safe

Sorry if this was already posted. I missed it if it was in the political thread or in any of the other soap operas he was on threads...Richard Backus (Barry) ran for the New Hampshire House this past election--

https://indepthnh.org/2022/10/26/from-hollywood-to-holy-weird-from-broadway-to-oddway-actor-writer-and-nh-icon-richard-dick-backus-takes-his-shot-at-public-office/

Results

https://www.redding.com/elections/results/race/2022-11-08-state_house-NH-31911/

On 10/3/2022 at 2:05 PM, applcin said:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/robert-brown-dead-here-come-the-brides-1235231988/

Robert Brown, ‘Here Come the Brides’ Actor, Dies at 95
 

He was also Maeve Ryan's Danceland competition partner David Noonan/ or Newman(SOD) on Ryan's Hope in 1982.

On 9/21/2022 at 4:36 PM, safe said:

Thanks, Slick. While those words scream soap opera -- they are not exactly the first words I would think of to describe this unique,  down to earth, daytime drama.  The words were ,maybe, chosen  to catch the attention  of soap opera fans in general-- and beyond just Ryan's Hope -- which has a loyal but smaller fan base -- and probably limited sales potential.

 

Looking forward to the book.

 

 

Looking at that cover again, I am surprised there isn't anything green or Irish on the cover.

Thanks, Slick. While those words scream soap opera -- they are not exactly the first words I would think of to describe this unique,  down to earth, daytime drama.  The words were ,maybe, chosen  to catch the attention  of soap opera fans in general-- and beyond just Ryan's Hope -- which has a loyal but smaller fan base -- and probably limited sales potential.

Looking forward to the book.

20 hours ago, Joseph said:

Humm Considering i asked about Katherine Justice as Hope Bauer i would love to know, Why exactly did they have her playing Dr. Faith Coleridge back in 1979 for those 3 episodes??? i read she came last minute because the official actress wasn't willing to do the scenes

After the last 20 so years of reading message boards and hearing stories, I have never heard that reason...or read any reason why Katherine Justice was filling in

On 7/15/2022 at 10:44 PM, slick jones said:

More from the author:

"I am so happy to announce that thanks to literary agent Lee Sobel my book Ryan's Hope: The Oral History will be published by Kensington Books for release in November 2023."

 

@Vee @DRW50 @safe @applcin @Sean @victoria foxton @AbcNbc247 @Soapsuds @beebs @robbwolff @John @amybrickwallace @vetsoapfan @jam6242 @danfling @DeliaIrisFan @dc11786 @Paul Raven

Thank you, Slick!

On 8/3/2022 at 7:29 PM, victoria foxton said:

 

Listening to Ariana Muenker (Amanda #2) and see that in 1983 they still continued the practice of having replacement actors walking around the studio in front of the actors. Michael Hawkins said he always knew when they were looking at Frank actors.  We were told on the SoapNet  MB , that Sarah Felder found out she was going to be let go when she saw Siobhan actors lined up in the halls(even though they didn't bring on a replacement right away)

On 6/4/2021 at 7:02 AM, slick jones said:

RYAN'S HOPE

Michael Pavel , Sr.        Never Seen, murdered by Tiso

 

 

 

I'm not sure if this was mentioned to you already but Michael Pavel Sr. was seen very briefly on the show. He is the man who interrupts Joe and Siobhan's conversation. I don't know the actor.

He is seen at approx. 8:27.

MacKenize Allen (Jim Speed) was in a handful of episodes of The Bold and the Beautiful in 1987. He played Charles Garner- who worked with Caroline and showed a brief interest in Kristen.

Also in this episode is Ann Gillespie's (Siobhan #2) husband, Jeff Allin, as a evidence technician. He later returned to play Lt. Burke on the show. 

MacKenzie is seen at approx. 6:36 & 15:29. Jeff at 5:31 & 14:11

On 9/30/2021 at 3:11 PM, j swift said:

Well, we know it couldn't have been Pat or Frank with their respective partners because then the baby would have been named Ryan Ryan

LOL!

