Ryan's Hope
Encyclopedia
Ryan's Hope is an American
soap opera
, revolving around 13 years of trials and tribulations within a large Irish American
family in the Riverside district of New York City
. It aired from July 7, 1975 to January 13, 1989 on ABC
. A total of 3,515 30-minute episodes were broadcast.
In late 1974, ABC Daytime
approached Claire Labine
and Paul Avila Mayer
, the head writer
s of CBS
' Love of Life
, about creating a new soap opera similar to General Hospital
. Labine and Mayer added a large Irish-American family — the Ryans — to what ABC was initially calling City Hospital. Another of the show's working titles was "A Rage to Love," however that was soon changed. A pub theme originated with Mayer's and Labine's work on the earlier soap Where The Heart Is
: "On WTHI we had had a prolonged sequence with two characters who were having an affair... on the other side of town in a small Irish bar."
Ryan patriarch Johnny (Bernard Barrow
) owned a bar, Ryan's, across from fictional Riverside Hospital in New York City
. His wife, Maeve (Helen Gallagher
), assisted him in his duties, as did their children; Frank, Patrick, Mary and Siobhan (the latter daughter being introduced in the series in 1978, having spent the first three years away from New York City). The Ryans and the wealthy Coleridges were the original core families of the show. The soap took the then-unusual approach of situating itself in an actual community—the Washington Heights neighborhood of Northern Manhattan. Maeve's parish sat in the shadow of the George Washington Bridge, on 178th St. References were often made to Central Park (Delia's Crystal Palace restaurant), Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn (mob-owned fishing boats), and other localities to provide a sense of place: "We wanted to show how New York has communities," Labine said.
Labine and Mayer also served as the executive producer
s of the show at this point, with George Lefferts
as the producer. Lefferts would soon be replaced by Robert Costello, who remained with the show until 1978. Nancy Ford co-wrote the first episode with Labine and Mayer.
The original cast consisted of Nancy Addison Altman
, Bernard Barrow
, Faith Catlin, Justin Deas
, Michael Fairman
, John Gabriel
, Helen Gallagher
, Michael Levin, Malcolm Groome, Rosalinda Guerra, Ron Hale
, Michael Hawkins
, Earl Hindman
, Ilene Kristen
, Frank Latimore
, Kate Mulgrew
, Hannibal Penney, Jr., and Diana van der Vlis
.
The premise of the show for its first two years involved the blue-collar, immigrant, Catholic Ryans and the three of their 5 upwardly-mobile adult children still residing in NY: Frank, lawyer and aspiring local politician; Pat, physician at local Riverside Hospital; and Mary, aspiring journalist. The show contrasted the cultures of conservative parents with their more liberated, 70s-drenched children. Older mores about lifetime marriages, church-proscribed divorce, chastity outside of marital sanction were constantly being tested by New-World, New-Era urban values. Frank's political campaign for city council was challenged by a chain of events surrounding his paying off the Coleridge son who knew of the affair Frank was having with Jillian Coleridge while married to needy, frantic Delia. The political scandal angle would soon be reiterated with Frank's short tenure in the state senate. Delia would become involved with all three of Johnny Ryan's sons, Frank, Pat, and Dakota. The quasi-incestuous focus would be echoed in coming years by Frank's involvement with both Coleridge sisters, Jillian and Faith, and with Faith's involvement with Ryan brothers, Pat and Frank, and again with Jillian's involvement with half-brothers Frank and Dakota, and by Michael Pavel's involvement with a mother and her teen daughter. Mary became irresistibly attracted to a reporter exposing Frank's blackmailing scandal, the fiery Jack Fenelli, and eventually moved in with him without benefit of marriage.
These extramarital and premarital affairs, the attendant children out of wedlock, the careerist women, the assertion of abortion rights: the clash of generational values in the Ryan clan was interesting to viewers and there developed a passionate following for Kate Mulgrew portraying Mary Ryan. Mary's career and personal goals were given neurotic counterpoint in Delia's machinations with Mary's brothers.
left the role of Frank Ryan in 1976, and subsequent replacements included Andrew Robinson (1976–1978), Daniel Hugh Kelly
(1978–1981), Geoffrey Pierson
(1983–1985), and John Sanderford (1985–1989). In late 1977, Kate Mulgrew
announced she would be leaving in January 1978. Between January 1978 and December 1979, three different actresses played Mary (Mary Carney, Kathleen Ryan Tolan, Nicolette Goulet). Although Labine and Mayer wanted to kill her character, ABC refused. However, after ABC realized no one other than Mulgrew herself would be accepted in the role, they agreed to let Mary be killed off. Ryan sister Siobhan was brought to town to become romantically involved with a man, Joe Novak, who turned out to be a mobster, a storyline that offed Mary in a grisly bludgeoning murder when she and Jack were investigating the mafia ties of the fiance. Malcolm Groome chose to leave the role of Pat Ryan in 1978 and was replaced with John Blazo (1978–1979), Robert Finoccoli (1979), and Patrick James Clarke (1982–1983). All these recasts left the writers struggling to give a voice to any of the Ryan children and left the show's core family feeling unfamiliar to viewers.
Other characters not related to the Ryans were also recast. After Ilene Kristen
left in January 1979, the role of Delia Reid was played by Robyn Millan (1979), Randall Edwards
(1979–1982), and Robin Mattson
(1984); Kristen returned to the show in the role from 1982-1983 (when she was fired due to weight gain) and 1986-1989. After Faith Catlin was dropped from the show as Faith Coleridge in May 1976, she was replaced with Nancy Barrett
(1976), Catherine Hicks
(1976–1978), and Karen Morris-Gowdy
(1978–1983, 1989). Richard Muenz originated the role of Joe Novak in 1979, but was replaced by Roscoe Born
(1981–1983, 1988), Michael Hennessy
(1983–1984), and Walt Willey
(1986–1987, with Joe initially under the guise of "Erik Brenner").
, Manhattan
, The Godfather
, and The French Lieutenant's Woman
. These were not the type of plots the show had previously been known for. Subsequent interviews with the headwriter Claire Labine, however, reveal that the network was not the driving force behind the surrealism: "Everyone always cites Prince Albert the ape story as a mistake. But I'd do that again. I loved those scenes. It was a story about alienation." Just as the King Kong plot captured Labine's imagination, so was the Raiders of the Lost Ark plot concerning a queen mummy inspired by Labine's vacation in Egypt at the time. None were considered plausible-- "the Raiders story... appears neither comfortable nor realistic," not told within a soap's context of real life, just as the King Kong and Jaws plots "were universally criticized."
At the beginning of 1982, ABC fired Labine and Mayer and replaced them with Mary Munisteri. During Munisteri's tenure as head writer, the focus began to move to the newly arrived wealthy Kirkland clan, which was headed by Hollis Kirkland III (Peter Haskell
). It soon turned out that he was the father of Rae Woodard's daughter, Kimberly Harris (Kelli Maroney
). As more and more Kirklands began to show up (including Christine Jones
as Hollis' wife Catsy and Mary Page Keller
and Ariane Munker as his daughter Amanda), less attention was paid to the Ryans and Coleridges. Various cast members at this time dubbed the show Kirkland's Hope.
