This piece of information was on the Soapnet forum a few years ago and I had forgotten all about it until it was mentioned recently by someone. It was from poster, TotallyKate. She is the webmaster of TotallyKate! The Official Website of Kate Mulgrew.

3/15/08

by TotallyKate

A few years ago I happened to acquire from eBay notes about the original casting and storyline for Ryan's Hope. I had forgotten what was in it until I came across it last week when I was looking for something else.

In the original bible for 'A Rage to Love', Mary has gone to the police academy to follow in the footsteps of her big brother, Frank. Frank is still a policeman and he and his partner, Saul, are involved in a case with mob connections. Saul dies and then Frank is found at the bottom of the hospital steps. Frank eventually dies and Bob Clancey (last name was changed to Reid) and Mary investigate his death as they don't believe it was an accident. Mary "quits" the police force and goes undercover taking a job at the hospital. Jack does not agree with Mary risking her life by going undercover and this breaks up the relationship that has already developed between them. Jack then starts a relationship with Faith, although both he and Mary love each other. Faith was involved with Pat but that relationship broke up after Faith wanted marriage and Pat didn't. Jack's relationship with Faith of course is wonderful for the widow Delia who wants Pat back. So everyone seems to be without the person they really love which makes for many hours of wanting them to get back to the one they love.

Of course many aspects of the storyline changed drastically by the time "Ryan's Hope" made it on the air. It's interesting to note though that a lot of these original storyline ideas either ended up as backstory for the characters or as future storylines, such as the police academy and Siobhan.

That's very interesting stuff. I think Kate's Mary would have made a more believable cop than Siobhan, and might have given more story than the reporter stuff.

I can't imagine Faith/Jack at all! I wonder if this plan is why they had Jack and Jill as previous lovers.

I doubt they would have had the Jack and Jill backstory of a past affair, if they had gone forward with the plan for a Jack and Faith relationship.

Last summer, I found this on a google book/magazine search - Just posting the part about RH

Ebony Magazine - March 1978

Blacks in the 'Soaps'

Robert Costello, producer of ABC's Ryan's Hope, says, "The reason there aren't more Blacks or interracial relationships is not due to prejudice. It's just that Blacks must be able to be integrated into story lines. Ryan's Hope revolves around an Irish Catholic family, and by the time we finish with the stories about all of the family members, everyone else's part is peripheral. And we can't bring in a Black brother-in-law to one of the Ryan's."

The lone Black actor on Ryan's Hope is Hannibal Penney Jr., who portrays Dr. Clem Moultrie, the chief resident nuerosurgeon at New York's Riverside Hosptial. Penney is also a contract player. "I have had a story line as director of a strike by overworked hospital doctors at Riverside, but I don't have a love interest" says Penney. "Daytime TV is all about romance, and when an actor gets a full story with a love interest, then he can discern his following and how much audience appeal he has." Penney has been with Ryan's Hope for three years.

Edited January 4, 201114 yr by safe

The reporter said the interview was conducted the day Malcolm finished the play, that would have been in August 1976. This article has his birthday wrong – it should say August 16th.

An actor is often on the road – going wherever he must to get a good part. But the most important journey this young man had to make was not to look for work, but rather

Malcolm Groome's (Pat #1) Search For Himself

TV Dawn to Dusk – April 1977

It was well worth the long car ride to end up at the Cecilwood Playhouse in Fishkill, New York. The play that was being presented was Godspell, and the star of the show, in the role of Jesus, was Malcolm Groome. You didn't have to be a major drama critic to be able to tell that the theater was full of energy - full of magic - and that the audience was enthralled. What was most evident to the audience was that the pivotal character in the play was being performed by an actor with a special energy and magic, all of his own.

For a little over a year, television audiences have known Malcolm Groome as young Dr. Pat Ryan, as the tender but steadfast defender (and former lover) of his brother's wife, Delia. Summer stock audiences more recently had a chance to see him in the role of Jesus in that rock-musical version of the Gospel of St. Matthew. And there in general agreement that Malcolm plays both gentle characters with sensitivity and understanding. Malcolm, born on August 8, in Greensboro, N.C., credits meditation with “helping me relate better to myself and other people. Meditation is total relaxation of the mind and body, so that which is 'you' – which is larger than the mind can become aware of all feelings in your body.”

