There's likely no more of a polarizing figure in daytime TV than Jill Farren Phelps.
Just the mention of her name evokes a myriad of emotions from diehard soap opera fans.
And while many of those strong emotions are definitely negative, I think that if you look at her overall body of work, she's not nearly the monster that many soap fans make her out to be.
Right off the top, I'll go with the negative and just get it out of the way.
Her 11-year turn as executive producer of General Hospital was a disaster.
She turned what the fabulous Wendy Riche did in her nine years at GH into a convoluted, mob-laden mess.
She completely - with the help of headwriter Bob Guza - obliterated the show's core family, the Quartermaines, and reduced such fan favorites as Jackie Zeman, Kristina Wagner and John J. York to mere dayplayers - and that's putting it nicely, as years would go by and none of them would even be seen.
Under her watch, we lost Rachel Ames as matriarch Audrey Hardy. While Ames may have wanted to retire, surely JFP could have persuaded her to at least remain on a semi-recurring basis. And while Anna Lee was in declining health and couldn't work much in her final years anyway, her lifelong contract with the show was null and voided under JFP's reign.
To be fair, that could have been a network decision, but it still happened with JFP at the helm, so she has to be assigned some of the blame for it.
She definitely gets the lion's share of the blame for relegating over-40 stars like Nancy Lee Grahn, (to a certain extent) Jane Elliott, Leslie Charleson and Emmy winner Stuart Damon to storyline Siberia. The latter, was actually uselessly killed off during JFP's regime.
To me, GH was unwatachable during her last years, though that's not to say that it's that enjoyable of a show right now, either.
Yes, I agree, JFP decimated GH beyond recognition. And even if she hadn't, her treatment of the true leading lady of the show, Genie Francis, would have been enough for me to tune out. To her credit, she did bring Genie back numerous times (of course they were usually during sweeps periods) and Francis FINALLY won her long overdue Emmy that she was unrightfully denied during her hey day as Laura Spencer.
But as I look at JFP's overall career, I have to be fair and say that while her GH was a nightmare, much of what she did prior to that, if only in my opinion, definitely was not.
Of course, I wholeheartedly concur that everyone has opinions and that soap fans' are certainly a passionate lot. I'm not necessarily writing this blog to change anyone's opinion, but am doing it to just put my thoughts onto the computer screen. In the process, maybe you will change your opinion of the controversial executive producer.
Maybe not.
What I do hope to accomplish is to get fans to at least rethink their opinions of her to the extent that they can be at least a little more balanced.
Anyway, here goes. Here's why I think JFP definitely gets a bad rap when fans discuss executives and their overall contribution to the genre.
If you want to assign blame to JFP for her reign at GH, then you have to definitely give her credit for what she did at Guiding Light - and to lesser extents - Another World and One Life to Live - before coming to GH.
And to be totally honest, an EP - especially in this day and age - is certainly at the mercy of the network and the owners of the shows. That's not to say that JFP shouldn't be assigned blame for her actions at GH, but if I'm going to hold her responsible for mistakes,then I have to give her credit for her triumphs.
And when speaking of triumphs, her four-plus years leading Guiding Light has to be considered her greatest accomplishment.
I know what you're saying. I can hear it right now.
How can the person who admittedly takes the blame for killing off the beloved Maureen Bauer get any credit for her time at GL?
Here's how.
With JFP leading the way, GL was simply a masterpiece.
The storylines were riveting, the production values were sublime and the actors were on point.
In the 70-plus-year history of GL, JFP's reign was likely its shining era.
That she never received an Emmy for GL is a mystery, especially since she perfected the Emmy game once she got to GH.
Maureen's death aside, her GL was the closesst thing to 'Must Watch' Soap that the genre has seen, especially in the 23 years since the character's demise.
And since, in subsequent interviews, the exec has fully taken responsibility and blame for the death of the show's beloved heart and soul, I'm wiling to give her a pass there.
Everyone makes mistakes. She admitted hers and it's time to move on.
Even without Maureen, I would have rather watched 20 years of JFP's GL as compared to most of the last 14 years of the show that were produced without her in charge.
It was that good.
When JFP left GL in 1995, I had high hopes for the floundering Another World.
While many may disagree, JFP did not disappoint.
It's debatable whether Ryan or Frankie's deaths on the show were directly linked to her.
She vehemently denies the latter. And if she so easily takes the blame for Maureen's death on GL why wouldn't she do the same when it comes to Frankie?
My theory on that is that network interference and focus groups had almost everything to do with Frankie's demise. As for Ryan, I could be wrong, but I'm under the impression that Paul Michael Valley wanted to leave the show. Correct me if I'm mistaken.
And while Frankie's death was senseless, the after affects mainly played out after JFP left the show, which may - or may not be - a coincidence.
As for Ryan's death storyline, it was brilliantly done and provided a boost in storyline possibilities for the remaining canvas.
Those question marks aside, JFP - whether by network mandate or not - turned AW into a fast-paced ER-type drama, complete with spectacular renovations to the sets and rejuvenated storylines for the veteran AW performers.
The John-Felicia-Sharlene storyline was simply riveting drama and played out fully, whereas the similarly styled Lillian-Ed-Maureen storyline did not on GL.
Lesson learned.