Due to falling ratings, Labine and Mayer were asked back at the beginning of 1983. Ratings rose slightly with their return; however, it was not enough. By the end of 1983, they were replaced with General Hospital scribe Pat Falken Smith
(with James E. Reilly
joining as a staff writer). Smith, along with executive producer Joseph Hardy
, once again shifted the focus from the Ryans. Numerous fan favorites, including Ilene Kristen
, Louise Shaffer
, and Karen Morris-Gowdy
were either fired or left of their own accord during Smith's and Hardy's reign. The focus of the series was now centered on Greenberg's Deli, with Cali Timmins
' Maggie Shelby and Scott Holmes
' Dave Greenberg becoming two prominent characters.
In 1985, Smith was replaced with Millee Taggert and Tom King
. The show began a shift back to its roots during this time. The show, which had been airing at 12:30 Eastern US/11:30 Central since 1977, had just been moved to the Noon Eastern US/11c time slot, beginning October 8, 1984. It appears that many of the cast members felt as though this was a very political move by ABC: since the daytime drama series Loving
took over the former 12:30/11:30c Ryan's Hope slot, it allowed creator Agnes Nixon to use her clout with the network (from her lucrative soaps All My Children and One Life to Live) to get Loving a prime slot. This resulted in her new show commencing a block of back-to-back Nixon shows. Others felt that moving Ryan's Hope out of the 12:30 slot spared it competition from CBS mega-hit The Young and the Restless
, and to a lesser degree, NBC's ailing Search For Tomorrow
.
, Daniel Pilon
, Gerit Quealy
, Leslie Easterbrook
, Tichina Arnold
, Gloria DeHaven
, Jimmy Wlcek, Maria Pitillo
, Rosemary Prinz
, Catherine Larson, and Christopher Durham. Durham arrived in October 1985 as Dakota Smith, who was brought to the Ryan family's attention following Johnny's admission of a tryst he'd had with a woman who stepped in as his caretaker while he was ill, and away from Maeve, in the 1950s. The long-ago weekend of intimacy produced Dakota, who arrived in New York to find out that Johnny was his father. Dakota soon became a rebel on the local scene, engaging in dirty dealings and becoming at odds with Frank, especially after he entered into a romance with Jill, Frank's beloved.
was hired to become the teenage Ryan in early 1985, who started only a month or so after Dweir's last appearance in the role.
Initially, Bleeth's Ryan Fenelli shared many youth-oriented and high school themed plots with Grant Show's Rick Hyde and bad boy D.J. LaSalle, as played by up-and-coming actor Christian Slater
. Rick joined the local police force after high school graduation, and eventually fell in love with Ryan, providing the show with its next adventurous supercouple
. Jack Fenelli was unsupportive of his daughter dating Rick, who tended to live dangerously; in protest, Rick and Ryan ultimately rushed down to South Carolina
in April 1986, where they eloped. Ryan was approached and assisted at the town hall ceremony by a woman, Maura (Kate Mulgrew
), who bore more than a passing resemblance to Ryan's late mother, Mary Ryan Fenelli (it was suggested that this was Mary returning yet again in ghostly form). The two were followed and then found by Jack and Frank after the wedding and brought back home, and while Rick and Ryan moved in together, things became more rocky between Ryan and her family.
Later in 1985, Jadrien Steele departed from the role of 10-year-old Johnno Ryan. Instead of replacing him with another child actor, Hardy and Behr decided to advance Johnno's age to 19 for storyline purposes as well. After being called back home to New York
by his relatives, following the accidental, near-fatal shooting of his father Frank by Rick Hyde, the suddenly grown-up John Reid Ryan surfaced in August 1986, and was portrayed for the rest of the show's run by Jason Adams
. Johnno returned from attending college in the Pacific Northwest
, complete with a baby son, Owen "Owney" Ryan. At first, despite prodding from Johnno's "second mother" Jill Coleridge and everyone else, details of Owney's mother and the circumstances surrounding his birth were seldom shared by Johnno, until the mother to which he was not married, Lizzie Ransome (Catherine Larson) arrived a while later. News of this latest unexpected arrival to the Ryan clan soon brought Ilene Kristen
back to the show as Delia, to meet her grandson and to cause more upheaval. Her return on September 8, 1986, which proved to be permanent, opened with the revelation that she had been having financial difficulty - the number one indication that for once, she had not run off to marry another wealthy bachelor to advance her fortune. Delia's last husband, Matthew Crane (played by Harve Presnell
in 1984 during Robin Mattson
's brief stint as Delia), had died unexpectedly in the intervening period and left her destitute. She tried to conceal this fact from everyone, but Maggie Shelby successfully exposed her at a Coleridge family dinner. Delia moved in with Johnny, Maeve, and grandson Owney.
Lizzie came to protect John and Owney from her ruthless father, Harlan Ransome (Drew Snyder), who wanted to take the baby and sell it for his own purposes, since he disapproved of such a young couple raising a child. After much hostility towards John and Lizzie, and an attempt to rape Delia, Harlan was bludgeoned to death.
, as co-head writer. The Labines revitalized the show. A year after Labine's return, executive producer Joseph Hardy
was replaced with Felicia Minei Behr
.
Lizzie and John found there there was true love in their relationship, and the young parents were now able to focus on parenthood without living in total sin. In March 1987, they were engaged. That same month, after successfully taking down Overlord, a local organized crime syndicate that had been terrorizing the Riverside area for almost a year, Siobhan and Joe announced they were leaving New York to seek their fortunes; along with their 3-year-old son Sean (Danny Tamberelli
), they bid farewell to everyone at the Ryan's annual St. Patrick's Day celebration (aired March 17, 1987). The Novaks would return one last time, in October 1988. Jack, who had been wounded at the scene of the Overlord takedown, met a homeless teenage girl, Zena Brown (Tichina Arnold), while recovering at Riverside. Zena and Jack had a lot in common due to their history on the streets, and upon his release, Jack fought the authorities in order to get Zena placed in a good foster home. Zena spent two months in a foster home with an upwardly mobile black family, but after numerous attempts to get herself kicked out, Jack convinced the Ryans to take her in, which succeeded after Zena became very friendly with Maeve.
On the night of Maggie giving birth to daughter Olivia (Kelly Nevins and Melissa Nevins), in May 1987, her brother Ben Shelby (Jim Wlcek) arrived in town, blowing his cover of Ben Shelley when running into mother Bess (Gloria DeHaven) at a dinner party thrown by her. Lizzie, who had started working for Delia at her art gallery, had bought a painting from Ben, who under both his identities was a struggling artist who despised high society - the very explanation as to why he had been estranged from his family for some time. Ben caused friction with his family and their friends, but ultimately tried to prove himself a local hero when he was the first to witness John Reid Ryan's temporary infidelity to Lizzie. During the investigation of a recent murder at local Wellman College, which John Reid and Ryan were now attending, John fell into bed with Dr. Concetta D'Angelo (Lois Robbins), who had been helping him cover the case for Wellman's newspaper. John Reid and Concetta ended their tryst well before John Reid and Lizzie's wedding date approached, but Delia found out, and had a hard time forgiving her son.
