Sneak Preview of New

ABC Serial - Ryan's Hope

Daytime TV Magazine,

August 1975

There is excitement brewing at ABC these days. And it is being generated by their new serial, Ryan's Hope. This is the first new show the network has produced since 1970, when A World Apart, The Best of Everything and All My Children made their debut.

Written by the expert team of Claire Labine and Paul Avila Mayer (former writers of Love of Life), the setting is New York City. The producer is George Lefferts, with Monroe Carol as his associate producer. Both men are new to daytime, but have impressive credits from nighttime and movies.

Following is a breakdown of the characters and setting. As of our deadline, there had been no cast chosen. The final auditions were set, and ABC hoped to gather an expert group of faces familiar and new to the daytime audience. Also, changes in the characters and how they relate to each other could take place as the serial is further developed. But here is what is planned to take place, a sneak preview to tempt your viewing pleasure.

The people who share an attitude called Ryan's Hope come from different backgrounds and a wide range of experience, but they have certain qualities in common, independence, energy, determination, all directed toward being the best at what they do and making their lives count in a positive way. They all share in man's natural heritage of pain and trouble and occasional tragedy, but they prevail - and share a laugh somewhere in the process.

Three families dominate the on-going story, which is set in the Riverside community of the upper West side of New York City.

Largest of these is the Ryan family: Johnny, Maeve and their five children, whom they have taught to be responsible, loving and loyal.

Johnny Ryan owns a bar, which is in a curiously central location. To the east lies Broadway and pockets of urban poverty, largely Spanish and black. Directly across the street is the emergency entrance of Riverside Hospital. Down the block is the local precinct headquarters. And to the West is an increasingly affluent area of new apartment houses intermingled with traditional brownstones that extend all the way to the Hudson River.

Johnny Ryan was a high school dropout at 14, prohibition beer handler at 26, briefly a boxer, and W.W. II infantryman. He married his wife, Maeve, in Ireland and returned to the United States where he bought a bar after being a bouncer, bartender and bar manager. He is proud of his five children and worked hard to put them through college.

Maeve Ryan had her heart captured by Johnny when he was in Ireland. She is not afraid of life, is warm, passionate and full of opinions, which she is not afraid to express. She was born in Dublin of a poor Irish background.

Frank Ryan is everything a parent could want. He is dark, calm and placidly self-assured, and has been since a child. He is a detective on the police force and has a clouded marriage to Delia.

Delia Ryan is a beautiful Irish colleen. She met her husband thorough her brother Bob, since Frank and Bob are best friends. She is troubled and emotionally insecure.

Cathleen Ryan is the baby of the family, attended Manhattanville College and is now a novice of the Sisters of Sacred Heart.

Patrick Ryan, the third child, is a study in contrasts. He is fairly excitable and an intuitive leaper into knowledge. He loves himself and returns his family's devotion because he has felt loved. He vitalizes other people.

Siobhan Ryan Moscolo is married to a chemical engineer, Art, and lives in Pittsburgh. She has two daughters Maura and Deirdre. She is pretty, practical and predictable.

Ed Coleridge has tried his best to raise his two children. Roger and Faith. He is a physician, dedicating his life to medicine, and lives in the same brownstone in which he was born.

Roger Coleridge was a lonely, unhappy teen. He won't admit he is wrong about anything. He is is handsome with superficial charm and has never learned how to love. His central figure is his father, of whom he wants approval. He lives on the top floor of his father's brownstone. He is one of two first assistant residents at Riverside Hospital.

Faith Coleridge is daddy's girl. She isolates herself from emotional involvements and is determined to excel in her work. She, also, is a doctor, but many of her colleagues at the hospital don't like her. She is shy, inhibited and inexperienced and uses her intelligence as a protective barrier. She lives with her father and keeps house for him.

Clem Moultrie, a supremely confident black man, is an intern and first assistant resident. He can assume to be relaxed and congenial with others.

