Irna Phillips
Encyclopedia
Irna Phillips was an American
actress and most notably writer who created and scripted many of the first American
soap opera
s.
Phillips created (and co-created) radio and TV soap opera
s including:
Phillips also was a creative consultant on Peyton Place
(1964–1969), and was an unofficial consultant on A World Apart
, which was created by her adopted daughter Katherine. Irna Phillips was also a story editor on Days of our Lives
.
She was also the mentor to Agnes Nixon
, the creator of All My Children
and One Life to Live
, and William J. Bell
, the creator of The Young and the Restless
and The Bold and the Beautiful
.
Jewish family in Chicago
. She studied drama at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
(where she became a member of Phi Sigma Sigma
sorority), receiving a Master of Arts degree before going on to earn a master's degree in journalism at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
.
Phillips wanted to be an actress. From 1925 to 1930 she worked as a school teacher in Dayton, Ohio
, teaching drama and theatre history to schoolchildren. While working in this capacity she continued to attempt a career as an actress, and after performing several acting roles for radio productions at WGN in Chicago, she left her career as a teacher. At the age of 42, Phillips adopted a son, Thomas Dirk Phillips. A year later, she adopted a daughter, Katherine.
. Historians now believe the show to have been the first daytime serial specifically targeted for women. On this show Phillips wrote every episode, in addition to starring in the show as family matriarch "Mother Moynihan" and "Sue Morton". The Serial ran daily except Sundays until April 1932. Irna Phillips is credited with innovating a daytime serial format for radio geared toward women.
She started with her trial serial series Painted Dreams over Chicago’s WGN during daytime. WGN manager, Henry Selinger claimed to have come up with the original daytime serial to sell products for women. However, Phillips was hired to write as well as perform in this first series. Disputes of ownership over the innovative serial ended Phillip’s association with WGN and she was picked up by opponent station WMAQ. Painted Dreams was then changed to Today’s Children featuring the same plot and debate over starting a career or starting a family. Phillip’s had then learned to retain all rights and ownership to her newly titled show and the many that followed in her career.
Phillips endured much disapproval for her writing, especially from sponsors like Procter & Gamble. Critics and the radio business during the 1930s were mostly made up of men. Many had claimed Phillips serial series audiences were childlike, unrealistic, vulgar, and distasteful. This claim made from the male industry was a personal attack on the female characters Phillip’s produced. In reality, these female characters were depicted as strong women with options, education, and personality. Phillips characters were not something of the ordinary for the stereotypical 1930’s women.
No regular male roles were introduced until later in the series run.The conflict most basic to the programs dramatic structure was that between traditional and changing gender roles-Irene Moynihan, the daughter was characterized as the “aspiring modern girl, with ambitions toward a career,” against Mother Moynihan’s and Sue Morton’s more traditional views. Although this show began as an unsponsored program, Phillips believed that a radio series must be a "utility to its sponsors" and that it must "actually sell merchandise; otherwise the object of radio advertising has failed". With this in mind, she wrote in an engagement and a wedding which provided the possibility of product tie-ins.
which was found on WMAQ. Historians believe that Today's Children represents the first instance of a broadcast network soap opera, thereby crediting Phillips with inventing the genre.
By 1938, Painted Dreams emerged from the courts and was purchased by CBS
. The nature of the court settlement prohibited Phillips from any future involvement with the series.
In 1938, Phillips's mother died, and Phillips demanded that Today's Children be discontinued out of respect. NBC agreed and replaced it with her new series, Woman in White.
and Harding Lemay
have suggested that Phillips was hypochondriac.
It was on Woman in White that Phillips first became involved with a young Agnes Nixon
, then known by her maiden name, Agnes Eckhardt. Nixon remembered entering an interview with Phillips carrying a script she had written which Phillips proceeded to act out in front of her. When she was finished she offered Nixon a job. William J. Bell
also began his apprenticeship under Phillips during her radio days.