During their wedding day that August, Lizzie was set to marry John, but was whisked away from the church by Ben, who ultimately told her, in private, the truth about John's cheating on her. John and Lizzie tried to reconcile, but Lizzie had a hard time forgiving John, and then admitted that she was falling for Ben. In the aftermath, the couple went back to their respective new love interests. Rick and Ryan's marriage, which had seen its ups and downs for the year and a half they had been united, took a turn for the worse when Ryan walked into a trap at Wellman College, where she was attacked by thugs from a local chemical company. After she miscarried as a result of her injuries, Rick blamed Ryan for the death of their child, packed his bags, and left New York. Wellman reporter Chaz Saybrook (Brian McGovern
), and Concetta's brother Mark D'Angelo (Peter Love) were among the many eligible bachelors who vied for Ryan's affection. In September, Dakota started a run for Riverside district leader, with Delia as his campaign manager. To help with finances, Delia contacted influential politician Malachy Malone (played by none other than Regis Philbin
), who agreed to back Dakota. Dee and Malachy's professional, and at times personal liaison lasted throughout the entire campaign. Dakota won in November, but once in office, engaged in several bribes that could have threatened his leadership. One of these bribes, in which he helped retireve EKG scans of mobster Augie Price, who had just died after being targeted as an accomplice in the Meredith Drake Company scandal, actually enhanced his career. Jack and Pat took the scans to court, which prevented the case from going to trial.
Since the spring 1987, Jack had found himself in a blossoming affair with Commissioner Emily Hall (Cynthia Dozier), who had been Zena's official social worker. As their relationship evolved, Emily was pursued by politician Richard Rowan, who was married. Emily fought to keep Richard away in order to not jeopardize her devotion to Jack, but ended up being in the wrong place at the wrong time when she walked into Richard's apartment just as he was lying dead on the floor. She was then cited a suspect in his murder. Emily hired a very pregnant Jill to represent her. Jill also had her hands full, focusing on her new baby with Frank, and counsuling a determined Ryan to accept the fact that Rick was through with marriage so a divorce could proceed. In early December, she gave birth to a girl, whom bore the name of Mary Ryan, in an essence making the family dynamic complete again in the late Mary's honor.
However, the end was already in sight; ABC announced Ryan's Hope cancellation in October 1988. As Bernard Barrow
told Good Morning America
on January 10, 1989, the show's Nielsen numbers were still openly revealed to cast and crew until Ryan's Hope fell to dead last in the daytime ratings during the 1987-1988 TV season. Thereafter, "a lid was tightened" according to Barrow, and the show's now-12th (13th the following year) place ranking was harder to obtain from the insiders. The final episode (#3515) on January 13, 1989, concluded with Helen Gallagher
's Maeve singing "Danny Boy", as she had for many previous Ryan celebrations. For the final episodes, numerous cast members who had been on the show in previous years returned.
When Ryan's Hope premiered on July 7, 1975, ABC scheduled it at 1:00 p.m./12 Noon Central, a timeslot previously occupied by All My Children
(pushing that soap to the 12:30 p.m./11:30 a.m. slot). The network reasoned that Ryan's Hope stood best chances of gaining an audience by programming it in the 1:00 slot that was free of soap competition on the other networks, and by having ABC's number one soap as a lead-in. The show's audience grew from a 5.7 rating in 1975 (a rating is "the percentage of TV homes in the US that is tuned in" ) to a 7.3 in 1976. This placed Ryan's Hope in second place on the ABC roster, with 'All My Children
' at an 8.2 rating, ahead of General Hospital
at a 7.1 rating and One Life To Live
at a 6.8 rating.
In 1976, ABC joined the other networks in planning to expand its soaps to an hour format. Labine and Mayer declined expanding RH, which was moved to the 12:30 Eastern US timeslot in January 1977 to allow first 'All My Children', then General Hospital and One Life to Live
to shift to hourlong episodes. The time change put it in competition with another soap for the first time, CBS' Search For Tomorrow
. The ratings slipped a bit (7.0 in the 1977-78 season) against a 7.5 rating for Search for Tomorrow, and Ryan's Hope never exceeded its peak 1976 achievement. By 1978, all the other ABC-developed soaps had stronger ratings than Ryan's Hope. In 1979, All My Children was the number one soap on tv, with a 9.0 rating, supplanted in 1980 by General Hospital with a 9.9 rating. While ABC otherwise flourished, Ryan's Hope struggled with its recasting and surreal storylines, and saw its ratings again at 7.0.
In 1981, CBS moved its ascendant The Young And The Restless
to the same slot Ryan's Hope occupied, 12:30 Eastern US. The CBS soap garnered a 7.4 rating to a 6.9 for Ryan's Hope. By the following year, CBS earned an 8.0 for the timeslot while Ryan's Hope slid to a 5.6. ABC fared better against the second half of The Young and the Restless
, as All My Children had ratings of 9.4 for 1982-83. The ratings continued to decline for Ryan's Hope and ABC realized it couldn't perform apace its other soaps. Ryan's Hope was moved to the noon Eastern US timeslot in 1984 with the thought that if it had built an audience in a soap-free timeslot in its first 18 months, perhaps it could do so again.
Unfortunately, the ratings for Ryan's Hope never stopped eroding. ABC continued to air the show for years even though after 1984 it never had a rating higher than 3.4, about a third of what the top-rated soaps were earning. One exacerbating factor was that although the noon timeslot relieved Ryan's Hope of soap competition, some ABC affiliates were intent on airing lunchtime newscasts. They did not run Ryan's Hope, which meant it was not available in some communities, further diminishing the households tuned in. ABC finally canceled the show in October 1988, with the final episode airing Friday, January 13, 1989.
Nielsen Rating
s. Among the cast who received multiple nominations: Helen Gallagher had three wins for Best Actress (1976, 77, 88) from 5 nominations; Michael Levin received 3 nominations for Best Actor (78, 79, 80); Nancy Addison received two nominations for Best Actress (77, 79); Ron Hale received two nominations for Supporting Actor (79, 80).
Actors and actresses nominated for their work on Ryan's Hope included film legend Joan Fontaine
(in a 1980 guest role), Tichina Arnold
, Richard Backus
, Bernard Barrow
, Randall Edwards
, John Gabriel
, Andrew Robinson, and Grant Show
.
Ryan's Hope won 12 Writers Guild of America writing awards. Year indicates date of award presentation, for work the prior year.
picked up reruns of Ryan's Hope, which was one of the few daytime dramas from before 1978 which saved all of its episodes. They aired the July 1975 through December 1981 episodes from 2000 to 2003. While reruns were originally abundant (airing daily in one-hour installments every six hours starting at noon, with two marathons of the week's episodes on weekends), by 2005 the show was only aired one hour per weekdays, and for a brief time, one hour a week. Currently, reruns are broadcast daily at 5 am EST. In September 2011, Soapnet stopped showing Ryan's Hope in the 5am timeslot in favor of old episodes of All My Children. Soapnet itself will go off the air sometime in 2012.
Ryan's Hope has also run on RTÉ 2 in Ireland and has previously aired in Australia. On January 3, 1994, a soap opera, Onderweg naar morgen (which literally means On the way to tomorrow), debuted on Dutch television; the Dutch writers based their show on story bibles originally written by Labine and Mayer.
