end of my stint, the producers asked me to stay, but I really felt she had done her thing for the time being.  Everyone was so personable, and it was a real nice family there.  A Martinez (Cruz) was such a doll, and a real sweet person to work with."

 

"It was really well put together.  The people there were wonderful, and the coordination of everybody - from props to producers - was great.  I was very pleased."

 

"At the time I thought the show was definitely one of the better-written shows on daytime.  The people involved with it were really a great group.  They were outgoing, friendly, there for you, and they had a sense of humor.  I had never seen such a spirited, fun group of people in production."

 

"I can honestly say that working on Santa Barbara was a wonderful experience for me.  It wa the first solid acting job I was given, and I grew a tremendous amount in the year I worked on the show.  Not only that, but that's where I met my husband (Vincent Irizarry), who gave me my child, Siena.  Even though Vincent and I are no longer together, I'm extremely grateful because we have a beautiful child.  Santa Barbara interwove storylines very well, and it was wonderful to be excited about going to work every day.  The show was so good at the time we were working on it, and I was very disappointed to hear it had been cancelled.  I wish everyone who was involved in it nothing but the best of luck!"

 

"Santa Barbara was a different kind of show from all the other daytime shows, but I loved it.  At the time, I'd never been happier professionally.  I had the best material that I'd ever been asked to do, and I can think of no one in my entire career with whom I enjoyed working more than Nancy Lee Grahn!"

 

"I loved the character of Julia!  It was a really good character on daytime, because she was very multidimensional.  I loved the relationship between Julia and Mason because it was different and very unpredictable.  It wasn't a sappy love story, and that's what I liked about it.  The cast was terrific.  There isn't a bad apple in this group, and it's been very pleasant to be here."

 

"SB was my first experience on daytime, and I enjoyed working on it.  I thought Robin (Mattson) and I were cute together, and I enjoyed working with her because it was so natural.  People told us we were Lucy and Ethel, and that was the highest compliment.  It showed on the screen how much fun we had.  But I felt like I was out in the cold for a while, because my character got caught in a changeover of producers and people in power."

 

"They've given me a fun part, and I've had enormous fun doing it.  We had a wonderful group of people here.  I think [executive producer] Paul Rauch has done an incredible job of bringing together the group of  people that we had, and it was a joy to come to work every day."

 

"Out of all of the daytime shows, I thought SB was one of the finest.  My time on the show was all too short lived, but I liked working there.  They were good to me, and I really had a high respect for the actors on the show."

 

"SB was a different experience than General Hospital.  It was a much freer experience from a creative standpoint.  The day-to-day element, as far as the people and environment, was great.  But I felt that SB never really delivered to me what they promised, and that was frustrating.  At the time the show had two major producer changes and numerous writer changes, so there was no consistency with my character.  They enticed me onto the show, and I believe they did have the best of intentions, but it just didn't work out.  I thought the work I did with Louise Sorel was interesting, and she did too, but the writers chickened out.  The story with Rosalind Allen was interesting, too, but it happened so fast."

 

"The two years I spent on Santa Barbara were a wonderful time for me as far as stretching my limits and forming some of the depths of my potential as an actress.  I loved my character, and I think I had the good fortune of being able to speak some of the best lines in daytime.  I loved working with Gordon (Thomson) and also made some friends I know I will keep in Eileen Davidson (Kelly) and Michele Val Jean - one of the writers - and that's really nice!"

 

"I felt doubly blessed to be on SB because of the family atmosphere and what I learned from my storyline.  The writers really pushed themselves and were serious about the date-rape issue, and it gave me a chance to play something meaty.  The actors I worked with were another blessing, most notably Nancy (Lee Grahn).  I thought SB was innovative, and in some respects at the forefront of its type of programming.  I also loved the comedy in the show.  I enjoyed being part of that aspect, in a very minor way, later on with Louise (Sorel).  I came on the show during the Jill Farren Phelps/John Conboy transition, so I didn't ge the pleasure of working with Jill, but John was fantastic to work for.  I wish everybody, both in front of and behind the camera, all the luck in the world.  I think they're very talented and are going to do well."