Swans Crossing

It's been a while since I've seen Swans Crossing, but it was an integral part of my TV childhood. Every morning at 6:30 I would wake up to watch this half hour soap opera because I simply could not miss it. Looking back now at the stars in it, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Mira Sorvino, it is funny to remember how silly the show had seemed. Ms. Gellar has not chosen much different roles (Cruel Intentions) but that's okay because Swans Crossing was good fun. It's too bad it still isn't shown as I would love to get my hands on a copy of the show.

Yes, this was a soap opera... a teen soap opera. And not just a regular soap opera, but one of those fantasy soaps, such as Passions and Days of Our Lives. So why do I remember it 9 years after it was canceled? Because it was great. It was shamelessly melodramatic and superficial, filled with conniving and selfish "poor, little rich kids". Imagine having Cruel Intentions piped into your living room 5 days a week. Trust me, you'd get addicted to it just as my friends and I did. There was even a campaign to get the show back on the air. My school had a petition. Why am I telling you this embarrassing bit of unsolicited information? Because you need to know the truth. Sarah Michelle Gellar was a remarkable actor then, just as she is now. And her presence alone made this show respectable and worthy of our affections. I still to this day remember a specific episode in which Sydney (SMG's character) was supposed to publicly announce her secret relationship with the son of her mother's rival. Well, you can pretty much figure out this storyline. Sydney chickened out and her boyfriend gave up on her. And she ran after him, taking a shortcut through a cemetery, where she fell on her father's grave. She finally arrived with dirt and leaves in her hair, her make-up smeared, only to see her beloved with his arms around the dim-witted and naïve third member of this love triangle. If Sydney had been played by someone else, this episode would have seemed to come right out of a Mexican soap, displaying an absurdly awful case of over-acting. It would've been nothing more than a bad joke. But fortunately, SMG brought real emotion to a severely lacking script, and she made me cry with her. So on this day of Buffy's season finale (series finale?), as SMG's career takes another spectacular turn, I thought I'd tell you that Swans Crossing wasn't what you think it was. It was a lot more.

I used to watch this show back when I was younger. It would be on at 6:30am and I'd watch it as I was getting ready for school. Then it was abruptly canceled and I obviously never got over it because here I am watching it 30 years later. Sarah Michelle Gellar was already a star in my eyes back then. She did some phenomenal acting in this show. I used to have a crush on her, as well as a HUGE crush on Tom Carroll who played JT (he still looks good to me in the reruns).

This was like The Young & The Restless for teenagers. The stories were varied: romance, revenge, espionage (some terrorists were after a formula for high-powered rocket fuel). The show moved at just the right pace for the material. I'd set my alarm early so I could wake up and be all teaser for school by the time Swans Crossing came on - so I could lay back and watch it uninterrupted. Why isn't this on DVD? In the imaginary world in my head, people are crowdfunding a Netflix movie that catches up with the characters all these years later.

Garrett Booth(Shane McDermott), the conceited, self-absorbed mirror kisser in the dirty dozen of rich Long Island children said it best;

"OOOOH, I love myself!"

Ooooh, I loved this series. Why did it have to disappear? It was so long ago, about ten years ago, and I still remember the characters like it was Yesterday. Sarah Michelle Gellar was the snooty anti-heroine torn between her love for Garrett and her Mayor Mother's hatred for all Booth males. She told Ralph, her valet, to 'Use your Petals' when he was driving her. Brittany Daniel, the witchy snoot Jessie Wakefield in "Sweet Valley High", was the beautiful angel Mila Rosnowsky. She wanted to fit in, but she had to escape the shadow of her Countess mother and the annoying yet cute cockatoo Tutu. Stacey Moseley was the hard-as-nails heck-cat Callie Walker who didn't take no poopy from nobody. Carise Dahlbo was the sweet Gloria "Glory" Booth, who was spunky and adorable, but always in the wrong place in the wrong time; one instance really got her in a world of trouble. Devin Doherty was Jimmy Clayton, the melancholy love interest of Callie who kept to himself when he wasn't trying to keep Cassie from going too hardcore. Eddie Robinson was genius Neil Atwater, co-creator of the high explosive UB2B. He was a girl-hater and a science lover; both occupations nearly cost him his best bud and his LIFE. Tom Carroll was J.T. Adams, Neil's computer-cranking partner, Glory's love interest and Garrett's "tech-weenie" bully victim. J.T.'s hate for Garrett dominoed into danger for both Neil and Glory. Kristen Mahon played Sandra Swan, the not-as-rich-as-Sidney plain girl used by Garrett to get even with Sidney for an incident that got him in a peck of trouble with all of Swan's Crossing. Alex Tanaka was Bobby Decastro, whose "Saja" personna protected Jimmy and Callie from the great Mumba-Jumba, an evil entity of bad luck. Evan Ferrante was Owen Fowler, a musician and a geek with the hots for Sandy. Last, but never least, was Kristy Barbera, aka the conniving, scandalous Nancy Robbins. She was Sidney's partner in the crime of being snooty and prissy.

Swan's Crossing was blessed with crazy characters out the wazoo. From the foreign spies known as the Baldies to the mysterious Berek, who always caught Callie's suspicious eye. From J.T.'s sassy sister to Saja's sophisticated sibling who always wanted to be older than she was. And lets not forget the bird. With wacky plot twists, mature storylines and that awesome dozen that starred in the show, Swan's Crossing would have been on today if not for ninnies who didn't know a good thing when they saw it. I was so honored to have met Sarah and her friends Carise, Eddie, Devin, Stacy, and Brittany while they were at Toys-R-Us that 1992 day. Carise's mom was nice, too. Great show. Great cast. I'll never forget the zaniness of that show. Especially not Sidney Rutledge and Garrett Booth. OOOOH, I loved that show!

Swans Crossing was like a teen soap opera. I enjoyed, and still enjoy watching it. I am lucky enough to have some of the episodes on tape. The best thing about Swans Crossing was that it was not about sex or drugs, it was a show you could sit and watch with your whole family. I also am a huge Sarah michelle Gellar Fan. All and All 10 years after it was canceled Swans Crossing is still a very much remembered TV show. I actually watched my episodes today. I really enjoy watching it. The best scene to me, it is also to me the best Sarah Michelle Gellar scene ever, was when Sydney(Sarah Michelle gellar) was supposed to walk off the baseball field with Garret(Shane Mcdermont)and announce their love together, but Sydney did not go. So later she had to run through the woods to catch Garret, but when she arrived at the Soda Shop Garret was with Mila(Brittany Daniel). Sydney cried and walked outside and fell near a bench. I love that scene. This is already too long so I will stop writing now.