Jill Farren Phelps interview 1996

[SFK]

How the hell did Carmen get that part? I remember back on WoST, someone surmised that she'd read for the role of the Australian art dealer, what was her name (Caroline?), the blonde with the sexy, husky voice??

[DaytimeFan]

No idea how she go the part, but I'm glad she did. Granted, her Iris was about as different from McKinsey's Iris as you could get...but I loved the character!

[Sylph]

Jill just sucks. Doesn't know how to handle budget (AW), the little taste she had — gone, mysoginist, vindictive mediocrity full of egomania on steroids. Too bad she still works.

There's really not much else to say.

[Mitch]

Actually, as proved by her first, what three years on GL, she is really, really good at a family show if she has a strong writer supporting that. However, something changed when Curlee left and she famously said, "Now we can do what I want to do," and "This is not your grandma's GL!"

Regrading the killing of Mo, I really dont think that it would have has as big of an impact as it did if JFP hadnt change the whole show at the same time..suddenly Mo is dead, we have a new Alex, and we have a new Mindy. On top of that the writing,which was sophisticated became very cartoony and suddenly GL, which was an ensemle show, became all about "Super," couples she tried to push, Matt and Vanessa, Alan Michael and drippy Lucy, Buzz and Jenna. The show always had couples but it was more about how they interacted with the rest of the canvas and their families then to ends to themselves.

I know people disagree with me but I think the introduction of Buzz Cooper and the promotion of the Cooper family had more to do with the ratings drop and the eventual cancellation then just Mo's death. The show for a year or two totally centered around Buzz, who in typical Jill style, was a rascaly male diva who just "Gotta love!!" Day in and day out we were treated to both Nadine and Jeanna, two beutifull women throwing themselves at that troll, and he self indulgently threatening to leave town everyday. On top of that Deas is a performer that you love or hate (guess where I am at) and his scenery chewing, arm flapping and spitting took over the show, along with the rest of the Coopers who became THE core family.

If they had taken the time to transition someone else to take Mo's place a year to six months before her death, I also think the ratings wouldnt have dropped that much...if they brought in Hope or Aunt Meta, or Bea or someone else to be there to be the "cushion," it would have worked better and wouldnt have left GL viewers feeling as if we were watching a totally different show.

[DRW50]

I think the two were tied together. Maureen's death took away a very stable, warm element of the show, and damaged many characters around her. Buzz's arrival marked a big shift because this was when there was such an obvious, sharp veer away from exploring the fabric of Springfield (complicated interpersonal relationships which drove story for decades) and more about showcasing FOJs. The story was meaningless, it was all about giving them airtime. That is what doomed Marcy Walker as Tangie, and it didn't do Buzz any favors. I hated his entrance, as the gum-smacking smarmbucket with the awful fake accent. Then he stayed, and stayed, and as you mentioned, Nadine and Jenna were both compromised so they could orbit around him. He was never anywhere near as interesting as he was supposed to be. Between Buzz, and the awful Mindy recast, and the departure of many of my favorite actors and characters in 1992-1993, I struggled to keep watching the show. It didn't help that stories revolved around stolen face cream.

I didn't think the Coopers were so bad as a major family, but they worked best in their earlier setting, as poor but plucky, Harley, Frank, Nadine. The sanctimony and over-earnestness started when Buzz and horrible Lucy showed up. Bringing her in so soon after Harley's departure was stupid.

[Mitch]

Totally agree, the show became the Buzz show (the worst example of this was the Springfield fire...we werent supposed to worry about anyone else being in danger or the community, it was all about Buzz having a "revelation," and trying to save the diner, and Deas shamelessly whoring for that emmmy) for quite a while and the FOJ show...(sorry, I never bought Marcy Walker as the sexy heroine...she was always Liza Colby, "that nasty little snake in the grass."") and as annoying as Reva was, she wasnt Reva. And I had forgotten all about the stolen face cream and the endless scenes about it and Jeanna working over a vat of it!

he story was meaningless, it was all about giving them airtime. And unfortatley that feel plagued the show until the day it died. First it was all about Zimmer and Reva, so we had to be subjected to "storylines," created to showcase her and her alone, then it became the Gush show, showcasing a baby talking Harley and pursing lip, mugging for the camera Gus, and then we had TP as Jonathon..who came on like the illegitmate spawn of both Reva and Buzz..flapping arms, pulling hair, yelling and all, and all the rest of the characters had to look stupid just to make Jonathon look funny and smart and the good guy, just like Buzz 20 years before. The death of Mo didnt help but it was that attitude of "Lets showcase our favorite actors right now," and that viewers tune in for the actors not the characters.