I loved Sarah Felder so much as Siobhan, from the first time I saw her in the Soapnet reruns. I never have understood why she didn't have a bigger career. I blamed various things, but if that report about her teaching/coaching is any indication, along with some of the claims about her at the show, I guess I have to accept she played a big part.

@dc11786 Thanks for finding that show. I will have to go through it sometime. RH's early core could be adapted in many places, even today.

Rona Barret's Daytimers 1979

On 8/9/2026 at 10:44 AM, DeliaIrisFan said:

@safe I'm sorry I didn't see this before now, or even realize the site had vanished. I am alive and well, but apparently Tripod is not. 💔

I went down a rabbit hole and seem to have most if not all of the content saved on backup drive(s), but not formatted/organized in a way that I could easily reconstruct. Not that I would necessarily want to actively put it out into the world again now in such an outdated and amateurish format. I also appreciate that ≥ 50% of the content is not useful now, between YouTube and the Tom Lisanti book (which is much better).

That said, RH deserves some kind of website - insofar as websites are still a thing. I'm going to think about what to do with what I still have. In the meantime, if you're still looking for whatever you were looking for a few months back, or have any other questions about the show, I'd be happy to look through my archives.

Anyway, apologies again. I spend shockingly little time on the canceled soaps section anymore - I'm trying to keep up with Beyond the Gates, and every time I venture over here, the RH thread always seems to be buried. It's bittersweet, because I have not cared about a current soap this much since at least the turn of the millennium, when I decided I preferred watching reruns from 25 years before.

@DeliaIrisFan Thank you for the update and for all you've done to save some RH history. I didn't realize Tripod was gone. I had Ilene's Tripod website marked (which I believe you helped set up) and that is also gone. There was another website with focus on the early years, mainly Kate Mulgrew, but it had some magazine RH gossip news and a couple other interviews like Catherine Hicks--that must have been Tripod or Angelfire, too.

I think I was looking for the daily recaps at RBO.

Edited September 5Sep 5 by safe

Promo Nancy Don's arrival at about 50:04

Promo with John, Nancy Don, Lizzie, Ben at about 25:24

Early 1984 Connie's claim that RH numbers improved once PFS took isn't true. And many would claim that the quality also didn't improve. There seemed to be backlash about the action moving to the Deli and other changes.

Changes Gives Hope To 'Ryan' Ratings By Connie Passalacqua

The name of the game in soap operas as in the rest of T V is ratings. As evidenced by the high rate of turnover, the networks and producers are convinced the quickest way to achieve higher soap numbers is to change a shows headwriter. No show in recent years has shown such a quick improvement in both ratings and quality as "Ryan’s Hope" since Pat Falken Smith took over the headwriting chores last December. Taking over ailing shows is Miss Smith's specialty and she is known unofficially in the field as the "soap doc." She originally wrote "Days of Our Lives" in its most successful days of the late ’60s and early ’70s and briefly returned to that show in 1981 to create what remains today to be the show's most successful characters. She also took "Guiding Light" over briefly after the regime of its successful headwriter. Doug Marland. Her most impressive credit, however, remains her three year term of headwritmg at "General Hospital" during the era in which the Luke and Laura story took the show and all of daytime TV to new ratings, heights and popularity.

