I'd argue that Megan McTavish has a worse rep in many ways, though Guza, Frons, Hogan Sheffer, and MAB deserve the rotten rep they've developed. I don't know who's got the worst rep. I don't think JFP's rep is 100% awful, I just think she's had moments of very cynical, artless decisions that hurt the shows more than they helped.

HA, among the press? Nellie Branco.

Edited January 29, 201312 yr by beebs

I think Eric Braeden has the worst bar none, actor wise....

As far as writer/producer I echo JFP, but I think MAB deserves it more...

Paul Rauch

Agree with Brian Frons, and it's deserved. Never seen a single defense of him by any fan anywhere.

There were the stories of George Reinholt and Jackie Courtney being difficult.

Eric Braeden has always gotten his way when he throws a hissy fit.

The Y&R cast with a few exceptions.

That's cuz the Y&R casts put their business out in the opening and doesn't fake like they are one big happy family.

Paul Rauch

You can make awful creative decisions, you can hire your friends, you can be a show killer, but when you go out of your way to be a nasty, hurtful person, that I find to be the most unforgivable.

Deidre Hall just ask Melissa Reeves

Eric Braeden once yelled so much on set, they had to take the kids off set

Hunter Tylo and hubby Matt can both be royal (and weird) pains in the ass

Eric Braeden beat the crap out of Peter Bergman. That in itself makes me dislike him. Because, I have respect for PB.

Yes, he did, and then even when Braeden was forced to apologize to PB and cast/crew, etc for causing the show to be dark for several days, he pretty much apologized without ever saying "sorry."

Eric Braeden beat the crap out of Peter Bergman.

There's no excuse for that. It's like beating a woman.

As for Ellen Wheeler, no one has much good to say about the Peapack era production model, that's true, but she still revitalized and kept GL afloat before that. There was a time in 2005-2006 when it seemed like GL was back, in a big way. With a new, young head writer promoted from within the ranks (Kreizman had worked at GL in various capacities since 1995), supercouple Jonathan/Tammy, Reva in a riveting cancer storyline, Billy Lewis back on the frontburner, and an exciting new opening, GL was catching up to AMC and OLTL in the ratings, no longer always last place, as those ABC soaps were in freefall. GL actors also won a bunch of Emmys in 2006. Then GL celebrated its 70th anniversary with an innovative "Find Your Light" campaign and the Irna Phillips episode in January 2007. Next, while the loss of Jammy was a blow, and it was a bad decision to kill Tammy off, the show won the writing Emmy in 2007. It still seemed like it was possible to see a future for the Light.

Some fans had given up on the show long before this, but the show still had vocal and happy supporters.

Then I don't know what happened to her in 2008 that she suddenly made such awful decisions like making the writers deliberately write a bunch of aimless "slice of life" scenes instead of drama during the Peapack era. The slice of life stuff is good in snippets, but as a whole, you can't have a soap where that's all there is. She misinterpreted what people meant when they said they wanted soaps to be more realistic. Also I don't care how little money the show had, I don't see how she couldn't have found a way to keep some kind of rehearsal time for the actors. Wheeler still came up with Otalia though, one good thing in the final year. And Peapack doesn't make me forget that she did good things before that.

People have also said good things about Wheeler for her previous jobs as an actress and a director.

So she doesn't have the worst reputation in the industry.

Edited January 29, 201312 yr by jfung79

The people who have the worst reputations are the people who don't have jobs at the moment.

As for Ellen Wheeler, no one has much good to say about the Peapack era production model, that's true, but she still revitalized and kept GL afloat before that. There was a time in 2005-2006 when it seemed like GL was back, in a big way. With a new, young head writer promoted from within the ranks (Kreizman had worked at GL in various capacities since 1995), supercouple Jonathan/Tammy, Reva in a riveting cancer storyline, Billy Lewis back on the frontburner, and an exciting new opening, GL was catching up to AMC and OLTL in the ratings, no longer always last place, as those ABC soaps were in freefall. GL actors also won a bunch of Emmys in 2006. Then GL celebrated its 70th anniversary with an innovative "Find Your Light" campaign and the Irna Phillips episode in January 2007. Next, while the loss of Jammy was a blow, and it was a bad decision to kill Tammy off, the show won the writing Emmy in 2007. It still seemed like it was possible to see a future for the Light.

Some fans had given up on the show long before this, but the show still had vocal and happy supporters.

Then I don't know what happened to her in 2008 that she suddenly made such awful decisions like making the writers deliberately write a bunch of aimless "slice of life" scenes instead of drama during the Peapack era. The slice of life stuff is good in snippets, but as a whole, you can't have a soap where that's all there is. She misinterpreted what people meant when they said they wanted soaps to be more realistic. Also I don't care how little money the show had, I don't see how she couldn't have found a way to keep some kind of rehearsal time for the actors. Wheeler still came up with Otalia though, one good thing in the final year. And Peapack doesn't make me forget that she did good things before that.

People have also said good things about Wheeler for her previous jobs as an actress and a director.

So she doesn't have the worst reputation in the industry.

Agreed. She's no different than a dozen other producers who had to helm dying soaps.. People were put off by some of her decisions and demeanor but the only one who ever bashed her personally was Nellie Olsen.

I also remember a lot of Mormon-bashing in there too, which has nothing to do with her work as producer.

She wasn't that great but she did manage to get a ton of people to return to the show. Someone with a bad rep generally won't be able to do that.