11 hours ago, danfling said:

I do not think that Delia Reed was spoiled at all.    She would probably wished that someone had spoiled her.

 

Delia was deprived as a youngster.   Her mother died, and, evidently, her widowed father was incapable in her rearing or was more interested in caring for Bob.  Delia migrated to the Ryan family due to the need of belonging.    She would have loved to be Katheleen, Mary, or Siobhan.

At the time of Delia's real therapy with Dr. Pagano, after the Ryan family finally distanced themselves from her, Roger asked Bob about Delia and their mother. Bob told him the mother spoiled Delia and would also do things for Delia - he said Maureen mostly spoiled Delia out of guilt.

All Delia usually said was her mother worked hard, was always tired, and looked much older than her age -- from Bob we got more of the story.

Their father was in a mental institution for many years and he passed on before his wife. Bob said, being a boy, he was expected to take care of himself.

Great ideas...Really Great!

12 hours ago, DeliaIrisFan said:

I have no doubt a baby for Mary and Jack named Ryan was in the original RH bible, but to be fair the show was on the air almost two years before Ryan was actually born.  

I would have preferred they just have Mary leave town instead of killing her off.  They sent Pat, Frank, and Siobhan away.

Claire from December 1979
"When you have a happily married couple like Jack and Mary you lose plot flexibility. We couldn't separate them romantically. The audience wouldn't have accepted it. Frankly, Paul and I were unequal to the task of keeping them married and still providing a front-burner story for Jack, who maintained incredible audience appeal."

So the viewers weren't accepting the recasts of Mary- yet I find it interesting that she says the audience wouldn't accept Mary and Jack breaking up. 

There was another quote, which I cannot find right now, where Claire, again said, she has trouble writing for married couples.

3 hours ago, amybrickwallace said:

Thanks for the screen caps. Didn't John Sanderford also guest on H&M? If so, how fun to see Franks 3 and 5 sharing screen time.

Yes, he did.

Just came across this in an old file. Michael Levin(Jack)  talks about the different Mary's and mentions Helen bringing Kathleen in for the role of Siobhan. I don't know what publication and can't recall why I only have these few paragraphs and not the whole article. I don't think this was from one of Carl's magazines, was it? 

They aren't  the clearest to read

On 8/29/2021 at 3:03 PM, safe said:

Another Faith inspiration - Tracy Brooks Swope (Where the Heart Is) said they created Faith with her in mind.

 

Faith? & Frank- Tracy guest starred on Daniel Hugh-Kelly's Hardcastle & McCormick in 1985 - 

2 hours ago, danfling said:

I know that Jada Rowland was considered for the role of Dr. Faith Coleridge, but it was decided that she was too old for the role.  (Faith is said to have been written with Ms. Rowland in mind)

 

 

Another Faith inspiration - Tracy Brooks Swope (Where the Heart Is) said they created Faith with her in mind.

On 8/27/2021 at 7:03 PM, Paul Raven said:

It was mentioned in Variety that Pauline Flanagan was a cert for the role of Maeve. She got the role of Maeve's sister.

Maybe Helen Gallagher came along and changed their minds.

After playing Maeve's sister,  Pauline was also a Sister Mary Joel

5 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

With the show due to debut July 7 1975, as of June 12 the roles of Johnny and Pat Ryan and Seneca yet to be cast .

Variety reported 9 roles had been cast at that point.

Mary,Delia, Maeve, Roger, Faith, Bob, Frank, Ed and Ramona.

Didn't Bernard Barrow audition for Seneca?

Yes, he auditioned for Seneca. Nancy Addison had originally auditioned for Faith. Malcolm Groome said it took him a little while to accept their role offer because he didn't want to do a soap opera - so, maybe, they were just waiting for him to say yes.

In one of Kate Mulgrew's books-  she said she knew soap opera work wasn't going to fulfill her. She said that the show wouldn't  give her time off to do other projects. This was hard to understand since they gave Nancy Addison time off the film the Dain's Curse and Helen Gallagher  got  time off to take a working vacation on an Oriental cruise.