Miss Smith has story savvy, as evidenced by the quick turnaround o f " R H . " once daytime's most popular show, which had sunken to a terrible ratings low She has taken the show's best actors and given their character's story lines new importance. When Miss Smith came to the show,Maggie Shelby was just another teen temptress. Cali Timmins, the young actress with Lolita like sex appeal who plays her, was being wasted. Miss Smith quickly made several older male characters, such as Roger Coleridge (Ron Hale) and Seneca Beaulac (John Gabriel), become attracted to her. But the most successful change occurred when Miss Smith sensed the chemistry between Miss Timmins and Geoffrey Pierson, who plays Frank Ryan. Maggie’s compassionate yet lustful brother -in-law. Their romance, played out while Frank's wife Jillian (Nancy Addison Altman) was abroad, has been the sexiest of this soap year. Here is a magnetic couple worth tuning in every day to watch. Miss Smith has also added appealing new characters around the show's Ryan family mainstays. Most of the show's action occurs in Dave Greenberg’s deli, which is next door to the site of Ryan’s Bar. Greenberg is most appealingly played by Scott Holmes The headwriter has also added teenage girls, who have attracted larger audiences in her past shows. Traci Lin plays Pru. a runaway, and Lauren O'Brien plays Kathleen. a Ryan granddaughter, who has ambitions to be a dancer.

5 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Early 1984 Connie's claim that RH numbers improved once PFS took isn't true. And many would claim that the quality also didn't improve. There seemed to be backlash about the action moving to the Deli and other changes.

Changes Gives Hope To 'Ryan' Ratings By Connie Passalacqua

The name of the game in soap operas as in the rest of T V is ratings. As evidenced by the high rate of turnover, the networks and producers are convinced the quickest way to achieve higher soap numbers is to change a shows headwriter. No show in recent years has shown such a quick improvement in both ratings and quality as "Ryan’s Hope" since Pat Falken Smith took over the headwriting chores last December. Taking over ailing shows is Miss Smith's specialty and she is known unofficially in the field as the "soap doc." She originally wrote "Days of Our Lives" in its most successful days of the late ’60s and early ’70s and briefly returned to that show in 1981 to create what remains today to be the show's most successful characters. She also took "Guiding Light" over briefly after the regime of its successful headwriter. Doug Marland. Her most impressive credit, however, remains her three year term of headwritmg at "General Hospital" during the era in which the Luke and Laura story took the show and all of daytime TV to new ratings, heights and popularity.

Miss Smith has story savvy, as evidenced by the quick turnaround o f " R H . " once daytime's most popular show, which had sunken to a terrible ratings low She has taken the show's best actors and given their character's story lines new importance. When Miss Smith came to the show,Maggie Shelby was just another teen temptress. Cali Timmins, the young actress with Lolita like sex appeal who plays her, was being wasted. Miss Smith quickly made several older male characters, such as Roger Coleridge (Ron Hale) and Seneca Beaulac (John Gabriel), become attracted to her. But the most successful change occurred when Miss Smith sensed the chemistry between Miss Timmins and Geoffrey Pierson, who plays Frank Ryan. Maggie’s compassionate yet lustful brother -in-law. Their romance, played out while Frank's wife Jillian (Nancy Addison Altman) was abroad, has been the sexiest of this soap year. Here is a magnetic couple worth tuning in every day to watch. Miss Smith has also added appealing new characters around the show's Ryan family mainstays. Most of the show's action occurs in Dave Greenberg’s deli, which is next door to the site of Ryan’s Bar. Greenberg is most appealingly played by Scott Holmes The headwriter has also added teenage girls, who have attracted larger audiences in her past shows. Traci Lin plays Pru. a runaway, and Lauren O'Brien plays Kathleen. a Ryan granddaughter, who has ambitions to be a dancer.

I didn't care for PFS's RH at all. Too much Maggie, the Deli, Max Dubujack, creepy Roger, Jack in random pairings etc. The show felt so tired, like the last seasons of an 80s primetime soap. RH was at its best in the 70s when it was a cross between a play and a UK soap.

Promo at about 52:00 with Pat, Frank, and Dakota

Over the years, DeliaIrisFan and Sean noted that the Kate Mulgrew's 1983 scenes were filmed almost a year before they aired in 1982 and how those scenes referenced Leigh by name and Leigh's father. I don't remember if this had been mentioned before, but in my old notes from the SN forum, posters told us that Claire Labine said she had written those scenes a year before (which would be 1981) they taped them. She said they always had Leigh in mind for Jack when they wanted to first kill Mary off. Even before they got the approval to get rid of Mary, they explained to ABC how Leigh would arrive after Jack had an appropriate time of mourning and he would finally be ready to open himself up to love someone again.