Ramona Gonzales is the head nurse at Riverside. She grew up in Spanish Harlem of parents who came to New York in the 1940's.

Bob is Delia's brother and Frank's best friend. They work together on the police force. Bob is the living prototype of every Irish cop. He is big, broad-featured, steady, easy-going, a man's man.

Seneca Beaulac is of of French Canadian background, a physician and is fierce and brooding. He has an excellent reputation as a doctor and will be a catalyst in the lives of the Coleridge's and Ryan families. His grandmother was full-blooded Seneca Indian from whom he got his name. He is precise, demanding, and intimacy does not come easy.

Nell Beaulac is Seneca's wife. She is of a wealthy Boston family, is fluent in French and was indulged in material things as a child. She is a determined research doctor and takes for granted the luxuries of life.

These are the characters, as now planned. Of course, there will be additions as time passes, but, for now Ryan's Hope looks to be interesting and different from anything now on the air.

Edited May 11, 201510 yr by safe

Nana Tucker (Nancy #3) from when she was on The Doctors

Nana Tucker
My Parents Have a Good Marriage,
So I Expect Mine Will Be Too!
Daytimers Magazine
November, 1980

Nana Tucker admits she is a romantic. Actually, the tall, slim actress with a trained ballerinas beautiful posture doesn't have to admit that. It shows in her large dark eyes when she talks about actor-singer Richard Muenz, the romance in her life.

Richard is a very sensitive man, Nana revealed, and unusual - he allows himself to be romantic, as I am and he lives somewhat in a fantasy world as I do.

Richard recently left the role of Joe Novak on Ryan's Hope to appear in the revival of the Lerner-Loewe musical classic, Camelot, as Lancelot, the role that catapulted Robert Goulet to fame.

Richard and I met, Nana said, while I was dancing in the chorus and he was singing in Broadways The Prince of Grand Street starring Robert Preston. I remember I came home and told my mother after the first day, its a real nice company except for one real idiot. God, I cant stand him! On the other hand, he thought I was a crazy and a weirdo because I used to dress very strangely and he couldn't stand me. But underneath all of that, it was an instant love at first sight, Nana laughed, it was like meeting the man I had always been looking for. I was engaged at the time and Richard was involved with another lady, but we got out of our commitments and after we knew each other for a month, we started going out together.

They've been together for over two years and share an apartment together. I had my own apartment until now, which was my first, since I had been living with my parents. I wanted my own apartment because I thought its probably the only time I'll live in an apartment myself, and I wanted to know how to manage. That was enough, and now were happily living together.

Her parents weren't shocked at the arrangement even though she's so young. My parents are very broadminded, Nana admits, and don't think anything of it. They're very much in step with the times and with their childrens lives. They don't think of me as their little baby, they think of me as 22 and a woman. That's the way it should be. Actually, they're happy because they worried about me living alone in New York.

The fact that her family is completely showbiz-oriented also helps their understanding. Her father is Robert Tucker, a former dancer and now a choreographer for whom Nana has worked occasionally. Her mother Nanette Charisse is a ballet dancer and teacher, with whom Nana takes daily classes. (when I m in her class, Im just another student, Nana insists). Her older brother Ian Tucker was a famous, and busy, child actor who later left the business, her older sister, Zan Charisse, is a model-actress now pursuing her career in California. The only one not in showbiz is eldest brother, Paris, who married a dancer-choregrapher and so also understands the business.

I'm very close to my parents, Nana affirmed. I have incredible respect for them as human beings. They're just wonderful people!

Her parents have also influenced her ideas of marriage. I absolutely believe in marriage. I've seen many happy marriages, my parents included, and I think its wonderful - so does Richard. I think its kind of an inevitability for us, but we feel now is not the time, especially since Richard will be away for about a year on tour. Neither of us feels pressed for marriage now and its just emotionally easier for us this way; theres no strain and we know were making it work.

