Interview: Genie Francis Discusses Future of Soaps

It’s a subject that’s on every daytime-soap fan’s mind but is afraid to bring up. It seems lately all you hear about are favorite stars being let go from soaps — Jack Wagner, Patrick Muldoon, Eileen Davidson, etc. — either in a cost-cutting move or story-line-related move, all in a fervent attempt to keep said soap from facing the chopping block come renewal time. I spoke with soap-opera veteran Genie Francis recently about this subject, and she gave me an enlightening look into what she thinks could save soaps and what the future for soaps might bring.

Daytime Dial: In recent years, we’ve lost “As the World Turns,” “Guiding Light,” “All My Children” and “One Life to Live.” Do you think it’s possible to save the remaining shows from the chopping block?

Genie Francis: It’s hard to say whether we’ll be able to save those shows and for how long. Our audience has really dissipated, and I think that’s because people are moving much faster than they ever have before. Nobody sits down in the afternoon and watches television unless they’re retired or home ill. People just don’t have the time. It’s a shame to see it dwindle as much as it has. I think what it may come down to is each network maintaining one show.

DD: It’s almost come to that already, with ABC having only “General Hospital” and NBC with “Days of Our Lives.”

GF: Right. I was glad to hear about “GH” getting another year. I hope this will give the new creative team the time that they need to fix that show. It’s a really hard thing they are doing, and it’s not something that you can snap your fingers and make happen. My hope is that those people who are really good people — really smart producers and writers — will get the time that they need.

DD: Not to jinx anyone, but the only one I don’t worry about is “The Young and the Restless.”

GF: Yes, they’ve come up a little in the ratings a bit this past month. They’ve been No. 1 for more than 20 years — I think it’s 23 years — and there’s a reason for that: They have found their audience, they’ve been really loyal to that audience, and I think they also keep their stories moving very quickly. When you turn on the show, you will see something happen.


There’s awareness now in television writers’ mind-sets that people have a short attention span nowadays. We’re impatient. The writers have really changed the way they write to keep a story moving quickly. I watched it the other night — I had it taped — and I watched the whole episode, and then I turned on a nighttime cable show, and “Y and R” was every bit as compelling, watchable, moved as quickly, acted as well, written as well. I just have to say that I think that the people in charge over at “Y and R” are doing a really good job, and that’s what it’s going to take. People are going to have to work harder to try to maintain the audience they’ve got.

Interview: Genie Francis Gets a Mother's Day Surprise!

Just in time for Mother’s Day, Genie Francis and Ted McGinley are back as newlyweds Peyton MacGruder and King Danville in “Notes from the Heart Healer,” premiering Saturday, May 12 at 8/7c, on the Hallmark Channel (and re-airing throughout Mother’s Day weekend). The couple is celebrating their first anniversary when they are surprised by an abandoned baby on their doorstep.

(As an added Mother's Day tribute, Hallmark Channel’s Facebook page — facebook.com/HallmarkChannel — is inviting viewers to share heartfelt messages, notes and photos of moms who have healed a heart! Post your #HeartHealer tribute today and tell us Hallmark and why your mom was magical and how she healed your heart! #HallmarkChannelCountdown #HeartHealer)

I spoke with the “General Hospital” alum recently, and she told me all about making this third film in the “Notes” series and how much fun it was to step into Peyton’s shoes again.

Daytime Dial: Back in 2007, when you made “The Note” for the Hallmark Channel, did you have any idea what a hit it would be — ranking as one of the network’s highest-rated film series of all time — and that it would spawn two sequels?

Genie Francis: I had no idea. I knew it was a wonderful movie. I loved the script when I first read it. I was so thrilled to get that job. And then we were all shocked that it did as well as it did. It was like this huge, unexpected wonderful success, and then, of course, they continued it on into a franchise.

DD: What was the filming experience like this time? Was it easy to get back into the swing of it?