Malcolm's interest in Far Eastern philosophy began when he went through an “identity crisis”, as a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It wasn't the first such crisis – his entire childhood insecure, marked by constant moves because his father was a military officer. After college, Malcolm went to India, were he joined a dance ensemble, the Rainbow Gypsies, and more importantly, studied with the Guru Maharishi, of which he now says, “ I no longer follow his beliefs, but at that point in my life, it was good for me.”

He is learned, articulate, and well-guided in his life-interest of seeking inner knowledge. But beyond the things he says are the things he does, and Malcolm lives a life that radiates excitement and knowledge he finds from constantly delving inward.

Malcolm had just finished his run in Godspell on the day we met. He was happy because he had done something which had used his energies well. He also got to play a role which was a terrific channel for him - to project things that are in his thinking.

“I could use the highest expression of myself that I could reach - finally!” Malcolm beamed, “I suppose that all other roles will be more challenging. With this role it was easier for me because I could tune in purely - the rest has to filter through personally. That's more difficult.”

Was it a good experience to star in a vehicle?

“It was good to star. But there was a lot of star-type trappings with autograph signing and billing, which really isn't for me. I think the only way I could handle that was I had to realize it wasn’t me. It was my opportunity as a channel – to give joy. When you think about the word 'star', you can also think about a real star- a real star reflecting light.”

Malcolm's interest in meditation. and inner awareness, has been with him since he was a child.

“I was always spiritual. Sometimes I've veered, but like a lover I've always come back. When I'm most in touch with myself, I'm right with it. When I'm somewhat spaced out, I'm not there.”

Was there something that Malcolm could tell us about his self-knowledge and the desire to find your way “in”? So many people might also feel the need to learn more about their inner selves, but are awkward or unskilled in making the first plunge. There are also many new “religions” that both lure and tempt young people which just might not be right for them.

Carefully, Malcolm spoke about this.

"There are so many paths, that someone should follow whatever stirrings are within them, follow instinctively. Anyone who starts searching will find the books and the teachings. Anyone who starts, has the desire to know more about themselves – they will be led in the right direction. Consciousness produces form. If you want to learn about higher things, that in itself is the attraction. Specific things are hard to talk about because people are different. Some people might find it through therapy. All of it is so much a part of getting in touch. I would say that people should be open – but they should be discriminating.”

Malcolm Groome is aware that he is “evolving toward something.” He says that is a “clarity of consciousness.” But there seems to be things beyond that. For whatever Malcolm is finding within himself, there is much that is begin radiated out of himself. There is the love of his work on Ryan's Hope, and in his singing and dancing lessons, and there is the contact and impressions he has with the people in his life.

For the moment, there is no one Malcolm is involved with seriously. Yet, everyone whom Malcolm is involved with him seriously. Marriage! Someday – as all good things happen in their season – but for the time being he is just ” seeing an actress fairly regularly.”

In Malcolm's private life, he is greatly attuned to many people who share his spirituality.

“I try to maintain enough spiritual company – people who have an awareness of their own light and truth. It's a transmission of light that regenerates me.”

Ronni Warren Ashcroft

Edited January 4, 201114 yr by safe

Thanks for sharing these with us. Malcolm is still into this type of stuff now. It's too bad he doesn't do more acting, but he seems to be happy.

I think Clem was dropped from RH not long after that article. What a waste.

Catherine Hicks (Faith #3): Playing Faith Has Helped Me To Be Myself

TV BY DAY – May 1977

Catherine turned a childhood of fantasies into a grown-up story of real happiness

By Rocco Bufano

Catherine Hicks arrived in New York City last August to pursue a career as an actress. Within one week of her arrival, she was hired to do an Excedrin commercial. At the end of the third week of residing in the Big Apple, she had already been fully engaged in playing the role of D. Faith Coleridge, on ABC's Ryan's Hope.

Given the fact that there are hundreds of young women with similar goals who arrive in Manhattan during any month of the year and who are lucky to find work as waitresses, Catherine Hicks becomes somewhat of a mystery. The mystery, however, is solved the moment you meet this lovely young actress. To begin with, she has been perfectly put together. If she has any physical flaws, it would take a microscope to detect them. She is lushly blonde, with skin as smooth and firm as a freshly opened pint of cream.

“Listen, I'm sorry about the confusion, “ she announced on the appeared outside of the apartment building on Bleecker Street in the heart of Greenwich Village where I had been waiting for her. “You see, I'm staying with this friend of mine, Jordan Clarke, Tim Ryan on The Guiding Light, and when I told you we could do the interview here I thought he'd be working today. We'll he isn't, so could we just go to the Figaro and have some coffee?”