On 7/31/2021 at 4:13 AM, DRW50 said:

I think someone in the RH thread once said that Helen Gallagher recommended  Kathleen. If so that may be why she stayed as long as she did. 

Helen and Kathleen had portrayed mother and daughter in a play together and she had brought Kathleen in to read for the role of Siobhan. Instead, they cast her as Mary.

20 hours ago, Chris 2 said:

Pat was originally supposed to be the quiet, introspective Ryan brother, in contrast to his charismatic politician brother Frank. The problem was: the original Frank was a block of wood. And Malcolm Groome, as Pat, was more happy-go-lucky. So they wrote the roles to Groome’s strengths.

By the time Groome left, they actually had the charismatic Frank they always wanted, so they went back to the original concept of a more introspective Pat when they hired John Blazo. But it was too jarring, to go from Groome’s version to Blazo’s.

 

I think they had more misses (Andrew Robinson, Carrell Myers, Ann Gillespie, John Blazo, Robert Finnocolli. Patrick James Clarke, Kathleen Tolan, Nicolette Goulet) than hits (Daniel Hugh Kelly, Geoff Pierson, John Sanderford, Marg Helgenberger) when it came to recasting the Ryan children. There were several successful Franks and a couple of Siobhans, while Pat and Mary were never successfully recast. I did think that Barbara Blackburn, the final Siobhan, had a lot of potential but the show ended before she could realize that potential.

 

In a 2008 blogtalkradio interview, Malcolm Groome said that several months after the show began they changed Pat closer to Malcolm's personality when they changed Pat from a "love 'em and leave 'em " playboy to a nice guy type.

On the old Soapnet forum, it was interesting to hear from people who started watching the show after Pat was sent to Texas. Patrick James Clarke was their first Pat and they liked him and were sorry to see him go.  They came to like Malcolm, too, of course. Some press reports also felt that PJC was really starting to make Pat his own when he was replaced.

Yes! Thank you! Fun to see Helen in a commercial. By the time she was on Ryan's Hope, Helen said she would love to do commercials but they never hire her.

So sad to hear of John Gabriel's passing.  

One of my favorite descriptions of Seneca, on the show, was from Siobhan. While she was checking in on sick little Edmund at the hospital, she met Seneca for the first time - she then went back home and told Maeve, Johnny, and Mary that "he's a cuddle". Of course, they did not see him that way - but I thought it was adorable.

______________________________________________________________________________________

Newspaper piece from May 28, 1976

After 3½ years of playing "scheming inconsequential opportunists " on daytime television, John Gabriel has become a good guy.

Gabriel wanted to portray a character "with whom I could identify with and admire" and has fulfilled that desire by taking the role of Seneca Beaulac, a superstar researcher on the daytime series "Ryan's Hope seen Monday through Friday, 1 to 1:30 pm on ABC-TV.

"Seneca", according to Gabriel, "is a dark slightly-graying handsome man, is a person who has confidence and doesn't need to impress anyone, has a sense of humor about himself, is dedicated to his profession, and is extremely moral."

He is a far cry from Teddy Holmes in General Hospital and Link Morrison in Love of Life, whom Gabriel portrayed. "Both these men used their appeal for selfish gains", he said. "They were womanizers with a long line of women as their victims."

"But that didn't that bother me as much as they were inconsequential. They were men of little substance. If I'm going to be a bad guy, I'd like to be a bad guy like Iago."

Gabriel wasn't the only one to dislike the characters. Teddy Holmes, for example, received a great deal of hate mail.

This is from June 2020 and a commentary written by MacKenzie Allen (Jim Speed) -who spent some time in  law enforcement after acting.

The Sante Fe New Mexican newspaper

https://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/my_view/emphasize-the-peace-for-officers/article_bf0cd672-b256-11ea-9754-2b6ff2665193.html

*************************************************************************

Ana Alicia's (Alicia Nieves, Ryan's Hope) bad Puerto Rican accent. Didn't learn until one of the later SOAPnet rebroadcasts, after reading an old 1985 AA interview, that it was a last minute change.