GF: We worked very fast. We shot the whole thing in 14 days. I was amazed that we were able to shoot the entire movie with one baby (instead of twins, as many productions use), which I didn’t think could be done. I’m always impressed how well cast these movies are. The level of talent, the talent pool they have in Canada (where the series is filmed) is just amazing, and it’s beautifully cast every single time. It’s a perfect Mother’s Day movie.

DD: One of the things I like about these movies is while each is a continuation of the previous one, they also can stand on their own as individual movies.

GF: I think that’s true of all three of them. You don’t have to have seen the others to enjoy any of them. They do stand alone yet somehow go in perfect line with the others. It’s a difficult thing to do. I don’t know how they pulled it off, but they did.

DD: How do you feel about the premise of Peyton and King celebrating their one-year anniversary, and then this baby is dropped into their laps and we see how they deal with it?

GF: I thought that was terrific because they are later on in life, and even though it’s a new marriage, she has things that she hasn’t done. She has unfinished parts of her life. They’re an older couple, so for her to say to him, “You know, I’ve got to do this,” it’s got to take him aback. What’s cool about it is that through this experience, Peyton learns that not only does she want to be a mother, but she starts to believe that she can be. She starts to forgive herself for who she was in her youth and realizes maybe she’s not so bad. His willingness to do it speaks of how much he loves her and how strong that marriage really is.

DD: I know forgiveness is a big theme of this movie; what are some other things you hope the viewer takes away from it?

GF: Well, what I love most about Peyton is that she gets involved and she brings everything up as sort of a philosophical or spiritual question like: “Why did I get this baby on my doorstep? I’ve got this baby, but I can’t stop thinking about the mother. Maybe if I can get to this mother, I can prevent her from ending up like me.” She always finds a way to make lemonade out of her lemons in life, from the bitterness in her life, and that’s a great quality. And she’s confused. She asks the big questions, like, “What’s best for this baby?” It’s a struggle for Peyton, but there’s been a healing for her in that she knows that she’s got it in her to be a good mother.

Tune-In Alert: Soap Legends Invade The Oprah Winfrey Show

TUNE IN:

Wednesday, February 9  From the wedding of supercouple Luke and Laura — and Erica Kane and her numerous husbands — to the iconic Mrs. Chancellor, the "Oprah" show brings together some of daytime's biggest stars for a celebration of the legendary soap stars audiences love. Daytime icons Susan Lucci, Anthony Geary and Genie Francis, Darnell Williams and Debbi Morgan, Michael E. Knight and Jeanne Cooper join Oprah for the hour. Plus, for the first time, Susan Lucci is reunited with all eight of her “All My Children” husbands!

Interview Outtakes

Most of the time when I am conducting an interview with a soap star, I have more interview material than space for printing the interview. I will be making it a semi-regular feature to include little blurbs from stars that did not make it to the print version of the interview, but were too good not to publish somewhere. Read below for the first installment:

Genie Francis on returning to General Hospital
"So far, I have no plans to return there, and they've made no invitations to me. They ended it in such a weird way, and they left it very open that Laura could come back or not, which is pretty much how they always do it."

Rebecca Herbst on ice skating and family life
Daytime Dial: I read that you used to be a competitive ice skater.
Rebecca Herbst: Yes, I competed for 14 years.
DD: Do you ever get the chance to get out on the ice nowadays?
RH: No, never. I have been on the ice once since my 7-year-old son was born, and that’s it. The kids have asked to go ice skating, but I don’t have a rink anywhere near me, so it’s not easy to jump in a car and take them.
DD: What is it like to be a full-time mom as well as working in soaps? It’s got to be hard to juggle.
RH: It would be if I did not have such a wonderful husband. He picks up all the loose ends. He stays home with the kids, gets them ready for school and takes them to school. He does what I can’t when I’m not there. So, it’s actually not that bad.

Brandon Barash on allergies and the wisdom of Grandpa
"Sorry I keep coughing, my allergies are terrible today. Nothing like this lovely L.A. smog that gets you up and coughing in the morning, you know? My grandfather's favorite saying used to be: 'It's not the cough that carries you off, it's the coffin they carry you off in.' That was his way of saying, 'It's just a cough, it's no big deal. Get over it!' As a little boy when I heard that for the first time, I thought it was just about the funniest thing ever."