However, I had the keys to the apartment of a friend of mine who lives just around the corner, so we thought we'd go there where there would be fewer distractions than at the cafe.

“Oh, this is a terrific place,” she exclaimed as we entered my absent friends apartment and were greeted by her pleasantly surprised puppy. “This is the kind of place I need to find. Jordan has been really nice to let me stay at his place. Let me say here that Jordan and I are strictly friends, there's nothing romantic involved. But I need to find an apartment of my own. I'd like to live here in the Village. You know, I was born right down here at St. Vincent's Hospital. However, my parents moved to Arizona almost immediately after my birth. They both needed to live there because of the climate. We lived in the desert and it was very lonely growing up there. You see, I'm an only child and there weren’t any other children around, so I was always around older people. Which was okay, but I think I missed being around other kids. As a matter of fact, I know I did because when I finally went to school I was so anxious to make friends that I turned all the other kids off. When I did manage to make friends, I became so possessive that they couldn’t handle it. As a result, I spent a lot of time by myself as a child. I was very chubby and didn't like myself much. So I used to pretend I was other people. I would imitate the way they spoke and moved. I would even try to copy their handwriting. I suppose that's when I first became interested in acting, although, I didn't know it at the time. Now, even as an adult working on Ryan's Hope, I've found that playing Faith has helped me to be myself.”

As she begins to speak about herself, another aspect of the mysterious less than three week leap toward stardom became clear. Catherine Hicks is a very smart woman. Looking at her fiercely intelligent eyes you become aware that she is curious enough to have learned a great deal about herself and wise enough to communicate what she has learned.

“I was raised a very devout Roman Catholic, “ she confessed, “So when it came time to go to college, I chose Notre Dame. I was an English major, but also decided to study theology because I decided that I wanted to be a nun. Oh, not just a teaching nun. I was going to go off somewhere exotic and be a missionary. It all seemed very exciting and noble. Bu I guess I was too curious to limit my fantasies, so the image of myself as the noble nun faded. And then my imagination went berserk, which is when I got involved with learning to be an actress. It provides a form for your fantasies. By the way, this is my first interview I have ever given. I was a little frightened with the prospect of it, but I'm having a really nice time.”

“When I finished at Notre Dame, “ she continued, “ I went on to Cornell to do my graduate work in drama. That was an important time for me. I became aware that what I was always attempting to do but without much success was to have my fantasies mesh with reality. Well, that's what being actor is about. So those two years at Cornell, learning the process involved in acting were fantastic. I learned it well because I needed to. When I arrived in New York, I felt prepared.”

“I hesitated doing the soap when it was offered to me,” she admits. “I was prejudiced about working on soap operas. I thought it was an inferior form. But I have been humbled. It's very hard work and I'm learning great deal. You know, so many people, who work on soaps hate doing it. I went to a party with a friend of mine for another show and I went up to the actors I recognized from the show to tell them I enjoyed their work and most of them became embarrassed. It's hard for me to understand people whose work embarrasses them.”

When asked about her life away from work, the far from embarrassed actress candidly remarks, “Well, I have this special friend. His name is Peter. We were together at Cornell, where he directed me in a lot of plays. Yes, that's a special relationship. I'm not ready to get married - yet. I would also like to have a child someday.”

By now my friends puppy was resting peacefully under where Catherine Hicks was sitting. The puppy recognized a good spot when it found one.

Edited January 6, 201114 yr by safe

I never knew Jordan Clarke and Catherine Hicks were close friends. I wonder if they still know each other.

From the December 1976 Daytime TV.

I never knew Jordan Clarke and Catherine Hicks were close friends. I wonder if they still know each other.

More details were posted about that and it turns out that Jordan Clarke had graduated from Cornell a few years ahead of Catherine and was a friend of Catherine's boyfriend.

Thanks for the Helen Gallagher piece. Even though I've heard her real life New York voice elsewhere, whenever I read her quotes, I hear them in her Maeve Ryan Irish accent.

I know what you mean. When I watch her OLTL clips again I still hear her Irish accent, even though it's not real.

I haven't had time to type up the pages of the article that had no photos but I will soon!

mad quickly - snap! - I have a quick tongue...but real anger, no. It takes hours. You have to really keep at me. Then I don't like it. I usually don't express it. If I really get angry, forget it. I'm just finished. Then the person dies for me."

