Jill Farren Phelps Podcast Interview

[Soaplovers]

She can say killing Frankie wasn't her idea because wasn't Donna supposed to be killed and word leaked out so the show had to shift gears? Also, focus groups were used with the final 2 candidates being Paulina and Frankie..with Frankie getting lower ratings..or so I've heard.

 

If all this is true, then she isn't lying about killing Frankie since her original choice was Donna.

[Mitch]

It WAS a budget issue..and it was also an issue where she wanted to veer the show from the Bauers to the Coopers (for whatever reason, Long created them, not her) and she knew as long as Parker was there in the Bert Bauer role she couldnt move the show from the Bauer kitchen to that f*cking ass diner. I don't know if she wanted to make Frank and Eleni the Ed and Mo and have Buzz as a particularly crazed Papa Bauer..who knows but she was very happy when Curlee left and she could get things written they way she wanted them... 

 

I have never watched her other work, but I am astounded that GL was so DAMN good for her first two years and then I couldnt watch it.

[AdelaideCate007]

Whether she made decision to kill Frankie or not, she is the one that started the serial killer story and the one that conducted the focus group that lead to her being murdered. I loved Frankie but I'm not going to sit here and say that that single event brought down Another World. However, it certainly didn't help things, especially the way the death ended up playing out. I don't think people would have such an issue all these years later if it hadn't played out it in such a demeaning and crass way.

 

Wasn't JFP there when Justine happened and when Ryan was killed? If so, she deserves to be called out for those too cause those stories didn't help things either. And sorry to anyone who enjoyed John and Felicia but that was rubbish too. 

 

I can't speak for GL but she absolutely deserves all the heat she gets for Alan and Georgie. I still don't know why either one of those happened. I didn't like it but I get why they killed Tony. I think killing Emily was shortsighted but whatever. There was zero reason for Alan and Georgie. I feel like they killed Georgie only so they could have Spinelli all for Maxie and so Maxie could humiliate Felicia. 

 

I'm also going to say that I grew really tired of her yearly events on GH. The Port Charles Hotel fire was good. Once it became a yearly thing, it was tired. There were just so many of them- the train crash with Alexis having Molly, the monkey virus with Holly the bio-terrorist, the hostage crisis, the one where someone swallowed toxic balls, the carnival with drunk Edward, the ball where Diego killed Emily. It was just like enough after a while and they never gave us any good long term stories.

 

I agree with @titan1978 that's there definitely a pattern in the women that she dislikes or lets be humiliated on her shows- Sharlene and Frankie on AW. Cassie on OLTL. Laura, Felicia, Bobbie, Georgie, and Emily on GH. 

 

I do think she's unfairly blamed for letting Sonny, Jason, Carly, and the mob take over GH, as well things like Luke being a drunk deadbeat or the dismantling Quartermaines. That stuff was already in motion before she got there. She just let them continue and take over the show.

[soapfan770]

 

Which proved to be her fatal mistake, and why she was sounded flustered about Y&R. Phelps was well liked amongst the cast and production team after all going through living hell with MAB & Latham, she  should have taken up those writing offers when she had a chance. I remember here at SON a lot of people saying her days were numbered the minute she hired Pratt. 
 

Btw @titan1978 your comments about AW are spot on. I only half paid attention to AW at that point I was glued to seeing ATWT implode in a blaze of glory while GL in 1996 inspired righteous indignation. AW’s grave sin was being plain out boring with two back to back serial killer storylines that had offensive final victims. And unlike the Loving murders, Marion Crane on GL, or Blade’s death on Y&R during that same timeframe those stories weren’t entertaining either. Sunset Beach’s Terror Island was far more interesting. 

[lucaslesann23]

I do wonder what  JFP and Sally sussman YR would have been like.

[BetterForgotten]

Sally Sussman has never had a successful writing stint to save her poor life. I don’t expect it would be any less boring than anything else she’s written.

Edited May 18, 2020 by BetterForgotten

[lucaslesann23]

What about Brad Bell?, I don't watch Bold so i don't really know his style.

[BetterForgotten]

Brad Bell has never had any talent and has coasted on his family name for years. Whatever he would have brought would have been short term and unsustainable.