, Catherine Hicks
, Yasmine Bleeth
, Grant Show
, Nell Carter
, Corbin Bernsen
, Marg Helgenberger
, Christian Slater
(who's Michael Hawkins' son in real life), Dominic Chianese
, and Kate Mulgrew
. Earl Hindman
, Delia's long-suffering brother Bob Reid, went on to co-star for eight years on Home Improvement, as the Taylor's over-the-fence neighbor Wilson, whose face was always partially hidden behind his fence.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
, revolving around 13 years of trials and tribulations within a large Irish American
Irish American
Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Ireland. A total of 36,278,332 Americans—estimated at 11.9% of the total population—reported Irish ancestry in the 2008 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau...
family in the Riverside district of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. It aired from July 7, 1975 to January 13, 1989 on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
. A total of 3,515 30-minute episodes were broadcast.
Origins
In late 1974, ABC Daytime
ABC Daytime
ABC Daytime is a programming block on the ABC Network which has historically encompassed soap operas, game shows and talk shows.-Schedule:...
approached Claire Labine
Claire Labine
-Early career:Although she originally aspired to be an actress, Labine eventually became a critically acclaimed writer. She attended the University of Kentucky where her major was journalism, but later she switched to playwriting major at Columbia University’s School of Dramatic Arts...
and Paul Avila Mayer
Paul Avila Mayer
Paul Avila Mayer was an American television writer and producer. His father was the late screen writer Edwin Justus Mayer, and his daughter is director Daisy von Scherler Mayer.-Positions held:...
, the head writer
Head writer
A head writer is a person who oversees the team of writers on a television or radio series. The title is common in the soap opera genre, as well as with sketch comedies and talk shows that feature monologues and comedy skits, but in prime time series this function is generally performed by an...
s of CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
' Love of Life
Love of Life
Love of Life is an American soap opera which aired on CBS Daytime from September 24, 1951 to February 1, 1980. It was created by Roy Winsor, whose previous creation Search for Tomorrow had premiered three weeks before Love of Life, and who would go on to create The Secret Storm two and a half years...
, about creating a new soap opera similar to General Hospital
General Hospital
General Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....
. Labine and Mayer added a large Irish-American family — the Ryans — to what ABC was initially calling City Hospital. Another of the show's working titles was "A Rage to Love," however that was soon changed. A pub theme originated with Mayer's and Labine's work on the earlier soap Where The Heart Is
Where the Heart Is (1969 TV series)
Where the Heart Is is an American soap opera telecast on the CBS television network from September 8, 1969 to March 23, 1973. Created by Lou Scofield and Margaret DePriest, the program ran for 25 minutes, the remaining five minutes of its timeslot ceded to a CBS news break.Scofield and DePriest...
: "On WTHI we had had a prolonged sequence with two characters who were having an affair... on the other side of town in a small Irish bar."
Ryan patriarch Johnny (Bernard Barrow
Bernard Barrow
Bernard E. "Bernie" Barrow was an American actor and collegiate drama professor. He was best known as an actor for his role as "Johnny Ryan", a publican and the patriarch of an Irish-American family on the television soap opera, Ryan's Hope, on which he appeared from 1975 until the show's demise...
) owned a bar, Ryan's, across from fictional Riverside Hospital in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. His wife, Maeve (Helen Gallagher
Helen Gallagher
Helen Gallagher is an American actress, dancer, singer and makeup artist.-Early years:Born in Brooklyn, she was raised in Scarsdale, New York for several years until the Wall Street crash which heralded the Great Depression, and her family moved to the Bronx. Her parents separated and she was...
), assisted him in his duties, as did their children; Frank, Patrick, Mary and Siobhan (the latter daughter being introduced in the series in 1978, having spent the first three years away from New York City). The Ryans and the wealthy Coleridges were the original core families of the show. The soap took the then-unusual approach of situating itself in an actual community—the Washington Heights neighborhood of Northern Manhattan. Maeve's parish sat in the shadow of the George Washington Bridge, on 178th St. References were often made to Central Park (Delia's Crystal Palace restaurant), Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn (mob-owned fishing boats), and other localities to provide a sense of place: "We wanted to show how New York has communities," Labine said.
Labine and Mayer also served as the executive producer
Executive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
s of the show at this point, with George Lefferts
George Lefferts
George Lefferts is a writer, producer, playwright, poet, and director of television dramas, motion pictures, radio dramas, and socially conscious documentaries...
as the producer. Lefferts would soon be replaced by Robert Costello, who remained with the show until 1978. Nancy Ford co-wrote the first episode with Labine and Mayer.
The original cast consisted of Nancy Addison Altman
Nancy Addison
Nancy Addison was an American soap opera actress, best known for her role on the television soap opera Ryan's Hope as Jillian Coleridge, which she played from 1975 until the show's demise in 1989.-Biography:...
, Bernard Barrow
Bernard Barrow
Bernard E. "Bernie" Barrow was an American actor and collegiate drama professor. He was best known as an actor for his role as "Johnny Ryan", a publican and the patriarch of an Irish-American family on the television soap opera, Ryan's Hope, on which he appeared from 1975 until the show's demise...
, Faith Catlin, Justin Deas
Justin Deas
Justin Deas is an American actor. He is known for his role as Tom Hughes #10 on As the World Turns and for his role as Buzz Cooper Sr. on Guiding Light...
, Michael Fairman
Michael Fairman
Michael Fairman is an American actor, and writer best known for his various roles during his long career, which started when he was 31 years old...
, John Gabriel
John Gabriel (actor)
John Gabriel is an American actor who is best known for his role as Seneca Beaulac in Ryan's Hope , and for which he received an Emmy Award nomination in 1980. Gabriel, who played The Professor in the original, unaired Gilligan's Island pilot, is the father of Lost actress Andrea Gabriel...
, Helen Gallagher
Helen Gallagher
Helen Gallagher is an American actress, dancer, singer and makeup artist.-Early years:Born in Brooklyn, she was raised in Scarsdale, New York for several years until the Wall Street crash which heralded the Great Depression, and her family moved to the Bronx. Her parents separated and she was...
, Michael Levin, Malcolm Groome, Rosalinda Guerra, Ron Hale
Ron Hale
Ron Hale is an American actor best known for his role as Dr. Roger Coleridge on the ABC soap opera Ryan's Hope for its entire run...
, Michael Hawkins
Michael Hawkins (US actor)
Michael Hawkins is an American actor.Hawkins was born as Thomas Knight Slater in Harlem, New York City. He would also use the stage name Michael Gainsborough. During the 1940s lived in the Strathmore section of Manhasset, New York on Long Island. His family left Manhasset in 1950...
, Earl Hindman
Earl Hindman
Earl John Hindman was an American actor, best-known for his role as the kindly neighbor Wilson W. Wilson Jr...
, Ilene Kristen
Ilene Kristen
Ilene Kristen is an American actress. She is known for her role as Delia Reid on Ryan's Hope and for her role as Roxy Balsom on One Life to Live .-Career:...
, Frank Latimore
Frank Latimore
Franklin Latimore was an American actor best known for his character ‘Dr. Ed Coleridge’ on the television soap opera Ryan's Hope....
, Kate Mulgrew
Kate Mulgrew
Katherine Kiernan Maria "Kate" Mulgrew is an American actress, most noted for her roles on Star Trek: Voyager as Captain Kathryn Janeway and Ryan's Hope as Mary Ryan...