, and The Guiding Light, which began in 1937.
In 1938 Phillips supervised the creation of the tie-in book, The Guiding Light, published by The Guiding Light Co. of 360 North Michigan Avenue Chicago, Illinois. The book traced the backstory of the radio series, told from the point of view of the "keeper of the guiding light", Reverend John Ruthledge.
In a segment of The General Mills Hour, characters from various Phillips radio dramas interacted.
In 1949 Phillips created the first serial broadcast on a major television network, These Are My Children
. The show ran on NBC
for a month. Phillips brought The Guiding Light to TV in 1952, with The Brighter Day following in 1954. Brighter Day ended in 1962 and The Guiding Light (later shortened to Guiding Light) ended its run on September 18, 2009, making it the longest running program in broadcast history having a 72 year run on radio and television.
In 1956 Phillips created As the World Turns
, one of the first two daytime dramas to run a half-hour in length (the other being The Edge of Night
, which premiered on CBS the same day). Within two years As the World Turns had become the highest-rated drama, a position it would retain for over two decades. Within six months of the debut of As the World Turns, Phillips fired lead actress Helen Wagner
because Phillips said she did not like the way she poured coffee. Procter & Gamble and CBS both backed Wagner, and Phillips was forced to rehire her. Wagner remained with the show until her death in 2010, just months before the show's ending.
Phillips co-created Another World
in 1964, originally planned as a sister show to As the World Turns. Although Procter & Gamble owned both shows, CBS had no room for the program and it was brought to rival network NBC. Both shows did contain crossovers from background character Mitchell Dru, a lawyer character from The Brighter Day. Phillips fired veteran actor John Beal
from Another World
after only one episode, and actress Fran Sharon (who played Susan Matthews) after two weeks. Phillips & Bell gave Another World over to James Lipton
, who passed it onto Agnes Nixon
.
Actress Kay Campbell
stated, "I'll never forget once on As the World Turns
, Rosemary Prinz did a scene, and when we were only off the air five minutes, Irna was on the phone and tore her to pieces. I don't think Irna liked actors."
She co-created Days of our Lives
in 1965, was a story consultant on Peyton Place
, and then co-created Our Private World
, the first (and so far only) primetime series to be spun off from a daytime show. The series featured the As the World Turns character Lisa Miller
; the series ran during the spring, summer and early fall of 1965, before being canceled. In the mid-1960s Guiding Light executive producer Lucy Ferri Rittenberg refused to accept Phillips' collect phone calls, made from her home in Chicago to the show's New York
studio.
She left Love is a Many Splendored Thing when CBS censors refused to fully tell a love story involving an Amerasian
woman (born out of the love affair in the original film
) and a white man. CBS and Twentieth Century-Fox Television were co producers of the show. Phillips' resignation led to the show being moved from Fox's New York studios (and the end of Fox's role as co-producer and distributor) to CBS's Broadcasting Center, and the change of the music base from studio-orchestral to organ and piano based.
Phillips was the unofficial story editor for A World Apart
, an ABC soap opera that was created by her daughter, Katherine. One of the main characters was a soap opera writer who lived in Chicago and was in charge of a soap opera in New York.
Around this time As the World Turns (ATWT) asked her to come back and write for them. Phillips introduced a number of characters to the show and integrated them with the core Hughes family.
Phillips' new story, and the show's new heroine, Kimberly Sullivan (Kathryn Hays
), became involved with longtime hero, Bob Hughes (Don Hastings
). Bob was married to Kim's sister Jennifer, but Phillips, had Kim seduce Bob. She became pregnant. P&G fired Phillips in early 1973; it was to be her last writing gig.
Phillips was a fiercely independent entrepreneur who retained ownership rights to all her shows, producing through Carl Wester and Company and allowing agencies, sponsors, and networks little control over her soap opera empire
Lemay wrote her obituary and he and his wife paid to have the words placed in the New York Times. Agnes Nixon
learned of Irna's death when she called her mentor to wish her well on Christmas Day. According to Nixon, Phillips had not wanted anyone to know that she had passed on.
