Mal Young, the new executive producer of CBS’s “The Young and the Restless,” is cleaning house. He’s fixing the mistakes made by Jill Farren Phelps, the worse EP in soap history (she presided over the deaths of several soaps and almost “General Hospital.”)
Now actor Steve Burton, who came with Phelps from “GH,” is leaving the show after four years. He Tweeted that he’s leaving at the end of December. His huge salary and perks will go with him. The end of the Phelps era is here.
Young has really spruced up the show in a short time. He’s ousted the horrid head writer, replaced him with a show vet, and brought back a lot of the actors/characters the fans wanted to see for some time. “Y&R” is still a soap opera, don’t be fooled. But slowly it’s starting to sound and feel like it might be directed to adults with a college education.
As for Burton, he’s the actor who brought James Franco disastrously — through Phelps– onto “General Hospital.” They shared a manager, Miles Levy. I’m told Burton lives in Nashville and Phelps had given him a nice deal where he could fly back and forth to LA. The new bosses didn’t go for that, apparently. How will they write out his character? On a soap, mass amnesia is not an unknown malady.
