Ryan's Hope Discussion Thread

[DeliaIrisFan]

Speaking of the Locher Room, that was a lovely tribute to John Gabriel as well.  I was finally able to finish it on a rainy Sunday afternoon.  Several of the guests commented on having had few scenes with him, but of course once I thought about it, I remembered Nancy Addison and Diana van der Vlis have both been gone 20 years or so.

Seneca's story with Jill did overlap with both Delia and Rae's relationships with Frank.  To Ilene Kristen's point about Seneca being too smart to get involved with Delia, he was too smart even to work with Delia or Rae to keep Frank and Jill apart, whatever he may have worked solo to do.

There were some interesting Rae/Seneca scenes post-Kimberly that made it onto YouTube, fighting over Seneca and Kim's baby.  I recall one really good one even made it into the St. Patrick's Day marathon that SoapNet would air every year.

That was a nice story about JG reaching out to LS after she was let go.  For some reason, I thought Rae and Seneca were both written out around the same time—right after Labine and Mayer's departure—but I guess Seneca stayed on for a while as the generic doctor?  I can't imagine him interacting with any of the new characters from the mid-'80s.

[danfling]

Actor Robert LuPone (Chester Wallace in 1979 and 1980) has passed away.

Bob LuPone, a Tony-nominated actor and the founder of the off-Broadway MCC Theatre, has died. He was 76. The brother of Patti LuPone had been on a three-year battle with pancreatic cancer.

“The MCC Theater community mourns the loss of our much loved and uniquely inspiring partner, colleague, and dear friend, Bob LuPone, who lived fearlessly and with great curiosity, good humor, a boundless passion for connection, and a whole lot of heart. We will miss him deeply and always,” read a statement from MCC.

LuPone was born on July 29th, 1946 in Brooklyn, New York to Angela Louise (known as Pat), a housewife, and Orlando Joseph LuPone, a school principal.

 

 

His passion for the arts began at an early age. In the sixth grade at his North Port, Long Island elementary school, he saw his younger sister Patti dance at a PTA Dance Concert in a colorful hula skirt. After he told his mother how badly he wanted to wear the skirt, she told him that if that’s what he wanted then he’d have to enroll in dance class, which he did the following year. He started by taking tap lessons after school before enrolling in the Martha Graham Studio, where he studied under Antony Tudor, José Limon and Graham herself, from ages 15 to 18.

 

 

LuPone got accepted to Juilliard after a friend suggested he audition, an audition that he improvised. He would graduate with a BFA in Dance in 1968.

In 1966, he landed his first job as part of the ensemble of The Pajama Game starring Liza Minnelli. His Broadway debut would happen in 1968 in Noel Coward’s Sweet Potato and would later on appear in Minnie’s Boys, The Rothschilds, and The Magic Show.

LuPone was cast as Al in A Chorus Line but when one of the actors departed the production, he asked to audition for the part of Zach, which he would land. This role led LuPone to score a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. A Chorus Line opened at the Public Theater, before swiftly transferring to Broadway. The production was nominated for 12 Tony Awards at the 1976 ceremony.

While teaching an acting class at New York University, one of his students was Bernie Telsey, who together would form the Manhattan Class Company — known today as MCC Theatre.

LuPone, Telsey and Will Cantler successfully led MCC for nearly 40 years producing shows like Frozen, Hand to God, School Girls; or the African Mean Girls Play and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit.

 

 

While serving as a co-artistic director of MCC Theater, LuPone continued acting appearing in Broadway productions like A View from the Bridge, True West, and A Thousand Clowns. He was also in the Chicago premiere of Sam Shepard’s The Tooth of Crime and made television appearances on shows like The Sopranos, Sex & the City, Guiding Light and All My Children, for which he received a Daytime Emmy nomination.

LuPone is survived by his wife Virginia, his son Orlando, sister Patti, brother William

[Joseph]

Humm Considering i asked about Katherine Justice as Hope Bauer i would love to know, Why exactly did they have her playing Dr. Faith Coleridge back in 1979 for those 3 episodes??? i read she came last minute because the official actress wasn't willing to do the scenes

[Joseph]

I decided to give Ryan's Hope a real chance but it is kinda hard with so many of the early episodes missing from YOUTUBE could someone help me with that??? is there a place where i could watch those first 50episodes without being interrupted???

BTW a doubt a while back i tried a later storyline of "The Proud and The Passionate" (now that's a lame title LOL) and found it interesting especially Judith Barcroft as Barbara Wilde/Maggie but the episodes ended and I understand it's because the SoapNet Episodes ended, Would someone be so kind to tell how her story concluded? Was she really Invalid?

[safe]

Thank you, Slick!

 

Listening to Ariana Muenker (Amanda #2) and see that in 1983 they still continued the practice of having replacement actors walking around the studio in front of the actors. Michael Hawkins said he always knew when they were looking at Frank actors.  We were told on the SoapNet  MB , that Sarah Felder found out she was going to be let go when she saw Siobhan actors lined up in the halls(even though they didn't bring on a replacement right away)

Edited August 30, 2022 by safe

[safe]

After the last 20 so years of reading message boards and hearing stories, I have never heard that reason...or read any reason why Katherine Justice was filling in

[DRW50]

 

[slick jones]

This is great!   Thanks, @DRW50

[slick jones]

@victoria foxton @DRW50 @safe @Sean @applcin @Vee @beebs @robbwolff @vetsoapfan @amybrickwallace @jam6242 @DeliaIrisFan @AbcNbc247 @John @dc11786 @Paul Raven @danfling @Toups  @Errol   @janea4old @FrenchFan@KMan101 @Soapsuds

@Errol  You may want to get in touch with the author for an interview. 

 

Actors from Ryan's Hope interviewed by Tom Lisanti for his book. Short video.

Created a short, basic promo video (excuse some glitches) featuring all the interviewees (in chronological order with the cast first followed by the behind-the-scenes folks) included in my upcoming book Ryan’s Hope: An Oral History of Daytime’s Groundbreaking Soap due in The Fall of 2023 from Kensington Books.

Edited September 19, 2022 by slick jones

[Paul Raven]

That looks great. Interesting to see who's missing. Maybe some people were unavailable in the time frame or just didn't want to contribute.

[jam6242]

Thanks @slick jones!

[Faulkner]

I didn’t see Kate Mulgrew, or am I mistaken? Such a shame Claire Labine is gone, and Mary Ryan Munisteri died this year. Still an impressive list, and what a blessing to have Helen Gallagher still around and he managed to get Roscoe Born before his tragic passing.

[Soapsuds]

Is he any way related to Michelle Poteet Lisanti the soap writer? Maybe a brother in law to her?

[victoria foxton]

@slick jonesThanks for the tag Eric.

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[te.]

I think it's worth remembering that they're just doing this to be nice - it's a show that ended almost 35 years ago, unlikely to ever land a profitable syndication deal and won't be realistically released on DVD/Blu-Ray. So taking time out to promote something that's unlikely to ever earn them money is just a bonus.