Ryan's Hope Discussion Thread

[TheyStartedOnSoaps]

Today is the 49th Anniversary of Ryan's Hope - having debuted on ABC 49 years ago today - July 7th, 1975

Which means we are one year away from the 50th Anniversary - there have been suggestions about a 50th Anniversary gathering for the fans - only problem is someone has to organize it. So far nobody has stepped up to the plate

Happy 49th Ryan's Hope!

[Maxim]

Happy 49th! I am up to episode I think 15 or 16... getting better and better. 

[DRW50]

Happy 49th. Some of the best soap moments of all time and some of the best actors.  I'm grateful I got to watch those first 6 years on Soapnet.

Edited July 7, 2024 by DRW50

[TheyStartedOnSoaps]

Former Executive Producer of Ryan's Hope Joseph Hardy has passed away at age 95

Joseph Hardy Dead: Broadway Director, Producer Of 'Ryan's Hope' Was 95 (deadline.com)

 

 

[Sapounopera]

Episode 817 

All these 1978 recasts at the same time are shocking. Frank, Mary (twice!), Pat, Faith, even the boring Nancy Feldman girl.

Hot Frank is ok for the generic triangle with Rae and Jillian, but I still miss nice Frank (Andrew Robinson). The second Mary was fine, I could even see the actress as Siobahn. The third Mary is embarassing to say the least. The show's heroine became an annoying woman who yells all the time and treats Jack as her wife. New Pat is cute and sweet, but he acts so shy and awkward. Thank God he doesn't share scenes with Delia. I don't hate him, but as most of the new faces on the show, he seems to lack the personality of the former actor. Same with Faith#4, but at least her version connects to Faith#1.

Several nice people are gone. Clem, Bucky, Alicia and Angel. The hospital is no longer that important to the show and I am not sure I like where Rae is taking Ryan's Hope. I still love the Ryans as a unit, adore kitchen and bar scenes, love Maeve and Johnny and Siobahn is a breath of fresh air. 

Jillian seemed so sophisticated when the show started. Now all she does cry and yell. Seneca seems the only mature person in the Edmund mess. 

Roger and Delia are wasted on cutesy scenes. 

The stories (and the scenes) become soapier, the show is no longer gritty, it no longer feels like a play. But it is good, entertaining soap with some very charismatic actors. 

I know THE DOCTORS got a bar called Medicine Man which was run by the blue-collar Dancy family. Can you remember any other soaps that copied Ryan Bar? Oh and of course SEARCH brought Louise Shaffer, Michael Corbett and Peter Haskell when Ellen Barrett was EP, right? Did the Irish McLearys show up at the same time?

 

[Maxim]

You are so far! I envy you! I am just at the beginning! I hope I manage to watch to episode 800+ with the little free time I have. 

Edited July 13, 2024 by Maxim

[kalbir]

June 8, 1981 to October 5, 1984 Ryan's Hope time slot rival was Y&R. These were the weeks Ryan's Hope won the time slot

June 22-26, 29-July 3, 6-10, 1981

August 3-7, 10-14, 1981

August 31-September 4, 7-11, 1981

September 28-October 2, 5-9, 1981

October 19-23, 26-30, 1981

November 2-6, 1981

February 15-19, 1982

April 5-9, 1982

May 17-21, 1982

May 31-June 4, 1982

Ryan's Hope and Y&R tied the week of June 7-11, 1982, and that was it for Ryan's Hope being competitive vs. Y&R.

Remainder of 1982 Ryan's Hope falls and Y&R rebounds from their post-expansion slump. 1983 Y&R blew up and we know the rest.

[Sapounopera]

Perhaps she would have helped Frank with his political career, playing Rae's part in the story? Ending up with a daughter?

[vetsoapfan]

Of all the recasts, Kathleen Tolan as Mary was the most inexplicable, and painfully wrong for the role. I could never adjust to John Blazo as Pat, but at least he could act. Tolan was loud, coarse, and unbearable.

I thought Mary Carney was about as good a recast TPTB were going to get, considering Kate Mulgrew was...well, Kate Mulgrew, the definitive Mary. Firing Carney so quickly was a bone-headed move, and what we got after she left was so, so much worse.

Between bellowing NuMary and yelling Jillian, it was a toss-up to decide who was more abrasive.

But the loss of the stage-play like quality really brought the show down from its former, exalted level, alas. It lost its special sheen, IMHO, and all the recasts that year didn't help matters.

Still, the fact that it had been so good for so long is a blessing.

 

Edited July 15, 2024 by vetsoapfan

[Sapounopera]

The early years felt like a play or a BBC series. By 1978 this vibe is lost, the switch from Robert Costello to Ellen Barrett might have something to do with this.

[safe]

Yes, a number of possibilities. Some on the Soapnet board thought that Rae could have instead been Frank's former Park Avenue society girlfriend, CeCe Harris. I thought something like after she and Frank broke up--- CeCe married an older wealthy man and  restless CeCe could have been the one to urge her husband to financially back up and coming candidate Frank because she still had feelings for him. Her husband--- and then later Jill --- jealous of their past relationship.  Even the affair ---while Frank and Jill had their campaign swing break up ---would have made  sense as why Frank ended up in CeCe/Rae's bed so quickly. They also already had the backstory of the Ryan family not liking CeCe.

Louise Shaffer could have still owned a newspaper and TV station with ties to reporters Jack and Mary and had her relationship with Roger.

 

Edited July 16, 2024 by safe

[safe]

Tom was OK those last few months of his run because he was barely onscreen. After the Faith/Tom/Poppy story was quickly wrapped up, Tom MacGreevy only had 2 extremely brief appearances (one without any dialog) in the approx. 2 1/2 months before his final handful of episodes when he bit the apple.

 

Julia Barr made it sound like she was let go by Ryan's Hope and then auditioned and hired by AMC.

Julia's version fits with what soap magazines reported at the time - - that the show wanted to trim the cast and refocus on Ryan/Coleridge stories.

 

[DRW50]

That would make sense, although I think it's also down to the loss of some of the more stagey actors of those first few years, like Kate Mulgrew.

I do love those early years, although I think that particular vibe is lost by early to mid 1976. That's when it feels like the show really shifts into more melodramatic plots and less character beats. 

Thanks. That makes sense. 

That was also a good period for Faith in that I barely had to see her either...

[John]

I am going off an interview Claire gave to We LOve Soaps

Ryan asks: Did the network decide to send Julia Barr to ALL MY CHILDREN straight from RH? The Reenie storyline just seemed to end so abruptly.
Claire Labine: Yes.  Agnes [Nixon] wanted her.  I think that’s alright to say, she did want her.  Fred Silverman [President of ABC Entertainment] was not particularly interested in Nick Szabo and the criminal element.  But the criminal element was right for the neighborhood and right for the time.  I don’t know if it that’s how Fred was justifying it for us because Agnes wanted Julia, or what.  But that was the heavy influence there.

https://www.welovesoaps.net/2009/12/claire-labine-answers-your-questions_22.html

 

[safe]

Yeah, Julia's interview was 2 years later --- so the interviewer could have brought up what Claire said. It was kind of cruel for RH/ABC to let Julia go and not tell her she already had the AMC job ---Julia wouldn't have to have worried about the bad audition she gave for the unknown AMC role.