Welcome to the Santa Barbara Re-Air Campaign

Help us Get Santa Barbara on TV (or the web)!

Santa Barbara turns 24 on July 30, 2008!!

New Developments:
(Posted 7/25/08) Thanks to Lori, I learned of a recently settled class-action lawsuit that had been brought against Fox (who bought out New World Television a long time ago) on behalf of owners of musical compositions or recordings alleging that their music was used without permission in Santa Barbara back when the show aired, and that subsequently, Fox has distributed SB to many other countries:
"Plaintiffs Nathan East (individually and dba New East Music), Stanley M. Clarke (individually and dba Clarkee Music), and The Music Force LLC (individually and dba Full Force Music) commenced this action on July 6, 2004 alleging they are owners of certain musical compositions or sound recordings that were embodied without authorization in the television series Santa Barbara and thereafter reproduced and distributed in episodes internationally. The Class Complaint named as defendants Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Twentieth Century Fox Film International Television, Inc., New World Television Productions, Inc. and New World Entertainment, Ltd. Plaintiffs asserted claims for copyright infringement for themselves individually and on behalf of classes of owners of musical compositions and sound recordings, or portions thereof, that were embodied in Santa Barbara. " [http://www.santabarbaraclasssettlement.com/index.php3]

According to the recorded message on the class settlement website, the proposed settlement was approved by the court in February 2008. I'm not a lawyer, but the settlement language appears to "fully, finally, and forever" release claims by the class members against Fox/New World for the use and distribution of their music that was used in the show. This is VERY good news for us. The gossip has long been that there were music licensing issues that were preventing the show from being re-aired. Hopefully with the settlement of this lawsuit, that hurdle has been cleared, leaving networks free to air SB without fear of future lawsuits. While some music owners could choose to be excluded from the lawsuit and thus could still be due licensing fees if SB re-aired, this cost should be greatly reduced and should only apply to the (assumed) small list of excluded parties.

Right now we're looking at all options: SOAPnet, AOL Video, iTunes, etc. Since next year will be the 25th anniversary of the birth of Santa Barbara, this would be a great time to pressure SOAPnet into, at the very least, airing a retrospective special or a few episodes of SB in order for them to measure the level of interest in picking up SB permanently. SOAPnet seems to care less and less these days about classic soaps, and more and more about pleasing the "young viewers" who apparently prefer to watch endless reruns of 90210 than real soaps. However, even if SOAPnet aired a small special on SB, this might still work to our advantage by igniting interest in SB by a broader group of soap fans than just us, the hard-core SB fans. We could then use this to garner support for AOL Video picking up SB (AOL Video currently hosts all of Procter & Gamble's defunct soaps online for free). Even pay-per-view episodes on iTunes would be a hell of lot better than no SB available to the masses.

So, all in all, the settlement of this lawsuit appears to be a very good thing and has given me new hope that maybe someday we'll be able to get SB re-aired somewhere.
-Lisa

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Santa Barbara premiered on NBC on July 30, 1984: The events actually begin five years ealier on July 30, 1979, at a party given to honor CC Capwell's favorite son, Channing Capwell, Jr. Channing is called to the study by an anonymous note. As Channing enters the study, he is shot by a person in black sitting behind the desk. Fast-forward five years to the present, 1984: Joe Perkins is released on parole after serving time for the murder of Channing, the brother of his fiancee at the time, Kelly Capwell.

Since the airing of the first episode in 1984, Santa Barbara gained a huge "cult" following for its brilliant humor, complicated characters, fascinating storylines, and exceptional actors. It won three daytime Emmy awards for Outstanding Soap, along with many Emmys awarded to actors, crew, and writers. For the 1990 Soap Opera Awards, which are voted on by readers of Soap Opera Digest, Santa Barbara won every category for which it was nominated. Santa Barbara was unlike any other soap on television and still has a worldwide following today.

What We Want: Fans of Santa Barbara want the original episodes re-aired on television, starting with the very first episode that aired July 30, 1984.