, the current cast portrayed actors and behind-the-scenes personnel from the early years of the series (both radio and TV). Beth Ehlers
played Phillips, and several incidents in her life were fictionalized in the show.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actress and most notably writer who created and scripted many of the first American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
s.
Phillips created (and co-created) radio and TV soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
s including:
- Painted DreamsPainted DreamsPainted Dreams is an American radio soap opera that was the first daytime radio soap opera program in the United States. It premiered October 20, 1930 and last aired in July, 1943....
(radio 1930–1932) - Guiding LightGuiding LightGuiding Light is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running drama in television and radio history, running from 1937 until 2009...
(radio 1937–1956, television 1952–2009) - The Road of Life (radio 1937–1959, television 1954)
- Young Dr. MaloneYoung Doctor MaloneYoung Doctor Malone is an American soap opera, created by Irna Phillips, which had a long run on radio and television from 1939 to 1963...
(radio 1939–1960, television 1958–1963) - The Brighter DayThe Brighter DayThe Brighter Day is an American daytime soap opera which aired on CBS from January 4, 1954 to September 28, 1962. Originally created for NBC radio by Irna Phillips in 1948, the radio and television versions ran simultaneously from 1954-1956...
(radio 1948–1956, television 1954–1962) - These Are My ChildrenThese Are My ChildrenThese Are My Children is a short-lived American television soap opera which ran on NBC from January 21, 1949 to February 25, 1949. The show was broadcast live from Chicago, Illinois, airing fifteen minutes a day, five days a week, at 5:00 p.m. EST....
(1949) - As the World TurnsAs the World TurnsAs the World Turns is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS from April 2, 1956 to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips created As the World Turns as a sister show to her other soap opera Guiding Light...
(1956–2010) a sister show to Guiding Light (character crossovers) - Another WorldAnother World (TV series)Another World is an American television soap opera that ran on NBC from May 4, 1964 to June 25, 1999. It ran for a total of 35 years. It was created by Irna Phillips along with William J...
(1964–1999) a sister show to Guiding Light (character crossovers) - Our Private WorldOur Private WorldOur Private World is an American serial. It was the first prime-time spin-off from a daytime soap . Created by Irna Phillips and William J. Bell, it premiered on May 5, 1965 and aired Wednesdays and Fridays over the summer; the multiple-episode-per-week format was inspired by ABC's hit show Peyton...
(1965) a spinoff of As The World Turns - Love Is a Many Splendored Thing (1967–1973)
Phillips also was a creative consultant on Peyton Place
Peyton Place (TV series)
Peyton Place is an American prime-time soap opera which aired on ABC in half-hour episodes from September 15, 1964 to June 2, 1969.Based upon the 1956 novel of the same name by Grace Metalious, the series was preceded by a 1957 film adaptation. A total of 514 episodes were broadcast, in...
(1964–1969), and was an unofficial consultant on A World Apart
A World Apart (TV series)
A World Apart is an American daytime drama which ran from March 30, 1970 to June 25, 1971 on the ABC television network.-Overview:The initial stories were written by Katherine Phillips, adopted daughter of soap legend Irna Phillips...
, which was created by her adopted daughter Katherine. Irna Phillips was also a story editor on Days of our Lives
Days of our Lives
Days of our Lives is a long running daytime soap opera broadcast on the NBC television network. It is one of the longest-running scripted television programs in the world, airing nearly every weekday in the United States since November 8, 1965. It has since been syndicated to many countries around...
.
She was also the mentor to Agnes Nixon
Agnes Nixon
Agnes Nixon is an American writer and producer. She attended Northwestern University where she was a member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority, and is best known as the creator of soap operas such as One Life to Live and All My Children...
