Ryan's Hope Discussion Thread

[John]

John Blazo First day as Pat Ryan. John's stint ran from July 24, 1978-July 12, 1979

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Edited July 10, 2014 by John

[amybrickwallace]

Oh my gosh, those 70s clothes!! Hilarious!!

[DRW50]

John Blazo was a hot hot piece of ass, and a sensitive, understated actor with a good wry humor. I have always thought the show did him a huge disservice with his material, complete with a truly bizarre scene where he and Nana Visitor laid in bed together talking about how they looked like brother and sister.

Apparently Claire Labine was writing Game of Thrones before GRRM did.

[amybrickwallace]

HA!! She was ahead of her time!!

[safe]

As posted here a while ago and in the Almost Became thread – Kathryn Breech (Karen Wolek #1 on One Life To Live ) said she was offered the role of Faith but turned it down because she didn't want to be a recast. Then Nancy Barrett began as Faith.

Edited October 6, 2023 by safe

[safe]

In an interview, when she was on another soap, Nicolette Goulet said she felt they were still writing for Kate's Mary for most of her run – she felt finally near the end they were writing for her.

[DRW50]

My thoughts on the other recasts shown here:

Robyn Millan - she looked too old for the role. Very affected. I have no idea if she was meant to last longer than she did.

Nancy Barrett - I loved Nancy on Dark Shadows, but she seemed very wan and strangely insecure here, and again she looked a little old for the material, not helped by the terrible styling of the show

Mary Carney - she was OK. The problem was I didn't like Mary Ryan, I never liked Mary, even with Kate Mulgrew, although Kate salvaged some of the material with her charm and chemistry with co-stars.

Kathleen Tolan - wretched. One of the top three worst recasts in all of daytime history. Anti-chemistry with Michael Levin, inability to speak, bull-in-a-china shop line readings. She's the main reason Mary was killed off IMO.

Nicolette Goulet - again, odd line readings. Not much chemistry with Levin. The problem for her was that by this time the show had lost track of who Mary was as a character. Siobhan had also stolen much of her thunder. I do think she was very good in her last few weeks in the role, especially her final confrontations with Jack.

[safe]

Random thoughts --

I think Robyn Millan, Nancy Barrett, and Mary Carney (much theater) were all a great deal more experienced (in acting) than Nicolette Goulet.

Mary Carney often had that theatrical line delivery that Kate had.

I would have liked to have seen Nancy Barrett with John Gabriel (not necessarily on RH, but somewhere).

Edited July 8, 2014 by safe

[amybrickwallace]

I feel sorry for Helen Gallagher and Bernie Barrow, who must have needed a scorecard to keep track of which actor was playing which of their on-screen kids. Yikes!!

[John]

Robert Finoccoli first day as Pat Ryan. He was on from July 14, 1979-October 3 1979

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[amybrickwallace]

Pat #3 was SCARY. He just seemed so angry and mean - the total antithesis of the easygoing, playful Pat #1 (Malcolm Groome) and the soft-spoken, sweet and gentle Pat #2 (John Blazo). It's not hard to see why he lasted less than three months - and why the character was sent away until they lured Malcolm Groome back to the show.

[robbwolff]

Actually, Pat did return before Groome reprised the role in 1983. James Patrick Clarke assumed the role in 1982 and played Pat until 1983 when Groome returned. Clarke headed over to Search for Tomorrow where he played Jack Benton who raped Sunny Adamson.

[danfling]

For years, I have wondered where I had seen Sunny's rapist (Search for Tomorrow). Now I know!

[danfling]

I did not care for Mary Ryan for much of the time, either.

As for Nancy Barrett being too old as Faith, the role was created for Jada Rowland. I was then decided that Jada Rowland would be too old for the role. I do not know who is older (Nancy Barrett or Jada Rowland). The original Faith, Faith Catlin, reminded me of Jada Rowland, and this was before I knew that Faith was created for Jada Rowland.

I LOVED Kathleen Tolan. I don't think that she was bad or was a bad recast at all! I also liked Mary Carney as Mary #2 (but not as much as Kathleen Tolan). Mary resembled Helen Gallagher a lot, and she reminded me of a young Debbie Reynolds.

To rate the actresses who played Mary, my choices are Kathleen Tolan, Mary Carney, Kate Mulgrew, and Nicholette Goulet (who I hated).

I think that the worst recast was Robyn Millan as Delia. Some now say that she was only temporary, but I had thought that she was a permanent recast. It is really strange to me, though, that she was so bad because Ileen Kristen was told to watch tapes of Robyn Millan from Where the Heart Is when Ryan's Hope began and to take notes on the acting of Miss Millan.

[danfling]

I had forgotten the actors who played Pat except from Malcolm Groome and John Blazo. One year, SoapNet had a St. Patrick's Day marathon of Ryan's Hope. I saw the fourth one.

I am now seeing the third one. I liked them all! However, I feel that Patrick #4 was miscast but did a good job trying to play the role.