"I Felt Like I Lost a Friend When I Lost Cruz!"

by Lucille Giordano, Daytime TV Magazine, 1995

Thanks to Rosie in Australia!

A Martinez not only lost a role when SB was cancelled, but, by admission, he lost one of the best parts of his career!

   In his hotel suite in New York City, during a promotional period for his new CD Fragrance and Thorn, I chatted with A Martinez about one of the greatest losses of his life, one that he still has trouble speaking about to this day -- the loss of the critically acclaimed Santa Barbara and his fear that he will never again find a role for himself as perfect as Cruz.

Looking back, how do you feel about your time on Santa Barbara?

A:  I think Cruz spoiled me.  I think that he was as good of a part as I'll ever get.  I hope that's not true -- it's creepy almost.

Maybe you feel that way now, but who knows what is going to happen next!

A:  There you go!  Right on!  I don't think of it as a bad thing, although it probably sounds like it.  I was so lucky to get to play somebody who made such good use of what I can and cannot do.  I've been working a long time and I have never had a part, before or since, in terms of making that match, so we'll see.

Why do you think SB came to such an untimely close?

A:  In terms of raw numbers, it did not compete.  Advertisers look at that.  It had nothing to do with its relative worth in television culture.  It never had the numbers Y&R and GH have.  It came on during the 1984 Olympics and it gained an audience from people who were not in the habit of watching soaps, but just didn't want to watch sports 24 hours a day.  There are a lot of theories and I think the one that holds the most water is that, especially in its heyday, it moved too quickly.  You can go on vacation, come back, turn on Y&R and not miss a thing.  Things tend to move slowly and intricately and stories develop and develop.  SB whizzed.  If you missed it for two weeks, you would have to find someone who watched it to tell you what was going on.  You wouldn't know!  Of course, when the goal is to keep as many people watching at all times, then, it is arguably wrong to move so fast.  From an acting point of view and for people who were able to watch it on a regular basis, I think it was a godsend.  It kept you on your toes.  I heard that a lot of times, people were upset about the high turnover rate with actors brought on to add missing elements.  We had trouble keeping the stability people crave.  It also got shuffled around in the time places.  There were executive shake-ups.  In a short order, with a few ill-advised decisions during that time, we lost a lot of people and affiliates.

It was truly a brilliant show, in terms of acting and writing.

A:  I still feel bad about it, I find it hard to talk about without having a lump in my throat.  I knew that I would miss Cruz, but I actually felt depressed about it.  I felt like I lost a friend.  It is embarrassing almost -- I knew that I would miss it, but not to the extent I did.

The way the Cruz and Eden storyline was left off -- it was a little unbelievable.

A:  It was the low point of all time when Eden came back disguised as her alter ego, and Cruz had to actually dance with her and not recognize her because she was wearing glasses and a wig.  To me, at that point, I gave up on the show.  I knew it was an affront and it didn't matter.  When the storyline was first proposed, I should have jumped up and down like crazy, but I didn't.  It escaped me what it actually would cost.  Part of it was that Marcy (Walker) was leaving and everyone that was connected to her was processing that and trying to protect ourselves from it.  I was trying to keep it from being as overwhelmingly important as it was.  I think it made us all a bit stupid about what was going on.  I never thought I would see the day when we would actually would be dancing with each other and not recognize each other.  That was an unforgettable breech of the fidelity they shared and that finished it for me.  I was there for awhile longer, but I was not playing the Cruz that I loved.

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