Sunset Beach is a short-running American television soap opera, first broadcast in the United States on NBC on January 6, 1997, and last airing on December 31, 1999. The show followed the loves and lives of the people living in a fictional coastal city named Sunset Beach , on the coast of California. Although there is a town in California called Sunset Beach, the show's beach scenes were shot on nearby Seal Beach. The show was co-produced by NBC and Spelling Television. It aired in over 70 countries around the world.
Sunset Beach won two Daytime Emmy Awards and was nominated another 11 times. The show also received 22 nominations for various other awards. Sunset Beach was released on DVD for the first time on 25 July 2008 by the German company Koch Media. The first 12 episodes were released on four DVDs (in German and English).
Conception and development
Sunset Beach was created early in 1996, in an attempt to rebuild the NBC Daytime lineup and target the younger audience. It was the first daytime soap opera produced by Aaron Spelling, the chief of Spelling Television (Spelling had also produced several primetime soap operas, and was the executive producer of the 1991 film Soapdish , a satirical look at daytime soap operas). Jonathan Levin, one of the show's consulting producers, commented on the change that a new soap opera brings to the lineup, and the tough process of a viewer getting to know a new soap: "It is very difficult to change the loyalty of the daytime viewer, and we’re talking about shows that have been on for 30 years. That's one of the reasons we’re targeting young viewers — they’re the most available and the most flexible in their viewing habits."
In the process of making the show, Aaron Spelling liked the idea of naming it Never Say Goodbye , as suggested by Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone during a dinner with Spelling, but later tests proved that the viewers were more drawn to the title Sunset Beach . At first, the show was given a one-year deal, with 255 episodes to produce. All 255 episodes were shown on Channel 5 in the UK and episodes often got more viewers in the UK than in America.
Before getting cancelled, the show was renewed twice, but it failed to grab the show's audience. Through its short existence, Sunset Beach remained in the daytime ratings basement. However, during the Shockwave storyline of 1998 it received its best ratings and showed signs that it might move off the bottom. This spike proved to be brief and was not sustained.
Cast and crew
Main article: List of Sunset Beach charactersMain article: List of Sunset Beach crewWhen the show first aired, it started with 21 contract characters, of which 7 had left the show during its three year run. The first actress to leave the series was Kelly Hu, whose character didn't mix well with the others, and she was followed by the exit of Adrienne Frantz. Her character was recast after her but the change didn't work out, resulting in the character eventually being written out. By the end of the year, when Meg Bennett took over as a new head writer, Leigh Taylor-Young and Laura Harring also left the series, followed by the exit of Nick Stabile, whose character was written out in a serial killer storyline. The final original character to be written off was Eddie Connors, played by Peter Barton, who exited in mid-1998.
The remaining 14 original characters stayed on the show until its end, and three of those characters were recast during the three-year run. The first recast happened soon after the show started airing. The role of Cole Deschanel, initially played by Ashley Hamilton, was recast with Eddie Cibrian. In mid-1998, following contract disputes, Vanessa Dorman vacated the role of Cole's wife Caitlin, and Kam Heskin was cast instead of her. The final recast was a temporary one. When Susan Ward left to film a movie, Sydney Penny stepped in to replace her, with Ward later returning to play the character for the show's final few weeks. Shortly after the show premiered, Dominique Jennings, V.P. Oliver and Russell Curry joined the cast, but the first two were written off by March 1999, exactly two years after their introduction.
The exits of many characters opened the doors to the introduction of new ones. Carol Potter and John Martin, who had been recurring during the show's first year, were promoted to contract status, and the expansion of Meg's family also included the arrival of her sister Sara. The role was first played by then-unknown actress Lauren Woodland, but she was fired two weeks later and replaced by Shawn Batten, who played the role for the remainder of the series. Aside from Meg's family, Ricardo got his family expanded, including the introduction of his mother Carmen (played Margarita Cordova), brother Antonio (played by Nick Kiriazis) and the sudden reappearance of his sister Maria (played by Christina Chambers), Ben Evans' presumed dead wife.