And that storyline in particular raises an interesting counter poiont to the theory that JFP didn't want anyone over 40 to have a lead storyline, as Linda Dano, David Forsyth and Anna Holbrook - dominated the plot for months on end and Holbrook won a deserved Emmy as the wronged Sharlene.
Her brief tenure at OLTL was considered a failure, but even that can be somewhat disputed.
At least in part.
While her controversial split of that show's supercouple, Nora and Bo, was questionable (at least how it was actually plotted), it did provide for great plot twists and allowed - once again - formerly neglected over-40 stars like Bob Woods and Hilary B. Smith a chance to show why they both have Emmys on their mantle. And JFP did bring the divine Mark Derwin to the cast and immediately paired him with Erika Slezak's Viki,. That turned out to be one of the show's best mergers in its 43-year history.
So looking at JFP's track record, it's hard to say that she didn't support more mature performers.
I strongly suspect the GH bloodbath of anyone over 40 came more from Brian Frons, who led ABC's daytime division at the time, as opposed to JFP.
Even so, as executive producer, she allowed it to happen, so much of the blame has to fall on her shoulders.
After what can only be described as a reign of terror over at GH, I was extremely nervous about JFP taking over the crown jewel of daytime, The Young and the Restless.
I needn't have been.
Yes, the show is not the Y&R of old, the Y&R I - and many of my soap counterparts grew up with - but let's face it, the genre has changed.
And Y&R is certaainly closer to its original vision than any of the remaining shows still on the air, save Bold and the Beautiful, maybe -tho the latter show simply isn't my cup of tea,
JFP did change some of the fabric of the show, she did, unwisely, change many of the sets, notably the Chancellor mansion and the Newman ranch. I'll give you that.
What she did not do, though, was slaughter the veteran cast.
While you can argue that some of the storylines are trite - even insipid at times - they feature longtime players who fans have invested their time in and their love for.
At any given moment, you can turn on Y&R and still see the same people who helped the show vault to the #1 spot some 28 years ago.
Melody Thomas Scott, Eric Braeden, Doug Davidson, Tracey Bregman, Lauralee Bell, Eileen Davidson (wisely brought back since JFP arrived in 2012) and Peter Bergman are all still there.
And while some aren't fully utilized in plots that showcase their vast - and in often cases Emmy-winning talents - they still remain vital and essential cogs to the overall success of the show.
Oddly enough, the hiring of Chuck Pratt as head writer almost two years ago proved to be JFP's best move.
And, that, in and of itself, is the biggest surprise of all.
Pratt almost single-handedly destroyed All My Children with his sweeps stunts and plot-based storylines, but his Y&R has been surprisingly good.
That's not to say that he hasn't resorted to some over-the-top un-Y&R-like plot turns like Jack's double or the obligatory sweeps disaster, but, overall, his vision has returned the show to something enjoyable and watchable. And while I wouldn't necessarily say he returned the show to its roots, his rejuvenation and concentration of the Newman-Abbott feud - despite some glaring miscues - has gotten the show on the right track. It definitely is the closest thing to honoring creator Bill Bell's vision of what that feud actually was intended to be in the first place.
Maybe that's Sony or CBS' doing, maybe not.
Just saying, if I'm going to assign most - if not all - of the blame to JFP for what happened at GH, then she deserves credit for rejuvenating and raising the ratings at Y&R.
In this era where everyone can instantly post their comments - both negative and positive - on social media, JFP definitely gets attacked almost daily.
It's just the nature of the business and the reality of what the genre has become.
And sure, JFP has made many mistakes in her 30-plus years in the industry, but I think she gets a bad rap.
Maybe part of it is because she's a woman.
While other EP's certainly get their lion's share of criticism, it almost seems like JFP gets an unfair amount of it.
I plead guilty to that myself.
But what actually sparked my desire to write this column was a post on the We Love Soaps website that flashbacked to when JFP was hired four years ago and what her plans were for Y&R.
Whatever you think of her, whatever you think of this current incarnation of Y&R, JFP has certainly not deconstructed the show. She has pretty much honored its history and provided the genre with the best soap opera there is in this current climate where soaps have been reduced to a shell of their former selves.
The throwback interview made me think of JFP's overall contribution to the genre, not just her mistakes - the admitted ones and those she doesn't admit blame for - and made me look at her career in an entirely different light.
While I wouldn't say she is the best executive producer to ever helm a soap, she is by far not the worst one and gets far more criticism than her male counterparts who are currently destroying both GH and Days of Our LIves.
To me, JFP's overall contributions to the genre are not just solid, they're actually rather fairly good. Even her work on Santa Barbara, which I admittedly hardly ever watched, was much better than previous and subsequent regimes produced before the show was cancelled in 1993.
JFP isn't perfect.
But come on, who is?
In the overall scheme of things, she produces a solid product and has often times been in charge of shows that were innovative, exciting, and, often times, brilliant.
I get that she isn't everyone's favorite showrunner, but when reviewing her career, her accomplishments in the industry definitely outweigh her mistakes.
I certainly expect the overall positive tone of this blog to get dissected and attacked on many levels
Abd that's OK. I look forward to hearing what others think of her and this is simply my opinion.
Admittedly, GH wasn't a good fit for her. Y&R, however, has certainly proven - like her stints at GL and AW - that she is a creative individual who can navigate the tricky soap waters to a calmer and better place.
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