Y&R: TV Guide interview with Jill Farren Phelps

[JONNYSBRO]

There was alot going on with JFP at her AW tenure. Her AW tenure was her shortest tenure. At the time she was let go at GL, P&G did a huge executive swap and they put her at AW. JFP changed the sets, changed the opening, the show won emmys in 1996 and there was alot of good energy. She brought the demos up, I even remember that year AW surpassing GL in viewers because both AW/GL were on brink of cancellation. Actually 1996 GL was more in danger. Honestly about AW I remember though her clashing with NBC or something. Something happened that caused Jill to resign from her position. I think she clashed with NBC over direction of the show, they wanted to make it more Reilly DAYS and she wouldn't do it. They brought Charlotte Savitz to replace her who ended up being a disaster. Honestly while people are mixed on JFP's stint there, she had good ratings and buzz. Savitz brought everything down to the ebyss and it was a horrible show. I think AW was a tough one to work on, the show was plagued with cancellation rumors like even in the early 90's and Jill just went for broke with it. I think she was far more successful with this strategy on AW then she was on OLTL. OLTL she decimated it with her ego and thats where she populated with all her friends. Yet in her second year at OLTL in 1999 OLTL went number 1 in the demos and then her last year in 2000 ratings went up up to give her the GH promotion from Angela Shapiro.

[JaneAusten]

Jill was hired at GH before Guza was. She just helped expedite the extermination of the Quartermaines. She was the one who fired Anna Lee not Guza

[Khan]

Pretty much. At one point, I think, ANOTHER WORLD was edging toward a story about vampires. But, yes, JFP allegedly quit (or was fired) because she resisted PGP's efforts to turn AW into a carbon copy of Reilly's DAYS.

[Khan]

True -- but you know what? If the choice were between JPL and Kale Browne....

I must hand it to ol' Jill, though, for talking about That Black Story in a way that wasn't offensive and insulting.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Such a Jill answer. I can't wait to see her mess with the show's look - which has looked cheap and just crass since the LML era. You know Jill isn't afraid to revamp sets and lighting.

I've always noticed that the directing on her shows always improves once she joins and that she works really well with directors.

I no longer care about the characters on Y&R and will likely never care for any of the stories they're involved in again, so at least let the production stand out, Jill!

Though, I am a bit hesitant by what she means by "sound." Will she get rid of the show's signature classical scoring? Jill likes to revamp music, so you never know...

[dragonflies]

I have no respect for the woman cause she clearly was a mindless drone/robot at GH, and given how she treated Genie at GH BEFORE Frons came along is why I don't buy they're buddy buddy.

[Khan]

I hear she wants more of a "Phil Spector sound".

[Vee]

I despise Jill for a lot of what she's done and I always will, but that was a pretty candid interview and I respect her for taking the questions. When she does her job, when she sticks to what she's good at, she can be a very good producer. She does have some skills. And with good writers who she lets write, she can do good work, though it's been a long time. I know Jill's long, injurious record, and no matter what damage she does, she cannot possibly be worse than Maria Bell, who simply did not know how to function as a professional. It's apples and oranges, soap-wise.

I hate her for her role in things like driving off Genie Francis, ruining OLTL and GH, presiding over the killing of Alan Quartermaine. But a lot of the GH stuff was equally Guza and Frons if not moreso. I just want to see this evil bitch whip Y&R into ANY other kind of shape.

[R Sinclair]

Ladies and gentlemen, you just heard the unsolicited opinion of the peeps from the gutter.

[ChitHappens]

Ana Lee? They kept her on the PR for as long as they possibly could even though AL was not being used. In the end, she couldn't even hold her head up. Then her son wants to talk chit? It's up to him to make certain she is cared for in her final years, NOT GH!

[SOAPSFOREVER]

JFP is a piece of work. She says what she thinks the fans and actors want to hear, not what will ultimately happen. This time next year, she'll have purged the cast, decimated the Abbotts, played a million montages, and made Y&R even more unrecognizable than it already is. Interesting, too, that she puts the onus of a turnaround on the writer's head, not her own. She's a survivor in the business, and she adroitly knows what to say and not to say. She learned nothing from killing off Maureen Bauer, or her other stints as EP. She drove GH into the toilet, turning it into a dark, dreary unredeemable sanctuary for crooks and mobsters (which a huge assist from Bob Guza). I wish she wouldn't even do interviews. Her word means nothing.

[LoyaltoAMC]

Great, candid interview. Not really sure I believe Genie is safe, but who knows. And please,that post to Giddens is riduclous. Can people just let go of this Frankie Frame thing already. She was character on a TV show that's been off the year for nearly 15 years, and her killing didn't hasten AW's cancellation.

[Dale]

As a lifelong fan of OLTL, I have to say that I really enjoyed her stint on the show. I guess I am one of the few, LOL! Every Rappaport she brought in served the longtime characters like Viki, Jessica, Nora, Bo, Asa, Renee, Max, Blair, etc. quite well in terms of story quantity. The quality of those stories can be debated, but from what I recall of that period, JFP served the OLTL vets extremely well.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Didn't JFP also give an interview to Logan in 2001 when she joined GH, saying she had her daughter Courtney watch the show for a few weeks before she joined, and Courtney found it, "boring as hell."?

Does anyone else remember this, or am I imagining it?

[Khan]

Ana? Since when did she become Hispanic?

(Sorry, Andrea, just messin' with ya, lol.)

I LOVE YOU COURTNEY PHELPS!

(...But you really don't know "good" from "bad.")