Bridget Dobson, co-creator and head writer of “Santa Barbara,” has died. She was 85 years old. No cause of death had been reported at press time.
Dobson was the daughter of the late Frank and Doris Hursley, co-creators of “General Hospital.” She had been married to her husband Jerome Dobson since 1961. Together, the pair co-created “Santa Barbara” for NBC, which aired from 1984 to 1993 and won three consecutive Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Daytime Drama Series (1988, 1989, 1990). Dobson famously accepted the award in 1988, shortly after New World Television (now New World Pictures) locked her and her husband out of the show’s studio.
“I speak for all of us when I say it has been a long road,” Dobson started off saying in her acceptance speech, which aired during the “The 15th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards,” adding, “And we are thrilled and proud to be here, and I speak personally when I say that though New World Television locked me out of the studio, they couldn’t lock me out of the Emmys.” New World Television co-produced “Santa Barbara” alongside Bridget and Jerome’s production company, Dobson Productions.
The Dobsons were locked out of the studio after a dispute came about between them, New World Television and NBC over who had the right to fire the show’s then-head writer, the late Anne Howard Bailey. Reportedly, Bailey’s contract only allowed NBC to terminate her employment, something the Dobsons challenged.
By 1991, the duo had settled their dispute with New World Television and NBC, returning to the studio and overseeing the show’s final years on the network.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, published in July 1988, Dobson told the newspaper, “We wanted to take risks,” in response to how the show stood apart from others in the genre. “Otherwise, we knew the show would die in that time slot, as other soaps and game shows had.” She added, “We created two competitive families, the Capwells and the Lockridges, who were psychologically complicated but also psychologically and emotionally valid. We took the core of our own inner souls and put it on screen, for multifaceted characters with multidimensional personalities. That there was humor made the show unique–each character has a sense of humor.”
Overall, “Santa Barbara” took home 24 Daytime Emmy Awards out of 74 nominations, 11 of which were won over two years and 27 nominations.
Prior to “Santa Barbara,” Dobson had been the head writer/co-head writer of “As The World Turns,” “Guiding Light” and “General Hospital,” primarily working alongside her husband in that capacity.
In a post on Facebook, Pierpaolo Dongiovanni, a close friend of the Dobsons, announced the news of her passing, noting that she passed away earlier this week following a conversation with her husband Jerome. Dongiovanni is the creator and publisher of the first-ever continuously published blog dedicated to the history of “Santa Barbara.”
In his post, Dongiovanni, said, “Jerome Dobson told me that his beloved wife Bridget passed away three days ago. They spent a lifetime together, co-created, co-produced and beautifully co-wrote ‘Santa Barbara,’ among other things. Jerry and Bridget brought with them so much beauty on Earth. She gave me friendship, love, fun, hope and was pure inspiration to me, even when I was sick a couple of years ago. She may be gone, but always present.”
In a follow-up post, Dongiovanni shared a screenshot of a signed copy of the original “Santa Barbara” bible (outline that introduces the show and its characters in the first year), which said, “To Pierpaolo – The most charming, funny, smartest, most loyal friend and fan I’ve never met. Someday I hope we will actually meet in person – Bridget Dobson.”
In a five-part interview posted on the “Santa Barbara” blog, Dobson recalled how her family started in the soap world, revealing, “I was born in Wisconsin, where my mother was an attorney and my father was a professor of English. They entered, as a lark, a Wrigley’s chewing gum contest to write a show which Wrigley would sponsor. They won the contest…and began their writing career in Chicago, writing a radio program.”
After moving to Los Angeles when she was just seven years old, Dobson’s parents went on to write for more radio and then television programs before eventually landing the job as head writers of “Search for Tomorrow.”
“My parents borrowed a fancy car, a Cadillac, from one of their ‘rich’ friends, and placed the car in their garage so that the hiring agent (the head of Procter and Gamble productions) would see the car in the garage as he walked to the front door and, presumably, he would think: ‘These writers must be very successful since they have a very expensive car in their garage. It worked,’” Dobson recalled of the experience in her interview.
