Final years: Another World, Love is a Many Splendored Thing and return to As the World Turns (1964–73)
Phillips co-created Another World with William J. Bell in 1964, originally planned as a sister show to As the World Turns. Although Procter & Gamble owned both series, CBS had no room for the program and rival network NBC acquired broadcast rights. Phillips fired veteran actor John Beal from Another World after only one episode, and actress Fran Sharon after two weeks. 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." Phillips and Bell would cede the head writing role at Another World to James Lipton; Agnes Nixon would succeed him.
In 1965, Phillips was a story editor for Days of Our Lives and was a story consultant on Peyton Place before co-creating Our Private World, the first primetime series to be spun off from a daytime serial. 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 cancelled. 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. All 1,430 episodes of Love Is a Many Splendored Thing were recorded on videotape at CBS Broadcast Center Studio 41 in New York.
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. Soon after, As the World Turns 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. Her 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.
On January 25, 2007, in an episode celebrating the 70th Anniversary of Guiding Light, 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 series.
Phillips was a fiercely independent entrepreneur who retained ownership rights to all her series, producing through Carl Wester and Company and allowing agencies, sponsors, and networks little control over her soap opera empire.