The teen scene was revived in 1998, when Bette's daughter Emily (played by Cristi Harris) arrived in town and fell in love with Sean, prompting Amy (played by Krissy Carlson) and Brad (played by Michael Strickland) to intervene. The final teen cast was Leo Deschanel, Cole's brother (played by David Mathiessen). A long-time legend, A.J. Deschanel, was also cast in the form of Gordon Thomson, and a villain named Francesca (played by Lisa Guerrero) was added to the cast in the middle of 1998.
In 1999, the show cast only three contract roles, the first two being in March, when Tracy Melchior and Chase Parker stunned the soap with their sudden arrival in town. The final role to be cast on the show was the one played by Sean Kanan in late August. Things changed at the end of the year, when fan favorite Eddie Cibrian left the show to pursue a career in primetime. Several other cast members, including a few original ones, considered leaving, but the show's cancellation came before they could make a decision.
During its entire run, Sunset Beach was executive produced by Gary Tomlin. However, the head-writing history was much different. Robert Guza, Jr. was the first head writer (and also a co-creator), but he exited the show in October 1997, when Meg Bennett, who had been serving as Associate Head Writer was promoted to Head Writing status. Four months after being the sole head writer, Bennett got a co-head writer in the form of Christopher Whitesell. During the summer of 1998, Bennett was fired and replaced by Margaret DePriest, who stayed with the show until its cancellation.
Storylines
Storylines in its nearly three-year run ranged from the traditional to the supernatural. One of the first storylines concerned an Internet romance. Kansas farm girl Meg Cummings discovered her fiancé, Tim Truman, cheating on her on their wedding day. Meg had been talking online with SB, a man who lived in Sunset Beach, California. And after catching Tim with her maid of honor, Meg fled to Sunset Beach in search of SB, who turned out to be wealthy, widowed businessman Ben Evans.
When the moon rises early, just as the Santa Ana winds kicks up out of nowhere, and the sun is just dropping out of sight, whoever you meet at the far side of the pier, is who you're destined to be with.
– Elaine Stevens (the legend of Sunset Beach)
The first year of the show revolved around Meg's pursuit of Ben (including her briefly breaking into his house, stealing a journal she found there, and dressing up in his late wife's clothes), who was initially not interested in her, and the gradual development of a romance between them. A side plot showed the antagonistic relationship between Meg and Annie Douglas, Ben's longtime best friend. Meg hated Annie for being close to Ben and wanted to cut her out of his life; Annie hated Meg out of jealousy for her developing romance with Ben. Their problems reached a head with a physical fight in a hot tub. Meg's ex-fiancé Tim Truman followed her to Sunset Beach to win her back, and ended up becoming Annie's ally and almost love interest. Once Meg and Annie had overcome their differences, Meg soon had a new problem when she began to suspect Ben was a murderer, although this plot line was developed to lead up to the Terror Island storyline. After the Terror Island/Derek storyline (see below) none of the issues raised were ever mentioned again.
Meg and Ben became one of the show's first couples, along with reformed jewel thief Cole Deschanel and local heiress Caitlin Richards. Cole slept with and impregnated both Caitlin and Caitlin's unhappily married, alcoholic mother Olivia. Olivia and her fiendish husband, Gregory, planned to steal Caitlin's baby and pass it off as Olivia's (telling Caitlin her baby had died) in order to break up Caitlin's relationship with Cole, who her parents disapproved of because of his criminal past. Caitlin lost the child in a car accident when she found out about her parents' horrible plan, and planned to fake the rest of her pregnancy and adopt a baby to pass off as her own, as she was worried her inability to have children (caused by the accident) would cause problems in her marriage to Cole. She enlisted the help of Annie, who was secretly trying to break up Olivia and Gregory, due to a term in her father's will that stated she would only get her inheritance if she wed Gregory (her father's way of breaking up his marriage to Olivia, who he
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