So many what ifs there. Pam Long wasn’t allowed to actually do the full job of HW because of the way JFP was producing the show. They didn’t even have a HW for a period of time and Jill spoke to the press like this was great.
OLTL, like a lot of her shows, had better demos and stability after a couple of erratic years where it was floundering, though as @Vee said, still had great acting and some memorable stories and moments. I think it was also seen as a success by ABC and Slezak in that it revitalized Viki and kind of made her seem like she was younger. She was back in the center with a new love and vitality. I don’t think JFP would ever have ended up at AMC, I don’t think anybody would see that as a good fit.
But she had history at GH. As music director she worked under Monty and played a part in iconic stories. Rise by Herb Alpert being an example of one. She was also an events based producer, and even at its most prestigious under Riche’s tenure, GH still thrived on those unforgettable moments and events. The shootouts, clink/boom, the ball and rape revisit, BJ’s heart, etc. There was logic to her placement there.
I also remember the soap press at the time basically describing her as salivating for that job. Almost like OLTL was a downgrade because she had flamed out at GL and AW and she was only there to wait out Riche and regain some network trust.
Wendy Riche has admitted that she was burned out and left later than she should have. I do sometimes wonder had she taken a break and ended up at the rumored ATWT how that would have been interesting, especially with Hogan Sheffer. But to me GH had been in rough shape for a while. Honestly I think it lost an huge step after JJ left and the fire story. Several poor casting decisions happened over a couple of years, they got a great villain back with Faison and squandered him, the horrible Luke/Felicia story. I loved Sarah Brown as Carly, but she was not Vanessa Marcil when it came to star power and I don’t think she should have been moved into the central heroine position, which soon overly dominated the show. But there was nobody else working out at the time either so I get why, plus Sarah was a powerhouse.
Genie Francis has said they basically stopped writing for her after Lucky died and that is kind of true. Geary had a lot to do that yearish and she just mainly cried in her house. I suspected back then from comments in interviews that Wendy Riche was why Jackie Zeman still had stories during that time and wondered if that was part of the friction with Guza, who I don’t think was interested in her as a lead anymore. Jackie even said they only had that one story conversation in all his years there during his first run and we know he was much more involved in talking to other cast members.
Jill arrived with her well documented ego, and we have heard some of what went wrong trickle out over the years. Amber Tamblyn described working for a very woman centric team that listened and had integrity and it changed almost over night when JFP took over. She had intended to stay for at least another two years and bolted. Sarah had similar complaints, and also left last minute, putting the show in a jam and had they not liked Tamara Carly was going to be written out. Genie’s vacation ending her run. Vanessa’s return not being extended. The usual male focused storytelling.
The stories under McTavish were laughably bad. I will admit her first AMC run was a lot of fun to watch, but I never thought much of anything she did after that. Geary was hilarious over the years trashing what Endgame became after they bought his story idea and then Jill and Megan all but destroyed it.
In order to secure Guza and Pratt they gave them Associate Producer credits as well as HW, so they had extra money and some autonomy over the writing. Plus Pratt likes the prestige of a producer title after his primetime credits. Although they were not equals as Jill still had a level of control over the budget and talent, and she was savvy to play the game with what Frons wanted.
I think Jill is a good, and sometimes great producer with terrible story instincts and an almost anti-feminist mindset for both the women working on her shows and the writing. As many who worked there have said over the years, Gloria Monty (especially during her first run), was a gifted director with great dramatic instincts, who also had an ego and didn’t respect the writing as much as she should have. But Jill has never had that storytelling taste and learned all the wrong lessons there.
As someone who came to GL later, watching most of the Curlee era, it’s fascinating to watch Jill unravel what was really special and see so many of her tropes come to play out as the show begins to decline. Loosing important women talent, replacing them with bland heroines, storytelling becoming increasingly focused around a handful of characters, her manipulation of Marcy Walker to keep her job, etc.
One positive I will give her is that she understands these shows need emotion and drama. Not just the generic banality we get so often now. And before her Y&R tenure she knew how important lighting was for mystery and also for intimacy between characters.
Sorry for the long winded post lol!
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titan1978 ·
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