Frankie Frame

April 14, 1989 - August 22, 1996

NEVER FORGOTTEN

Who Killed Frankie Frame?
In the most disgusting betrayal that in my opinion has ever been perpetrated against its viewers, Another World fired Alice Barrett because it needed to get rid of a "mid-level" actor to be able to afford a host of new actors (foremost among them, the high-priced, and dear-bought, Robert Kelker-Kelly).

Word is that both then-Executive Producer Jill Farren Phelps and NBC Daytime Executive Susan Lee fingered Frankie as the next victim in the show's stalker storyline. Head writer Maggie DePriest ran with the idea and crafted an excessively violent murder for Frankie. When viewers got wind of the plans, the shit hit the fan. Phelps asked DePriest if she could rewrite Frankie's exit so as to leave open the possibility of her return. But DePriest refused, determined to revert Cass back to his former roguish ways. Thus, the scene was filmed as originally envisioned, and Another World viewers watched in shock and disbelief as their beloved Frankie was beaten and strangled to death before their eyes...

The show, the network, and the chief sponsor continue to pass the buck regarding whose decision it was to fire Barrett. Yet, this is not the important issue. What matters is that their basis for the decision constitutes the single biggest mistake that the show has been making for almost 20 years. New producers, new writers persist in making decisions based on what *they* want to see happen, and that's wrong. What matters is what the viewers want. We should not be subjected to the whims of storytellers who treat the show as their personal plaything, instead of the sacred trust it is.

Fancy concepts. But Frankie is still dead, her ashes scattered on Hammond Hill. And not only did her killer die unpunished, he died happy, a maniacal grin on his face, while those who pulled his strings sit in their ivory tower unscathed by the grief of those of us who loved her.

There is no positive spin to put on this, and no purpose. I can only beg you never to forget her, or how and why she was taken from us.