Jill Farren Phelps
 |
Jill Farren-Phelps | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 7, 1950 New York, NY |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | BFA, Carnegie Mellon University |
| Known for | American Television Producer |
| Awards | Numerous Daytime Emmy Nominations & Awards |
Jill Farren-Phelps (born July 7, 1950) is an American television producer.
Background
Phelps was born in New York, New York[1] and earned a BFA in directing from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She became a stage manager at McCarter Theater in Princeton, New Jersey before becoming a production assistant for various New York stage productions, working with notable directors Mike Nichols and Bob Fosse. She started her television career in 1974 with Guiding Light as a production assistant. From 1977 to 1984 Phelps served as an Emmy Award-winning music director on the ABC Daytime drama General Hospital. In 1984 she joined Santa Barbara where she ultimately rose to the position of executive producer.[2] She has since worked as an executive producer at all three major U.S. television networks producing six daytime dramas, as well as two prime-time dramas on cable television.
Career
Phelps has been the executive producer of six American television daytime dramas, a record in this industry, including Santa Barbara (1987–1991), Guiding Light (1991–1995), Another World (1995–1996; resigned August 4, 1996), One Life to Live (1997–2001), General Hospital (January 2001–January 2012), and as of now, The Young and the Restless (October 2012–Present). Additionally, she has served as executive producer of two prime time cable dramas, the first season of Soapnet's prime time General Hospital spin-off General Hospital: Night Shift (2007) and Nickelodeon's Hollywood Heights (2012).
Phelps broke into the daytime television industry as a production assistant on Guiding Light. She served as a music director on General Hospital and later on Santa Barbara before she started producing.
During Phelps' time at Santa Barbara, the show won three consecutive Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Drama Series (1988 - 1990). She scored four more Emmy victories in the same category while serving as executive producer at General Hospital (2005, 2006, 2008, and 2012).
On December 1st, 2011, it was announced that Phelps' longest run in the television industry was coming to end, and that she would be replaced as General Hospital's executive producer by former One Life to Live executive producer Frank Valentini. [3][4] In January, 2012, Phelps accepted a position as executive producer of Hollywood Heights, a night-time soap opera airing on Nickelodeon. On July 26, 2012, Sony Pictures Television announced Phelps had been named executive producer of The Young and the Restless.[5]
Santa Barbara
In 1984, Phelps was hired as a music director after previously working in a similar capacity at General Hospital. She rose through the ranks, and was later promoted to producer. In 1987, when executive producer Mary-Ellis Bunim was let go, NBC Daytime named Phelps executive producer. Under Phelps' leadership, the show won three consecutive Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Drama Series in 1988, 1989, and 1990.
Although Santa Barbara won two more Emmy awards in the Outstanding Drama Series category in 1989 and 1990, numerous cast and crew changes caused ratings to suffer. Louise Sorel, Robin Wright, Lane Davies, Marcy Walker, Justin Deas, Todd McKee, Christopher Norris, and Leigh J. McCloskey left during Phelps' time as executive producer or after she was replaced by John Conboy. Some fans and critics believed the show began to improve under Conboy, but viewership continued to erode, and Santa Barbara was canceled by NBC on January 15, 1993.
Guiding Light
After Robert Calhoun left Guiding Light, Phelps, who had recently departed Santa Barbara, took over as executive producer in 1991. Phelp's time at Guiding Light was a period of transition for the show, and several high profile cast changes became a point of contention. Veteran daytime actress Beverlee McKinsey, who portrayed the iconic Alexandra Spaulding, and Phelps disagreed over both the direction of the character and the terms of McKinsey's contract. In 1992, McKinsey subsequently left the serial, leaving a hole in the show's canvas, and many fans disappointed.
Another unpopular decision was the exit of actress Ellen Parker. Parker became the new matriarch of the Bauer family, Maureen Bauer, after Charita Bauer, an original television cast member who portrayed long-time patriarch Bert Bauer, passed away in 1985. Parker's character, who was married to Ed Bauer (Peter Simon), was written off the show in 1993 in a car accident after learning Ed had been having an affair with her best friend Lillian Raines (played by Tina Sloan) while helping her battle breast cancer. This decision was particularly controversial after it was alleged that Phelps relied on focus group feedback to make this decision. In a 60 Minute's segment about Guiding Light's historic run and cancellation, Tina Sloan mentions the storyline, and states some fans continued to hold a grudge against her character up through the show's final days.