, the creator of All My Children
All My Children
All My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia. The show features Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime's most...
and One Life to Live
One Life to Live
One Life to Live is an American soap opera which debuted on July 15, 1968 and has been broadcast on the ABC television network. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature racially and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social...
, and William J. Bell
William J. Bell
William J. Bell was the creator and executive producer of the soap operas The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful.-Personal life:...
, the creator of The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
and The Bold and the Beautiful
The Bold and the Beautiful
The Bold and the Beautiful is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS Daytime. It premiered on March 23, 1987....
.
Personal life
Phillips was one of ten children born to a GermanGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
Jewish family in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. She studied drama at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
(where she became a member of Phi Sigma Sigma
Phi Sigma Sigma
Phi Sigma Sigma , colloquially known as "Phi Sig," was the first collegiate nonsectarian fraternity, welcoming women of all faiths and backgrounds...
sorority), receiving a Master of Arts degree before going on to earn a master's degree in journalism at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
.
Phillips wanted to be an actress. From 1925 to 1930 she worked as a school teacher in Dayton, Ohio
Dayton, Ohio
Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...
, teaching drama and theatre history to schoolchildren. While working in this capacity she continued to attempt a career as an actress, and after performing several acting roles for radio productions at WGN in Chicago, she left her career as a teacher. At the age of 42, Phillips adopted a son, Thomas Dirk Phillips. A year later, she adopted a daughter, Katherine.
Early radio career
After working as a staff writer on a daytime talk show, Phillips created the serial Painted DreamsPainted Dreams
Painted Dreams is an American radio soap opera that was the first daytime radio soap opera program in the United States. It premiered October 20, 1930 and last aired in July, 1943....
. Historians now believe the show to have been the first daytime serial specifically targeted for women. On this show Phillips wrote every episode, in addition to starring in the show as family matriarch "Mother Moynihan" and "Sue Morton". The Serial ran daily except Sundays until April 1932. Irna Phillips is credited with innovating a daytime serial format for radio geared toward women.
She started with her trial serial series Painted Dreams over Chicago’s WGN during daytime. WGN manager, Henry Selinger claimed to have come up with the original daytime serial to sell products for women. However, Phillips was hired to write as well as perform in this first series. Disputes of ownership over the innovative serial ended Phillip’s association with WGN and she was picked up by opponent station WMAQ. Painted Dreams was then changed to Today’s Children featuring the same plot and debate over starting a career or starting a family. Phillip’s had then learned to retain all rights and ownership to her newly titled show and the many that followed in her career.
Phillips endured much disapproval for her writing, especially from sponsors like Procter & Gamble. Critics and the radio business during the 1930s were mostly made up of men. Many had claimed Phillips serial series audiences were childlike, unrealistic, vulgar, and distasteful. This claim made from the male industry was a personal attack on the female characters Phillip’s produced. In reality, these female characters were depicted as strong women with options, education, and personality. Phillips characters were not something of the ordinary for the stereotypical 1930’s women.
No regular male roles were introduced until later in the series run.The conflict most basic to the programs dramatic structure was that between traditional and changing gender roles-Irene Moynihan, the daughter was characterized as the “aspiring modern girl, with ambitions toward a career,” against Mother Moynihan’s and Sue Morton’s more traditional views. Although this show began as an unsponsored program, Phillips believed that a radio series must be a "utility to its sponsors" and that it must "actually sell merchandise; otherwise the object of radio advertising has failed". With this in mind, she wrote in an engagement and a wedding which provided the possibility of product tie-ins.
Dispute over Painted Dreams
By 1932 Phillips urged the local Chicago station WGN to sell Painted Dreams to a national network. When they refused, Phillips took them to court, claiming the show as her own property. In the meantime, Phillips changed the showToday's ChildrenToday's Children
Today's Children was a name shared by two thematically related American radio soap operas created and written by Irna Phillips, the earliest of which was her first nationally networked series.-1933-1938 series:...
which was found on WMAQ. Historians believe that Today's Children represents the first instance of a broadcast network soap opera, thereby crediting Phillips with inventing the genre.