The years separation, she admitted, isn't going to be easy, but its something we've thought about. When Richard got the part, he said to me, if you don't want to do it, I wont; Ill drop it right now. We talked about it, but I realized its too big a thing for his career to pass up. And Ill be in a position where Ill be able to fly to Toronto or Los Angels to see him. Its easy to let a relationship go through separation, but its too important to both of us, so were going to work at it and keep it going.

Nana will have plenty to keep her busy while Richards on tour. Shell go on with her daily ballet classes, attend theater and ballet performances as often as time allows and, of course, there's her work on The Doctors, where Darcy will be an important part of the storyline.

Darcy is very different from Nancy Feldman (Ryan's Hope) who was a nice Jewish girl and although they gave me some really nice scenes, I felt the overall story was unbelievable and went nowhere.

Besides the difference in roles, Nana finds a great difference in conditions and the company of the two soaps. The layout is immediately apparent. At Ryan's Hope, we were in a building by ourselves and the dressing rooms were all in one little area. We would sit in the main part of the studio, talk and have coffee. It was all intimate and everyone knew each other very well. At The Doctors, were in a big building (Rockefeller Center) and were all spread out, with the production office in another building completely. People are friendly but to me, its not a community feeling.

Also, when she was on Ryan's Hope, Richard Munez was a part of the company. Richard and I would keep to ourselves a lot. Although we were on the same show, we had only one scene together. It was fun to be together although sometimes it was difficult. When he does a love scene in one part of the studio and you do one in another part, no matter how professional you are, that's hard. So in that sense, its easier for me on The Doctors.

Nana is very serious about her career, which started professionally when she was 17 and still attending the Nighingale-Bamford School for Girls in Manhattan. She appeared in Louisiana Purchase at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut; Musical Jubilee on Broadway; a two-season tour with Angela Lansbury in Gypsy; the short-lived The Prince of Grand Street; then appeared in a film; and a television sitcom, Ivan the Terrible, starring Lou Jacobi.

I don't think of myself as a dancer; singer; or actress. Nana says, I think of myself as a performer. I love everything about performing. Some people like the performance only; some strangely enough, like to audition, but I love everything - even sitting with the coffee on the floor. sweaty, with your legs stretched out after rehearsal, and waiting for the next number to come up. I love waiting backstage, getting made up - just everything about theater.

From all indications, the way her career is proceeding, Nana Tucker will have a lot of opportunity to do what she loves - to entertain and delight audiences with the many aspects of her performing talents - and still find the time to keep her long-distance romance with Richard Muenz alive until Camelot comes to Broadway and he's again at home with her.

Edited May 11, 201510 yr by safe

Matthew, Delia and Steve

Daytime TV Presents Daytime TV

Yearbook,

December 1984, Vol 4, No 1

The Ryan clan and their friends are stupefied over the mysterious gifts they’ve been receiving including genuine crystal bar glasses for Maeve and Johnny and an 18kt gold tongue depressor for Seneca. Along with each present, the anonymous donor has included an invitation to attend “The Event of the Year.” Gathered at the Sancerre Hotel, the guests mingle and wonder who their host is. At the appropriate moment a bride and groom appear with their backs turned. After completing their vows, the couple face their guests, and the entire room lets out a gasp—it’s Delia! She’s the mysterious gift-giver, courtesy of her wealthy husband, oilman Matthew Crane. Although suspicious of her motives, everyone makes the best of the situation and toast to Delia and Matthew. A few minutes later a maitre d’ informs Delia that there’s a call for her. Picking up the phone Delia is startled to hear Steve, her ex-lover. “Turn around,” he says. Delia does so and sees Steve at the pay phone right outside the banquet room. “I want to meet you tonight,” Steve tells her. Delia protests that it’s her wedding night, but her passion for Steve wins out. Later, while Steve and Delia are enjoying their reunion, the hapless bridegroom suffers a stroke. The hotel maid finds him and he’s rushed to the hospital. The following morning Delia tiptoes into the suite full of excuses. “Oh, honey, you wouldn’t believe it,” she calls into the bedroom, “but I went out for a walk, and fell asleep on a park bench.” Quickly realizing that Matthew’s not around, Delia wonders where he could be when there’s a knock at the door and is surprised to find Bill. “Your husband has had an attack and he’s at the hospital,” says Bill. “Matthew? Oh my god,” cries Delia, grabbing for her purse. Suddenly, Delia turns as white as a sheet when she sees Matthew’s pills at the bottom of her bag. Will people think she deliberately hid them from Matthew? But her thoughts are interrupted by Bill. “Delia, where were you last night?” asks the police officer.

