Jill Farren Phelps
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Jill Farren Phelps (born August 18, 1948 in Methuen, Massachusetts) and has been the executive producer of many American television soap operas: Santa Barbara (1987-1991), Guiding Light (1991-1995), Another World (1995-1996), One Life to Live (1998-2001), and currently General Hospital (2001-present).
She got her start as a music director on General Hospital and later on Santa Barbara before she started producing.
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[edit] Strengths
When Phelps arrives at a show, cosmetic set changes are apparent immediately. Since Phelps began as a music supervisor, she usually revamps a show's music. She also focuses on atmospheric lighting and set design.
Phelps is not a "traditionalist" in terms of being a soap opera producer. Aside from General Hospital (where she immediately ran into creative problems) Phelps' strong-willed vision produces quality storylines and stellar performances for the first 6 months to a year of her tenure as executive producer. This was probably most evident when she became the producer of Guiding Light in 1991; the show was already in the midst of a creative upswing, but the changes she made enhanced the show's quality.
In part due to Phelps' fondness for bloc voting, she has garnered an impressive amount of Daytime Emmy nominations for cast and crew. Under her watch Santa Barbara won 3 Best Drama Emmys in a row (although the first was for material which aired before her arrival). Phelps later won another Daytime Emmy for General Hospital for Outstanding Drama Series in 2005 and 2006.
A list of the actors Phelps favors has produced a few misfires, but mostly consists of extremely gifted and diverse performers who do their best with the writing they are given, such as Justin Deas, Erika Slezak, David Forsyth, Marcy Walker, Jensen Buchanan, and Linda Dano.
[edit] Accusations
Phelps has recycled themes and, in some cases, storylines from show to show (Guiding Light, Another World, and One Life to Live all featured a story about a young woman going into the police force and falling for her tough instructor). Phelps has a quirkier and, in most cases, darker creative vision. This fits better with some shows (General Hospital) than others (Another World)
Phelps has been accused of favoritism for using some of the same actors. The actors - Timothy Gibbs, John Bolger, Mark Derwin, Kale Browne, and Jensen Buchanan among them - were undeniably talented; however, in some cases the characters were unnecessary. In the case of Gibbs, he was an unpopular recast for an actor that many had liked. (One of the first instances of this was when Marcy Walker, an Emmy-winning actress, was cast in a role on Guiding Light that was unpopular and underdeveloped.) Fans dubbed these actors "FOJ" or "Friends of Jill", causing such tension that at a 2000 One Life to Live fan club luncheon Derwin wore a "FOJ" badge on his shirt. (It was during Phelps' reign on One Life To Live that the "FOJ" syndrome reached its peak.) Only Derwin was a fairly strong success in his new role; Gibbs, Bolger, and Browne either left or were released from One Life to Live in 2001 after Phelps' departure, and Procter & Gamble sued Phelps and won because Buchanan had a contract with them in 2002. Buchanan joined GH after her limited contract with P&G expired, but was written out of GH within a year.
While she won Emmy awards for her work on Santa Barbara, her decision to fire fan favorites from shows she had worked on in the past have caused her credibility to be, arguably, damaged irreparably in the eyes of some soap opera fans.
On Another World Phelps released Paul Michael Valley from his contract, reportedly because she did not like him as a love interest for actress Jensen Buchanan. She also killed off popular heroine Frankie Frame (played by Alice Barrett). Frankie was strangled on-screen at the hands of the Bay City Serial Killer. Originally, fan favorite Anna Stuart was to be the victim of the Bay City Serial Killer. Phelps, with the help of head writer Margaret DePriest, encouraged the implementation of the story, which was a carbon copy of the Sin Stalker storyline which first aired on Another World in 1987. As the audience picked up clues and realized that Stuart's character, Donna Love, would be next to die, fans flooded newsgroups with their vocal opposition. Viewers called and wrote to the NBC studios in New York City, and Phelps was forced to pick another actor. In order to fit budget constraints, another "mid-level actor" would have to be fired; it was revealed later that the firing was necessary to bring back former AW actor Robert Kelker-Kelly. The two options were to kill either Barrett's character or Judi Evans Luciano's character, Paulina Cory Carlino. The focus groups liked Evans Luciano's character but were lukewarm toward Barrett; Phelps then decided on Frankie as the next victim instead of Donna.
However, perhaps the harshest and most lasting criticism of Phelps was as a result of her decision to kill off the character of Maureen Bauer on Guiding Light in 1993. The character of Maureen died in a fatal car accident she found out that her husband had cheated on her with her rival. The role was played by noted stage actress Ellen Parker. Though the character of Frankie Frame was important to Another World, Maureen Bauer was the crucial "tentpole" character of Guiding Light. The character was the heart and soul of the show (especially after the death of the original central character, her mother-in-law Bert Bauer). In an interview years later, Phelps apologized for killing off Maureen, stating it was the most regettable mistake she had made in her career.