By 1938, Painted Dreams emerged from the courts and was purchased by CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
. The nature of the court settlement prohibited Phillips from any future involvement with the series.
In 1938, Phillips's mother died, and Phillips demanded that Today's Children be discontinued out of respect. NBC agreed and replaced it with her new series, Woman in White.
Woman in White
Woman in White was another early creation, and one of the first serials to focus on the internal workings of a hospital. Agnes NixonAgnes Nixon
Agnes Nixon is an American writer and producer. She attended Northwestern University where she was a member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority, and is best known as the creator of soap operas such as One Life to Live and All My Children...
and Harding Lemay
Harding Lemay
Harding Lemay is an American screenwriter and playwright. Born near the Mohawk Indian reservation, where his mother grew up, he ran away to New York City at age 17, where he has lived ever since.-Career:...
have suggested that Phillips was hypochondriac.
It was on Woman in White that Phillips first became involved with a young Agnes Nixon
Agnes Nixon
Agnes Nixon is an American writer and producer. She attended Northwestern University where she was a member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority, and is best known as the creator of soap operas such as One Life to Live and All My Children...
, then known by her maiden name, Agnes Eckhardt. Nixon remembered entering an interview with Phillips carrying a script she had written which Phillips proceeded to act out in front of her. When she was finished she offered Nixon a job. William J. Bell
William J. Bell
William J. Bell was the creator and executive producer of the soap operas The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful.-Personal life:...
also began his apprenticeship under Phillips during her radio days.
Radio and television series
In the 1940s, Phillips wrote two million words a year, dictated six to eight hours a day, and earned $250,000 a year. Other shows included The Road to Happiness (1939–1960), The Brighter DayThe Brighter Day
The Brighter Day is an American daytime soap opera which aired on CBS from January 4, 1954 to September 28, 1962. Originally created for NBC radio by Irna Phillips in 1948, the radio and television versions ran simultaneously from 1954-1956...
, and The Guiding Light, which began in 1937.
In 1938 Phillips supervised the creation of the tie-in book, The Guiding Light, published by The Guiding Light Co. of 360 North Michigan Avenue Chicago, Illinois. The book traced the backstory of the radio series, told from the point of view of the "keeper of the guiding light", Reverend John Ruthledge.
In a segment of The General Mills Hour, characters from various Phillips radio dramas interacted.
In 1949 Phillips created the first serial broadcast on a major television network, These Are My Children
These Are My Children
These Are My Children is a short-lived American television soap opera which ran on NBC from January 21, 1949 to February 25, 1949. The show was broadcast live from Chicago, Illinois, airing fifteen minutes a day, five days a week, at 5:00 p.m. EST....
. The show ran on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
for a month. Phillips brought The Guiding Light to TV in 1952, with The Brighter Day following in 1954. Brighter Day ended in 1962 and The Guiding Light (later shortened to Guiding Light) ended its run on September 18, 2009, making it the longest running program in broadcast history having a 72 year run on radio and television.
In 1956 Phillips created As the World Turns
As the World Turns
As the World Turns is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS from April 2, 1956 to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips created As the World Turns as a sister show to her other soap opera Guiding Light...
, one of the first two daytime dramas to run a half-hour in length (the other being The Edge of Night
The Edge of Night
The Edge of Night is an American television mystery series/soap opera produced by Procter & Gamble. It debuted on CBS on April 2, 1956, and ran as a live broadcast on that network until November 28, 1975; the series then moved to ABC, where it aired from December 1, 1975, until December 28, 1984...