, Hannibal Penney, Jr., and Diana van der Vlis
Diana Van der Vlis
Diana Van der Vlis was a Canadian stage, screen and television actress best known for her characters ‘Dr. Nell Beaulac’ on the ABC soap opera "Ryan's Hope" and 'Kate Hathaway Prescott’ on the CBS soap opera Where the Heart Is...
.
The premise of the show for its first two years involved the blue-collar, immigrant, Catholic Ryans and the three of their 5 upwardly-mobile adult children still residing in NY: Frank, lawyer and aspiring local politician; Pat, physician at local Riverside Hospital; and Mary, aspiring journalist. The show contrasted the cultures of conservative parents with their more liberated, 70s-drenched children. Older mores about lifetime marriages, church-proscribed divorce, chastity outside of marital sanction were constantly being tested by New-World, New-Era urban values. Frank's political campaign for city council was challenged by a chain of events surrounding his paying off the Coleridge son who knew of the affair Frank was having with Jillian Coleridge while married to needy, frantic Delia. The political scandal angle would soon be reiterated with Frank's short tenure in the state senate. Delia would become involved with all three of Johnny Ryan's sons, Frank, Pat, and Dakota. The quasi-incestuous focus would be echoed in coming years by Frank's involvement with both Coleridge sisters, Jillian and Faith, and with Faith's involvement with Ryan brothers, Pat and Frank, and again with Jillian's involvement with half-brothers Frank and Dakota, and by Michael Pavel's involvement with a mother and her teen daughter. Mary became irresistibly attracted to a reporter exposing Frank's blackmailing scandal, the fiery Jack Fenelli, and eventually moved in with him without benefit of marriage.
These extramarital and premarital affairs, the attendant children out of wedlock, the careerist women, the assertion of abortion rights: the clash of generational values in the Ryan clan was interesting to viewers and there developed a passionate following for Kate Mulgrew portraying Mary Ryan. Mary's career and personal goals were given neurotic counterpoint in Delia's machinations with Mary's brothers.
Show in Transition
After two years of growth and success, Ryan's Hope began encountering challenges. Michael HawkinsMichael Hawkins (US actor)
Michael Hawkins is an American actor.Hawkins was born as Thomas Knight Slater in Harlem, New York City. He would also use the stage name Michael Gainsborough. During the 1940s lived in the Strathmore section of Manhasset, New York on Long Island. His family left Manhasset in 1950...
left the role of Frank Ryan in 1976, and subsequent replacements included Andrew Robinson (1976–1978), Daniel Hugh Kelly
Daniel Hugh Kelly
Daniel Hugh Kelly is an American stage, film and television actor. He may be best known for his role on the 1980s ABC TV series Hardcastle and McCormick from 1983-1986 for which he also wrote and directed...
(1978–1981), Geoffrey Pierson
Geoff Pierson
Geoff Pierson is an American actor known for his role on The WB series Unhappily Ever After as Jack Malloy, the father of a dysfunctional family whose best friend is a stuffed animal rabbit named Mr. Floppy...
(1983–1985), and John Sanderford (1985–1989). In late 1977, Kate Mulgrew
Kate Mulgrew
Katherine Kiernan Maria "Kate" Mulgrew is an American actress, most noted for her roles on Star Trek: Voyager as Captain Kathryn Janeway and Ryan's Hope as Mary Ryan...
announced she would be leaving in January 1978. Between January 1978 and December 1979, three different actresses played Mary (Mary Carney, Kathleen Ryan Tolan, Nicolette Goulet). Although Labine and Mayer wanted to kill her character, ABC refused. However, after ABC realized no one other than Mulgrew herself would be accepted in the role, they agreed to let Mary be killed off. Ryan sister Siobhan was brought to town to become romantically involved with a man, Joe Novak, who turned out to be a mobster, a storyline that offed Mary in a grisly bludgeoning murder when she and Jack were investigating the mafia ties of the fiance. Malcolm Groome chose to leave the role of Pat Ryan in 1978 and was replaced with John Blazo (1978–1979), Robert Finoccoli (1979), and Patrick James Clarke (1982–1983). All these recasts left the writers struggling to give a voice to any of the Ryan children and left the show's core family feeling unfamiliar to viewers.
Other characters not related to the Ryans were also recast. After Ilene Kristen
Ilene Kristen
Ilene Kristen is an American actress. She is known for her role as Delia Reid on Ryan's Hope and for her role as Roxy Balsom on One Life to Live .-Career:...
left in January 1979, the role of Delia Reid was played by Robyn Millan (1979), Randall Edwards
Randall Edwards (actress)
Randall Edwards is an American television actress. She may be best known for her role on Ryan's Hope as Delia Reid Ryan Ryan Coleridge .-Biography:...
(1979–1982), and Robin Mattson
Robin Mattson
Robin Mattson is an American soap opera actress.Mattson was typically cast in supporting, "villainess" type roles, as in her roles in Santa Barbara and General Hospital, where she played an immoral goldigger and a psychopath, in the respective shows...
(1984); Kristen returned to the show in the role from 1982-1983 (when she was fired due to weight gain) and 1986-1989. After Faith Catlin was dropped from the show as Faith Coleridge in May 1976, she was replaced with Nancy Barrett
Nancy Barrett
Nancy Barrett, born , is an American actress. She is best known for her portrayal of "Carolyn Stoddard" in the popular 1960s Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows....
(1976), Catherine Hicks
Catherine Hicks
Catherine Mary Hicks is an American stage, film, television actress and singer. She is best known for her role as Annie Camden on the long-running television series 7th Heaven and as Karen Barclay in Child's Play.-Personal life:...
(1976–1978), and Karen Morris-Gowdy
Karen Morris-Gowdy
Karen Morris-Gowdy is an American actress, best known for her role as Dr. Faith Coleridge Desmond #4 on Ryan's Hope, a role she played from 1978 to 1984 and again in 1989....
(1978–1983, 1989). Richard Muenz originated the role of Joe Novak in 1979, but was replaced by Roscoe Born
Roscoe Born
Roscoe Born is an American actor, born in Topeka, Kansas, who is best known for playing a variety of roles over the years in successful television shows, most recently in The Young and the Restless.-Career:...
(1981–1983, 1988), Michael Hennessy
Michael Hennessy
Michael Joseph Hennessy was an Irish politician. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann as an independent Teachta Dála for Cork East and North East at the 1922 general election. He was elected as a Cumann na nGaedheal TD for Cork East at the 1923, June 1927 and September 1927 general elections. He...
(1983–1984), and Walt Willey
Walt Willey
Walt Willey is an American actor. He is best known for playing Jackson Montgomery on the soap opera All My Children from 1987 to 2011....
(1986–1987, with Joe initially under the guise of "Erik Brenner").
Production changes
Several things occurred behind the camera as well during the late 1970s to create a long, 10-year demise of the series. In 1979, Labine and Mayer sold the show to ABC due to skyrocketing production costs. There was speculation that ABC pushed for more action-adventure storylines, like the ones on their hit serial General Hospital. One of these included a gorilla who kidnapped Delia Reid Coleridge. Another included a search for lost Egyptian mummy Maatkare Hatchepsut. There were take-offs of JawsJaws (film)
Jaws is a 1975 American horror-thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. In the story, the police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant man-eating great white shark by closing the beach,...
, Manhattan
Manhattan (film)
Manhattan is a 1979 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Woody Allen about a twice-divorced 42-year-old comedy writer who dates a 17-year-old girl before eventually falling in love with his best friend's mistress...