Let's Make a Deal:

When Ryan's Hope Was Canceled,

All My Children and One Life to

Live Bartered for Their Sets

Soap Opera Digest,

November 28, 1989

by Stella Bednarz

You won't see RH's Lizzie or John in the bar anymore. It's now Max's Place on OLTL.

What happens when a soap opera permanently fades to black? The people involved look for work, but what happens to the "things?" In the case of Ryan's Hope, the props were auctioned off to various New York prop houses for resale. The sets were another story.

ABC approached their three NY-based soaps, AMC, OLTL and Loving, to see which sets they wanted from RH. Both OLTL and AMC requested Ryan's Bar. What to do? Flip a coin. OLTL won the crucial toss and acquired the bar, in addition to three other RH sets, which have not yet been used: Ryan's kitchen, a generic apartment and a generic office.

Loving's set designer, Boyd Dumrose, reports that by the time the network got around to talking to his show, there weren't any sets left to take. "We got pieces of scenery, but not whole sets," Dumrose reports. It's an ironic situation, since Loving moved into the RH studio.

When Ryan's Bar moved to Llanview, it was renamed Speakeasy, the restaurant purchased by entrepreneur Max Holden. Sharp-eyed viewers of OLTL may have recognized the familiar decor. Since then, however, the set has been renovated from homey to upscale.

According to OLTL's set designer, Roger Mooney, when Holden renamed the establishment Max's Place, "We upholstered the chairs and the bar stools, put up new drapes and hung up new pictures. The bar is constantly being upgraded and now we're doing major renovating on it - new lighting fixtures, etc. so it reflects the kind of place tht Max would own. So, actually the old Ryan's Bar is gone."

Recycling sets is nothing new. "We use sets repeatedly," reveals Mooney. "We shuffle them around. Michael Grande's house used to be the Sander's mansion, which used to be a villa in Vienna when David and Jenny Renaldi were there." Mooney adds that, since a show needs in the neighborhood of one hundred sets, old ones are constantly being redecorated. OLTL has a specific look and their sets tend to be big, observes Moooney, who says that he didn't want many of the RH sets because they were small and had a radically different look from his show.

Edited May 11, 201510 yr by safe

TV's Greatest Love Triangles

Delia Reid/Roger/Maggie Coleridge

Saop Opera Digest,

March 24, 1987

Dear Miss Demeanor,

Scheming has gotten me nowhere so I'm turning to you. You see, I love Roger Coleridge desperately. The problem is, he's married to this flake, Maggie. To make matters worse, she is pregnant. I know Roger still has a thing for me. Sure, Maggie has the looks but there's nothing upstairs, if you catch my drift. I know she isn't capable of loving Roger the way I am - and Roger should know this, too. Afterall, we were married once. I don't know why I ever let him get away. Now I want him back but I can't seem to get him. What's my next move?

Won't Give Up

Delia Reid, Riverside

Gentle Reader,

The writing is on the wall. Though, Roger may always have "a thing" for you, it isn't love. Stop annoying him. Stop interfering in his marriage. Stop eating those chocolate covered cherries. Miss Demeanor wants you to learn to put the past behind you. Leave your ex-husbands alone. Find a new place to live and make some new friends. It would also be helpful to realize that the world does not revolve around you.

