Santa Barbara is celebrating its 40th anniversary this month. The soap opera that premiered back on July 30,1984 and was canceled after nine seasons, remains an all-time favorite for television fans around the globe.

Two of its most popular stars, Lane Davies (ex-Mason) and Nancy Lee Grahn (ex-Julia), chatted live on the Michael Fairman Channel, were they reminisced about the ups and downs of their on-screen and off-screen relationship during their time as a soap supercouple, and getting the opportunity not once, but twice, to act with each other on General Hospital – most recently in scenes as Fergus Byrne and Alexis Davis.

Lane and Nancy participated in the livestream event ahead of the upcoming Santa Barbara 40th reunion event that will bring together cast and creatives on Friday night, August 2nd in Burbank, California. Participants include: A Martinez, Marcy Walker, Robin Mattson, Judith McConnell and more. The gathering will also serve to honor the late, great Santa Barbara co-creator, Bridget Dobson who passed away at the age of 85, as well as offer up a meet and greet opportunity.

Courtesy/NBC

On Santa Barbara, Mason and Julia certainly had a combustible and passionate relationship. Grahn shared of the pairing, “The setup for us was really fun. It was classic in that he was a conservative. Julia was a liberal. She wanted a baby. She was a single mother. At that time, that was 40 years ago, she employed him to get impregnated.”

Back in the hey day of Santa Barbara, Nancy recalled, “It took the characters a really long time for us to get together. They did journeys back then. Now (on soaps), it’s quicker. Now, I’m not comparing us by any means to Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, but it was the classic, these two are going to fight all the time, and be incredibly attracted to one another.”

Davies added, “I think it was kind of accidental and kind of manipulated by Nancy and myself, at least the way I remember it. We were both in storylines that we didn’t really love and they were putting us together for these little banter scenes. We liked the chemistry. So, we started just kind of punching up the chemistry and the writers picked up on that and we just ran with it.”

Photo: NBC

It is no question to Nancy, that one of her all-time favorite roles was Julia Wainwright Capwell. “I loved playing Julia. I loved what it brought out in me and what it taught me, and how it changed me and grew me,” she shared. However, when Santa Barbara was canceled, Nancy was still with the soap, and she recalled where the state of the show was at at that time, “The writing and the heads of the show changed pretty significantly toward the end. There were changes that happened. I felt complete when it ended, but I was scared to be out there again. You get used to that very nice steady work and paycheck.”

It was after Santa Barbara was canceled, that Nancy began her journey to Port Charles, “I called General Hospital. It was Wendy Riche at the time (as EP) and Michele Val Jean (writer) who’s now created The Gates. She was a beautiful writer on Santa Barbara. I said (to her), ‘So I wanna have a baby, anybody interested in me in General Hospital?’ She called Wendy Riche, and they said, ‘Come on over.’  So, that’s what happened.”

As for Lane, he left Santa Barbara earlier on during its run and explained his reasons for his departure. “I left before it was over. I’d done the show for five years.I, I did it as much for my own mental health as anything else. I was kind of at the end of my rope just in terms of burnout, and either Nancy would be dead or I would be in jail, or both if I’d stayed on the show because we were about to kill each other. Not really. By that point, we were getting along again.” Grahn replied to Davies, “I could easily not talk to you all day long and then act with you. I loved acting with you.”

Photo: JPI

One of the major plot point issues where Nancy and Lane reached an impasse, was when they both shared different core views for Julia and Mason. Grahn explained, “My character (Julia) spent way too much time after a certain point just wanting to marry Mason, or putting up with him, or making excuses for him. He wanted to be this manly guy  just sort of galavanting about town. Lane thought if Mason got married, and was a father to a baby, it would make him weak. This was a thing with our characters and what we were arguing for. And finally I said, ‘I’m not doing this anymore because I am representing women out there, and they cannot see this. They have to see Julia either move on, or there has to be some sort of meeting of the minds, and some equality in this male/female relationship.”

Nancy added, “Lane did not want his character to get married or become domestcized because he thought it would make him uninteresting. We fought about that to the point where we didn’t speak to each other for eight months.” Lane shared, “That was the biggest problem I had. I went from a guy who would change his stepmother’s pregnancy test so that she would sleep with him, to a guy that was folding diapers. I thought, ‘I’m never gonna keep my demographic folding diapers!”‘

Lane and Nancy also had differing opinions on the Sonny Sprocket storyline, where after Mason was presumed dead, he developed an alternate personality who was a sort of cowboy. “It was fun. I don’t think I ever was quite as country as Sonny Sprocket. He was so much looser than Mason that he was fun to play, Davies explained. However, Grahn added, “He looked exactly like Mason. He sounds exactly like Mason. And I’m supposed to not believe that’s Mason?”

Photo: ABC

Back in May of 2024, Nancy and Lane got to reconnect and share scenes together on General Hospital, when during Alexis’ hearing to get her law license reinstated, her opposing counsel turned out to be Fergus Byrne, the brother of Alexis’ late lover, Neil Byrne.

The two previously worked together on the ABC soap opera back in 2002-2004, when Davies played Cameron Lewis. Now with a new character on GH, Nancy explained how it came about, and if Fergus could return in the future.

Photo: ABC

Nancy shared, “I wanted to recreate Mason and Julia as senior citizens. It was such a satisfying acting experience for me. I also know he (Lane) can give as good as he gets. So you want a (scene) partner that will poke you a little bit, so that’s the fun of it.”

As far as if there is a chance for Fergus to come back to the GH canvas, Nancy added, “I love working with Lane, so I’d be thrilled. I don’t know what they’re going to do. I also think Patrick Mulcahey who wrote most of the Mason and Julia stuff, was at General Hospital briefly. I think that was his idea to bring Lane on. He knew that he could count on Lane to do this thing that was very demanding because it was tremendous amounts of dialogue in just a few days. I think we did six shows in three days. So, he needed someone that he knew could count on. I think if Patrick had stayed on General Hospital,  there was probably more room and opportunity for that. I don’t know about now though. I mean, we’ll see.”

Watch the full conversation with Lane and Nancy below.

Now let us know what were your favorite Santa Barbara moments of Mason and Julia? Do you hope GH brings back Lane as Fergus Byrne? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.