Ryan's Hope Discussion Thread

[amybrickwallace]

 

It was Irene Dailey of AW, in 1979. Others up for the Lead Actress Emmy that year were Susan Seaforth Hayes (DAYS), Beverlee McKinsey and Victoria Wyndham (AW) and Nancy's RH co-star, Helen Gallagher.

[safe]

 

 

 

Nancy was 41 when she left the show - - and other actresses --like Louise Shaffer (Rae) --who talked about age discrimination that begins with actresses once they turn 40 (Louise was written off RH at 41)  - -so it was a big gamble for Nancy to make a try at Hollywood already in that age bracket.

 

This is taken from the December 1, 1987 Soap Opera Digest article called To Quit Or Not To Quit? where they talked to several actors about their decision to leave -- or to stay -- with their soap.


 

Close buddies thought Nancy Addison should be committed, too. “Particularly my actor friends who are not working,” she says. “And my family thought I was nuts.” Having played Jillian Ryan for the last twelve years on RYAN”S HOPE, Addison finally decided to pack her bags (her character's departure from the show happens next month). Although she concedes, “I wasn't going to walk away without feeling financially secure,” her adios stemmed from boredom.

“I was just tired of it. They'd done everything with the character that they could do and, ultimately, as a step-grandmother and an expectant mother on the show, it was very hard to create a story. For the last year, I really had nothing to do. For me to sit there with three lines once a week was silly when I could possibly be off doing other things.” 

She's relocated to Southern California to try her luck, not an outlandish gamble considering she has juggled Broadway, features, and a mini-series throughout her RYAN'S run. Still, socking away bucks prior to the move was pretty mandatory. “ It's too much to take the emotional risk, the career risk, and the financial risk – it's like a triple whammy. I don't think an actor should do that to himself,” she reflects.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DeliaIrisFan]

I don't think it's quite fair to say that the writers intentionally had Delia (or any character on RH, really) stagnate/regress to generate plot for other characters.  And I completely disagree with the notion that Ilene intentionally played against the scripts to keep Delia from growing.  On the contrary, she was reportedly exhausted from playing Delia as she was originally written — she has said in print that was why she left the first time.  But, yes, when she was playing Delia, Ilene went all in, including when the character went to some ugly places.  Love her or hate her, to me Ilene's indelible mark on the role was largely what set the character apart from countless other soap villainesses.

 

As far as the writing, I would say that RH — at its best — was more focused on characters evolving and changing than just about any other soap opera in history.   In the first few years of the show, it seemed clear that Delia was doomed to eventually alienate the Ryans and have to stand on her own, and there were hints that she would be able to survive — thrive — without them.  I think getting her to that place was treated as at least as important as the havoc she caused for everyone else along the way, and as far I'm concerned they delivered the payoff.

 

That said, aside from jarring recasts and/or network pressure, I think Delia and other characters on RH tended to evolve while maintaining some core of who they essentially were as characters.  And yes, when the new lives they had built for themselves were threatened, they sometimes regressed back to some of the bad habits they thought they had outgrown.  How very human...

 

To me, though, Randall Edwards was one of those jarring recasts.  Unlike some of the others, she was a good actress, with lots of charisma and screen presence, and often one of the brights spot during her time on the show, but I had to accept that she was essentially playing a different character.  Not only was it impossible for me to believe that her Delia had done some of the worst things in the character's past, but I never bought that she even grew up in New York let alone in abject poverty, with no exposure to much of anything that she could aspire to beyond what the Ryans and Coleridges had.  Delia discovering a knack for commodities and (later) running an upscale but niche boutique as she became more worldly were plausible enough, but owning (a thinly veiled version of) the Tavern on the Green, the premier restaurant in NY?  This wasn't the Mona Lisa in Oakdale — I never believed the real upper crust of NY high society would have dined in Delia's establishment, or that she ever would have wanted to spend her time sucking up to people 100 times more snobbish than the Coleridge sisters at their worst.

 

When Ilene reprised the role and the shows' creators returned with a (short-lived) mandate to bring the show back to basics, I think there was a certain logic in having Delia lose everything and seek solace from the Ryans, and temporarily get caught up in old patterns.   But based on everything that's available of 1983 on YouTube, this didn't actually move anyone else's stories forward — by this time, Frank and Jill were facing an even bigger threat.  Delia having Frank on the brain again at this time actually led to one of my all-time favorite scenes of hers, though, when she first met Charlotte Greer — who knew all about Delia's (legitimate) grievances against Frank and appeared to be pushing all the right buttons in an attempt to get Delia to believe that Frank had also married and jilted Charlotte.  Lo and behold, though, Delia saw right through Charlotte.  She also seemed to see something of herself and the toxic obsession that she had where the Ryans were concerned for so long, and was visibly horrified; not long after that, she gave up the ghost where Frank was concerned. 