All in the (Ryan) Family

TV Guide,

August 8, 1987

Mary Alice Kellogg

Dear, blonde and kind of devious Delia (Ilene Kristen, below, left) has this thing for the Ryan boys of ABC's Ryan's Hope. She has married - and lost - two of them; now she intends to snare the third, Dakota Smith (Christopher Durham, below, right). Watch for the fur to fly, and the best intentions to go awry - in short, a typical Delia production. If this doesn't work out, perhaps another, unknown Ryan son will turn up. After all, it's happened before.

Louise Shaffer Picks Ten Scenes

and Storylines That Set Ryan's

Hope Apart From Other Soaps

The Soap Opera Book of Lists, 1996

by Gerald J. Waggett

Louise Shaffer has had the opportunity to view Ryan's Hope from two different perspectives. From 1977-1984, she played Rae Woodard, a role for which she was named 1983's Outstanding Supporting Actress. A few years after leaving the show, she returned as one of its writers. She has also written two murder mystery novels: All My Suspects, which takes place on the set of a daytime soap, and Talked to Death.

1. Frank Ryan's first political campaign was very fresh, very young. The whole family and community were involved. It's what you like to dream American politics and the immigrant experience are like.

2. A hospital strike took place very early on in the series. The show presented both sides extremely fairly.

3. The Mary Ryan/Jack Fenelli romance was a wonderful story. He was kind of the untamable, undomesticated guy, and she managed to tame and domesticate him.

4. The St. Patrick's Day shows were very special. They were very New York, and very ethnic, very Irish. A favorite of those shows was one in which all the guys got down on their knees and serenaded Mary with the song, "It was Mary, it was Mary, what a grand old name."

5. Maeve and Jill had a wonderful relationship when Jill was in love with Frank and Frank was married to Delia. There were some wonderful scenes with the two women, Maeve and Jill. One in particular comes to mind. Maeve, who was obviously very religious, said to Jill, "It's easier to find a lover than it is a friend."

6. Nell Carter did a brief turn as the leader of a tenants' strike in her building. It was a minor story about this wonderful, feisty woman who was running her tenants' union. It was one of those nuggets of New York realism that Ryan's Hope used to do that I never saw another soap do back then.

7. Toward the end of the series, Keith Charles came on the show as Roger's valet. It was Jeeves cubed. It was one of the best character turns I've ever seen in daytime because it wasn't too much. It wasn't over the top. It wasn't fake British. Ron [Hale, who played Roger,] and Keith played it beautifully together.

8. There was a wonderful love scene between Jill and Seneca in which she had a cold and he brought her breakfast in bed. It was such an unromantic setup - her nose was running, there was Kleenex all over the place - but it turned into this wonderful, giggly romantic scene. Back then when they did romantic scenes, the woman had her mascara on, and if she was in bed, she was wearing a sexy nightgown. But thsi was a woman with a cold wearing her flannels.

9. I'd never seen anybody deal with the stock market on daytime before Delia. Somehow, she'd get a feeling and she'd play it. For quite a while, she was winning. There was flaky Delia doping the commodities market and making one killing after another. It was funny, and it was charming. Of all the characters on any show that you would think would be able to play the stock market, Delia?

10. On the last show that was ever going to happen for Ryan's Hope, Maeve was sitting in the bar, and of course, she had to sing 'Danny Boy' one last time. Helen figured she wasn't going to be able to get through it. Sure enough, her eyes started to fill up about halfway through. So she turned to all of us as Maeve and said, "Sing with me." So everybody tried to sing along, helping Helen get through it. There were all these great voices singing this really emotional song that meant the show to many of us.

Primetime...Theater...Movies...

Malcolm Groome

Soap Opera Weekly, August 29, 2000

by Mark Ionadi

With the upcoming Ryan's Hope marathon airing on SoapNet, Malcolm Groome looks back on his days as Pat Ryan. "The favorite memories I have are of the closeness with the cast," Groome says. "It was a very tight-knit group, and it's a closeness that continues even now." Though Groome admits that he hasn't been very good about keeping in touch with the group, he says there is a network to keep them all up to date on what's going on with everyone.

