It’s Always Sunny in Santa Barbara but The Rich Cry Too.
‘Meeson got in trouble again’, my 75-years old grandmother tells someone on the phone. “Poor Eden, she is suffering again. That Gina will not leave her alone”, she carries on detailing the events and tribulations of the American family in Santa Barbara — a location that was more fictitious to her than the human drama of the rich itself. This old US soap opera was practically a period piece — a decade old by the time it was aired in the post-Soviet countries but to our unspoiled eyes, it might as well be science fiction.
This 80-s soap that was largely unknown around the world but every former USSR resident became intimately acquainted with the inhabitants of Santa Barbara. It was the first US TV series that came to Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was the first glimpse for many ordinary people into the alien lives of the rotten West.
Framed by the ocean, pristine beaches and palms, it followed a family of millionaires with so much drama that we forgot for an hour every day about our own grim drama. The grand white mansion which was the main residence for the protagonist family, the Capwells, became one of the most familiar sights for millions of viewers as the camera zoomed in on the house every day in the opening intro. That house on the beach with columns in front of the terrace that looked like a theatre surrounded by lush plants became the most famous US landmark, probably ahead of the statue of liberty. The opening theme’s tune is forever embedded in our psyche.
It gave us a glimpse into the life of the capitalist West. Filmed in the 80-s, that world seemed luxurious to the poverty-stricken Russians. The location, the houses, furniture, clothes, lifestyle — everything was exciting to see.
I wonder if we’d felt the same way about the western world if the first foreign series that was broadcast to us was Eastenders. Just how well off the Brits are if they watch gritty fictitious reality as entertainment? For us, it was all about escaping our reality.
We welcomed the residents of Santa Barbara to our houses every week for almost a decade, escaping into the endless siblings’ rivalry, love triangles, business takeovers, murder, power struggles. Everyone watched it. Traffic stopped — the roads got deserted. It was the ultimate TV event that modern streaming platforms can only dream of. The word of mouth spread across the massive country and got a simultaneous conversation going. If twitter existed at the time, #SantaBarbara would trend every evening.
We discussed the latest developments as if they were reality stars before the reality genre was invented. When the actors were invited to visit Russia, they were shocked to be met like the Beatles, and, more troubling, as their characters and not as actors who played them.
The collapse of the USSR came with the Californian fairy tale that sustained the shocked, robbed and suffering people during the most trying and unprecedented times in history and gave a glimmer of the hope that maybe, just maybe, this is the unknown future we are heading towards.
