Ryan's Hope had a meat grinder with Jack and Mary. I think there was a man who worked beside Mary at the news station, then an old doctor friend of Jack's whose story was curtailed due to Kate Mulgrew's pregnancy, and finally, Mary's producer, played by Patrick Horgan.
Rose Alaio, whose work as Rose I dearly enjoyed, was also cut very short in Jack's life due to backstage issues.
For the show's first year, mobster Nick Szabo came and went, joined by his daughter, Reenie. Whatever plans Reenie was meant to have with storyline-allergic Bucky were cut short as the character vanished, with Julia Barr having better luck in Pine Valley.
There was the sad case of Nancy Feldman, who was probably on for a year and some change, played by three actresses, Nana Visitor being the longest-lasting. They wanted an interfaith love story with Pat which never went anywhere due to casting choices and lack of chemistry. I will always remember a very odd post-coitus between them where Nancy was going on about how they looked like brother and sister. Why??? I've heard that '70s NYC was trashy but not that trashy, surely.
As one of about two John Blazo fans, I was very disappointed when his delicate Pat was fired and replaced by the temper tantrum Brady brother recast, one of the worst recasts of all time. Both characters were shipped out not long after.
Sam Behrens was also hired for this story and must have impressed someone in the audience or at ABC, as he lingered for a while with nothing to do.
1981 started the parade of short-lived Faith love interests, whether it be cops or archaeologists, all of whom fought and lost the battle of having chemistry with Karen Morris Gowdy.
1980 and 1981 saw the arrival of the "Ryan cousins," first Barry, who had a compelling intro as a music agent who juggled two women before falling in love with one of them (Delia). As Labine and Mayer could never let Delia mature, this was all thrown away, and Barry spent months judging Delia in-between a gambling story that ended in him being dumped from the canvas.
Inexplicably, just after Barry left, his sister, EJ, arrived looking for him. Her story amounted to yet another round of Delia being crazy to try to make viewers like her (spoiler alert: it did not work), and being paired with Roger, who by this time had lost any of his compelling personality traits under sanctimony and tedium. EJ also helped to expose a soap actress played by a wasted Judith Barcroft. This "story" is a big part of one of the very last Soapnet episodes. Her 1982 material is not available, but as it heavily involves a man named Ox, I doubt it is very good.
Such a horrible waste of Maureen Garrett and Richard Backus (in what was maybe his only good - initially anyway - soap role).
The moral of the story is don't mess with Delia.
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DRW50 ·
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