In that moment, you know you'd hate, more than anything, to be the culprit. But Helen doesn't dwell on anger. In fact, she doesn't dwell on anything. Her mind is in constant motion.

"I like to laugh. I like to work. I like to play. I'm contented with life. I don't sit around and regret things I've done - I don't have enough memory for that. I'm very mercurial - up and down like a gosh-darned yo-yo! It's an essential part of me. You can't act if you're not in touch with your feelings. It's not a cerebral art. Cerebral actors are boring! You have to be cerebral to decide what you want to do, but then you have to be able to carry it out as a feeling person. The child is the one who acts. Everybody has a child."

More and more people seem to be aware of the child within the adult, but there still seem to be some exceptions. Helen scoffs at such an idea.

"They're just not in touch with them! They're dead! They're just tuned out! I wouldn't even call them adult. I think you have to have a child within in order to be an adult. The child part is the spontaneous, non-judgmental, free spirit that roams in all of us. Some people may have deadened that - if so, they've killed themselves."

With such an attitude, it seems a shame Helen has no children of her own. Although she would have liked them, she's philosophical about it.

"The way I look at it, there's no way to turn life around. It's not the best of all possible worlds, but it's the only world we've got and we'd better deal with it."

A winner of two Tony Awards, Helen has made the transition from stage to television so smoothly that she even captured an Emmy for this, her first daytime serial.

"I was thrilled to get it. I really was. I was surprised and very pleased. It's a lovely thing to be commended by your peers. It was a nice way to be accepted within the confines of TV."

And the 'confines of TV' - particularly daytime drama - having been frequently put down by theatrical actors, it is interesting to put the question to an experienced actress like Helen. As usual, she is succinct.

"It's like saying I don't like a bicycle because it's not a car. You can't compare. It can only be a good bicycle. It will never be a good car - or a bad car! If you're going to criticize it on the basis of a play - it isn't a play. It doesn't pretend to be."

Helen always wanted to be on the stage, only then it was dancing, not acting. Has she achieved all her goals?

"I never really set out to achieve anything. I'm not goal-oriented in the distance, ever. Never have been. I'm not suggesting I don't have drive - I have strong inner drive or I wouldn't be in this business. But my goals are always very immediate. Right now, what I'm doing is to be, to do this script, this day, at this moment in time and tomorrow will take care of itself. I don't look at it as a long-range process. If I think, right this minute, that I want to go to Hollywood and be a big a movie star, that makes me very discontented in the situation I'm in. I never plan anything."

But then she surveys her world and a smile pulls at the corners of her mouth.

"I obviously have, on a very unconscious level, very great plans, because my life has come out just exactly the way I wanted it."

It's a statement not often made - and really nice to hear. And if there are any inhibitions born of always striving for perfection and approval since childhood, acting releases them.

"Something about an audience frees me unbelievably! I'd do anything in front of an audience! I love to perform! I would stand on my head to get a laugh! I am a performer, no matter what I do. Whether I sing or dance or act. Same thing. A performer is a show-off! A performer is a person, like a kid, who gets out there and wants to get laughs. That's my need.

"Now that's not necessarily the actor's need at all. In fact, I find acting quite painful. I don't really want to strip away my innermost feelings. I did a play called Hothouse - it was probably the most painful experience of my life. I don't want to be pained on stage. I want to have a good time! In order to make people cry, you've gotta go sad. Who needs that? There's enough of that in life! All this weepy stuff!"

While she is a marvelous actress, her teaching seems to be every bit as important as her.

"If I do nothing else well in the world, I am a brilliant teacher!" she declares proudly. "I have the patience of a saint."

But that's one of the amazing things about Helen - she just doesn't do things badly.

"If I decide to do something, I somehow always manage to get it down, whatever it is, to understand the inner workings of it. I know it sounds pompous, but I couldn't give myself permission to do things badly. Even as a kid, when my mother was teaching me to knit, I must have ripped that sweater 20 times before it was made. But when it was done, it was beautiful! I don't like to slough things off."

For some reason, she doesn't sound at all pompous, and before you have time to resent someone so accomplished, she chuckles and owns up to her pet aversion.

"The only thing I like to slough off is housework! I loath that! I would sweep that under the carper in a minute! But it bothers me."

She's tried having someone in to clean for her, but that doesn't work too well, either.

