Santa Barbara is notable for having a central plot around which many of the others revolved: the murder of Channing Capwell Junior. This killing takes place five years before the series actually begins, at which point Joe Perkins, jailed for the murder, is paroled and returns to Santa Barbara determined to prove his innocence. Over the course of the soap, almost every major character would be accused of the murder of Channing Capwell Jr or find their life involved in it one way or the other: from his illegitimate son to his mysterious, presumed dead, mother and his homosexual relationship.

The series began on an uneven foot, but creators and executive producers Jerome Dobson and Bridget Dobson proceeded to kill off most of the show's actors via natural disaster and a serial killer storyline. When a major earthquake hit Santa Barbara, core character Danny Andrade slept through the entire thing. Minx Lockridge (Dame Judith Anderson) was unfazed, saying that the 1984 Santa Barbara earthquake was nothing like 1925. She was later locked into an empty sarcophagus. Luckily, her grandchildren were around to let her out and she escaped with merely a bruised ego.

By concentrating on such popular characters as Eden Capwell (Marcy Walker) and Cruz Castillo (A Martinez), C.C. Capwell (Charles Bateman, then Jed Allan) and his wife Sophia (Judith McConnell), Mason Capwell (Lane Davies) and Julia Wainwright (Nancy Lee Grahn), Gina Blake DeMott Capwell Timmons (Linda Gibboney, later Robin Mattson), Augusta (Louise Sorel) and Lionel Lockridge (Nicolas Coster), the program managed to achieve critical acclaim as well as slowly but surely rising ratings.

The show was famous for its comedic style and offbeat writing. For example, in July 14, 1986's episode, former nun Mary Duvall McCormack (played by Harley Jane Kozak) was killed by having a giant neon letter "C" (for "Capwell" atop the Capwell Hotel) land on her while she was standing on the hotel roof (this was later referenced in the American Dad! episode "Homeland Insecurity"), and despite an irate letter-writing campaign by the show's fans (and an offer from the soap to come back), Kozak was reported as saying that she had "no desire to return to SB", or in fact any other daytime soap.

But in 1988 the Dobsons were locked out of NBC studios after repeated attempts to fire the headwriter. They sued, and were eventually allowed to return to the program, but the magic was gone. Ratings never recovered, even as the show won 3 Daytime Emmys in a row for Best Daytime Drama. The first of those wins involved a mini-melodrama of its own as the extremely controversial Jill Farren Phelps (who had replaced Mary-Ellis Bunim as executive producer) shared the stage with Bridget Dobson. Bridget Dobson raced onstage and captured the trophy a few seconds before Phelps could reach the podium.

Under Phelps' tenure most of the show revolved around Cruz and Eden. One controversial storyline involved Eden being brutally raped, and later discovering that her assailer was her gynecologist Zack Kelton (Leigh J. McCloskey), who had examined her after her rape. McCloskey himself stated that he was uncomfortable with the storyline, as he felt that women had enough concerns about visiting gynecologists. After Zack's death, McCloskey returned as a new character, cold DA Ethan Asher.

Phelps left the series in the early 1990s shortly after being demoted and replaced by John Conboy as executive producer. Finally Paul Rauch became the last executive producer (ironically all three would later be producers on longrunning daytime series Guiding Light). Many important actors had left the series for one reason or another (Robin Wright, Lane Davies, Marcy Walker, Justin Deas). Popular actress Louise Sorel (Augusta) was fired because she did not want to have a romance with Dash (Timothy Gibbs), the man who had raped Augusta's sister Julia. Eden, Cruz, and most of the Lockridges had been written out while new characters played by stars from other shows such as Kim Zimmer, Jack Wagner and Sydney Penny took up most of the airtime. Ratings continued to collapse as more and more affiliates cancelled the program. The final episode aired in January 1993. In the finale, Sophia (Judith McConnell) and CC Capwell (then Jed Allan) moved towards a reconciliation, Kelly (Eileen Davidson, the 4th actress to play the role of Kelly) found love with Connor McCabe (Charles Grant), and at Warren and BJ's wedding, unbalanced Andie Klein (Krista Tesreau) aimed a gun at the crowd. The final shot consisted of executive producer Paul Rauch standing in front of the camera, smashing a cigar under his shoe, and walking away. Some soap critics, such as Michael Logan, were deeply angered by what they saw as the crassness of the final shot.

It has also run in several other countries across the world. In Germany, it ran under the title "California Clan" from January 4, 1989 to October 17, 1997 on RTL Television (former RTL plus) (2123 episodes, because the first 14 episodes were not broadcast). In France, it ran from October 14, 1985 to June 24, 1994 on TF1 (1044 episodes) and from December 19, 2000 to June 1, 2001 on TF6 (106 episodes). In Italy, it ran with all its 2137 episodes from April 3, 1989 to September, 1990 on Rai Uno and from June, 1991 to April 6, 1999 on Rai Due. The show was also a smash cult hit in Russia, being the first American program to air there after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Santa Barbara was the first American soap opera to appear on TV in the Czech Republic after the fall of communist regime. The show aired on Premiera TV (recent Prima TV) and the Czech Republic was the first country among other former communist regime countries to present this show. Santa Barbara was also the most popular show in Croatia and one of the most popular shows in Slovenia during the 1990s, the term "Santa Barbara" is used in everyday life for any soap-opera-like real life situation in the four countries. Santa Barbara was also screened in the UK and was the first country in the world to screen it as half-hour episodes instead of the usual hour long format. Furthermore, it was the first US daytime soap to be networked on a UK terrestrial channel, launching in July 1987 on the ITV network from 10am. Santa Barbara was eventually shown regionally, before being dropped in February 1989 when ITV bought the rights to the Australian soap Home and Away. It was then picked up by cable and satellite broadcaster Sky Television who also chose the screen it in a half-hour format from 1991 to 1993 in varying timeslots, however, the final episodes have never been aired in the UK.
( From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)