Ryan's Hope Discussion Thread

[safe]

 

I think this was posted here many pages ago -- the other Woolite commercial with Karen Morris-Gowdy (Faith #4)  seen during a 1988 episode of Guiding Light

 

Thanks, again, Carl for the 1983 Woolite commercial!

 

 

Karen is seen at approx. 42:05

 

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Edited July 24, 2017 by safe

[DRW50]

Thank you for finding that @safe. A good reminder of how commercials changed as the decade progressed.

[adrnyc]

Okay, Ryan's Hope is losing me. I don't like Barry Ryan - I don't understand his purpose on the show. He's a cad. He's a pretty rotten human being - just look at how he treated his ex wife! Why are we, as the audience, expected to care about him? Just because he's a Chicago Ryan? Even the New York Ryans don't like him! Please get him off my screen.

 

Ken George Jones - again - what is the purpose? Frank and Jill have NEVER BEEN HAPPY TOGETHER! It's been 5 years. Why can't the writers actually let them be happy and get married? It's too long. I have now officially given up on Frank and Jill. I used to like Jill but going to bed with KGJ so quickly??? I just don't understand that. I can understand being completely enamored with him - he's a singer. We all fall in love with singers/actors, etc. especially when we see them work. But she used to be a rational woman. Jill sleeping with KGJ yet still expecting to marry Frank? What are these writers doing?

 

Were other people annoyed at this point? Does anyone know the history of what was going on with the writers? with ABC? This is just ridiculous. I am not enjoying the summer of 1980.

[rlj]

Never liked Barry

 

Jill was/is NEVER rational, she is insecure  and can be irrational ie the triangle with Seneca and Frank, and this KGJ thing ain't the last out of nowhere dalliance she has LOL

[adrnyc]

 

Interesting. So Jill's a little tramp, is she? Well, I never!  ;-)  I'm glad I know that going forward. I'll distance myself from Frank/Jill. I still get really caught up/involved with these shows. LOL

[DeliaIrisFan]

 

ABC had just bought the show, and their other soaps were enjoying record ratings featuring characters/stories that were not very Ryan's Hope-esque.  They seemed to be pushing the types of things that worked on those shows onto RH.  Also, co-creator Claire Labine said in interviews later on that she was burnt out at this point, and in hindsight wished she had told ABC she wanted to take a year off.  However, she was afraid they would further upend the core of the show in her absence to make it more consistent with the rest of their lineup...and later in the decade the network demonstrated that her fears were not unjustified.  It sounds like it was a vicious cycle.

 

From what I remember of Barry on the SoapNet run, he didn't bother me, but he wasn't exactly a classic, beloved character, either - in fact, I barely remember some of his stories.  Honestly, the only thing I recall about his wife was that I read at the time those episodes were reaired that she was played by the actress who had sung "Dance Ten, Looks Three" on the original cast recording of A Chorus Line.  I can see why they might have felt a need to expand the stories beyond the original core ensemble of characters, and at least Barry was distantly related to the main family, but...

 

 

[DRW50]

For me it's not the stories themselves, but the aftermaths. Delia finally moving on to a new man who wasn't part of her old toxic patterns, a man who is charming and loves her on some level, but is also a user and very weak. She gave her heart to him, and along with her having the Crystal Palace, it was the best chance to develop her away from the same old stories about clinging to the Ryans.

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Jill finally being forced to face up to her fear of commitment and of just how limited her life with Frank was also had some dramatic value for me, and some lovely work from NAA, who was always better as a flawed figure.

 

Add in Kimbo and it was a recipe for a 1981 I couldn't take,

Edited July 27, 2017 by DRW50

[adrnyc]

 

Thanks for all the info. I remember I had read something about this earlier but, in my mind, things didn't go sour until much later in the show's run. Although, I also remember reading that the first 5 years of RH are considered some of the best in soap operas and I *am* five years into the show now. Is it just all downhill from here?

 

 

Thanks for the spoiler tags! I don't expect to be able to watch these old soaps completely spoiler free but every little bit helps!

