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Anatomy of A Murder: Murder Mysteries Under Investigation


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The controversy surrounding the murder of Frankie

"...Frankie was strangled on-screen at the hands of the Bay City Serial Killer. Originally, fan favorite Anna Stuart was to be the victim of the Bay City Serial Killer. Phelps, with the help of head writer Margaret DePriest, encouraged the implementation of the story, which was a carbon copy of the Sin Stalker storyline which first aired on Another World in 1987.

As the audience picked up clues and realized that Stuart's character, Donna Love, would be next to die, fans flooded newsgroups with their vocal opposition. Viewers called and wrote to the NBC studios in New York City, and Phelps was forced to pick another actor. In order to fit budget constraints, another "mid-level actor" would have to be fired; it was revealed later that the firing was necessary to bring back former AW actor Robert Kelker-Kelly.

The two options were to kill either Barrett's character or Judi Evans Luciano's character, Paulina Cory Carlino. Phelps used a small number of people as a focus group who responded a little better toward Paulina than toward Frankie (though in Barrett and Frankie's defense, the character of Frankie had not had a story of her own in two years). Phelps then decided on Frankie as the next victim instead of Donna. Once again, word got out and fans were outraged. A letter-writing campaign to "save Frankie!" flooded the studio, and Phelps was so overwhelmed she actually asked DePriest to re-write Frankie's exit so she could live. DePriest refused, insisting on the graphic story, and Frankie was gone."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jill_Farren_Phelps

For more on the BC Stalker: http://www.igs.net/~awhp/aw1996.html

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