Interview: Genie Francis Takes a Chance on Love

In December 2007, the Hallmark Channel debuted an original movie called The Note, which starred Genie Francis and Ted McGinley, and ended up being the channel’s highest-rated movie of the year. Well, Genie and Ted are back in The Note II: Taking a Chance on Love.

Having been reunited with Christine, the daughter she gave up for adoption 18 years earlier, Peyton MacGruder (Genie) is still learning the ropes of parenting. She’s also busy writing her Heart Healer column, as well as managing a relationship with co-worker and boyfriend King Danville (Ted). But when King asks Peyton to marry him, she’s too afraid to take a chance at a life she deserves.

When Genie was first approached about making the sequel, she reveals: “I was happy, because that meant we had a success on our hands, but I was worried if it would be able to live up to the first movie. The first one was really good. My initial feeling was, ‘Oh, that’s really great,’ and then it turned into, ‘But gee, can we do that again?’”

When Genie read the script and stepped back into Peyton’s shoes, any doubt and nervousness vanished. “It was easy to step back into the role,” she explains. “There was a comfort level that kicked in, because we were working with all the same people. When you start a new situation, there’s all that getting-to-know-you nervousness that we didn’t have to go through the second time around. It was easier.”

She was also eager to work with Ted again. “Ted is a good guy and a wonderful actor, and that’s always a pleasure.”

There’s another reason it was easy to jump back into the role, as Genie explains: “It’s only nine months later from the first movie to the second one, and their relationship (Peyton and King’s) has evolved. She is in love. And she has created a nice friendship with her daughter (Christine); they’ve gotten pretty close. She’s in a good place in the beginning of the movie, a happy place.”

However, motherhood has not come easy for Peyton. “She really has nothing in her own life to emulate in trying to figure out how to be a mom to Christine. Her own mother died when she was very young, and her child’s adoptive mother also died when she was young.

“Motherhood is not instant potatoes, and she is quite a bit behind in knowing how to be a mother. The relationship really ends up being much more like friends. When she tries to be motherly, she ends up screwing it up — she overdoes it.”

For Genie, the message of the movie is not so much about when to take a chance on love, but rather, the walls we put up to protect ourselves from being hurt by love. “We all have certain defense mechanisms in us; they were there because they kept us safe. There was a time when we really needed them.

“The problem is, we hang onto them too long and then they start to do us in. So it’s really about, what are your walls like, when did you erect them, and do they still serve you?”

If Genie is approached in another year to do The Note III, she says that she would definitely do it — in part because of the excellent storytelling and in part because of the involvement of the Hallmark Channel.

“The Hallmark brand is very reliable. Their movies are always entertaining, and you can sit down with the whole family to watch. Where else can you get that anymore?”

The Note II premieres on Jan. 31 (9 ET/8 CT) on the Hallmark Channel and re-airs on Feb. 6 and 15. Check your local listings for details.

Genie Francis comes back to Port Charles

Beginning Aug. 26, Laura Spencer will be back on General Hospital for a short stint.

"This is a short visit," Francis told The Associated Press today. "It's a mother-daughter story. Years ago when I started playing the character as a 14-year-old girl, it was a mother-daughter story, only I was the daughter. So it's kinda cool this is full circle. It's nice to come back for visits. General Hospital is my home."

Genie said she was told that Laura wouldn't be killed off during her latest guest stint.

"I would stay on, but General Hospital honestly doesn't seem to want that relationship with this character at the moment," said Francis. "They want little short doses during sweeps periods. It's not entirely up to me. I'm thrilled and delighted my audience stands behind me. If they didn't, you can be sure I wouldn't get to come back for these visits."

When I spoke with Genie late last year, she said she was grateful to always know she had a home on GH, but also glad that she got to spread her wings and try new things and new characters.

Welcome back, Genie, and here's to knowing that you CAN go home again.