Groome is so sentimental about the soap that he doesn't mind not receiving residuals for the airing. In a way, the actor, who recently returned from a trip to Brazil, may be paying to watch: He plans on subscribing to SoapNet so that he can see RH again, from the beginning. "It was a great show. It was ahead of its time," Groome recalls. "It had values of hearth and home, and it really touched a lot of people."

Groome agrees that the show had a sort of cult following, and is pleased that it is still so popular. "The writing was superior, and the acting was deeply felt. It wasn't superficial. We were all really proud of Ryan's Hope."

Currently, Groome is doing looping - post-production voice-over work - for shows such as Ally McBeal, The Practice and ER. He's continued his 32-year love for yoga and meditation with healing-massage work, and spends his spare time traveling the globe and learning about world religions.

SoapNet's RH marathon begins on Labor Day, Sept 4, with the series' first episode, and shows airing consecutively from 11 a.m.-7 p.m. through Friday, Sept. 8. Check local listings.

Worlds Without End:

The Art and History of the Soap Opera

1997

Foreword by Robert M. Batscha,

President of the Museum of Television and Radio

Ryan's Hope debuted on July 7, 1975, as a throwback to an earlier soap opera era. Rejecting the youthful characters, sexual situations, and pretty faces that pervaded the genre following the success of All My Children and The Young and the Restless, creators Claire Labine and Paul Avila Mayer (who had helped revive Where the Heart Is and Love of Life) brought to life a series revolving around a single Irish-American family, complete with all the characters and storytelling possibilities implicit in that tradition.

Drawing on an Irish heritage in both their families, Labine and Mayer's work tapped into the same essence that had made Irna Phillips's work so successful: in fact, no daytime serial has focused so intensely on familial relationships since the heyday of As the World Turns. Where Mayer and Labine departed from tradition was in using a real setting, New York City, a single core family, and a Roman Catholic, not Protestant, morality. Moreover, they rejuvenated decades-old family themes with fresh, strong writing and a contemporary attitude. Within a year of its debut, Ryan's Hope was ABC's second most popular soap.

The interfamilial conflicts of the Ryan clan were largely responsibile for that success. In long conversations, deeply personal confessions, and petty squabbles, the opposing values and aspirations of parent and child, the long-held resentments and jealousies of brothers and sisters and the inevitable betrayals and accomodations of husband and wife were explored in detail. Even tragedy, such as the accident that left oldest son Frank fighting for his life, provided an opportunity for poignant scenes of bonding and recrimination.

Ryan's Hope also had success with a series of memorable romances: Frank Ryan and Jillian Coleridge, separted for nearly a decade by the machinations of his wife, Delia, and a series of misunderstandings; strong-willed Mary Ryan and equally stubborn reporter Jack Fenelli, whose marriage ended tragically in a mob hit; and Siobhan Ryan and mobster Joe Novak, whom even death could not separate. But the show was soon overshadowed by many of the very trends that it had rejected. As General Hospital shot to the top of the ratings, Ryan's Hope became an anomaly on ABC's schedule. An old-fashioned soap opera in a block of youth-oriented, fast-paced dramas. The show tried to compete by airing a series of stories borrowed from the plots of famous movies, but the attempt misfired.

And then began a pattern that would mark the final years of Ryan's Hope. ABC, unhappy with the show's ratings, brought in a new head writer who shifted the focus away from the Ryans, eroding the audience further. Then the network reinstated Labine and Mayer, who reinvigorated the core family and reemphasized the strong moral world they lived in. But the ratings didn't go up fast enough for ABC, so they brought in yet another new writer, and so on. The result, from the audience's point of view, was incoherent and inconsistent. The low ratings made cancellation inevitable. On January 13, 1989, the final episode aired. It was a bittersweet ending for a show of unique grace, dignity, and heart, qualities that helped to bring Ryan's Hope an unprecedented six Emmys for writing.