Ana spoke about it again in a 2013 Hill Place blog interview - 

 Once she started working on "Ryan's Hope," Ana Alicia encountered some initial challenges with her role, "The weird thing that happened when I read for the role, I didn't read with any accent at all, and I was never told that I would have to have any accent.  When I got there, the director took one look at me and said to the producer, 'She's got to have an accent.  She doesn't look Puerto Rican.'  So they asked, 'Can you do an accent?' and I said 'I don't know' because we were about to shoot!  But I was feeling so grateful to be there and too un-knowledgeable to say 'Hey, you know what?  I don't feel comfortable.  It doesn't feel right to me, I didn't prepare this.'  So I just did it.  I just jumped into it.  And it was so awkward for me because it wasn't natural and I felt so bad about that, about the whole situation.  So, gradually, throughout the year they let me drop the accent.  (laugh)  And it had to be, like, really gradual, you know, and so after a year I left with barely any accent left!"

Some of the quick notes I jotted down- 

Michael Corbett said he was hired for 3 days and then offered a contract

It looked like Michael was getting a family but Joan Loring (Michael’s mother- Anna Paval)  couldn’t remember her lines.

Louise thought she was going to be written out until she met Kelli and then told her husband her job was safe.

Nice how much Louise taught Kelli. I recall on the Soapnet forum Rose Alaio (Rose)  said the show offered Kelli no help.

Michael  didn’t really  answer if anyone helped him.

Michael said he was disappointed when he was written out.

Kelli said she was devastated when she was written out.

The Ryans were not thrilled with the addition of them to the show.

Helen Gallagher (Maeve) told the writers to rewrite scenes where Maeve was to speak with Michael because she said Maeve would never speak to MP. This disappointed Michael as he was a HG fan. Instead Maeve's dialog was given to Delia. He said Randall Edwards (Delia #3) was lovely.

Kelli and Michael were hired to be the show's answer to Luke & Laura and bring in a younger audience.

Louise said Kelli and Michael were charismatic performers and the audience responded  to them.

Kelli said they first considered Kim seducing Frank Ryan.

She called John Gabriel (Seneca) a trooper for being stuck with the Lolita s/l

She also said John was not the jealous type.

All 3 gave their story for why they became actors.

Louise hated writing for soaps because she wanted to tell her own stories.

After he was fired, the shows wardrobe person secretly gave Michael all of MP’s clothes to take home.

She gave Kelli some of Kim’s clothes.

Louise loved Edge o Night and that was because of  co-stars Ann Flood and Lois Kibbee. That role taught her how not to take the work home because she drove herself a little crazy with the  s/l. 

________________________________________________________________________

I enjoyed the affection they have of each other.

I was thinking  of one of the reports  that Michael had been fired because of backstage jealousy -  I always thought that it was a male co-star's jealousy but maybe it was a female.

I recall that  a blogradio interview ( had to be over 10 years ago)  where Louise said there was a clique on the show and she wasn’t part of it – and in this YouTube reunion it really sounded like they were together by themselves  on and off screen.

Also in the blogradio interview,  Louise said was a team player and the show would send her out to do press because they knew she would be positive – even during the Merit Karah s/l.

So it would be interesting to hear her speak even more about everything  40 years later

8 hours ago, amybrickwallace said:

I have a few questions about Delia when Randall was playing her:

 

- In what order did the opening of the Crystal Palace, King Kong - ahem - Prince Albert and running over Barry Ryan happen?

 

-

 

Prince Albert started right away in the new year (198O) and he abducted her mid-March.  Crystal Palace opened mid-May. Barry's was run down in late September.

8 hours ago, amybrickwallace said:

 

 

- Why did Delia and Roger's first marriage break up?

