Ryan's Hope Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

Helen Gallagher has a scene at around 25 minutes.

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[safe]

^^Thanks for the Helen sighting, Carl! I also see James Naughton who had an episode as a creepy doctor hitting on Jill in 1977.

 

Here is a 3 part interview Tom Lisanti did with the RH lighting director, Dennis Size,  after the book was published.

 

Rose Alaio had told us the Ann Gillespie in  the Ryan kitchen story on the Soapnet forum.

 

Part 1 begins at the bottom of the page

https://sixtiescinema.com/

 

 

Edited July 6 by safe

[DRW50]

Thanks for sharing. I never would have known otherwise. I prefer show interviews this way rather than the grab bag quotes. 

No surprises in here about Rauch, Behr, Swift, etc. but still, I appreciate hearing a new voice lay them out in such detail. The Swift story is especially juicy. 

Also didn't know how much people in the cast opposed Michael Corbett, but it makes sense - I can see why someone at the show or the network latched onto him, but he really did come out of nowhere and was forced in. I wonder if that's why Daniel Hugh Kelly quit. 

The lighting definitely does seem to become much more generic with Joe Hardy. 

I do think Cali Timmins was good from fairly early on.

[Sapounopera]

He was never leading man material, it was insane how he ate the show along with Kimberly. 

These two had someone who liked them a lot at the network, that's for sure. 

[DeeVee]

Thanks so much for sharing this. Fascinating to read the thoughts of someone who worked BTS and went through so many of the upheavals (and backbiting). 

Interesting to me was how Kate Mulgrew's aura kind of lingered in the air of the show after she left. Especially since she seems not to care much for that part of her career. I've heard her be rather dismissive of it in interviews. She mostly concentrated on what happened when she got pregnant while doing the show in her memoir. I don't recall her talking much in the book about anyone from the show other than her two close personal friends, Claire Labine and Nancy Addison. 

Possibly this helps to explain why they did such a bad job finding a replacement for her. If you think she's the greatest thing, ever, then you're setting yourself up for failure when you believe no one else can be as good as she was. (And no wonder she was disliked. If TPTB are telling a 20 year old all the time she's hot sh!t, not only is that going to cause a problem with the rest of the cast and crew, she's going to start believing it, too).

Don't get me wrong, I was a big fan back then, but I also really loved the character and never quite accepted the idea that they had no choice but to kill her off.

This happened with many soaps at the time. They were chasing GH's popularity. A lot of very young, very green actors were put front and center. 

[DRW50]

He seemed to work out in how he was used on Search and Y&R, but even if his exit is always called a mistake (including in this interview), I never thought he was used well on RH. He went from being a thug who unwittingly caused Siobhan to have a miscarriage to being a piece of ass tied to an exhausting and overexposed storyline.

Kirkland's Hope has always gotten more attention, I guess because it was an easy nickname given to the press by the fed up actors on the show, but for me the mob element and the chronicles of Kimberley's loins were a much more long-running and corrosive problem.

I know Labine mentioned seeing Rae/Michael as a love story in one SOD article on bad strike decisions - if she really did then no wonder Rae was in such a poor state as a character by this time. 

[Sapounopera]

The Kimberly show and Greenberg's Hope were far worse than the Kirkland invasion. 
I don't really think that Rae really worked as a long term character in the Ryan universe. Labine obviously loved the actress, but Rae seemed to be on a different show for quite a while.The fact that she never shared romantic chemistry with any of the Franks didn't help things. I liked her relationship with Roger though. 

[Chris 2]

100%. I think Louise Shaffer had limited range, from what I can see of her work on RH and SFT. She didn’t need to be around as long as she was.

[DRW50]

I think Louise did well with what she could on Ryan's Hope, especially those first few years before Kimberley. Search, she was badly miscast, as that character was a live wire. Even the actress who played Rae's friend Polly would have been more logical to me as Stephanie.

Edited July 7 by DRW50

[DeeVee]

Wow, kinda shocked at all the Louise Shaffer disrespect. I never saw her on SFT. (People always have a problem adjusting to recasts). But she was phenomenal as Serena Faraday on Edge of Night.

Shaffer herself thought Rae's shelf life had expired on RH. She was stunned when they gave her a daughter just as her time as the Frank/Jill spoiler came to an end. And it's not her fault they tried to build a new family around her. Who could blame her for wanting to keep her job?

 

[safe]

I'm unfamiliar with Louise's other daytime roles, she did say in the book that she had a "type" she usually played --- which was aristocratic, rich bitch, emotional and icy.

In a old SOW atricle, she said   her favorite scenes were  Rae as businesswoman. 

Louise seemed like real team player even though she was not part of the show's (actors) clique. It was in Louise's old Blog Talk Radio interview  that I first heard about the clique, there she also said she was a good cheerleader for the show and she was sent out to do press during the  Prince Albert and Merit Karah stories because they knew she would put a positive spin on story.

 

Edited September 8 by safe

[adrnyc]

I don't think I've ever heard a negative word about Rae Woodard before. I didn't enjoy her character when she first came on but I quickly warmed to her and thought she took the show to a new level of greatness. The character was a nice contrast to the Ryans.

 

Also, HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY TO RYAN'S HOPE! Premiered 50 years ago today!

 

[Tisy-Lish]

I tend to agree.  Although the Coleridge family was far wealthier than the Ryans, their closeness and inter-connectedness made them seem almost peers.  But Rae's wealth set her apart, even from the Coleridges.  Plus Rae was fairly skeptical of the Ryans, which added some needed spice to the show.   

[DRW50]

I think this was true for those first few years of the character. Once Kimberley came in that's where both Seneca and Rae start to suffer. I do think there's an argument that both may have just reached a natural end, although both Louise and John still did their best and had a few interesting relationships (not involving her). 

[safe]

 

 

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Ilene Kristen is one of the guests on AM Philadelphia in September 1986. She says something about being back on the show 3 weeks. GH's Tristan Rogers, OLTL's John Martin and Christine Jones are also guests. I have not watched the entire episode to know if Christine speaks of her time on Ryan's Hope.

Ilene speaks of beginning as a dancer. Delia's son went from 10 to 19 years old and that she was now a grandmother. She talks about leaving the show the first time after giving all she had to give to the role and wanting to go to California. She talks about how she does a lot of theater (brings up her Leona Helmsley role).  She said the previous time she returned, she didn't think the show really wanted the comedic aspects she was trying to bring  but now it was wonderful that the show is allowing her to play Delia as more comedic.