The Creation of Ryan's Hope

by Claire Labine, Creator

Paul Mayer and I had been heading writing Where The Heart Is when it was cancelled. We sent some of our scripts and outlines around, and ABC said, "Come in and talk to us. How would you like to develop a new serial called City Hospital?" And we said, "City Hospital? Let us think about that." In the fall of 1973, CBS signed us to write Love of Life. The day after, we did a development deal with ABC for a new serial. We had gone to them and said, "What would you think about a show about an Irish-American family that runs a bar across the street from a city hospital, in which one of their sons is an intern?" And they said, "Swell."

We did that because on Where the Heart Is, we had had a prolonged sequence with two characters who were having an affair. He was a respected college professor, so they were meeting on the other side of town in a small Irish bar called O'Neill's Red Hand.

We had so much fun with that bar and that whole sequence that we thought, "We want to write about an Irish bar." Well surely, you're going to have a politician coming out of that, and surely he's going to be in trouble all the time. We thought it enormous fun to make the heroine the adulterous party in the triangle. And then Delia, his incredibly ditzy, over-the-top, wonderful, enchanting, neurotic wife, who was going to slowly drive the family crazy.

It all just evolved, we knew who these people were so well, and soon the Ryans were the ones who were telling the stories. We didn't have a lot to do with it.

To me, the show began a downward spiral when Robert Costello departed as the executive producer.

Anyone know when Ryan's Bar Online was removed? I would swear it was still up a couple months ago.

I would have copied and transferred over some of the articles, interviews, and photos like I did before the Soapnet boards folded.

I started the "Ryan's Bar Online" website many moons ago (with the help of a lot of other people, of course, who created/contributed the vast majority of the content).

I was as surprised as anyone else to learn, from these posts, that the site is no more. At first, I figured the (free, turn-of-the-century, DIY) web hosting platform that I used to "build" the site itself must have folded. I discovered that the company still exists, though, and some of those other freebie sites from close to two decades ago are still there. When I attempted to log in to my old account, after I had to reset the password, I received a notification that it had been deleted for "suspicious activity." I have absolutely no idea what that means - it kind of freaked me out to read it, as you can imagine - and I received no notification when the site was taken down.

As anyone who has visited the site in a decade or more no doubt noticed, I have not updated it in a long time (if memory serves, I ran out of free storage space and couldn't even save updated versions of existing pages, let alone upload new content). Over the years, I had actually toyed with the idea of salvaging some content that was still useful/technologically relevant and moving the site to some sort of new platform. With each passing year, though, the site "design" (such as it was) and the types of materials I had posted grew more and more obsolete. I have no current web development experience or knowledge, and never got around to buying software that would have allowed me to put something up that was no longer embarrassingly anachronistic without any of that technical know-how. I also haven't really have the time or energy for an undertaking like that.

However, I had every intention of leaving the site intact for anyone who still found enjoyment in it. For what it's worth, I'm sorry that it disappeared so abruptly, for anyone who is disappointed. I had a lot of fun discovering Ryan's Hope when SoapNet came to be and getting to know some great people through this classic show. If anyone is ever looking for specific information about the show, I check in on this site and a few others every now and then and I'm always happy to chat/answer questions, but I'm afraid that's the extent of it for the immediate future.

Edited May 12, 201510 yr by DeliaIrisFan

Thank you for all your work. I really don't think I would have been as able to enjoy the show early on without your synopses and your articles. You really did us all a favor.

Yes, thank you! As disappointed as I was it was gone, I feel lucky to have had it for as long as we did.

Edited May 12, 201510 yr by safe

Helen Gallagher 1983:

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1915&dat=19830823&id=OwsiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=EXMFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1741,4516178&hl=en

Saint Patrick's Day'84 article

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=266&dat=19840314&id=OPQrAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-WwFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2702,1601272&hl=en

Diana van der Vlis interview during her WTHI days.