, The Godfather
The Godfather
The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...
, and The French Lieutenant's Woman
The French Lieutenant's Woman
The French Lieutenant’s Woman , by John Fowles, is a period novel inspired by the 1823 novel Ourika, by Claire de Duras, which Fowles translated into English in 1977...
. These were not the type of plots the show had previously been known for. Subsequent interviews with the headwriter Claire Labine, however, reveal that the network was not the driving force behind the surrealism: "Everyone always cites Prince Albert the ape story as a mistake. But I'd do that again. I loved those scenes. It was a story about alienation." Just as the King Kong plot captured Labine's imagination, so was the Raiders of the Lost Ark plot concerning a queen mummy inspired by Labine's vacation in Egypt at the time. None were considered plausible-- "the Raiders story... appears neither comfortable nor realistic," not told within a soap's context of real life, just as the King Kong and Jaws plots "were universally criticized."
At the beginning of 1982, ABC fired Labine and Mayer and replaced them with Mary Munisteri. During Munisteri's tenure as head writer, the focus began to move to the newly arrived wealthy Kirkland clan, which was headed by Hollis Kirkland III (Peter Haskell
Peter Haskell
Peter Abraham Haskell was an American actor who worked primarily in television.-Early years:Haskell was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Rose Veronica Golden and geophysicist Norman Abraham Haskell...
). It soon turned out that he was the father of Rae Woodard's daughter, Kimberly Harris (Kelli Maroney
Kelli Maroney
Kelli Joan Maroney is an American actress who has starred in film and in television.-Biography:Maroney's most notable television roles were her first: Kimberly Harris Beaulac on the soap opera Ryan's Hope and Tina Lord on One Life to Live...
). As more and more Kirklands began to show up (including Christine Jones
Christine Jones (actress)
Christine Jones is an American actress.Jones is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Janice Frame on the NBC soap opera Another World from 1978–1980 and again in 1989, but had also appeared as Amy Gifford on the series in 1977...
as Hollis' wife Catsy and Mary Page Keller
Mary Page Keller
Mary Page Keller is an American actress known for roles on both daytime and primetime television.-Career:On daytime, Keller played the role of Amanda Kirkland on Ryan's Hope and the role of Sally Frame on Another World...
and Ariane Munker as his daughter Amanda), less attention was paid to the Ryans and Coleridges. Various cast members at this time dubbed the show Kirkland's Hope.
Due to falling ratings, Labine and Mayer were asked back at the beginning of 1983. Ratings rose slightly with their return; however, it was not enough. By the end of 1983, they were replaced with General Hospital scribe Pat Falken Smith
Pat Falken Smith
Patricia Falken Smith was a television writer, most famous for her stints as head writer of several soap operas, including General Hospital and Days of our Lives.-Biography:...
(with James E. Reilly
James E. Reilly
James E. Reilly was an American soap opera writer. Known for his work as the head writer of NBC's Days of our Lives and creator/head writer of Passions, Reilly won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series Writing as co-head writer for Guiding Light in 1993.Reilly died suddenly in October...
joining as a staff writer). Smith, along with executive producer Joseph Hardy
Joseph Hardy (director)
Joseph Hardy is an American Tony Award-winning stage director, film director, television producer, and occasional performer....
, once again shifted the focus from the Ryans. Numerous fan favorites, including Ilene Kristen
Ilene Kristen
Ilene Kristen is an American actress. She is known for her role as Delia Reid on Ryan's Hope and for her role as Roxy Balsom on One Life to Live .-Career:...
, Louise Shaffer
Louise Shaffer
-Biography:Shaffer was born in Woodbridge, Connecticut, where she showed an interest in acting early on in her life. After finishing high school, she attended Connecticut College for Women, then Yale Drama School...
, and Karen Morris-Gowdy
Karen Morris-Gowdy
Karen Morris-Gowdy is an American actress, best known for her role as Dr. Faith Coleridge Desmond #4 on Ryan's Hope, a role she played from 1978 to 1984 and again in 1989....
were either fired or left of their own accord during Smith's and Hardy's reign. The focus of the series was now centered on Greenberg's Deli, with Cali Timmins
Cali Timmins
Carolyn "Cali" Timmins is a Canadian actress, best known for her work in the soap Ryan's Hope as Maggie Shelby, a role she played from 1983 to 1989....
' Maggie Shelby and Scott Holmes
Scott Holmes
Scott Holmes is an actor, best known for the role of District Attorney Tom Hughes in the CBS soap opera As the World Turns, a role he played from 1987 through ATWT's 2010 cancellation...
' Dave Greenberg becoming two prominent characters.
In 1985, Smith was replaced with Millee Taggert and Tom King
Tom King (writer)
Tom King is an American television writer and story board artist best known for his work on the animated children's shows The Ren and Stimpy Show, SpongeBob SquarePants, Camp Lazlo, Chowder and The Fairly OddParents...
. The show began a shift back to its roots during this time. The show, which had been airing at 12:30 Eastern US/11:30 Central since 1977, had just been moved to the Noon Eastern US/11c time slot, beginning October 8, 1984. It appears that many of the cast members felt as though this was a very political move by ABC: since the daytime drama series Loving
Loving (TV series)
Caden Grant Carlton loves Mika Ayako Ryan more.Loving is an American television soap opera which aired on ABC's daytime lineup from June 26, 1983 to November 10, 1995 for 3,169 episodes...
took over the former 12:30/11:30c Ryan's Hope slot, it allowed creator Agnes Nixon to use her clout with the network (from her lucrative soaps All My Children and One Life to Live) to get Loving a prime slot. This resulted in her new show commencing a block of back-to-back Nixon shows. Others felt that moving Ryan's Hope out of the 12:30 slot spared it competition from CBS mega-hit The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
, and to a lesser degree, NBC's ailing Search For Tomorrow
Search for Tomorrow
Search for Tomorrow is an American soap opera which premiered on September 3, 1951 on CBS. The show was moved from CBS to NBC on March 29, 1982. It continued on NBC until the final episode aired on December 26, 1986, a run of thirty-five years. At the time of its final broadcast it was the...
.
The final years
During the 1980s, there were numerous cast changes. Some of the more notable ones included the additions of Grant ShowGrant Show
Grant Alan Show is an American actor best known for his role on Melrose Place as Jake Hanson, which he played from 1992 to 1997.-Early life:...
, Daniel Pilon
Daniel Pilon
Daniel Pilon is a Canadian-born actor, known for his role in Dallas as Naldo Marchetta. He has also appeared in daytime soap operas such as Ryan's Hope, Guiding Light and Days of our Lives....
, Gerit Quealy
Gerit Quealy
Gerit Quealy is an American writer, editor, and actor.She is the co-author of Wedding Flowers and Wedding Cakes and Flowers , and an editor of Fifty Things to Do When You Turn Fifty ....
, Leslie Easterbrook
Leslie Easterbrook
-Early life:Easterbrook was born in Los Angeles and adopted by a family in rural Nebraska, where she was raised. Her father later earned a Ph.D and became a voice/trumpet professor at University of Nebraska at Kearney...
, Tichina Arnold
Tichina Arnold
Tichina Rolanda Arnold is an American actress and singer. She is best known for having portrayed the roles of Pamela James on the FOX sitcom Martin and the family matriarch Rochelle on the UPN/CW sitcom Everybody Hates Chris....