What We're Doing: We are launching an all-out campaign to re-air Santa Barbara, whether on SOAPnet, SoapCity, or any other network that will have us... We are writing to all of the former actors, crew, writers, producers, etc. who previously worked on SB and asking them for their help and support. We're writing to Sony/Columbia Tristar who purchased the domestic rights to SB in 1991 and planned to air it on their soap channel, SoapCity. We're writing to Fox, who bought New World Television, and still owns international rights as well. We're writing to SOAPnet, the soap channel that's currently airing several defunct soaps, and writing to ABC and Disney (who own SOAPnet). We're posting on message boards, writing Soap Opera Digest, trying to gain publicity for SB.

How You Can Help: Help write letters and emails to SOAPnet. Post messages. Call the networks. Call the papers. Scream "we want our SB" from the rooftops! Join our discussion group Get_SB_On_TV. Sign the Santa Barbara Petition. Call SOAPnet daily and beg for Santa Barbara. Look below for links, addresses and numbers.

You can also buy a bracelet to send to SOAPnet! We brainstormed to come up with something promotional as a quick and easy way the folks at SOAPnet could see we want SB on SOAPnet (without them having to spend the time to read promotional literature or watch a dvd). The idea is that you buy two, one for you to keep and one for you to mail to Brian Frons at SOAPnet. The cost is $5 for two bracelets (which is a donation to me to help me reimburse the money I spent having them made.) Email me if you'd like to buy some and help out our campaign!!

E-mail me if you have any questions, suggestions or comments.
Right now our main focus is sending snail mail or bracelets to SOAPnet:
Brian Frons
President of Daytime for Disney-ABC Television Group
SOAPnet, L.L.C.
3800 West Alameda Avenue
Burbank, CA  91505
or even better, call them: 818-569-3333

Special thanks to Shannon, Jim, and Mark for all of their help .
(Old news is at the bottom of this page.)

Old news:

1) (7/11/03) TV Guide's Michael Logan recently did an article about SOAPnet and that there is a possibility of a SOAPnet2 which would feature more soaps than what's currently on SOAPnet. This is great! Be sure to go to SOAPnet and send them an e-mail telling them you want Santa Barbara! You can also call them at 818-569-3333 (Los Angeles). There is also the Senior VP of Media Relations for SOAPnet you can try bugging: Eric Hollreiser, 818-569-7574. And if anyone finds an e-mail address for Michael Logan, please let me know. I'm hoping we can get him to run an article on SB and the die-hard fans who are trying to get it re-aired.

2) (7/11/03) Several of us recently got e-mails from Diane at Sony Columbia Tristar (SCT) regarding the idea of having digital downloads of SB episodes. This is also terrific. Sony owns SoapCity and had planned to air SB when they were going to have their own soap channel. Even if Sony charged $2 per episode, they could make a killing off of SB, and money is the key here. We need to convince these corporate giants that SB is profitable. Right now the SB masters are sitting in a vault somewhere gathering dust and not making anyone a dime. In fact, they're probably renting the vault so they're losing money on SB... Update as of 7/16/04: Nothing new on this front and it's come to my attention that the digital downloads they currently offer aren't available to international folks (most likely because SCT probably only owns domestic rights). I'm only pro-download if everyone can watch it, so currently I'm abandonning this line of approach. However, SCT does still own domestic rights to SB, so most likely it's they who need to come to a financial agreement with SOAPnet, so maybe we should call Sony back and tell them we'd rather have SOAPnet??

3) (12/27/03) Days of Our Lives has gotten picked up by SOAPnet! Another World was first, and now DAYS, which is a good sign... Another World was an NBC soap but was still owned by Procter and Gamble, who a big supporter of and advertiser for the ABC/Disney powerhouse that owns SOAPnet, so AW getting picked up wasn't anything to be too excited about. But, since DAYS is not a P&G soap and SOAPnet has shelled out money to air it on their network, let's hope the times, they are a-changin'. Here's a great quote about DAYS and SB that (we think?) was in TV Guide... (if anyone has a hard copy, please let me know... I hate quoting without a source!)
LIKE SANDS THROUGH THE HOURGLASS...: In an unprecedented deal, ABC-owned SoapNet has acquired rerun rights to NBC's Days of Our Lives. Beginning March 15, same-day Days repeats will air weeknights at 7pm/ET, leading into SoapNet's block of ABC dramas. Maybe this will finally pave the way for the network to acquire Santa Barbara, the best daytime drama in suds history.