[soapfave06]

I remember GH changing a lot in 2009 after the toxic ball incident. Anyone remember why the mood of the show changed? 

 

I have blocked her entire Y&R out of my memory but the 2014 episode did remind me I like that she added the Michaelson siblings and Mason Wilder and Hilary to the cast after MAB's Winters Wednesday's but by the time she changed the sets and then the music I was over it. I don't remember the music changing immediately though, did she wait a while on that? I never cared for her casting choices though. I still dont care for Abby, Noah was a waste of an addition, Steve Burton and that retcon. So on. 

[watson71]

JFP's three strikes on AW, I believe, were the following damaging moves, more so than killing Frankie:

 

1. Killing Paul Michael Valley's Ryan- while it was great drama onscreen- Ryan should have been shot and fell off the train trestle with his body gone missing in case he wanted to return to the show- which he did the next year in a ghost story.

 

2. Rewriting history by trying to pass off Maggie as Cass' daughter, when for months in 1982-83, the storyline of who was Maggie's father with Cecile claiming that both Sandy Cory and Jamie Frame were her dad.

 

3. Her shabby treatment of Nancy Frangione (Cecile).  For years, AW managed to get Cecile back for short stints.  In 1995, Frangione returned looking like she wanted she wanted to return fulltime.  Frangione was never placed on contract, appeared in the credits with the extras/under 5s, saddled with mediocre nonsensical material that was below a schemer like Cecile, was never placed in the updated credits due to her non-contract role, then sent out of town as a loser with no money.  AW really could have benefited from a villain like Cecile at this time.  This would be the last time Cecile would ever appear on AW.

Edited May 18, 2020 by watson71

[soapfan770]

 

TBH that first year wasn’t bad. I didn’t mind the Noah & Abby recasts at all. Sure the  always coming and going KS whined publicly but he wasn’t much missed. And Ordway looked more like Victor & Ashley’s daughter much more than Rylan. I’m glad Griffith picked back up the Leslie plot and I hated the show later wasted her again. Hilary vs. Leslie would have been way more epic, and Devon & Hilary should have moved into the Chancellor mansion etc.

 

I’m not sure what any of the writers had planned and how or what got disrupted. Summer being Jack’s daughter, Lauren having a fun full fledged affair with Carmine, Hilary being a long lost daughter of Dru’s, and Nikki having a secret child out there somewhere all sounded like great ideas but for whatever the writing staff got scared of their own proposals and backed out or in Griffith’s case broke down and hauled themselves up in their office LOL. Later on we had the very mysterious, haunted and tragic Kelly played by Cynthia Watros. Then Watros left and next thing ya know we see a very giddy head over heels  Cady McClain as Kelly going to the opera with Jack. None of  it made zero sense whatsoever.
 

[BetterForgotten]

At least our Jilly is honest!

 

SANTA BARBARA's humor can best be described as irreverent, according to executive producer Jill Farren Phelps. "I don't know that we set out to be funny, but I think we just all are, across the board -- writers, producers and actors. I don't revere the art form of soap opera, so I'm not afraid to be different, to take chances," she said.

[lucaslesann23]

Griffith Locked himself in his office?

[NothinButAttitude]

 

Also, wasn't Cecile not even messing with Cass at the height of Maggie's paternity? Didn't Cass just pop up on the canvas at that time? It's crap like that, that irks my soul. It ain't that damn hard for producers and writers to access the show's history when they have online forums, books, writers, and actors themselves to set them straight. 

 

And with Cecile's return, it was a major flop. If it was solid that Frankie was going to die, it would've been good to see Cecile stumbled into the surrogate mother role to Charlie, which would unnerve Maggie as she wasn't motherly to her. Much like how GL did with Holly/Michelle/Blake. While Lila was good for Cass to have ended up with, it would've been better (IMO) has Cass ended up with Cecile, who finally grew up. 

[soapfan770]

  
It’s quite the sordid tale!

 

http://highlighthollywood.com/2013/08/insiders-at-the-young-and-the-restless-tell-highlight-hollywood-a-major-shake-up-is-coming-josh-griffith-may-be-out/