In the cases of Barrett and Parker, she was reported to have relied on focus group for her decisions. It was not that the groups hated either character, but they were indifferent to them, in part because they had not been featured as leads and were not driving story. Phelps took this as an indication that the audience as a whole would not care if the characters were killed off their respective shows.
Phelps also has been known for her failure to renew popular actors' contracts, often under extremely unpleasant circumstances. In 1992, Guiding Light's Beverlee McKinsey exited the show through a loophole in her contract because she didn't like how her character, Alexandra, was becoming a nasty villainess. (The loss of McKinsey and Parker within a year of each other had a devastating effect on the quality of Guiding Light.) Phelps was on vacation when McKinsey exited, and apparently didn't know about the clause. In 2002, a similar situation occurred with on General Hospital. Genie Francis, GH's most well-known actress, exited the show in same fashion due to dislike of the storyline. Francis would later report that a female producer had repeatedly humiliated her because of her weight gain, leading some to speculate Phelps was that female producer.
While One Life to Live veteran Erika Slezak is a fan of Phelps' work, Robin Strasser (also of OLTL) has publicly opposed her. Also on the opposition is Santa Barbara co-creator Bridget Dobson. When the show won one of its Best Show Emmys, Dobson apparently ran to the stage to accept the award, so that Phelps, executive producer at that time, couldn't do the honors (the material that Santa Barbara had won the Emmy for occurred under Dobson's tenure, with Phelps only recently coming on board as producer).
In 2004, she fired 91-year-old actress Anna Lee from General Hospital. Lee, who had been on the show since 1978, was already ill and died within a few months, just one week before receiving her lifetime achievement award at the 2004 Daytime Emmys. Many in the soap and media world, including longtime GH fans, Carolyn Hinsey from Soap Opera Digest, TV Guide's soap columnist Michael Logan and Anna Lee's son, Jeffrey Byron, hold Phelps somewhat responsible for the events that led to Anna Lee's death, as the woman's livelihood was put in jeopardy. Phelps responded with a statement saying that no one's contract on General Hospital was etched in stone, not even Lee's.
While at One Life to Live in 1999, Phelps disgusted many fans by firing popular actress Laura Koffman who plays Cassie Callison Carpenter since 1991, mere days after Koffman had left for what she thought was simply a maternity leave. In 2005, she also let actress Lesli Kay go off-contract after revealing her pregnancy. Lesli Kay has stated on her official message board that Jill Farren Phelps has said to her, "If you think GH is your place to shine, it never will be" and after days of announcing her pregnancy announced that the fate of Lesli's character was "In god's hands." All of this, like much of JFP's comments was unsolicited. In November 2005, Phelps released actress Kari Wuhrer from her contract at General Hospital. In January 2006, Wuhrer responded with a lawsuit against ABC.
In 2005, Phelps found herself back in the spotlight when, at The 32nd Daytime Emmy Awards, she accepted the statuette for Best Drama, on behalf of General Hospital. She quickly rounded the cast and crew up to the stage and when she got to the microphone, announced that she had to "wrap it up," it being her speech. Phelps began that speech with..."We produce one hour of dramatic television, every single day, five days a week, fifty-two weeks a year! And a lot of people --" Midway through the sentence, the cameras cut to the night's hosts (soap opera icons Eric Braeden, Deidre Hall, and Susan Lucci), bidding the audience farewell. Although many daytime fans were amused by her predicament, others were angered that any executive producer would be cut off immediately after her show won Best Drama, especially when the telecast had featured lengthy diversions not involving soaps (such as a performance by Il Divo). Phelps said she was disappointed fans did not get to see the cast onstage together. In 2006, when GH won the award for the second time in a row, Phelps began her speech with "...As I was saying...*pause* Now that I have a minute to speak...I have nothing to say!"
[edit] Positions Held
Upon the arrival of ABC Daytime Vice President Brian Frons and the return of Robert Guza Jr., Phelps reportedly has little to no power, at least not resembling her glory days at AW, GL or OLTL.
| Preceded by: Bridget Dobson & Jerome Dobson and Mary-Ellis Bunim |
Executive Producer of Santa Barbara 1987-1991 |
Succeeded by: Paul Rauch |
| Preceded by: Robert Calhoun |
Executive Producer of Guiding Light 1991-1995 |
Succeeded by: Michael Laibson |
| Preceded by: John Valente |
Executive Producer of Another World 1995-1996 |
Succeeded by: Charlotte Savitz |
| Preceded by: Maxine Levinson |
Executive Producer of One Life to Live 1997-2001 |
Succeeded by: Gary Tomlin |
| Preceded by: Pamela K. Long |
Head Writer of One Life to Live (de facto) 1999 |
Succeeded by: Megan McTavish |
| Preceded by: Wendy Riche |
Executive Producer of General Hospital 2001-present |
Succeeded by: incumbent |