, Gloria DeHaven
Gloria DeHaven
Gloria Mildred DeHaven is an American actress and a former contract star for MGM.-Early life and career:DeHaven was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of actor-director Carter DeHaven and actress Flora Parker DeHaven, both former vaudeville performers.She began her career as a child...
, Jimmy Wlcek, Maria Pitillo
Maria Pitillo
Maria Pitillo is an American actress who has starred in several films; most notably as Audrey Timmonds in Godzilla—a role which garnered her a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress...
, Rosemary Prinz
Rosemary Prinz
Rosemary Prinz was a stage and television actress. She is most known for her work in the early era of the American soap opera.-Life and career:Prinz was born in New York City...
, Catherine Larson, and Christopher Durham. Durham arrived in October 1985 as Dakota Smith, who was brought to the Ryan family's attention following Johnny's admission of a tryst he'd had with a woman who stepped in as his caretaker while he was ill, and away from Maeve, in the 1950s. The long-ago weekend of intimacy produced Dakota, who arrived in New York to find out that Johnny was his father. Dakota soon became a rebel on the local scene, engaging in dirty dealings and becoming at odds with Frank, especially after he entered into a romance with Jill, Frank's beloved.
Recasts
In late 1984, Joseph Hardy and Felicia Minei Behr decided that the character of Ryan Fenelli would advance to being approximately 17 years old for new storyline prospects, from the 9 year old she was currently, as played by Jenny Rebecca Dweir. Newcomer Yasmine BleethYasmine Bleeth
Yasmine Amanda Bleeth is an American actress. Her television roles include Caroline Holden in the long-running series Baywatch.-Early life and career:...
was hired to become the teenage Ryan in early 1985, who started only a month or so after Dweir's last appearance in the role.
Initially, Bleeth's Ryan Fenelli shared many youth-oriented and high school themed plots with Grant Show's Rick Hyde and bad boy D.J. LaSalle, as played by up-and-coming actor Christian Slater
Christian Slater
Christian Michael Leonard Slater is an American actor. He made his film debut with a small role in The Postman Always Rings Twice before playing a leading role in the 1985 film The Legend of Billie Jean...
. Rick joined the local police force after high school graduation, and eventually fell in love with Ryan, providing the show with its next adventurous supercouple
Supercouple
A supercouple or super couple is a popular or financially wealthy pairing that intrigues and fascinates the public in an intense or even obsessive fashion...
. Jack Fenelli was unsupportive of his daughter dating Rick, who tended to live dangerously; in protest, Rick and Ryan ultimately rushed down to South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
in April 1986, where they eloped. Ryan was approached and assisted at the town hall ceremony by a woman, Maura (Kate Mulgrew
Kate Mulgrew
Katherine Kiernan Maria "Kate" Mulgrew is an American actress, most noted for her roles on Star Trek: Voyager as Captain Kathryn Janeway and Ryan's Hope as Mary Ryan...
), who bore more than a passing resemblance to Ryan's late mother, Mary Ryan Fenelli (it was suggested that this was Mary returning yet again in ghostly form). The two were followed and then found by Jack and Frank after the wedding and brought back home, and while Rick and Ryan moved in together, things became more rocky between Ryan and her family.
Later in 1985, Jadrien Steele departed from the role of 10-year-old Johnno Ryan. Instead of replacing him with another child actor, Hardy and Behr decided to advance Johnno's age to 19 for storyline purposes as well. After being called back home to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
by his relatives, following the accidental, near-fatal shooting of his father Frank by Rick Hyde, the suddenly grown-up John Reid Ryan surfaced in August 1986, and was portrayed for the rest of the show's run by Jason Adams
Ash Adams
Ash Adams , also known professionally by his given name of Jason Adams, is an award-winning American independent filmmaker, producer, writer, and well-known TV and movie actor.- Early life :...
. Johnno returned from attending college in the Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
, complete with a baby son, Owen "Owney" Ryan. At first, despite prodding from Johnno's "second mother" Jill Coleridge and everyone else, details of Owney's mother and the circumstances surrounding his birth were seldom shared by Johnno, until the mother to which he was not married, Lizzie Ransome (Catherine Larson) arrived a while later. News of this latest unexpected arrival to the Ryan clan soon brought Ilene Kristen
Ilene Kristen
Ilene Kristen is an American actress. She is known for her role as Delia Reid on Ryan's Hope and for her role as Roxy Balsom on One Life to Live .-Career:...
back to the show as Delia, to meet her grandson and to cause more upheaval. Her return on September 8, 1986, which proved to be permanent, opened with the revelation that she had been having financial difficulty - the number one indication that for once, she had not run off to marry another wealthy bachelor to advance her fortune. Delia's last husband, Matthew Crane (played by Harve Presnell
Harve Presnell
Harve Presnell was an American actor and singer. He began his career in the mid 1950s as a classical baritone, singing with orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States...
in 1984 during Robin Mattson
Robin Mattson
Robin Mattson is an American soap opera actress.Mattson was typically cast in supporting, "villainess" type roles, as in her roles in Santa Barbara and General Hospital, where she played an immoral goldigger and a psychopath, in the respective shows...
's brief stint as Delia), had died unexpectedly in the intervening period and left her destitute. She tried to conceal this fact from everyone, but Maggie Shelby successfully exposed her at a Coleridge family dinner. Delia moved in with Johnny, Maeve, and grandson Owney.
Lizzie came to protect John and Owney from her ruthless father, Harlan Ransome (Drew Snyder), who wanted to take the baby and sell it for his own purposes, since he disapproved of such a young couple raising a child. After much hostility towards John and Lizzie, and an attempt to rape Delia, Harlan was bludgeoned to death.
Final storylines
By early 1987, with ratings sinking ever further, and many ABC affiliates dropping the show altogether, ABC asked Claire Labine to return as head writer, with her daughter, Eleanor LabineEleanor Labine
Eleanor Labine is an American TV writer, the daughter of Claire Labine and the sister of Matthew Labine.-Positions held:Another World*Associate Head Writer General Hospital*Associate Head Writer Guiding Light...
, as co-head writer. The Labines revitalized the show. A year after Labine's return, executive producer Joseph Hardy
Joseph Hardy (director)
Joseph Hardy is an American Tony Award-winning stage director, film director, television producer, and occasional performer....
was replaced with Felicia Minei Behr
Felicia Minei Behr
Felicia Minei Behr is an American TV producer and network executive who has worked on three daytime serials. She was fired from All My Children in 1996 when ratings for the show began to decline.-Career: Executive Producer:...
.
Lizzie and John found there there was true love in their relationship, and the young parents were now able to focus on parenthood without living in total sin. In March 1987, they were engaged. That same month, after successfully taking down Overlord, a local organized crime syndicate that had been terrorizing the Riverside area for almost a year, Siobhan and Joe announced they were leaving New York to seek their fortunes; along with their 3-year-old son Sean (Danny Tamberelli
Danny Tamberelli
Daniel "Danny" Tamberelli is an American actor and musician.-Biography:Tamberelli played Jackie Radowski on the television series The Baby-Sitters Club shortly before more notably playing Little Pete on the Nickelodeon television show The Adventures of Pete & Pete and provided the voice for Arnold...