, which premiered on CBS the same day). Within two years As the World Turns had become the highest-rated drama, a position it would retain for over two decades. Within six months of the debut of As the World Turns, Phillips fired lead actress Helen Wagner
Helen Wagner
Helen Wagner was an American actress. Born in Lubbock, Texas, she is best known for her long running role as Nancy Hughes McClosky on the soap opera As the World Turns. Wagner also played the role of Trudy Bauer during the initial TV years of Guiding Light in the early 1950s...
because Phillips said she did not like the way she poured coffee. Procter & Gamble and CBS both backed Wagner, and Phillips was forced to rehire her. Wagner remained with the show until her death in 2010, just months before the show's ending.
Phillips co-created Another World
Another World (TV series)
Another World is an American television soap opera that ran on NBC from May 4, 1964 to June 25, 1999. It ran for a total of 35 years. It was created by Irna Phillips along with William J...
in 1964, originally planned as a sister show to As the World Turns. Although Procter & Gamble owned both shows, CBS had no room for the program and it was brought to rival network NBC. Both shows did contain crossovers from background character Mitchell Dru, a lawyer character from The Brighter Day. Phillips fired veteran actor John Beal
John Beal (actor)
-Life and career:Beal was born James Alexander Bliedung in Joplin, Missouri. He originally went to New York to study art but a chance to understudy in a play made him change his mind. He began acting in the 1930s, opposite Katharine Hepburn , among others; one of his notable screen appearances was...
from Another World
Another World (TV series)
Another World is an American television soap opera that ran on NBC from May 4, 1964 to June 25, 1999. It ran for a total of 35 years. It was created by Irna Phillips along with William J...
after only one episode, and actress Fran Sharon (who played Susan Matthews) after two weeks. Phillips & Bell gave Another World over to James Lipton
James Lipton
James Lipton is an American writer, poet, composer, actor and dean emeritus of the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University in New York City. He is the executive producer, writer and host of the Bravo cable television series Inside the Actors Studio, which debuted in 1994...
, who passed it onto Agnes Nixon
Agnes Nixon
Agnes Nixon is an American writer and producer. She attended Northwestern University where she was a member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority, and is best known as the creator of soap operas such as One Life to Live and All My Children...
.
Actress Kay Campbell
Kay Campbell
Catherine "Kay" Campbell was an American actress.Campbell began her career as a model in Chicago. She first rose to fame playing the role of Evey Perkins on the radio serial Ma Perkins from 1945 to 1960. Her first regular televised serial role was as Helene Benedict on The Guiding Light from 1957...
stated, "I'll never forget once on As the World Turns
As the World Turns
As the World Turns is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS from April 2, 1956 to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips created As the World Turns as a sister show to her other soap opera Guiding Light...
, Rosemary Prinz did a scene, and when we were only off the air five minutes, Irna was on the phone and tore her to pieces. I don't think Irna liked actors."
She co-created Days of our Lives
Days of our Lives
Days of our Lives is a long running daytime soap opera broadcast on the NBC television network. It is one of the longest-running scripted television programs in the world, airing nearly every weekday in the United States since November 8, 1965. It has since been syndicated to many countries around...
in 1965, was a story consultant on Peyton Place
Peyton Place (TV series)
Peyton Place is an American prime-time soap opera which aired on ABC in half-hour episodes from September 15, 1964 to June 2, 1969.Based upon the 1956 novel of the same name by Grace Metalious, the series was preceded by a 1957 film adaptation. A total of 514 episodes were broadcast, in...
, and then co-created Our Private World
Our Private World
Our Private World is an American serial. It was the first prime-time spin-off from a daytime soap . Created by Irna Phillips and William J. Bell, it premiered on May 5, 1965 and aired Wednesdays and Fridays over the summer; the multiple-episode-per-week format was inspired by ABC's hit show Peyton...
, the first (and so far only) primetime series to be spun off from a daytime show. The series featured the As the World Turns character Lisa Miller
Lisa Miller
Lisa Miller is an Australian singer/songwriter known for her clear, bitter-sweet voice and poignant semi-biographical songs.-Biography:Miller grew up in the Melbourne suburb of Chadstone, the daughter of social realist painter Peter Miller...
