Felicia Minei Behr, an Emmy-winning producer of ABC’s All My Children and Ryan’s Hope and a major force in that network’s powerhouse position in the soap opera universe of the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, died Sunday, March 2, following a five-year battle with brain cancer. She was 82.
Her death was announced by daughters Kristina Behr Miller and Francesca Behr, who wrote on Facebook that their mother was surrounded by loved ones at the time of her death.
Born September 21, 1942, on Long Island, New York, Behr, who would become Senior Vice President of ABC Daytime Programming from 2000 to 2004, began her TV career in 1960 as a secretary at CBS. In the following years she would move up the industry ladder with positions on The Jackie Gleason Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Garry Moore Show and ABC’s One Life to Live.
When Agnes Nixon created ABC’s groundbreaking All My Children in 1970, Behr was named associate producer. Behr remained with the Susan Lucci-starring soap until 1975.
She would return to All My Children in 1989 as executive producer, having already become the first female executive producer of a daytime series in 1988 with Ryan’s Hope. She had joined that series, which featured a working class Irish-American family in New York City, in 1981 as a producer, and would remain with the show until its cancelation in 1989.
After her return to All My Children in 1989, the immensely popular series won two Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Drama Series (1992 and 1994), with nine nominations in all.
“Her storytelling expertise and deep connection with audiences helped create some of the most memorable moments in soap opera history,” her family wrote in announcing her death.
In 1996, Behr was named the executive producer of CBS’ As the World Turns, remaining with the show until 1999. The following year she was recruited back to ABC, where as Senior Vice President of ABC Daytime Programming she was tasked with helping the network’s soap line-up, including All My Children, General Hospital, One Life to Live and Port Charles, regain some of its heyday shine. She continued in that position until 2004, guiding not only the network’s soaps but the Barbara Walters-created daytime talk show The View.
According to her family, Behr spent the latter part of her career contributing to international television production at Bavarian Filmstadt and taught undergraduate courses on television production at Drexel University in Philadelphia.
In addition to daughters Francesca Behr and Kristina Behr Miller, she is survived by daughters Kareen Horton and Victoria Russo; son Robert Behr; 10 grandchildren; in-laws and other extended family. She was preceded in death by her husband of 46 years, Robert W. Behr, a technical director for ABC Sports and ABC Daytime who died in 2017.
The family requests donations be made in her memory to Gray for Glioblastoma or New York Women in Film & Television.