 

Alas, this coincided with Ilene's illness and what has been reported about the networks' desire to push her out because of that, so very soon thereafter she just faded into the background.  But I really doubt that was the intention on the writers' part, let alone the actress's.  Fortunately, Ilene came back again and the show mostly did right by Delia by the time it wrapped.

[safe]

 

Something that I have come to question is that it is often said/written that Nancy Addison received her emmy nomination for the drug addition storyline -- but that doesn't fit with the submission deadline   - -which ended the first week of March 1979.  Jill didn't even take her first non-prescribed pill until March 6. The addiction s/l would have qualified for the 1980 emmy's -- not the 1979 ones. (She did not receive a nomination in 1980)

It's likely that Nancy was nominated in 1979 for the accident and the physical and emotional pain immediately following the accident -- and not the addiction/recovery story.
 

 

[amybrickwallace]

 

That's a great post, and really gets to the heart of Delia. For all his faults, no one understood Dee like Roger. 

[Soaplovers]

I actually thought Roger was just as bad for Delia as the Ryans.  I'd wish the show had ended with Delia truly free of the Ryans and Roger.

[amybrickwallace]

Had the show gone on, I wonder if the newly-returned Maggie would have come between Delia and Roger.

[BetterForgotten]

The more glammed-up wardrobe they gave Delia in the mid/late 80's seemed so wrong for Ilene...

[John]

I doubt Maggie would have returned at least played by Cali If RH wasnt ending

[amybrickwallace]

 

Did you like him with Maggie?

[Soaplovers]

 

They had chemistry.. but how they got together was just as toxic and vile as how he and Delia got together.  His type of character would be fired from his job because a lot of women would have said #metoo in regards to him.

 

I actually liked Maggie when she was the spoiler between Frank/Jill (of course she ended up marrying the actor that played Frank.. so that is probably where the chemistry came from)... and I liked her odd coupling with Dave Greenberg where she tried to become a better person.

 

I recall watching the reruns when they were on Soapnet and getting to see Delia/Jill for myself because my mom professed to love Jillian.. that she was a lawyer and feminisit, etc.  After viewing the early episodes, I visited my mom and asked her how she could view Jillian as a feminist when she was involved with a married man and putting her life on hold for a man... and my mom really didn't have a rebuttal.  And I said as annoying as Delia was, she still was the wronged wife and that I figured the show-runners probably had her cheat with Roger to even the score.. so to speak.  

 

Though the Labines were talented as writers, they also were guilty of character propping  (i.e. Frank Ryan)... and having the hamster effect on their stories/characters (Delia, Pat/Faith, Jill/Frank, Sibohan/Joe).  I will say at least Pat Faken Smith tried moving the characters forward instead of doing the hamster effect.. but she just went about it the wrong way.

[amybrickwallace]

Thank you for the thoughtful answer! I just wish I had been old enough to watch it the first time around. 

 

Why didn't things work out between Maggie and Dave? Didn't he marry one of Maeve and Johnny's granddaughters as soon as their divorce was final?

 

I recently wrote to Geoffrey and Cali (Timmins) Pierson (Frank #4 and Maggie), and they both kindly autographed the pictures I sent. What a classy couple. 

[You're Soaking in it]

 

Maggie's insecurities starting getting the best of her. She wanted to get pregnant to hang on to Dave (Scott Holmes), eventually sleeping with a fellow model just to improve her chances. I'm not sure if Dave ever found out about that, but I do remember that Maggie's behaviors put more and more distance between them.

 

And you're right: Dave did fall for the Ryan's grand daughter, Katie Thompson (Julia Campbell). After he divorced Maggie, he & Katie left town together...  he to Oakdale, and she to Santa Barbara.  

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[amybrickwallace]

Thank you, @YurSoakinginit!! I wish more of this story was up on YouTube.

[adrnyc]

Oh my Lord - I feel so DUPED!!! FOOLED! I'm such a naive little twit - I actually believed Joe!!!!!! I felt so bad for him and how Jack and the Ryan's were treating him now that he's back....WELL...Today was Episode 1502 where we find out that Joe hired someone to do everything to the Crystal Palace so that he could get buy it. I still don't know all the details of what's going on but, apparently, my husband does!  He just "watches" the show here and there when he's walking through the room and it's on. But I found out today that when Joe left last year, my husband did a google search to find out if the character ever came back and, in doing so, discovered the full story. He said it's been hell for him to keep his mouth shut this entire time ESPECIALLY ever since the character returned a few months ago and I've been so vocal about how awful the Ryan's are being to him, etc. LOL  I'm just absolutely floored. I didn't see that coming at all.

 

I agree - she really makes me feel for Jill and relate to her. I wasn't a big fan of the KGJ storyline but I think, at some point, I mentioned on here that Nancy managed to make me understand what the character was thinking and feeling and, at some point, won me over. It's a rare talent.