This seems to mean Rose was never meant to be a longer character --- unless they would move her into a storyline with someone else. wWho was available? Roger?

Rose Alaio did say she had a feeling she wasn't going to be on the show more than a year (I think for various reasons she thought that --- like the show asking her to take a pay cut)

Still amazing how smoothly they pulled if off when it came time to cast Leigh and insert her in the show.

Edited September 10Sep 10 by safe

On 8/26/2026 at 2:05 AM, Paul Raven said:

Early 1984 Connie's claim that RH numbers improved once PFS took isn't true. And many would claim that the quality also didn't improve. There seemed to be backlash about the action moving to the Deli and other changes.

Changes Gives Hope To 'Ryan' Ratings By Connie Passalacqua

Very disappointing from Connie P. Had she actually watched the show? So much of this is just plain wrong. If PFS actually took over in December 1983 (I thought it was earlier in the fall, but maybe they were officially without a head writer for a month or so there), then that was at most 4 months after CT debuted. How could she have been "wasted"? And some of Maggie's first scenes were with Roger, and there was definitely tension with Frank right from the beginning, so what was she talking about? It's like she genuinely thought Maggie had grown up on the show and PFS was the first to notice she'd grown up.

As far as the ratings, I'm not sure when exactly this was written, but presumably before the timeslot change. At that point, RH was still in range with a lot of soaps, and I know back then there were big fluctuations. Hell, didn't almost every soap gain a million or so viewers during the holidays well into the '90s? Maybe even some of PFS's early stunts attracted eyeballs: Delia's return (as Robin Mattson), the explosion at Ryan's Bar, etc. I'm sure you could cherry but AFAIK, the idea that there was any meaningful, sustained gain is about as unfounded as the claim that RH was "once daytime's most popular show." Again, WTF?

CP could have framed this as: "This was never my show, but I'm a fan of her prior work and I've been checking it out and here are some things I like. Maybe the changes can help the show make long-term ratings gains." I feel like in her Weekly days, her commentary had that kind of nuance, even when her takes went against the grain. Maybe they also had better fact-checkers? ETA: I'm sure she also had more final say over editorial changes to articles that went out under her byline by then.

On 9/10/2026 at 6:59 PM, safe said:

Over the years, DeliaIrisFan and Sean noted that the Kate Mulgrew's 1983 scenes were filmed almost a year before they aired in 1982 and how those scenes referenced Leigh by name and Leigh's father. I don't remember if this had been mentioned before, but in my old notes from the SN forum, posters told us that Claire Labine said she had written those scenes a year before (which would be 1981) they taped them. She said they always had Leigh in mind for Jack when they wanted to first kill Mary off. Even before they got the approval to get rid of Mary, they explained to ABC how Leigh would arrive after Jack had an appropriate time of mourning and he would finally be ready to open himself up to love someone again.

This seems to mean Rose was never meant to be a longer character --- unless they would move her into a storyline with someone else. wWho was available? Roger?

Rose Alaio did say she had a feeling she wasn't going to be on the show more than a year (I think for various reasons she thought that --- like the show asking her to take a pay cut)

Still amazing how smoothly they pulled if off when it came time to cast Leigh and insert her in the show.

I mean, Rose was gone by the 4th of July 1981, and the writers had been on strike for several months by then. I would guess Labine meant she wrote those scenes after the strike ended, when they were developing whatever the original plan was for the Kirklands. I think Jack and Rose could have worked as a couple, and I don't feel like the writers were not invested in Rose. But I imagine they decided to cut their losses after that terrible scab exit. Plus in hindsight it was realistic that Jack's first relationship after Mary died didn't last.

Edited September 12Sep 12 by DeliaIrisFan