"It gives me guilt because I feel basically, I have the time...I really do. The way I do it, I could get the kitchen clean in 15 minutes! Somebody else may take two hours, but I can get it done in 20 minute tops. And then I end up not being pleased with what they do. Like last time - a very sweet woman - but I sat down and could see dust under the lamp. Now, I can do that! I can leave dust!"

Just as you have come to some conclusions about Helen and decided her self-sufficiency is probably her greatest strength, she acknowledges it, but disagrees with the conclusion.

"My quirk in life is that I'm not so sure I look to people to fill my needs - I tend to look to myself, which is strange. I don't think that's good. You really have to do some taking in life, but I don't tend to do as much of that as I should.

"Nevertheless, people are important to me. I have a lot of friends, a few close friends, and I keep them for a very long time."

When people keep their friends a long time, it says a great deal about them.

When the interview is over, Helen is up and gone in a minute.

But she leaves her warmth and humor behind and the distinct feeling that having her for a friend would be a privilege indeed.

by Gloria Paternostro

Andrew Robinson (Frank #2): After My Dad Died I Started Stealing (1977)

How Andrew Robinson went from troubled youth to super family man

After My Dad Died I Started Stealing

DAYTIME TV - September 1977

It's hard to believe that Andrew Robinson – who plays political hero Frank Ryan on Ryan's Hope – was once on the wrong side of the law. Today, he's a respected actor, a devoted husband and father, but Andrew makes no bones about the fact that he survived a very troubled youth. In fact, much of his childhood reads like a page from a James Dean movie.

He was born on Valentines' Day at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York. When he was three, his father was killed in the war, and shortly afterward, Andrew and his mother moved to Manchester, Connecticut (a suburb of Hartford), where her relative lived.

"I had a terrible childhood," Andrew recalls. "After my father died, my mother got very sick and everything kind of got messed up. I started stealing and went to juvenile court a few times. Finally, the judge warned me, 'The next tine you're here, you're going to reform school.' But he really didn’t want that to happen because I was so young – I was only ten years old – so he put me in the hands of a social worker who came up with another solution for me."

"They sent me to a school in Rhode Island for kids from broken homes. It was a charity institution run by the Episcopal Church. It was called an industrial school because you worked – all the kids did chores, with adults overseeing them."

"It was pretty rough for me going into a place like that, without my family, and with all the emotional problems I had. It was very regimented, it had to be! Let's face it, most of the kids there, myself included, were just a bunch of barbarians."

"I was very angry when I got there – and I got into some really bad scrapes. But, underneath, I really had this incredible need, I guess, to do something I could be proud of."

As fate would have it, Andrew soon got a chance to do just that.

"There was a teacher there, Alphin Gould, who ran the drama department. He's man who really set me on the road to acting. One day he said to me, 'Andrew, why are you wanting to spend time fooling around and getting into trouble? Why don't you come down to the theater? I need a shepherd boy for the Christmas play.'"

Andrew took him up on the offer- and he's been hooked on acting ever since.

"After that, his school career improved considerably – although he did run into trouble again while majoring in English at the University of New Hampshire.

"I got kicked out of college for political activities," he admits without any embarrassment.

"It was back in 1962, before campus protest became socially acceptable. New Hampshire is a state college and two years of ROTC were required for every male student. Well, two other guys and myself said, "No, we don't want to go out and march, and carry M-1 rifles!' I was totally innocent about what I was getting myself into. But it caused such an uproar – the whole football team wanted our scalps – and finally the administration asked us to leave."

After biding farewell to the halls of ivy, Andrew went to New York for a while, then headed for Europe to study drama. Later, he worked in repertory theater in New England and in the Midwest before getting his first big gig off-Broadway break in MacBird. (Ironically one of his cast mates in MacBird was Michael Hawkins, whom Andrew would later replace on Ryan’s Hope.)

While earning his acting wings off-Broadway, Andrew also found romance. He met his wife in a very unusual way – while he was on a blind date with someone else!

"I was working at the Cafe La _Mama in New York," he says." I was acting in a play that I'd written, and the night of the very last performance some friends of mine dropped backstage."

"We were all going to a party after the show and they brought along a girl they were trying to fix me up with. Well, we all piled into a cab together and I thought she was very nice, but as far any kind of romantic entanglement - forget it. There were no sparks between us."

When Andrew arrived at the party, sparks did fly – but in a rather unexpected way.

"I opened the door and there was Irene sitting in a corner by herself. And this incredible thing happened. I just walked right over and sat down next to her. We started rapping and we've never left each other since."

