Phelps on Franco, GL and Frons

[JaneAusten]

Probably because while James Franco is love, no one can really criticize him at this point, JFP brings out the ire and passion in so many.

[Juliajms]

I think it's safe to say it's more than 4. I'd say several hundred vocal online fans, in addition to the millions who have stopped watching over the last 5 years.

[Ann_SS]

Other than psychopaths, no one is completely bad. There are lots of people who are horrible to work with and make some of their co-workers' lives hellish at their jobs, but they are perfectly nice and generous to some of their co-workers, their friends and families. The problem is that you are screwed if get on their bad side.

[Ann_SS]

Posting on the Claire Labine thread, it occurred to me how does Phelps know when something isn't working if they don't pay attention to online soap fans who can be the same person posting under four different names? What is the criteria do she and Guza use to determine if something is not working? They fired Natalia Livingston so they must have thought that Rebemily was not working, but why? Phelps is so full or it.

[EastMA2]

I disagree. JFP doesn't need to read message boards to know when something isn't working. She's in the studio everyday and can see what isn't working long before the viewers see it.

[JaneAusten]

Well many preferred Rebemily as the smart angry gum chewing chick away from Nikolas with Lucky. But in that case her favoritism for TC apparently clouded her ability to see what was and was not working. And the longer she kept Natalia with dull ass Tyler, the more and more like Emily she became. If that was Jill, it was major fail. Of course the whole storyline(if there even was one) was a huge fail. And the PPD story they told for Robin and Patrick was a disaster and huge fail also yet they supposedly extended it.

My point is if she saw these as major fails long ago per her own judgement, why did she do nothing to improve these things. And if she did, the actions she took were failures.

[Ann_SS]

What JaneAusten said. How come stories go on for months before they are aborted if she is in the studio everyday and can see what isn't working long before it hits the screen? They finally fired/let go Sarah Brown so they must have thought that Claudia was not working. Yet the character of Claudia had been a nightmare for months, almost a year. They never even made any effort to fix her. So why did they suddenly decide that Claudia wasn't working? I think that the whims of Phelps and Guza drive their stories more than anything.

[JaneAusten]

I thought they used focus groups primarily? WHo knows. I don't think they pay much attention to online and if they do they don't care, I think it's their whim and when its someone they like they ignore the feedback and someone they don't like or feel is dispensible, they use the change storyline direction as an excuse for firing. I remember Kari Wuhrer who played Reese who was told she was doing well in focus groups and they liked only to be fired a month later. I don't know if she was pregnant or what.

[LoyaltoAMC]

ABC lives and dies by its focus groups, which is something that JFP has said in the past. Kay Alden in her MIT interview a couple of years back said that the research for AMC was terrible. The focus groups didn't like anything about the show. Yet the funny thing is, here we are a few years later and little has changed. The same actors/characters who are constantly on the front burner are the same ones who stank up the show a couple of years ago when the research was done. Getting back to JFP, I really don't think she has much creative power at GH, certainly not the type she had at her previous shows. Guza and Frons run GH. Other than things like choosing lighting and music, casting, hiring/firing actors, crew members, etc., and essentially being the go-to person for the actors, I really don't think she has much say in storyline decisions. As has been said before, the ABC EPs are merely figureheads. In the days when they had creative power and were the final word, no way would someone like Julie Carruthers have lasted this long.

[JaneAusten]

That's mind boggling. If the show's live and die by focus groups and AMC's focus groups were epic failures you have to wonder why nothing is changed or why bother. It reinforces what I said which is if the focus groups supports it and it's something they like great if they hate it yet TPTB still like it and want it they still push it. Or if it fails a focus group and it's something they don't like they can use the focus group as an excuse. Bottom line is they use the focus group argument when it suits their agenda.

I don't know much about Julie Carruthers. Does she have any power or did she? Is Pratt now calling the shots at AMC?

[Ann_SS]

Focus group research guiding ABC soaps makes more sense than believing that Phelps and Guza look at the scenes when they are filmed and can tell what is not working. For goodness sake, Guza loved the character of Winifred so much, he extended her stay after she filmed the first few scenes, only for them to dump her a few weeks later. I'm supposed to believe that Phelps and Guza, those two doofuses have any kind of good judgment? Hell no. Again, it isn't like there has been any change over the last 10 years for the fans to b!tch about. GH has revolved around the same 3 characters all these years. The focus groups must love Sonny, Jason and Carly. More likely Guza and Phelps don't give a flying flip what the focus groups like.

[JaneAusten]

Focus groups are flawed anyway. Or let me put it this way if you want the results of a focus group to report your agenda you certainly can make that happen. I've done enough market research to know that. Stack the deck. It happens more than I think some realize across industries. A lot of businesses use the guise of focus groups and end up really going on gut instinct. The good ones balance real focus group data with other market research and their own perceptions of what the market will accept or be ameanable to in making decisions.

I don't for one second believe the ABC does anything intelligent with the focus group information. But I also don't think they pay much attention to what's online. My opinion is they do what they want to do period and that's it. Like the AMC story, nothing has changed on GH in years. Who knows their focus groups could be epic failures as AMC's were but haven't changed a thing.

[DRW50]

Did they ever say what happened to Winnifred?

[JaneAusten]

I think she ate a toxic ball. Apparenltly Guza found some new shiny toy to replace her. I'm trying to remember if someone new joined the show around the time she disappeared.

[dragonflies]

LOL I remember once reading that AMC focus groups it was said that people in those focus groups LOVED Babe and Krystal. Also wasn't it said that a focus group for OLTL that those people didn't like Dan Gautier/Kevin?

I don't know how they can judge much of anything from a focus group