 

 

 

Roger pulled a "Frank Ryan" and threw her out after he caught her with Dan Fox. After he had slept with Rae first, which led Dee to be vulnerable to Dan. Roger didn't care that Dan "forced " her to continue the affair,  just like Frank didn't care that Roger "forced" her  during the Frank/Delia marriage . (Although Frank and Delia's marriage was in a better place at that time, Delia did admit to Father McShane  that she was continuing the affair and giving in to Roger's "blackmail" to keep Roger around as a back-up just in case Frank still left her) 

8 hours ago, amybrickwallace said:

 

 

- Why was Dee all of a sudden mooning over her despised first husband, Frank?

 

 

 

.After hearing how Labine and Mayer thought it was natural for Delia to go after Frank again in 1983, I imagine they saw this also as some natural old pattern, too,  of looking for safety and protection from the Ryan's and Frank after the break-up with Barry and the hit-and-run. 

Here is the entire article

Soap Opera Digest 

July 19, 1983 

"Ryan's Hope" : Long Awaited Return to Familiar Faces, Familiar Dreams

By Nerissa Radell

In 1974, while they were still writing for "Love of Life," Paul Avila Mayer and Claire Labine began work on another soap opera. "Ryan's Hope," as it was called, was different right from the very start. In 1975, when the show premiered on ABC, most soap operas were situated in fictional American cities. "Ryan's Hope," however, was one of a kind. The Irish Catholic Ryan family, headed by Maeve  and Johnny Ryan (expertly played by Helen Gallagher and Bernard Barrow) ran a neighborhood bar - not in everyman's town but in New York City.  Maeve and Johnny didn't own a house or have a luxurious apartment. They lived right upstairs from their bar with their four children, whom they unabashedly loved. In fact, "Ryan's Hope" was all about that love and the various forms it took within that close family. Sounds simple? Well, it was...

From 1975 to 1980, Paul and Claire produced, packaged and wrote their show very successfully for ABC. But in 1980, for financial reasons, Claire and Paul sold "Ryan's Hope" to the network. During that time, the series won 11 Emmys, including two awards for Best Show and four awards for Best Writing. "We were probably the lowest paid writers in daytime when we were winning all those awards," Paul smiles. "In fact, I know we were. We paid ourselves the absolute minimum so all the money could go back into the show. As soon as there was extra money, the actors got it. We were constantly over budget."

Once ABC owned the show, "Ryan's Hope",  began to change. "There was a difference in opinions as to which direction the show should take," Paul reflects. "The network wanted a new family on the show," Claire says. "All I have to say this in all justice -- philosophically, it was a viable decision. We had worked the veins of the Ryan's at this point! ABC have breathed new life into 'One Life to Live' by bringing in a new family in. But the problem here was that Paul and I had been doing this show for seven years and we were making up a new family on demand. We didn't  feel the need for it."

Nevertheless, because they relinquished creative control by selling the show, Paul and Claire created the Kirklands, a wealthy, power-monger family. Hollis Kirkland was played by veteran star Peter Haskell. Hollis fairly burst onto the "Ryan 's Hope" stage and his plotline, which linked him to the show's other reigning power-monger, Rae Woodard, soon consumed the whole serial. It was the end of "Ryanness" as the new emphasis on glitz, intrigue and heavy plotting took over. Viewers who had known and loved "Ryan's Hope" for it's done-to-earth storylines didn't know what to make of it, and ratings dropped to an all-time low.

 "We got a little off track," says Michael Levin who, as Jack Fenelli, has intrigued fans for eight years with his role as a crusading newspaper columnist. " When we were good, we really did good work and it wasn't about  millionaires and gangsters and mystery and adventure. " (Once ABC owned the show, the plots began to focus on way out storylines a la "General Hospital.") The good work was just about human beings trying to love one another or not to love one another. The whole idea of 'Ryan's Hope' is that it's a hope for love and for trust...and that's not easy," he adds.

Yet, despite their commitment to "Ryan's Hope," Paul and Claire left the show fifteen months after they sold it to ABC. "We were fired," Claire says matter-of-factly. I went back to work in February of 1982 without Paul to find there were various changes in personnel. "

"We'd gotten into trouble when the scenes the network wanted written weren't the kind of scenes Claire wanted to write or were written for performers who couldn't fill them," adds Paul. " "The result was, the scenes didn't work. When we wrote scenes for the Ryan's, the scenes worked."