Another World
While Phelps served as executive producer at Another World, viewers were generally divided over changes to the show, and in particular, casting decisions. However, the creation of an updated, dynamic opening sequence and refreshed sets,[6] along with other changes, were credited with ratings improving in the key demographic of women 18-49 by 34%.[7]
One Life to Live
After Phelps resigned as executive producer of Another World, ABC Daytime hired her to be the executive producer of One Life to Live in 1997. Together with head writer Pam Long, the show was praised for a number of compelling stories, such as the feud between rival characters Cassie and Barbara Graham, the death of Jenny Wolek Renaldi (Brynn Thayer), and one of the most touching developments in the history of One Life to Live, the return of Michael Zaslow (who portrayed David Renaldi) despite the actor's battle with ALS.
However, despite initial success with story lines including the mystery over who killed Nora's mentally ill assistant Georgie, fans began to voice displeasure when core characters such as Dorian's husband Mel and Bo's son Drew were killed and Dorian's daughter Cassie was written off the show, and principle characters such as Nora, Jessica and Viki were given stories revolving around the newly introduced Rappaport and Davidson families.
Linda Dano was added to the cast in late 1999 after the cancellation of Another World. Dano had played a role on One Life to Live twenty years earlier named Gretel Cummings; the character was renamed from Gretel to Rae Cummings for Dano's return to Llanview. Dano eventually appeared as Rae on all four of ABC's soaps airing at the time -- Port Charles, All My Children, One Life to Live and General Hospital -- in an attempt to cross-promote these shows to ABC's entire base of daytime drama viewers. Similarly, actress Robin Christopher resurrected her All My Children character Skye Chandler as a One Life to Live vixen, before taking the same character to General Hospital. Many regular One Life to Live viewers felt these characters were distractions from longtime core characters such as Viki Lord and Dorian Lord.
Phelps hired many of her favorite actors, including Mark Derwin, Kale Browne, John Bolger, and Timothy Gibbs, to fill roles. Events such as Todd punching Téa in the face and Nora sleeping with her former lover Sam to give her sterile husband a child created an immediate impact, but to many viewers, these stories came at the expense of character integrity and continuity. When the popular characters Nora and Bo suffered a bitter split, actress Hillary B. Smith allegedly was so unnerved by her character's behavior she actually lobbied Phelps -- unsuccessfully -- to kill off Nora.
General Hospital
Phelps was named executive producer of General Hospital in 2001. During her tenure there, the show won four Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Drama Series (2005, 2006, 2008, and 2012).
One highlight of Phelps' time at General Hospital was the addition of accomplished television and screen actor James Franco to the cast. Franco has portrayed the mysterious Robert "Franco" Frank intermittently since 2009.[8]
Phelps was replaced by former One Life to Live executive producer Frank Valentini in January, 2012. The future of the show Phelps led for a over a decade has been uncertain due to poor ratings, but GH was renewed in April, 2012 for another year.[9]
General Hospital: Night Shift
In 2007, Phelps served as the executive producer for the first season of SOAPnet's prime time General Hospital spin-off General Hospital: Night Shift.
Hollywood Heights
In January, 2012, Phelps was hired as executive producer of Hollywood Heights, a soap opera on Nickelodeon. The series premiered on June 18 and airs during the network's Nick At Nite block of programming in the 9 p.m. (Eastern) time-slot. The show revolves around Loren (Brittany Underwood), a teen whose life is transformed after becoming a music star, and is being adapted from Alcanzar Una Estrella, a popular Mexican telenovela. The series is being co-produced by Televisa in association with Sony Pictures Television. Nickelodeon ordered 80 episodes of the series; these are scheduled to run through October, 2012 and comprise season one. Phelps shares producing duties with Hisham Abed and the show's head writer, fellow daytime drama veteran Josh Griffith, and she is working with several former daytime television actors on the show, most notably recurring General Hospital cast member James Franco (ex-Franco).[10]
The Young and the Restless
In July 2012, following the firing of executive producer/head writer Maria Arena Bell and co-head writers Hogan Sheffer and Scott Hamner, Sony Pictures Television appointed Phelps executive producer of The Young and the Restless alongside the show's former head writer Josh Griffith.[5] Their episodes will begin airing on October 12, 2012.
