‘Santa Barbara’ Turns 40: See 15 Famous Alums of the Bygone Soap Opera

Santa Barbara was an NBC soap about the Capwells, the Lockridges, the Andrades, the Perkinses, and — off-screen, at least — the Dobsons. Husband and wife Jerome and Bridget Dobson created the show after serving as head writers for As the World Turns, Guiding Light, and General Hospital, the last of which was created by Bridget’s parents, Frank and Doris Hursley.

Coincidentally, it was General Hospital, then the No. 1 daytime soap, that was Santa Barbara’s time slot competition when the latter series premiered 40 years ago, on July 30, 1984.

“We wanted to take risks,” Bridget told the Los Angeles Times in 1988. “Otherwise, we knew the show would die in that time slot, as other soaps and game shows had. So we created two competitive families, the Capwells and the Lockridges, who were psychologically complicated but also psychologically and emotionally valid. We took the core of our own inner souls and put it on screen, for multifaceted characters with multidimensional personalities. That there was humor made the show unique — each character has a sense of humor.”

Also unique was the Santa Barbara’s pace — “Our stories often begin and finish in the same day,” executive producer Jill Farren Phelps told the Times — and its aesthetic, with contemporary music and warm lighting adding to the Southern California vibes.

The show ultimately ended after only nine seasons, but not before earning dozens of Daytime Emmy Awards, including three straight Outstanding Drama Series wins and victories for some of the actors below. From soap stars still in the daytime biz to Oscar winners on the A list, here are more than a dozen famous Santa Barbara alums.