Y&R: TV Guide Confirms JG is out and his replacement!

[Sylph]

I've heard those, too. Yet she is too ready to take the credit for the work he — reportedly — did. However, even if she has no story power, she can at least update those sets or change those costumes. That is her job, not to go around and be preoccupied too much with the stories being told (because, face it, with Guza/Frons there, she will always be the second fiddle in those matters). No matter how horrid they may be, it is her job to make them look and sound good (meaning, costumes/sets and music).

The fact that she has friend and non-friends in itself is very disturbing.

I also remember hearing from a GH fan at one of GH's summer events, who happened to get seated next to JFP and spent the next hour talking with her about the show. The Jill she spoke with shattered all her preconceived notions about the misogynistic dragon lady. JFP was low-key, attentive, intelligent and very open to this person's feedback.

Probably she's half-way between those two extremes. I share your fear of totally misjudging her and at the same time I have yet to see the greatness she is supposedly capable of showing us.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Um, did you see her SB, GL, AW, OLTL, and first two years at GH from a production standpoint? Those shows actually looked visually appealing under her. I don't know what it is about GH, but that show has always had horribly bland sets, even under Gloria Monty, and Wendy Riche, who I loved. GH has crappy set designers is all I can think of, and JFP's image probably doesn't get through to them.

SB, GL, AW, and OLTL all had a very consistent and updated look to them under Jill's leadership. If you haven't seen enough of her prior work to give a full analysis of her technical producing abilities, then why bother commenting?

[Sylph]

I have. And it looked - nothing special.

Oh, give me a break. She's just overrated. Like a broken record I am going to repeat: I just don't understand how did you in just a few days change your opinion about her. First she was the dragon lady from hell, now she's a technically accomplished producer.

[Mitch]

GL was rocking at that time. JC was an Alex in the Bev McK mode (before we got huffing and puffing Marj Alex back).

Unfortunately, Rauch was already blowing GL's budget at that time (the show had no business hiring Collins as Alex..they didnt have the money.) And Conboy blew it out of the water with the baseball diamond and none other then hiring the dreaded Brad Cole back at an HUGE price.

God remember the "Garden of Eden?!?!?"

Rauch can produce entertaining soap. Up until San Crud I loved his GL, shallow as it was it still had the core there, the vets there, the Bauers were there,etc.

[Cat]

To be fair, one can be both.

SB looked good, but she wasn't EP right off the bat on that show. The Dobsons and Mary-Ellis Bunim preceded her.

I heard she did great work at AW and GL -- although John Conboy did some great production at GL, too.

I know nothing about her tenure at OLTL.

Not crucifying or defending her either way, just sayin'.

[Sylph]

Probably she did some good work. I'm not questioning that; I mean, it didn't impress me, but I accept that it was probably very, very good for the period in which it was produced.

I just cannot escape a simple fact: no matter how good the production in daytime is, it will never look as good as primetime. Primetime sets and costumes standards will never ever be present in daytime. And I just cannot escape the comparison of the two, even though those are vastly different "fields" of television.

If I look a primetime show and then a daytime show, I tend to be really, really disappointed by what I see. I just can't escape it.

[DaytimeFan]

Fair enough. I guess what separates the two of us is that I actually like the fact that daytime doesn't look like primetime. Granted, I like that Y&R is gorgeous and well done...but it isn't ever going to touch a primetime soap and that's fine by me. I like the differentiation between genres in all ways, including visual.

Jill Farren Phelps can be a bitch. But she's a talented bitch and probably one who is nicer and more hardworking than she gets credit for. I recall when Jeanne Cooper won the Emmy this year and everyone stood up I saw JFP giving a round of applause with this look of 'way to go Jeanne!' on her face that just registered 'Wow, JFP is probably a lot nicer, classier and genuine than I've given her credit for'. It's somewhat difficult to describe, she just seemed genuinely happy for her and in this business, that's rare.

I like what she did at AW, she took that show from looking like hell to looking pretty damn polished. I don't think she has any say at GH, she gets her notes from Frons and executes them. The way GH looks now is the antithesis of a JFP soap.

My hope with Rauch is that he realizes what is right about Y&R and doesn't meddle. I don't think he's going to rule with an iron fist because of MAB and Billy Jr. Whatever he does is going to have to be A OK by them. He's not a moron, he's not going to bite the hand that feeds him and if he does, he'll be fired and that will be that. What I do hope he does is work with the actors on set to get the best performances out of them, fires dead weight on and offscreen, manages the budget effectively and makes sure the show is running smoothly and that everyone is happy. If he does that, he's a success.