Controversies
The Firing of Anna Lee
In 2003, Phelps fired veteran screen and television actress Anna Lee, who had portrayed matriarch Lila Quartermaine on General Hospital for a quarter of a century.[11][12] This decision was widely protested in the soap community. According to fellow cast member Leslie Charleson, Lee had been promised the role for life by former executive producer Wendy Riche. Charleson said in 2007, "The woman was in her 90s...they fired her, and it broke her heart. It was not necessary."[12]
Violence Against Female Characters
Phelps' career in daytime television has shown a predilection for depicting violence against women. While Phelps served as executive producer of Santa Barbara, the character Eden Capwell Castillo, seeking treatment for infertility, was raped by her gynecologist and thus was unsure who fathered her child. During Phelps' stint at Another World, the character Frankie Frame Winthrop was brutally murdered by a stalker in what remains one of the most gratuitously gruesome portrayals of violence in daytime television history.
During Phelps' time at General Hospital, the character Dr. Patrick Drake exposed a patient and a partner to HIV after a condom broke -- which he was aware had happened -- while he was romantically involved with Robin Scorpio, an HIV-positive character. Previous General Hospital producers had received critical accolades and industry awards for stories involving this character and her HIV status, whereas Phelps did not. In 2011, another story line featuring the character Robin Scorpio involved her blood being used as a biological weapon by an escaped mental patient. Also during Phelps' time at General Hospital, a plot similar to the Santa Barbara fertility/ rape story line unfolded involving the character Sam Morgan, who underwent an experimental fertility procedure and who was later drugged and possibly raped on her honeymoon.
Emmy Awards
A bit of real-life melodrama occurred at the Daytime Emmy Awards in 1988 when Santa Barbara was named Outstanding Drama Series and Phelps awkwardly shared the podium with Bridget Dobson to receive the Emmy statue. Dobson ascended the stage a few moments ahead of Phelps after the winner was announced. Because some of the scenes submitted for the show's Emmy reel were produced before Phelps took over as executive producer, there was some jockeying over who should accept the award. In 2012, under mirror circumstances, Phelps alone accepted the Outstanding Drama Series Emmy for General Hospital despite having been replaced as its executive producer by Frank Valentini six months earlier. During her acceptance speech, she made a point to seek Valentini out in the audience and wish him well, "from the old guard to the new," in his duties as executive producer of the show.
Positions held
Awards and nominations
As an executive producer, Phelps has been nominated for fourteen Daytime Emmy Awards and has won seven times (1988–1990, 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2012).
References
- ^ "Jill Farren-Phelps Biography". www.torrentreactor.net. Retrieved January 05, 2012.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "Jill Farren-Phelps Biography". www.imdb.com. Retrieved January 04, 2012.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "Phelps Out! Valentini In!". abc.soapsindepth.com. Retrieved January 05,2012.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ "General Hospital head writer on show's future". insidetv.ew.com. Retrieved January 05, 2012.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ a b "Jill Farren Phelps Named Executive Producer And Josh Griffith Named Head Writer Of "THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS," The Number One Daytime Drama". Market Watch. Marketwatch.com. 2012-07-26. Retrieved July 26, 2012.
- ^ "Jill Farren-Phelps Biography". www.torrentreactor.net. Retrieved January 05, 2012.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "Executive producer of the ABC Television Network's General Hospital". About.com. Retrieved October 14, 2007.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "James Franco Returns to General Hospital". www.tvguide.com. Retrieved January 05, 2012.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Verne Gay (April 11, 2012). "ABC: 'General Hospital' renewed; hour of "GMA" in afternoon". www.newsday.com. Retrieved June 26, 2012.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Brian Lowry (June 07, 2012). "Hollywood Heights". www.variety.com. Retrieved 20 June 2012.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "Jill Farren-Phelps Biography". www.imbd.com. Retrieved January 02, 2012.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ a b Soap Opera Weekly, 13 February 2007, p. 2