Chris 2

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.

20 hours ago, DRW50 said:

I know it shouldn't have been funny, but the show returning to flashbacks of her very, very soon after Mary was killed - even though she had left the role 2 years earlier - said it all.

Clearly done to wash the bad taste of the awful Mary recasts out of our mouths.

On 7/31/2021 at 6:27 PM, Wendy said:

The renovation apparently occurred under EP John Conboy.

Senior Executive Producer John Conboy. He had that silly vanity credit in large font at the end of the last scene of the day, like it was a primetime show.

I remember watching Berenger’s in first run and I recall liking it, but you’re right. Way to many characters. And the “help” characters weren’t really connected to the family, so that also made it complicated.

The initial setup of Dallas was straightforward - the Ewings and two Barneses. Same for Knots - four couples. Falcon Crest, too - just the Giobertis and the Channings.

11 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

"If I had my druthers I'd go with two people or four people, and develop from there," Jacobs says. "But I'm not sure the audience would buy it. You're expected to have a complicated mosaic right away." But television always is risky business at best. As he says, "You try for something different, but what everybody wants is what they're used to, which we have a lot of already. I mean, I'm sure there's not room for another 'Dynasty' or 'Dallas.' For all I know, there's not room for 'Berrenger's' either."

And there wasn’t!

Good article - thanks for posting.

I thought Nicolette Goulet was a striking-looking woman, just ultimately dull on RH. Certainly better than Kathleen Tolan but not nearly as good as Kate Mulgrew or even Mary Carney. She had no spark. And Mary Ryan was supposed to be a spark plug.

On 6/27/2020 at 2:22 PM, Chris B said:

Two underrated recasts for me come from Ryan’s Hope, which was Recast Central. The first is Mary Carney as Mary Ryan. Of course Claire Labine  wanted To kill off Mary when Kate Mulgrew left, which is completely understandable. Ultimately the show forced a recast and Mary Carney was perfect. A good actress and similar but she made the role her own. They quickly fired her and the only justifiable reason is that they were still upset about Mulgrew leaving. We had to suffer through two more recasts before they finally killed her off. 
 

The other is Ann Gillespie as Siobhan Ryan. I liked most of the Siobhan’s so I didn’t mind her leaving, but I also don’t understand why she left. I thought she was great in the role. 

I don’t get why Ann Gillespie left but I really loved Sarah Felder, so it was hard for me to see someone else in the role.

ABC wanted Mary Carney to go. RH actually handled her recast as well as possible. Carney was physically right for the role, and after she showed up, Mary went on the back burner for six months. Smart. The new Mary wasn’t shoved down our throats and viewers were given some time to adjust. But when Claire Labine was ready to bring Mary back to the front burner, ABC got nervous that Carney wasn’t “glamorous” enough and ordered the recast. Too bad, because I think she could have really grown into that role. Her immediate successor, Kathleen Tolan, is one of the worst recasts of all time. She wasn’t particularly attractive or charismatic, and worse, she could barely get her lines out without stumbling over them.

Definitely a test to see if original, daytime-serial-type content can attract eyeballs on Peacock. If it works, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the mothership eventually move over there. Scripted entertainment on broadcast TV is dying. I wouldn’t want to be in the broadcast network affiliate business these days.

21 hours ago, Chris B said:

How dare you accurately describe Richard Avery like that and make me bust out laughing!! He was such a fabulous character, but like you said a sniveling little weasel. Poor Laura lol!

Ha - glad to be of service. And Richard was a great character!

He was stepping in to be one of the male leads on a nighttime soap. There was no way they were going to let him appear as he did on Kojak (and he probably even had less hair four years later). Back then, baldness was reserved for villains, or for sniveling little weasels like Richard Avery. Not leading men.

I’m sure most of you have heard the story about one of Victoria Wyndham’s early scenes with Constance Ford, where Ford told her after the scene was shot, “Rachel would never say the lines that way.” LOL. And Wyndham to her credit retorted, “This Rachel does.”

That floors me. AW was one of the most popular soaps just 10 years earlier. The Alice-Steve-Rachel triangle was iconic.

On 2/16/2021 at 11:46 AM, titan1978 said:

This genre is filled with this crap too.

I think I Larry Hagman deserved the most money from Dallas too- they both brought significant audience to these shows and attention. 

And he got it. The problem was with the next tier down. When Patrick Duffy returned, he doubled his salary to 75K per episode (big money in the mid 80s) plus a signing bonus. Victoria Principal asked for salary parity with him and she walked when she didn’t get it. and I’d argue that Pam was even more important to the story than Bobby was. There was a greater ratings drop for the show without Pam than without Bobby.

The problem with Alice is that so much of her storyline revolved around breaking up/reuniting with Steve. And when they Jacqui Courtney back, Steve was gone, as was most/all of her family. What ties did she really have to everyone? That’s why we got silly scenes such as when Rachel invited Alice  to spend Christmas with her. Yeah, like that should ever really happen.

16 hours ago, Marissa Gallant said:

It is gripping, but Ted has serious issues.

I vaguely remember a scene where Mason was analyzing the family and referred to Ted as the “runt of the litter”. LOL - truer words were never spoken. I think it was in front of Ted too. Ted was actually well-written and cast - this soft, eager beaver type who seemed desperate to be liked.

Julie Ronnie had all the charisma of a wet paper towel. But the characterizations of her successors were worse.

1 hour ago, Marissa Gallant said:

Also I know Robin Wright is beautiful, but I don't fully understand why every man who ever spoke to her fell hopelessly in love with Kelly. She was a bit needy. 

As they say, God doesn’t give with both hands.

41 minutes ago, j swift said:

I agree that Jed Allan brought a sex appeal to the role and their chemistry was worth rooting for, as opposed to the smarminess of Paul Burke (as previously mentioned the scene of Burke in a tank top and high waisted shorts working out with Santana make me repeat my lunch).

LOL. I’m glad I missed that. Paul Burke’s CC was the very definition of unsexy.

Lee Patterson as Joe Riley’s twin, Tom Dennison?

1 hour ago, YRfan23 said:

Sorry to hear this!  I’ve only sampled some old GH clips with Alan but he had such a presence in his scenes and was a great sparring partner with Jane Elliott! 

The chemistry between Damon, Elliott, Leslie Charleson, David Lewis, and Anna Lee was amazing. GH was always worth catching just for the scenes between that talented crew.

My mom watched SFT for 20 years. Once it went to NBC and it was up against Young and Restless, it was over for her. It didn’t help that our local affiliate didn’t carry it and she could only get it from a fuzzy out-of-market station.

Soaps viewing is built on habit, even more so than other shows. And once you break that habit via a network switch and timeslot changes, it’s a death sentence.

Alice being Rachel’s doctor, given their history, is patently ridiculous.

It was the time period. Homes using television traditionally increase as the afternoon wears on. It’s generally more lucrative to air syndicated programs in the late afternoon, because local stations can keep more or all of the commercial time, depending on the shows they run. So EON had an uphill battle just to gain clearances. And of the clearances they did have, many stations were tape-delaying and running in the morning, which also hurt ratings.

Our local ABC affiliate never carried EON. Only one of two smaller adjacent markets did, and that one finally started tape delaying it to 9:30 am the next morning during EON’s last year. That’s when I knew it was over.

Those cheap-looking, made-for-daytime episodes of Love, American Style didn’t qualify as “comedy.”

And it’s funny that they improved their 11:00 numbers with Angie, a short-lived series that ABC completely mishandled years earlier.

Rachel (Robin Strasser) is in there too.

Boy, Jacqueline Courtney (Alice) was a striking woman.