The gilded age of the soaps is over, it's long gone. At this point, I'm happy with gold leaf.

Here's to Rauch, I hope he is able to impress the folks at Y&R the same way he impressed Joan Collins.

[EricMontreal22]

I *get* this but actually have never really felt it. I just expect such different things from daytime that the only time i notice it is in a case like the current GL where they try to use more primetime filming techniques. Otherwise--maybe it's cuz of my theatre background--I think of daytime as almost theatre--dramatic, talk based scenes done on a small series of *sets* and I kinda love this aspect. (It also of c ourse makes the writing much more like theatre--people have to talk more about actions than show them, you have to realize only a certain number of sets can be used, etc). I love and miss when soaps did grand location shots (AMC in Budapest was one of "my first stories") but it does always feel a bit jarring

JFP's tenure at OLTL was a mess--and very dark with the stories she wanted to tell but the show looked pretty great from what I remember and made good use of music (another thign she's usually known for). I know NOTHING of her period at GH as I have zero interest in that show but I think people have always felt she was a technically good to great EP who just should stay more out of the creative process

I *get* this but actually have never really felt it. I just expect such different things from daytime that the only time i notice it is in a case like the current GL where they try to use more primetime filming techniques. Otherwise--maybe it's cuz of my theatre background--I think of daytime as almost theatre--dramatic, talk based scenes done on a small series of *sets* and I kinda love this aspect. (It also of c ourse makes the writing much more like theatre--people have to talk more about actions than show them, you have to realize only a certain number of sets can be used, etc). I love and miss when soaps did grand location shots (AMC in Budapest was one of "my first stories") but it does always feel a bit jarring

JFP's tenure at OLTL was a mess--and very dark with the stories she wanted to tell but the show looked pretty great from what I remember and made good use of music (another thign she's usually known for). I know NOTHING of her period at GH as I have zero interest in that show but I think people have always felt she was a technically good to great EP who just should stay more out of the creative process

[MTSRocks]

F*UCK JFP. Y&R apparently is filled with enough divas as it is.

[EricMontreal22]

HAHA are we fighting over Cat?

For what it was, I think it looks wonderful. But I have no clue what your standards are--what do you hold a soap against?

Rauch was a consulting producer but he was involved enough that he spent a lot of time on the set--he wasn't just sent tapes for his opinions THanks for the link though--it's great to be able to read about the producers... too bad I don't know Russian (I'm assuming you do? )

[EricMontreal22]

Ballet and Opera are pretty evenly loved in Russia although the worldwide contribution is more ballet. The Maryinsky in St Petersberg in the laste half of the 1800s was basically the only place Ballet was taken seriously (in France by that time most of the male roles were being played by women--all so that the men going to the ballet would have more female legs to oggle--) The Russians hired tons of old ballet names--namely Marisu Petipa from France to run their ballet and they created their own great ballets but ballet still came from France the way opera came from Italy--the Opera tradition in Russia is fierce and huge and there are tons of famous Russian operas (From Boris Godunov to Eugene Onegin and Queen of Spades, Borodin's great Prince Igor, to more modern ones like Ivan the Terrible) so I don't think it's too off to say that an opera fan might know some Russian. (I do agree with Sylph that Boris Godunov is heavy and hard to sit through).

My first love with the arts actually is dance/ballet especially Petipa's ballets with Tchaikovsky (Sleeping Beauty--the height of Russian ballet prob) and that's how I got into opera, so... Interestingly when Diaghilve first famously brought his Russian company to France for the Summer it was the opera primarily he brought and peopel wanted to see-the ballet dancers came to dance the famous ballet part of Prince Igor. But Nijinsky, Anna Pavlova, etc created sucha stir by the next year they were simply Les Ballets Russes.

[EricMontreal22]

Another prob is soaps in those countries simply work differently--I guess that's basically the same problem

Ah I miss WashesWhiter. I'm not sure when soaps dropped the organs--OLTL never used them, but LIAMST may have been one of the first...

[Sylph]

Yeah, I figured. From the moment you mentioned Donna Summer, Tchaikovsky and musicals, I deduced a whole lot of things about your tastes.

[skiman12082004]

Why hasn't anyone mentioned that Maria Arena Bell is Co-Executive Producer along with Paul Rauch???????

[Rhiannon]

I didn't know about that until I read it on CBS's site yesterday..........