Worst Executive Producer...

[Emma1420]

So I've been thinking for the soaps that were cancelled who the worst executive producers ended up being?

 

For years, I blamed the demise of shows like OLTL and GL on JFP.  However, recently I've changed my mind.  She made some mistakes (killing Maureen, etc.), but I don't think she was the most destructive force on those shows.  For me the worst EP on any soap is and always has been Ellen Wheeler.   Ellen Wheeler destroyed any production values that GL ever had.  She took a struggling show and ground it into dust.

 

So I was wondering what other EP's have I missed as being destructive and show destroying? 

 

 

[Khan]

Chris Goutman.

[Faulkner]

Yeah. My sense about Goutman (I lost interest in ATWT) was that he was bad in addition to callous and stubborn and made poor, ugly choices, even when he didn’t have to, out of nasty spite.

[DramatistDreamer]

 

He'd be my choice for worst also.  Terrible right up until the end.

[Forever8]

Chris Goutman ... No Words 

I remember he was talking about how they weren't going to bring any old heads like Guiding Light did made me smh. 

[DramatistDreamer]

 

I had stopped watching too during his time as EP but when I finally went and watched many of the final episodes, it struck me how stark and stripped of value everything was.  It was depressing to look at. I guess, for people who had been watching faithfully, the changes might have seemed somewhat gradual but to my eyes, everything looked pretty bad.  

[dragonflies]

Goutman, Phelps and Valentini

[You're Soaking in it]

For my personal regular viewing, Phelps was worst for her OLTL... though I can't accurately split how much of that work was hers, or Megan McTavish's. I do know they were a horrible combo: No sense of heart, hope, emotion, rooting-value, character... just dark, dark, dark. I've tried to think of a worse time on the show, and though a few periods come close, this one wins hands down.

 

Then there are EP's that are only as good as the head writer's work. Julie Hanan Carruthers is one of those. Because she had a few horrible head writers at different times, her AMC was periodically awful - more awful than OLTL ever was, when you count Charles Pratt's run as HW. Another example, McTavish's work under Jean Dadarrio Burke as EP was much better than the nosedive it took after JDB was replaced by JHC.

 

So the mark of a good EP vs a bad one varies for me.  

[danfling]

I think that Stephen Schnetzel (name possibly misspelled) was the worst executive producer when he was working on All My Children.  The show seemed to be a big mess.

 

Also, Erwin Nicholson was one of several very bad executive producers for Search for Tomorrow.  Joanna Lee seemed to have some good ideas for the show.  Wasn't someone named Chris Whitesell the executive producer also?  Or, I could be confusing him with someone else.

 

I think that the transition on The Guiding Light from Luci Rittenberg Ferri to Allan J. Potter was rather jarring.   Mr. Potter brought in too many new characters for my taste.  I realize that much of the audience liked the new character and storylines, but there was too much ignoring of the characters that I had loved  Also, a few characters (Dr. Joe Werner for example)changed directions in the way that I could never believe.

 

Eileen Barrett was one of the bad ones on Search for Tomorrow, but, before that, the quality of Ryan's Hope dropped tremendously when Robert Costello left the show and she was his replacement.

[Quent]

A small part of me thinks Goutman was good at maintaining "the look" of the show, since he was dealing with a dwindling budget. ATWT never got to the ultra-cheap production values that Wheeler's GL did. 

 

Everything else about him was terrible. He had more time to wrap up his show than any of the other canceled  soaps, and he wasted it all. Instead of giving the viewers a chance to honor and say goodbye to 50-plus year show, he kept introducing disposable characters and plots that no one cared about. Why not bring Martha Byrne back at the end, reunite Katie and Simon, have some temporary health scare for Emma Snyder to reunite all her brood, give Lisa a happy ending, bring back some veterans like Ellen, Penny, Shannon, maybe a scene of James sipping a drink on a tropical island, mumbling "I'll be back soon"...

[j swift]

I'm going to go with a more obscure name, Joe Hardy.  He was executive producer of GH in the late 80s when it went from number 1 or 2 in the ratings to number 8.  He openly argued with the actor who played Decker.  He followed up the Laurelton Saga with Anna and Robin finding an alien from outer space.  Finally, he threw an anniversary event for the press and most of the cast refused to attend.

 

He was king of the retcon.  Duke Lavery went from dead to undead with another face.  Dawn was Monica's daughter, despite the fact we knew Monica from her first marriage at the end of med school.  He also recast Dawn three times before she was killed off.   Robert Scorpio fathered Cheryl's child until he didn't.  Johnny Ryan had a child out of wedlock after Pat was born.  Clay Alden was a murderer before Alex took over his identity.

 

Prior to his destructive work on GH, he tried to ruin Ryan's Hope and Loving.  He was the producer who famously felt the need to expand beyond Ryan's Bar and back-burnered Maeve and Johnny.  I enjoyed Greenburg's Deli, but not at the expense of Delia, Rae, and Faith.

 

There are producers who can be criticized for trying too hard to improve their shows and there are producers who to try to change their shows into something else.  Those are the ones that I do not appreciate.  One can argue the taste level of certain producers, but tanking GH in the 80s is a feat of incompetence.

[NothinButAttitude]

 

This. 

 

I will NEVER forgive him for the idiotic decisions he made the last decade of ATWT. Still boggles my mind how he turned the ship around at the start of the milennium, despite many hating him and Hogan's run, and then squandering it all with Jean Passanantate with their stale ass writing the last half of the decade. And him refusing to bring back ATWT faves for the finale week was revolting. No Penny. No Don. No Grant (for Lisa). No Ellen. No nothing. The only 2 things he managed to do alright (and they still weren't good enough for me), was bringing back John and giving Bob and Kim the final scene of the show. 

[Taoboi]

Hahaha!!! I was just thinking about starting a similar thread today at work. 

 

How well-timed.

[danfling]

I find it odd that Christopher Goutman is being mentioned for his work on As the World Turns, but not for his work on Another World.

[KMan101]

He wasn't on AW for a whole long time. And he brought Sharlene back for a visit. It felt different than his ATWT. He was god-awful at ATWT. I imagine he would have been just as damaging had AW stayed on and had he stayed there.

 

Goutman reminds me of Valentini in a lot of ways, except Valentini seems to be popular amongst those he works with. I never got that feeling about Goutman, who had no respect towards the vets. Neither does Frank really. GH reminds me of ATWT in it's last years. Aimless. Not so great couples. Vets just making cameo appearances. Refusing to keep talent. Hiring soap hoppers just to say you hired them ...

 

Phelps was massively destructive to every show she was on. Mal Young was certainly starting to give her a run for her money. Frank's not destructive but I don't think he's this savior blinded fans paint him as. Way too many pets.

 

PREACH!

 

I was always so sad to see ATWT flounder under him. You had so many active and viable vets and yet they're window dressing, except for the occasional bone thrown their way. At least John came back. I'll begrudgingly give them that. But he shouldn't have left in the first place ...

 

Julie was a completely useless producer.