Rank the JFP shows

[quartermainefan]

I would say her GH was pretty rank.

[AdelaideCate007]

Despite killing for Maureen, Guiding Light was her best work I think.

After that, in order, I'd have to say from best to worst:

OLTL- I don't really remember it being bad per se, but more like dull, dark, and lifeless. The Rappaports front and center and the whole Blair, Max, and Skye affair were particular low points.

AW- She did do some good stuff and tried to approve the show, but any good she did in overshadowed by her killing off Frankie in that awful and brutal way. AW was never the same after that and never recovered.

GH- The first few years were alright, but by the time she left, it was horrible.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

IMO, Frankie's dying wasn't really an issue that had a grave impact on the structure of the show. She wasn't a tentpole character like Maureen had become on GL (the next matriarch of the show).

I think what really had an impact was the humiliating and twisted way she was killed off. Had she died of say cancer, a hit and run, or a gunshot or something, I doubt people would have been as ticked off.

[DRW50]

I agree with you there. I don't think Frankie was that important of a character, aside from the years when Donna Swajeski tried to make her a big presence. I think it was the way it was done, along with all the rumors of "choose your own adventure" firings (both Paulina and Donna were almost killed instead) and then RKK's hiring being given as the reason for Alice's exit.

The show had also been very violent for that year, so this may have been seen as a last straw.

Cass's brother had been around for a few years by then.

[Vee]

Her OLTL run was wretched. She kept things fast paced and often classy-looking, she infused the show with some more verve, she used many vets, like Erika Slezak and HBS - she just used them wrong. They were tools to prop up her favorite men, and the show had a huge amount of its heart irreparably torn out in the process. All her impressive production skills were in the service of totally changing the fabric of the show and mutilating what she didn't like.

It seemed innocuous at first, because the Georgie Phillips story was, on the surface, an exciting flashpoint that woke up the characters of Bo and Nora and brought in the whole canvas. How it turned out, though, was needlessly sadistic to long-running characters, and ultimately a process meant to lead to the destruction of a supercouple and the ascent of Kale Browne.

[DRW50]

Of all the decisions JFP made at OLTL, hiring Tim Gibbs is the one which probably bothered me most. The man makes my skin crawl. He was tolerable on AW but OLTL was fresh hell.

Second would be "crazy Cassie"...and I wasn't even a fan of Cassie's.

I do think she had the right idea in dumping the Hayes clan, I just wish she'd given Dorian something better to do after this.

[Vee]

Dumping Cassie and killing Mel broke my heart and I've never forgiven that. She wanted Dorian out, period. That's never been a secret.

[Cat]

Santa Barbara was, by far, the best thing in JFP's CV. Unfortunately, it was also her first important job in the soap industry and just over 25 years ago.

GL (from what snippets I caught) was watchable under her reign... if you ignore the fact that Beverlee McKinsey couldn't take JFP anymore and got the hell out of there. Didn't JFP also humiliate and get rid of Michael Zaslow in the most offensive and brutal manner? Hmmmm.

Everything else under her watch has been overpraised dreck.

[DRW50]

Zaslow was MADD/Paul Rauch.

[Cat]

Apologies then.

However, my last line still stands.

I have not enjoyed her willful dismantling of some beloved shows over the last 10-15 years. I can't get past stuff she said and stuff I experienced as a viewer -- truthfully, no amount of embracing her "eye" for production design or her "ear" for music is going to change my POV. GH production was grey and dull and the background music under her watch ranged from generic to an assault on my eardrums.

Believe me I would LOVE it if a gutsy, ballsy female producer were to turn Y&R around! And I am more than happy to eat my words if JFP does pull it out of the bag.

[DRW50]

No need to apologize - this all happened around the same 2-3 year period. You may remember Phelps in connection to this because she and whoever was running ABC Daytime (Pat Fili Krushel, maybe) brought him to OLTL for a few months after GL fired him.

[Mitch]

GL was great during her first half tenure, but as others said, that was more Curlee and company. I know people love her production talent but I always felt that GL was so dark during her reign, sometimes you couldnt see what the hell set they were on. After Curlee left she dismantled all that they had built up to make it the Buzz Cooper show. She loves her women groveling over an a**hole character (Jenna and Nadine, come on, they wouldnt even look twice at a troll like Buzz) so Victor should be king of the land on YR. And yes, her shortsightedness cost us BMK, and the actress playing Mindy, etc.

However, the most memorable moments I have had of GL came during her reign!

[LeClerc]

Santa Barbara

Guiding Light

[big space]

General Hospital

One Life to Live

[Massive space]

Another World

AW didn't even have the default JFP positive of looking good production-wise IMO.

One thing I have always wondered: Did ABC originally have JFP slated for AMC and not OLTL?

Marcy Walker did an interview in 1997 with TvGuide where she said she was told JFP (who was being held in wait by ABC as a consultant) was "definitely" coming to AMC and that she (Marcy) was scared about it after the Tangie debacle at GL.

In fact I have often wondered if MW speaking out about it helped keep it from happening...for better or worse.

[juniorz1]

I can't include Hollywood Heights, but this is how I'd rank her daytime tenures:

1. Santa Barbara

2. One Life to Live

3. Guiding Light

4. General Hospital

5. Another World

Obviously her SB work was her strongest for me. It helps that she worked on the show with the Dobsons from early on and I think 'got' SB. While she wasn't always perfect, she did her best to keep SB's identity and brand in tact. I guess some fans of other shows she's EPed at would find that shocking and probably would argue she contributed to the destruction of their show's identity.