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With Delia, she's just running from one toxic man to another. I suppose she hasn't really earned a decent love story yet. Delia has just changed so much, especially with this actress whom I much prefer, that I'm ready for her to meet a decent human being and have an adult relationship. And Barry is still a Ryan so Delia is still caught up with the family. 

 

Jill....well, I'm finally coming around to realize that she is a deeply troubled woman who seems to self sabotage at every opportunity. Again, I thought she had grown after the mistake of marrying Senaca, and the death of her baby. I was ready to have her grow up and move on to other stories but I guess the writers aren't yet through with that.  And, as DeliaIrisFan mentioned earlier, Labine was burnt out at this point. It's starting to show!

 

Kimbo...hehe...well, I do love her and enjoy watching her antics. She just married Senaca yesterday - can't wait to watch that train wreck of a marriage play out!!

[safe]

Catherine Hicks (Faith #3) and some of her volunteer pursuits

 

 

http://www.cornellclubla.com/article.html?aid=1724

 

 

She recently wanted to ” follow the women’s march with meaningful activity… so is proudly working for Congressman Adam Schiff doing grunt work in his campaign office and The League of Women Voters…. on committee .. recently addressing homelessness in downtown LA.”

 

 

Edited July 31, 2017 by safe

[DRW50]

Thanks. For some reason I thought she was conservative. 

[adrnyc]

 

Good for her! That woman won't need to work again for the rest of our life (although Stephen Collins' past antics did get 7th Heaven pulled from every\ airing again, didn't it? That will make her royalty checks drop severely, I guess.) so it's good to know she's putting her time to something about which she is passionate!

Edited August 1, 2017 by adrnyc

[John]

I did too but I think that was because of the rle she had on 7th heaven

 

But If you watch The Gal in that Thing, That Guy 2 Doc, she seems very open minded 

[applcin]

I think it's like DeliaIrisFan said. RH was trying to emulate what the other ABC soaps were doing successfully, as well as copying movies (Jaws with Joe & Siobhan, King Kong with Delia). That period of 1979 through the mid-1980s saw the ascendancy in popularity of GH, mainly due to the story of Luke & Laura and them running away from the mob. AMC had the youth storylines featuring Jenny, Jesse, Tad, etc. OLTL had the Buchanan cowboys. This was also the time of Dallas & Dynasty, so there'll eventually be more wealthy people showing up on RH, which kind of took the focus away from the Ryans,  not mention the creation of the Crystal Palace...somewhere else for the characters to go than Ryan's Bar. There's even an Egyptian queen storyline coming up later which, I imagine, was influenced by the King Tut exhibit and fascination in the late 70s.

I think they were in an unenviable position. The other soaps seemed to have found their sizzle. If RH stayed too close to its original style, maybe they would bore the audience by comparison. If they strayed from it, they risked alienating them.

[adrnyc]

 

I really enjoyed both the Jaws and King Kong riffs. The Kong one went on just a wee bit long, perhaps, but the novelty of a guy in a gorilla suit got me through it. HA! Even my husband, who pops in from time to time during my viewing, would sit down and watch the episodes with the gorilla. Go figure!  (Of course, he also seems to enjoy the character of Delia.)  I will be sad when the focus goes off of The Ryans I suppose. However, I enjoy some glam and glitz in my soaps so maybe I'll go along with it. 

 

I was one of the AMC watchers at the time. My 7-10 yr old boy self loved Greg/Jenny, Jesse/Angie, Tad/Liza, etc. But now, my 45 yr old self enjoys watching the older characters more. There's an Egyptian storyline coming, eh?  Is that available through the SoapNet run?  I know there are more RH episodes after that but they appeared to be pretty scattered - no more year long runs of episodes.  Still...I have another year and a half of the SoapNet run - it won't be until December 2018 when I finish it.

Edited August 8, 2017 by adrnyc

[applcin]

The Soapnet run would recycle at the very beginning of the Egyptian storyline.