She added, “Everything in tinseltown is an illusion. They got the job. It was the first ‘regular’ pay check they’d gotten since my father left his tenured position in Wisconsin.”
After a successful run at “Search for Tomorrow,” the Hursleys co-created the daytime soap opera “General Hospital” for ABC, which Dobson would later write for over a five-year period, the latter two of which were as the show’s head writer.
ABC
“I did not just want a job. I was obsessed. I was adamant. I was furious. I was outrageous. I pleaded. I begged. I threatened. I had trained for this,” Dobson recalled in her interview of wanting to write for the ABC soap, referring to her parents who originally did not allow her to write for the show. “They stonewalled me. No. No job. ‘We’ll hire your sister.’ Which they did. Why not me? ‘Because you’re a party girl.’ Come on. ‘Because you’ll never meet the deadlines.’ What nonsense. ‘Because Debby needs the money.’ And I didn’t? Did they know what public school teachers make? We had an argument that made the sun and the earth seem small in comparison. I won. I threatened never to let them see their grandchildren.”
After working at “General Hospital,” Dobson went on to co-head write alongside her husband at “Guiding Light” (1975-1979), “As The World Turns” (1980-1983) and finally, their co-creation “Santa Barbara” (1984-1986; 1991-1992). The show aired its final episode on January 15, 1993 with the late Paul Rauch serving as executive producer and Pam Long as the show’s head writer.
“NBC-TV called to ask if we were to own a show, if we were to be in complete charge of every creative aspect of a show, from sets and costumes and hairstyles and music to every minute detail of the production, acting and writing, would we be willing to work again? Nobody in history had ever been asked this question. Not before and not since,” Dobson said in her interview about how things led to the creation of “Santa Barbara.”
“We were being offered total creative control of an hour a day television drama five days a week. We were floored. And enticed. And terrified,” Dobson recalled. “It had never been attempted and never achieved, not starting from zero – nothing – a blank page – to an hour a day, every day, five days per week, no seasons, no holidays, no respite…with total control in the hands of two individuals, not in the hands of a corporation or a network.
“So it was that Jerry and I came out of retirement and climbed what seemed to be an extremely steep creative mountain, clinging to sheer granite, our pen was our pick, no path, no trail, no rope or safety net. We’d done our writing push-ups in the years leading up to this moment, but there was no way to properly prepare. What if we died? Nobody even thought of that.”
In 2011, Dobson, alongside half sisters Deborah Hardy and Polly Keusnik, sued ABC as representatives of their parent’s estate, with the lawsuit alleging “breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, money had and received and an accounting.”
According to the suit, Frank and Doris Hursley had allegedly signed a deal in 1969 with ABC that would have had the couple receiving 10% of the show’s net profits from syndication, a deal which the Hursley children allege ABC failed to honor. The lawsuit did not specify how much the Hursley children believed ABC owed, but they wanted a judge to have the network open its books to an audit. Additional details on the case, including any resolution, have not been publicly disclosed.
On X (formerly Twitter), legendary TV Guide columnist Michael Logan said, “RIP Bridget Dobson, who gave us the soap of a lifetime when she created (with hubby Jerry) the deliriously radical #SantaBarbara. True TV royalty (her parents created #GH), Bridget was so ballsy, innovative and freakin’ brilliant that she had no imitators. Nobody even dared try.”
Currently writing scripts for “The Bold and the Beautiful,” former “Santa Barbara” writer Michele Val Jean also took to X after learning of Dobson’s passing, saying, “I’m devastated to hear we lost Bridget Dobson. I loved her. She was instrumental in my career and a great friend. A soap icon and a wonderful effervescent person. I don’t have words. My heart is [two broken heart emojis]. Bridget, I will always be your Princess. Rest well.”
“Childhood me aspired to grow up to be Bridget Dobson. RIP, Queen,” commented Sara Bibel, a former writer of “The Young and the Restless.”
Dobson is survived by her husband Jerome and their daughter Mary, among other family members.