I placed her tenure at OLTL above GL because I really did like JFP's controversial OLTL very much. In fact, her production is what got me back into 'OLTL' in the first place, especially when 'AW' went off the air- I gave 'ATWT' and even 'Passions' a shot, but 'OLTL' had me hooked like I hadn't been since 1996, when they lost me in one episode mid-stream through Viki's DID story. But I thought she did great things with Max, Blair, Asa, and Renee. That was the first time I'd seen Pat Elliot used so heavily on OLTL and really, it was the last time I'd see it too. I LOVED Max pretending to be Asa & Renee's son and him having the aneurism and that entire umbrella storyline. I liked the Bo/Nora/Sam/Lindsey quad very much and was into the whole Colin/Troy stories when Ty Treadway was thrown in. I even kinda liked the Melanie story. I never was a big Cassie fan so that was no loss for me and I wasn't invested in Dorian/Mel- I missed her with Joey and/or David- and since they were off the canvas, it wasn't the worst time to rest the character. I never liked Viki so it didn't bother me when she wasn't front burner, and I actually enjoyed her when she was. I even LOVED JFP's Todd (still Roger Howarth then). Maybe it was the break I took from the show from 96-99, but I was engrossed when I started watching daily again.

As for her 'GL', I enjoy JFP as a producer and while she produced some fine moments there, she was only as strong as the writers she was working with. She lucked out for the first half of her tenure but the second half was wildly uneven, and dare I say boring at times, which is not a JFP trademark. Her shows may be a lot of things, but boring usually isn't one of them. But that's what 'GL' was at the end of her stint. It doesn't help matters that she completely misused my Marcy and really only used her as a pawn in her power play to get her contract renewed at the time......but that wouldn't even bother me if the character she was given- Tangie- was interesting or written for properly. She started out with much promise, very mysteriously making her way into town and hiding something about Roger. She worked with some of the best actors on the show, but it soon became clear that JFP shoehorned her into the show and the writers didn't know much what to do with her. But I digress- GL is one of the few soaps that never hooked me and I was still an SB fan first for the first half of her tenure (the good half). The second half of tenure, when I tuned in for Marcy and maybe even a soap to replace 'SB' in my heart, I was served up garbage (and thus, Y&R took the spot). They really had a shot at bringing me on as a viewer during that time and blew it. I suspect other SB fans sampled it as well- Vincent Irizarry and Marj Dusay were SB alums also on GL- and I'm not the only viewer who wasn't enthralled.

Which brings me to #4- GH. I've never, ever, ever been a 'GH' fan and though I've sampled it off & on through the years, not one storyline or episode ever grabbed me and made me want to tune in continuously (until recently with this Heather Webber stuff, but that's another thread entirely. JFP's 'GH' fell in line with every other regime's- I just wasn't on board. She brought A Martinez and Lane Davies back to daytime, as she'd done with Marcy on 'GL', and botched both of their characters and storylines as well. Hell, she even screwed up Robin Mattson's Heather (who I'm IN LOVE with right now) and threw him with Jed Allan's NuEdward- it was like she was trying to recreate 'SB' with miscast characters (Jed Allan's Edward), misused characters (RM's Heather), or inferior ones (A's Roy, Lane's Cameron). None of that worked for me. What did was her production values. When she really lost most power and control under Frons, she smartly focused her energies on polished productions of whatever scripts were thrown her way. I missed her creatively here but at the same time, I never thought 'GH' was the right show for her to EP. Frankly, if she wasn't going to be at 'OLTL', I wanted to see what she'd do at 'ATWT' or 'AMC' before 'GH'. Regardless, she produced the hell out of the show and worked her ass off to make it look expensive and PrimeTimey.

Speaking of PrimeTimey, my least favorite JFP show was 'AW.' I had high hopes for her here, I assure you, and she made some smart choices, like bringing Cecile back on the canvas. I hated that she killed off Frankie, but I thought it was well done- to the point that I even thought maybe Frankie would win out and she'd live. In hindsight, it was a violent and unnecessary death and I see why some found it offensive. But watching it, the action and suspense was taut. Regardless, being a JFP fan and having watched AW dwindle into a boring, colorless version of itself, I thought maybe she was just the shot in the arm the show needed. Instead, she played yes woman to the suits and focus groups and made AW look like a mix of 'ER' and 'NYPD Blue' production-wise, but the writing was terrible, the characters were not themselves, and there was never any fun in watching. Yes, you read that right- she brought CECILE DEPOULIGNAC back to the show and it still wasn't any fun to watch. She left me little to no hope for my little show that could. People say that "OLTL" was the bastard step-child of ABC? Well then AW is the unnoticed middle child of NBC- they never knew or cared about what was going on at the show until DAYS suddenly started putting up numbers. Seriously, even during the Santa Barbara years, AW was the little show in the background that the network forgot was even there. In 1995, they remembered, and JFP & Co mostly didn't deliver.

I have to say though, while I never would have placed her there- I'd prefer that she were going to 'DAYS'- I am just dying to see what she does over at 'Y&R'. Whatever it is, I have a feeling that "boring" won't be the right adjective to describe it.

[EastMA2]

juniorz1:

:Obviously her SB work was her strongest for me. It helps that she worked on the show with the Dobsons from early on and I think 'got' SB. While she wasn't always perfect, she did her best to keep SB's identity and brand in tact. I guess some fans of other shows she's EPed at would find that shocking and probably would argue she contributed to the destruction of their show's identity."

My recollection is that she was forced out when John Conboy came aboard. Jill lost power at SB when he came on and put his HUGE "Senior Executive Producer" credit at the end of each episode. I think Conboy and Paul Rauch did alot more damage to SB than Jill ever did.

Totally agree with you about her stint at GL. Lots of brilliance like the blackout when she had strong headwriters, but that last period with Douglas Anderson was a mess.