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<blockquote data-quote="Daniel Avery" data-source="post: 200701" data-attributes="member: 27">She did indeed put plans into motion for Donna/Anna Stuart to get killed off.&nbsp; Due to her general mismanagement of AW&#039;s budget (including that enormous &quot;city street&quot; set she had built in AW&#039;s tiny studio), she realized she needed to get rid of a &quot;mid-level salaried&quot; actor in order to balance the books.&nbsp; The three &quot;finalists&quot; were indeed Anna Stuart, Judi Evans and Alice Barrett.&nbsp; JFP had already scuttled the very entertaining Donna/Matt relationship so it was obvious she had no love for the character.&nbsp; But fan feedback was negative when it appeared she was being set up to be killed off by the serial killer on the loose, so JFP hired one of those almighty focus groups to give feedback on samples of work from AS, AB, and JE.&nbsp; It was said later on by Maggie DePriest, the Head Writer at the time, that the focus group just found Frankie (AB) to be kind of boring, while they really liked JE and AS.&nbsp; They did not react negatively--just sort of unenthused.&nbsp; So JFP (with MDP and her staff doing the writing) &quot;unwrote&quot; a scenario where Donna, after being accused of being the killer, would be found murdered.&nbsp; Instead, she had a mini-breakdown due to some drugs that Fax Newman (the real killer) had prescribed and was shuffled off to the hospital for a brief time.&nbsp; They then steered Fax toward first Vicky (to fill some time) and then to Frankie, whom he of course murdered in a graphic sequence that took the better part of an hour.&nbsp; JFP, in that later interview, tried to say that Maggie DePriest had decided to kill off Frankie, that she (JFP) had just wanted Frankie to disappear/be presumed dead...but did not explain how a Head Writer managed to overrule her EP (the boss) in such an important story decision.&nbsp; JFP just wanted to shift the blame because the blowback was so severe.&nbsp; JFP and DePriest spent months pointing at each other in the press, but both lost their jobs over the fiasco, deservedly so.&nbsp;&nbsp; DePriest basically never wrote for soaps again, but JFP, the Typhoid Mary of Soaps, just kept getting hired to wreck other shows until there were none left willing to hire her.I&#039;ve read with some interest about this, mostly because this has been done so many times with irredeemable characters.&nbsp; Jake McKinnon raped his ex-wife Marley on AW, and yet five short years later they were positioning him as the Second Coming of Ward Cleaver, married to the twin sister of the woman he raped.&nbsp; He never served a day in prison.&nbsp; Even more shocking is the way OLTL sought to push &quot;Frat Boy #3&quot; who led the gang-rape of Marty Saybrook into leading man status as Todd Manning, even ret-conning him as the brother of town saint Viki Buchanan in an effort to give him some &quot;palatability&quot;.&nbsp; The efforts to make him a romantic hero caused Roger Howarth to quit the part for many years.&nbsp; The most infamous &quot;reformed rapist&quot; would be Luke Spencer on GH, and GH&#039;s Franco is another reformed serial killer/psycho now firmly ensconced with Liz Webber and her kids singing his praises to anyone who will listen.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Daniel Avery, post: 200701, member: 27"] She did indeed put plans into motion for Donna/Anna Stuart to get killed off. Due to her general mismanagement of AW's budget (including that enormous "city street" set she had built in AW's tiny studio), she realized she needed to get rid of a "mid-level salaried" actor in order to balance the books. The three "finalists" were indeed Anna Stuart, Judi Evans and Alice Barrett. JFP had already scuttled the very entertaining Donna/Matt relationship so it was obvious she had no love for the character. But fan feedback was negative when it appeared she was being set up to be killed off by the serial killer on the loose, so JFP hired one of those almighty focus groups to give feedback on samples of work from AS, AB, and JE. It was said later on by Maggie DePriest, the Head Writer at the time, that the focus group just found Frankie (AB) to be kind of boring, while they really liked JE and AS. They did not react [I]negatively[/I]--just sort of unenthused. So JFP (with MDP and her staff doing the writing) "unwrote" a scenario where Donna, after being accused of being the killer, would be found murdered. Instead, she had a mini-breakdown due to some drugs that Fax Newman (the real killer) had prescribed and was shuffled off to the hospital for a brief time. They then steered Fax toward first Vicky (to fill some time) and then to Frankie, whom he of course murdered in a graphic sequence that took the better part of an hour. JFP, in that later interview, tried to say that Maggie DePriest had decided to kill off Frankie, that she (JFP) had just wanted Frankie to disappear/be presumed dead...but did not explain how a Head Writer managed to overrule her EP (the boss) in such an important story decision. JFP just wanted to shift the blame because the blowback was so severe. JFP and DePriest spent months pointing at each other in the press, but both lost their jobs over the fiasco, deservedly so. DePriest basically never wrote for soaps again, but JFP, the Typhoid Mary of Soaps, just kept getting hired to wreck other shows until there were none left willing to hire her. I've read with some interest about this, mostly because this has been done so many times with irredeemable characters. Jake McKinnon raped his ex-wife Marley on AW, and yet five short years later they were positioning him as the Second Coming of Ward Cleaver, married to the twin sister of the woman he raped. He never served a day in prison. Even more shocking is the way OLTL sought to push "Frat Boy #3" who led the gang-rape of Marty Saybrook into leading man status as Todd Manning, even ret-conning him as the brother of town saint Viki Buchanan in an effort to give him some "palatability". The efforts to make him a [I]romantic hero[/I] caused Roger Howarth to quit the part for many years. The most infamous "reformed rapist" would be Luke Spencer on GH, and GH's Franco is another reformed serial killer/psycho now firmly ensconced with Liz Webber and her kids singing his praises to anyone who will listen. [/QUOTE]

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