4) (1/2/04) 2004 is the year we Get SB back on TV!!! (positive thinking...)

5) (2/4/04) The Lane Davies fans are helping out with the campaign! Visit Lane's site and check out the forums! Many thanks to Lane and his forum friends for helping us harass SOAPnet! Also, a big thanks to everyone on the Get_SB_On_TV list who have been working hard all along to get SB back on TV!

6) (7/16/04) A few new things worth mentioning... First off, a big thanks to my Get_SB_On_TV list for writing to SOAPnet! Another big thanks to Lane Davies and his fans who have been helping us by sending postcards to SOAPnet. Nancy Lee Grahn's fans have been helping too, so another thanks there. Nancy is currently on General Hospital and a lot of the GH fans have become SB fans thanks to Lane and Nancy being on-screen together again (before GH stupidly got rid of Lane...) Jed Allan and Robin Mattson are also on GH now and we hope their fans will bring SB some publicity as well.... CC and Gina... those were the days! And speaking of the old days, SB turns 20 this month!! We'd all love to celebrate Santa Barbara's 20th birthday with an announcement from SOAPnet that they've picked up SB, so PLEASE keep sending them mail. Rick Rhodes, a music director for SB and one hell of a nice guy, has been supporting us all along and recently had a brain tumor removed. (Sadly, Rick died after a long battle with brain cancer.) His wife, Vivian Rhodes, also involved with SB music, has a new mystery novel out and his page has info on that too (I just ordered my copy!). And speaking of mystery novels, please check out Harley Jane Kozak's new book, Dating Dead Men - I loved it and definitely recommend it.

2007: A couple new developments :
1) (1/6/07) 2007 is the year we Get SB back on TV!!! (positive thinking...)

2) (1/6/07) Gossip: The main gossip on the internet as to why SB has not been picked up by SOAPnet already is that music licensing costs are to blame. Basically, every time a song (for example, Peabo Bryson's If Ever You're in My Arms Again) is played on a tv show, the music must be re-licensed and re-paid for by the network. This can mean that one song - like Peabo's song which is played 100 or so times in the first week of the show - can make the whole process very expensive. There are, however, many options that SOAPnet has... SOAPnet could decide that the benefits of adding SB to their lineup outweigh the costs of the music. Or they could decide to strip certain songs that become cost prohibitive out of the show. Unless the song is on the same audio channel as the dialogue (for example, if the music in the State Street Bistro is actually playing at the same time Ted and Jackie are dancing), this wouldn't be difficult if SOAPnet has access to the original multi-track videos: all they'd need to do is turn "off" the channel with the special effects. Rick Rhodes (who sadly passed away in 2005) had offered to do this for free if it meant getting SB back on tv. There are many options SOAPnet has and it would be ridiculous to say that SB is never going to re-air. I've personally received correspondence from SOAPnet as recently as July 2006 stating that "SOAPnet is also interested in acquiring new programming." While SOAPnet's standard response is vague, it clearly leaves them the option of adding any new shows they want to their lineup. Getting SB on SOAPnet can be done if SOAPnet wants it and if we, the fans, want it. As an example of how fans have power, there were similar problems with getting Moonlighting on dvd - the music licensing fees were to blame with the hold up on getting the show released to dvd. The fans got together, created a campaign and prevailed. The producers even acknowledged that the dvds were made possible by the campaign by including the heads of the campaign on one of the dvd sets. While there are more episodes of SB than Moonlighting, the parallel is similar. Everyone said it was impossible that Moonlighting would ever be released to dvd and that it wouldn't happen. We, the fans, proved the naysayers wrong. I'd like to do the same thing with getting SB on SOAPnet.

And one more thing: my new best friend is Michael Ausiello of TVGuide.com - Michael has mentioned in his columns a couple times how exciting it would be if SOAPnet picked up Santa Barbara! I am looking forward to more SB mentions from him!