All that "controversial ordeal" about Brenda Dickson getting fired in 1987 --- I always figured it was a combination of EVERYBODY telling the truth about what happened (even Brenda Dickson herself).
Yes, her performance had become extremely hammy to the point it was sometimes laughable. I never had any problem at all with how she played the character. She was completely over-the-top and camp, but after all, Jill had recently divorced John Abbott and taken 20% of Jabot, and for the first time in her life, Jill thought she was on equal footing with Kay Chancellor. Brenda Dickson evidently interpreted that to mean Jill would affect a pseudo-British accent, wiggle her hips more, jiggle her breasts more, and stare haughtily into the distance while speaking to people she looked down on, which was practically everyone in Genoa City. Except Brad Carlton, lol.
We know that certain actors on the show didn't much care for her (Jerry Douglas comes to mind immediately). We also know that Brenda Dickson had purchased a Mercedes with a personalized license plate that said "JILL" on it. She seemed to sometimes have difficulty "coming down" from her campy performance, and she evidently sashayed around at times believing she was Jill Abbott instead of Brenda Dickson.
We also know that Melody Thomas had married producer Edward Scott in 1985 and had transitioned from being a "Tier Three" character in the late 1970s to an important young ingenue by 1982. After marrying Ed Scott, she probably had a bit more input into the producer's ear. From what Miss Dickson has claimed, the "West Coast producers" filed reports about on-set activities with the Chicago-based writer (Bill Bell) that Miss Dickson didn't believe were completely accurate.
Clearly, Ed Scott & Tom Langan had developed certain ideas about how Miss Dickson should be playing her character (and behaving in the studio) that differed from Miss Dickson's theatrical interpretation. Bill Bell might've also been frustrated with how extremely campy she'd gotten. And some of her castmates were also outdone with her antics.
It was all the perfect storm for her to get fired, and I doubt she helped her case any by announcing she would dictate when she would work and when she wouldn't work. (And Bill Bell wasn't helping by writing into 4 out of every 5 episodes.) I wasn't the least bit surprised when she was shown out the door. And I also suspected everyone who spoke about the matter was telling what they believed to be a truthful account of what happened.
Of course the coup de grace was when she filed her $10 million lawsuit against SONY for her dismissal. That pretty much closed the door on her ever returning to Y&R, and it also caused other producers on other shows to view her as a trouble-maker who wasn't worth hiring. It was all a shame.
By
Broderick ·
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