So several months later, Claire left the show again. But in January of 1983, ABC approached both Paul and Claire about returning. Needless to say, there was some major overhauling to be done. Some of these "steps" included rather drastic moves, such as the releasing of nine characters from the show (including the entire Kirkland family). Plots were dropped right in the middle of their action lines. Several primary roles were recast. Says Paul, "It wasn't the performers' fault, but if you look at those characters, they were all nasty people grubbing for money. We write a very sentimental show, about love and sex, things we're interested in. We wanted to go back and build the stories around the family which meant we had to lose some of the Kirklands."

There were other compromises both the writers and the network reached. " We came back to the show with the understanding that we could get our original casting director, Shirley Rich, back," Claire explains. " Shirley had found all our other wonderful original cast members and we wanted another Frank Ryan for the show. (Daniel Hugh-Kelly, who was the last actor to play the part, left in 1981. ) We also wanted to have Malcolm Groome, the original Pat Ryan, come back because he's great and because his presence on the set brings such joy to everyone who works with him. There was a perfectly lovely actor, James Clark, who was playing the role, " Claire admits, " but he wasn't Malcolm. In order for us to come back, we wanted Malcolm back, too."

Malcolm Groome, who'd left the series in 1978, is thrilled to be back in New York and on the show. "Ryan's Hope" is a great working situation, "  he exclaims. " The fact that I am back and that the whole show is going back to it's original thrust should make a difference. The Ryan's and the Coleridge were getting to be strangers on their own show...Paul and Claire's return will make a big difference, we're already starting to see that. We're all very excited."

For Malcolm, the reclaiming of his role Pat Ryan was a natural process.   "As an actor, you bring part of yourself to a part. When I decided to come back, I thought through Pat as I had left him, how he would have grown since then, etc. Actually, I came right in at the peak of Jimmy Clark's storyline. I literally Jumped in and brought my understanding of Pat as I had always known him to that situation."

Ilene Kristen, another "Ryan's Hope " original, had left her role as Delia Reed Ryan Coleridge after three and half years of creating a character  who alternatively amused and infuriated audiences. As Delia, Ilene stopped at nothing, including a bout with blindness, to get what she wanted- usually attention from a man. When Randall Edwards - who'd been playing the role of Delia - decided to leave the show, ABC approached Ilene about coming back.

Although Claire and Paul have established their interest in keeping as much of the original cast as possible, Randall Edward's Delia was someone they could write for. When Ilene left the show  in 1979, it was hard to replace her, " Claire sums up. " But what Randall did was astonishing. She managed to continue the line of the character, to be her own Delia, and still be a Delia Paul and I enjoyed writing for."

Unlike Groome, Ilene had a harder time resuming her role after another actress had played the part. "It was totally different, " Ilene says of Randall's characterization. "As Dee, I suddenly had this restaurant with which I didn't know what to do. I had to dress up in elegant clothes. Dee is a real street fighter in a way, and the story had become very opulent - so had the show. I kept wondering what happened to those simple souls. I mean they'd gone Hollywood!"

Nancy Addison, another original cast member, had several problems with her character during the Kirkland reign. " I like Jill," Nancy says of her character, Jill Coleridge, one of daytime's first liberated women. "The year and a half while we were waiting to find another Frank Ryan for me was excruciating! The focus went to an entirely different thing, and none of the old people were being used. Viewers were used to these good family people who owned a bar and their good friends, the Coleridges, who had money. They were used to the love, the conflict, the children. All of a sudden we were trying to be something we weren't, and we couldn't make it there. I was feeling down about the show for a while, " Nancy admits. "But these changes have given me - all of us - a lift. Geoffrey Pierson is Frank Ryan. I feel like an actress again!"

Now that Paul and Claire have returned to "Ryan 's Hope, " the show seems to be headed right back where it belongs. Needless to say, there will be various problems to overcome- not the least of which is a heavy, rich "past" to contend with.  " One of the problems with refocusing on the Ryan family is that there have been so many interrelationships." Claire comments. " We have to avoid playing what we've already done."