Seven years ago – on March 9, 1970 – they were married at New York's City Hall. Two struggling actors with limited finances, that were in no position to afford a lavish honeymoon. But, as soon as they could they did manage to sneak off to Mexico for a while.

"Actually we had an extraordinary honeymoon," says Andrew. "it was one of the great trips of my life. We didn't have any money, but a couple months after we were married, I bought an old car for fifty dollars. It was the first car I ever owned – it was a beat up, beige 1960 Ford Falcon. We drove it all the way down through Mexico, close to Guatemala, then back up to Los Angeles and San Francisco, and finally home to New York, And that rickety old car never gave us any trouble at all during the whole trip. When we got home to New York, I sold it to somebody in the Bronx for five bucks."

"There was only one bad incident on the trip. In a hotel in Oaxaca, we were accused of being dirty hippies! We happened to be dressed very casually but we didn't think it was a posh resort place. It just looked like a nice hotel, so we decided to stop over there. We had no problem getting a bungalow, but there was retired Admiral staying right next door to us. He had a big shiny Cadillac parked outside his bungalow, and we had out rusty Ford outside ours. He probably complained to the management that he didn't want these low lifes living next door to him!"

After the honeymoon, Andrew and Irene settled into a quiet domestic routine with her two sons, Dan and Steve, and four years ago, they became the proud parents of a daughter, Rachel. For awhile, they all lived in California, where Andrew made films with Walter Mathau, Paul Newman, and Roy Rogers, and played a psychopathic killer in the Clint Eastwood movie, Dirty Harry. Then, last year, the Ryan's Hope role came along, and the Robinson returned to New York.

These days, they make their home in Manhattan’s upper West Side, where Andrew unwinds from his acting work by running , writing free-verse poetry and film scripts, and taking Rachel on jaunts to the Central Park carousel and the Museum of Natural History.

He's also a rather formidable housekeeper - a talent that amuses and delights his wife. "I do everything. I wash the dishes. I vacuum. I do it all! I could probably hire myself out as a domestic. You see, I'm very a neat person by nature. When we were dating, Irene was amazed the first time she saw my apartment. She said I was the only person she knew who was neat the way she was!"

Despite the upheavals of early home life, it's obvious that Andrew Robinson is a dedicated family man. He reality admits that his wife and children are what matter most to him.

"What keeps me going through the worst times is my family. If I get depressed about my work, if my ego gets bruised because I lose a role to another actor, I just come home and thank God that I have my family. That's what gives me my identity, my place in the world, my sense of responsibility."

"I think Irene and I have very successful marriage because we care about each other as much as we care about ourselves. I don't want that to sound corny, but if I had to put my life on the line for my family, I would do I in a minute. I would die for my family, and I know that the feeling is reciprocated."

"Irene and I have primal responsibility toward each other and toward the children. So, any problems we have to work out, we both figure, 'Okay, we'll work them out.'"

"Marriage isn't easy. It's not a never-never land. We often investigate why we're together, especially if there's tension in the house. If we're angry or upset with each other, we'll let it come out."

"We air our differences. We don't say we have to keep up appearances for the sake of the children, or for the sake of our neighbors, or for the sake of our careers. To hell with it! If it's not working, it's not working and we'll try to fix it."

"And if the time ever comes when we can't fix it, we'll face that, too. Because we've both been through this before. Irene's been married before and so have I."

"So, we try to be as honest as we can with each other and that's what keeps us alive – really alive."

By Jason Bonderoff

That was a fascinating interview. He led quite a full life even up to RH.

His daughter went on to also appear on DS9.

Over the years, Andrew Robinson has said he was fired because that the viewers couldn't get his Dirty Harry performance out of their head, which interfered with his being accepted as Frank. Sounds like there could be a little truth in that story. This was a short blurb in the gossip section.

DAYTIME TV -July 1977

ANDREW ROBINSON, Frank Ryan on Ryan's Hope, got his movie start as an unforgettable villian in Dirty Harry. "I played this incredibly insane psychopathic killer that Clint Eastwood spent the entire movie chasing," he recalls. "Even today, women still come up to me on the street and say, 'You don't know me, but ever since I saw you in Dirty Harry I've had horrible nightmares about you!" Andy's 18-year-old-stepson, Steven, had a bit role in Dirty Harry. He played the young boy who Andy held hostage at the end of the film.