; the series ran during the spring, summer and early fall of 1965, before being canceled. In the mid-1960s Guiding Light executive producer Lucy Ferri Rittenberg refused to accept Phillips' collect phone calls, made from her home in Chicago to the show's New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
studio.
She left Love is a Many Splendored Thing when CBS censors refused to fully tell a love story involving an Amerasian
Amerasian
In its original meaning, an Amerasian is a person born in Asia, to a U.S. military father and an Asian mother. The term has sometimes been used to describe a person in the United States of mixed Asian and non-Asian ancestry, regardless of the circumstances....
woman (born out of the love affair in the original film
Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (film)
Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing is a 1955 American drama-romance film. Set in 1949-50 Hong Kong, it tells the story of a married, but separated, American reporter , who falls in love with a Eurasian doctor originally from China , only to encounter prejudice from her family and from Hong Kong...
) and a white man. CBS and Twentieth Century-Fox Television were co producers of the show. Phillips' resignation led to the show being moved from Fox's New York studios (and the end of Fox's role as co-producer and distributor) to CBS's Broadcasting Center, and the change of the music base from studio-orchestral to organ and piano based.
Phillips was the unofficial story editor for A World Apart
A World Apart (TV series)
A World Apart is an American daytime drama which ran from March 30, 1970 to June 25, 1971 on the ABC television network.-Overview:The initial stories were written by Katherine Phillips, adopted daughter of soap legend Irna Phillips...
, an ABC soap opera that was created by her daughter, Katherine. One of the main characters was a soap opera writer who lived in Chicago and was in charge of a soap opera in New York.
Around this time As the World Turns (ATWT) asked her to come back and write for them. Phillips introduced a number of characters to the show and integrated them with the core Hughes family.
Phillips' new story, and the show's new heroine, Kimberly Sullivan (Kathryn Hays
Kathryn Hays
Kathryn Hays is an American actress. She was born in Princeton, Illinois and grew up in Joliet, Illinois.In the 1966-1967 television season, Hays appeared as Elizabeth Reynolds Pride in the NBC western series The Road West, with co-stars Barry Sullivan, Andrew Prine, Kelly Corcoran, and Glenn...
), became involved with longtime hero, Bob Hughes (Don Hastings
Don Hastings
Donald Francis Hastings is a longtime American actor, singer, and writer best known for his 50-year role as Dr. Robert "Bob" Hughes" on the soap opera As the World Turns...
). Bob was married to Kim's sister Jennifer, but Phillips, had Kim seduce Bob. She became pregnant. P&G fired Phillips in early 1973; it was to be her last writing gig.
Phillips was a fiercely independent entrepreneur who retained ownership rights to all her shows, producing through Carl Wester and Company and allowing agencies, sponsors, and networks little control over her soap opera empire
Death
Irna Phillips died in 1973, aged 72, from undisclosed causes.Lemay wrote her obituary and he and his wife paid to have the words placed in the New York Times. Agnes Nixon
Agnes Nixon
Agnes Nixon is an American writer and producer. She attended Northwestern University where she was a member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority, and is best known as the creator of soap operas such as One Life to Live and All My Children...
learned of Irna's death when she called her mentor to wish her well on Christmas Day. According to Nixon, Phillips had not wanted anyone to know that she had passed on.
Tributes
On January 25, 2007, in an episode celebrating the 70th Anniversary of Guiding LightGuiding Light
Guiding Light is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running drama in television and radio history, running from 1937 until 2009...
, the current cast portrayed actors and behind-the-scenes personnel from the early years of the series (both radio and TV). Beth Ehlers
Beth Ehlers
-Personal life:Born in Queens, New York, Ehlers eventually moved closer to Manhattan and attended Satellite Academy, a performing arts school, as a child. Ehlers briefly attended Syracuse University before focusing on her acting career....
played Phillips, and several incidents in her life were fictionalized in the show.