For example, one of its hottest stories in the late 70's was the  love triangle between Jill-Frank-Dee. For a while, it seemed as though this same situation was brewing. Comments Paul, " The outlines were  ten days ahead of taping, and we really thought that in all honesty Dee, who' d had everything taken away from her, would go after Frank when he came home again.  Having written this for ten years, we used up a lot of our fantasies. It's sometimes hard to find things that are fresh."

Of particular interest over the years have been the romances between the Coleridge sisters (Jill and Faith) and the Ryan brothers, Frank and Pat.  "I'd like to see Jill and Frank get married," says Claire - no doubt speaking for the hundreds of viewers  who agree with her - " and have the most loving, the most trying relationship in the world of soap opera marriages. That is what we've promised the audience." As for the Pat and Faith romance, which seems to be headed for a triangle-type twist not unlike the Dee-Pat-Faith story of the late 70's." This is where we're in danger of being on worn ground, " Claire admits.  "But there is a difference between Amanda (the third part of the triangle) and Dee. Pat's response to both of them will be clearly drawn - Amanda is mad, curably mad. What is fun to play Pat and Faith trying to be responsible to one another and then to this person, Amanda, who's in this emotional mess."

Another compelling storyline will be the tempestuous romance between Jack Fenelli and Leigh Kirkland (played by Felicity LaFortune).  Viewers who remember the emotional relationship between  Jack  Fenelli and his first wife Mary Ryan (originally played by the incomparable Kate Mulgrew), will watch as Jack once again puts aside his fears of being loved and once again makes himself vulnerable to a woman. "We're going to do this in a very challenging way,"  smiles Michael Levin. " I hope the audience is ready for Jack to fall in love again."

Yes, "Ryan's Hope " is back where it belongs. " I hated to see it battered and bloodied, " Claire says. "We have the best dialogue writers in daytime: Nancy Ford, Judith Pinsker, and Mary Munisteri. One of the most you touching things anyone's ever said to me about the show is something Mary said once  - ' I would rather be part of a contributing popular myth than Proust.' " Paul adds, "Contributing is the operative word here. In order to do this, we have to invest a certain passion and caring. We know 'Ryan's Hope' is going to work again."

On 1/17/2021 at 12:42 AM, Sean said:

 I'd love to see the Kirkland story play out, and how it may have shifted over time given that Hollis and Amanda were both Labine creations (I believe).

 

 

On 1/18/2021 at 3:02 PM, DeliaIrisFan said:

I suppose some iteration of Hollis must have been a Labine/Mayer concept, or at least a Labine concept 

 

Had to search through my old magazines to find this - I recalled this from a Labine/Mayer interview where Soap Opera Digest said they created the Kirklands 

July 19, 1983 issue

"Ryan's Hope" : Long Awaited Return to Familiar Faces, Familiar Dreams

Once ABC owned the show, "Ryan's Hope",  began to change. "There was a difference in opinions as to which direction the show should take," Paul reflects. "The network wanted a new family on the show," Claire says. "All I have to say this in all justice -- philosophically, it was a viable decision. We had worked the veins of the Ryan's at this point! ABC have breathed new life into 'One Life to Live' by bringing in a new family in. But the problem here was that Paul and I had been doing this show for seven years and we were making up a new family on demand. We didn't  feel the need for it."

Nevertheless, because they relinquished creative control by selling the show, Paul and Claire created the Kirklands, a wealthy, power-monger family. Hollis Kirkland was played by veteran star Peter Haskell. Hollis fairly burst onto the "Ryan 's Hope" stage and his plotline, which linked him to the show's other reigning power-monger, Rae Woodard, soon consumed the whole serial. It was the end of "Ryanness" as the new emphasis on glitz, intrigue and heavy plotting took over. Viewers who had known and loved "Ryan's Hope" for it's done-to-earth storylines didn't know what to make of it, and ratings dropped to an all-time low.