Radio
- Painted DreamsPainted DreamsPainted Dreams is an American radio soap opera that was the first daytime radio soap opera program in the United States. It premiered October 20, 1930 and last aired in July, 1943....
- Today's ChildrenToday's ChildrenToday's Children was a name shared by two thematically related American radio soap operas created and written by Irna Phillips, the earliest of which was her first nationally networked series.-1933-1938 series:...
(1932–1938, 1943–1950) - Judy and JaneJudy and JaneJudy and Jane was a radio soap opera originally heard on CBS from February 8 to June 17, 1932 and on NBC from October 10, 1932 to April 26, 1935. Sponsored by Folgers Coffee, it was heard regionally in the midwest only....
(1932–1943) - Woman in White (1938–1942)
- Joyce Jordan, Girl Intern (aka Joyce Jordan, M.D.)
- The Road of LifeThe Road of LifeThe Road of Life is a 1956 Mexican drama film directed by Alfonso Corona Blake. At the 6th Berlin International Film Festival it won the Honourable Mention award....
(1937–1959) - The Guiding Light (1937–1956)
- Lonely Woman (1942–1943)
- Masquerade (1948–1952)
- The Brighter DayThe Brighter DayThe Brighter Day is an American daytime soap opera which aired on CBS from January 4, 1954 to September 28, 1962. Originally created for NBC radio by Irna Phillips in 1948, the radio and television versions ran simultaneously from 1954-1956...
(1948–1952)
Television
- These Are My ChildrenThese Are My ChildrenThese Are My Children is a short-lived American television soap opera which ran on NBC from January 21, 1949 to February 25, 1949. The show was broadcast live from Chicago, Illinois, airing fifteen minutes a day, five days a week, at 5:00 p.m. EST....
(1949) - Guiding LightGuiding LightGuiding Light is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running drama in television and radio history, running from 1937 until 2009...
(1952–2009) - The Road of LifeThe Road of LifeThe Road of Life is a 1956 Mexican drama film directed by Alfonso Corona Blake. At the 6th Berlin International Film Festival it won the Honourable Mention award....
(1954) - The Brighter DayThe Brighter DayThe Brighter Day is an American daytime soap opera which aired on CBS from January 4, 1954 to September 28, 1962. Originally created for NBC radio by Irna Phillips in 1948, the radio and television versions ran simultaneously from 1954-1956...
(1954–1962) - As the World TurnsAs the World TurnsAs the World Turns is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS from April 2, 1956 to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips created As the World Turns as a sister show to her other soap opera Guiding Light...
(1956–2010) - Another WorldAnother World (TV series)Another World is an American television soap opera that ran on NBC from May 4, 1964 to June 25, 1999. It ran for a total of 35 years. It was created by Irna Phillips along with William J...
(1964–1999) - Our Private WorldOur Private WorldOur Private World is an American serial. It was the first prime-time spin-off from a daytime soap . Created by Irna Phillips and William J. Bell, it premiered on May 5, 1965 and aired Wednesdays and Fridays over the summer; the multiple-episode-per-week format was inspired by ABC's hit show Peyton...
(1965) - Days of our LivesDays of our LivesDays of our Lives is a long running daytime soap opera broadcast on the NBC television network. It is one of the longest-running scripted television programs in the world, airing nearly every weekday in the United States since November 8, 1965. It has since been syndicated to many countries around...
(1965–) - Love Is a Many Splendored Thing (1967–1973)
- A World ApartA World Apart (TV series)A World Apart is an American daytime drama which ran from March 30, 1970 to June 25, 1971 on the ABC television network.-Overview:The initial stories were written by Katherine Phillips, adopted daughter of soap legend Irna Phillips...
(1970–1971)