), they bid farewell to everyone at the Ryan's annual St. Patrick's Day celebration (aired March 17, 1987). The Novaks would return one last time, in October 1988. Jack, who had been wounded at the scene of the Overlord takedown, met a homeless teenage girl, Zena Brown (Tichina Arnold), while recovering at Riverside. Zena and Jack had a lot in common due to their history on the streets, and upon his release, Jack fought the authorities in order to get Zena placed in a good foster home. Zena spent two months in a foster home with an upwardly mobile black family, but after numerous attempts to get herself kicked out, Jack convinced the Ryans to take her in, which succeeded after Zena became very friendly with Maeve.
On the night of Maggie giving birth to daughter Olivia (Kelly Nevins and Melissa Nevins), in May 1987, her brother Ben Shelby (Jim Wlcek) arrived in town, blowing his cover of Ben Shelley when running into mother Bess (Gloria DeHaven) at a dinner party thrown by her. Lizzie, who had started working for Delia at her art gallery, had bought a painting from Ben, who under both his identities was a struggling artist who despised high society - the very explanation as to why he had been estranged from his family for some time. Ben caused friction with his family and their friends, but ultimately tried to prove himself a local hero when he was the first to witness John Reid Ryan's temporary infidelity to Lizzie. During the investigation of a recent murder at local Wellman College, which John Reid and Ryan were now attending, John fell into bed with Dr. Concetta D'Angelo (Lois Robbins), who had been helping him cover the case for Wellman's newspaper. John Reid and Concetta ended their tryst well before John Reid and Lizzie's wedding date approached, but Delia found out, and had a hard time forgiving her son.
During their wedding day that August, Lizzie was set to marry John, but was whisked away from the church by Ben, who ultimately told her, in private, the truth about John's cheating on her. John and Lizzie tried to reconcile, but Lizzie had a hard time forgiving John, and then admitted that she was falling for Ben. In the aftermath, the couple went back to their respective new love interests. Rick and Ryan's marriage, which had seen its ups and downs for the year and a half they had been united, took a turn for the worse when Ryan walked into a trap at Wellman College, where she was attacked by thugs from a local chemical company. After she miscarried as a result of her injuries, Rick blamed Ryan for the death of their child, packed his bags, and left New York. Wellman reporter Chaz Saybrook (Brian McGovern
Brian McGovern
Brian McGovern is a retired Irish footballer.The former Irish U18 and U21 player had joined Arsenal as a trainee in summer 1997. He made a single appearance for Arsenal, as a substitute against Newcastle United on May 14, 2000, in which a youthful Arsenal side lost 4-2. While with the Gunners,...
), and Concetta's brother Mark D'Angelo (Peter Love) were among the many eligible bachelors who vied for Ryan's affection. In September, Dakota started a run for Riverside district leader, with Delia as his campaign manager. To help with finances, Delia contacted influential politician Malachy Malone (played by none other than Regis Philbin
Regis Philbin
Regis Francis Xavier Philbin is an American media personality, actor and singer, known for hosting talk and game shows since the 1960s. Philbin is often called "the hardest working man in show business" and holds the Guinness World Record for the most time spent in front of a television camera...
), who agreed to back Dakota. Dee and Malachy's professional, and at times personal liaison lasted throughout the entire campaign. Dakota won in November, but once in office, engaged in several bribes that could have threatened his leadership. One of these bribes, in which he helped retireve EKG scans of mobster Augie Price, who had just died after being targeted as an accomplice in the Meredith Drake Company scandal, actually enhanced his career. Jack and Pat took the scans to court, which prevented the case from going to trial.
Since the spring 1987, Jack had found himself in a blossoming affair with Commissioner Emily Hall (Cynthia Dozier), who had been Zena's official social worker. As their relationship evolved, Emily was pursued by politician Richard Rowan, who was married. Emily fought to keep Richard away in order to not jeopardize her devotion to Jack, but ended up being in the wrong place at the wrong time when she walked into Richard's apartment just as he was lying dead on the floor. She was then cited a suspect in his murder. Emily hired a very pregnant Jill to represent her. Jill also had her hands full, focusing on her new baby with Frank, and counsuling a determined Ryan to accept the fact that Rick was through with marriage so a divorce could proceed. In early December, she gave birth to a girl, whom bore the name of Mary Ryan, in an essence making the family dynamic complete again in the late Mary's honor.
However, the end was already in sight; ABC announced Ryan's Hope cancellation in October 1988. As Bernard Barrow
Bernard Barrow
Bernard E. "Bernie" Barrow was an American actor and collegiate drama professor. He was best known as an actor for his role as "Johnny Ryan", a publican and the patriarch of an Irish-American family on the television soap opera, Ryan's Hope, on which he appeared from 1975 until the show's demise...
told Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
on January 10, 1989, the show's Nielsen numbers were still openly revealed to cast and crew until Ryan's Hope fell to dead last in the daytime ratings during the 1987-1988 TV season. Thereafter, "a lid was tightened" according to Barrow, and the show's now-12th (13th the following year) place ranking was harder to obtain from the insiders. The final episode (#3515) on January 13, 1989, concluded with Helen Gallagher
Helen Gallagher
Helen Gallagher is an American actress, dancer, singer and makeup artist.-Early years:Born in Brooklyn, she was raised in Scarsdale, New York for several years until the Wall Street crash which heralded the Great Depression, and her family moved to the Bronx. Her parents separated and she was...
's Maeve singing "Danny Boy", as she had for many previous Ryan celebrations. For the final episodes, numerous cast members who had been on the show in previous years returned.
Broadcast history
See: List of US daytime soap opera ratingsWhen Ryan's Hope premiered on July 7, 1975, ABC scheduled it at 1:00 p.m./12 Noon Central, a timeslot previously occupied by All My Children
All My Children
All My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia. The show features Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime's most...
(pushing that soap to the 12:30 p.m./11:30 a.m. slot). The network reasoned that Ryan's Hope stood best chances of gaining an audience by programming it in the 1:00 slot that was free of soap competition on the other networks, and by having ABC's number one soap as a lead-in. The show's audience grew from a 5.7 rating in 1975 (a rating is "the percentage of TV homes in the US that is tuned in" ) to a 7.3 in 1976. This placed Ryan's Hope in second place on the ABC roster, with 'All My Children
All My Children
All My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia. The show features Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime's most...
' at an 8.2 rating, ahead of General Hospital
General Hospital
General Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....
at a 7.1 rating and One Life To Live
One Life to Live
One Life to Live is an American soap opera which debuted on July 15, 1968 and has been broadcast on the ABC television network. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature racially and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social...
at a 6.8 rating.
In 1976, ABC joined the other networks in planning to expand its soaps to an hour format. Labine and Mayer declined expanding RH, which was moved to the 12:30 Eastern US timeslot in January 1977 to allow first 'All My Children', then General Hospital and One Life to Live
One Life to Live
One Life to Live is an American soap opera which debuted on July 15, 1968 and has been broadcast on the ABC television network. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature racially and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social...
to shift to hourlong episodes. The time change put it in competition with another soap for the first time, CBS' Search For Tomorrow
Search for Tomorrow
Search for Tomorrow is an American soap opera which premiered on September 3, 1951 on CBS. The show was moved from CBS to NBC on March 29, 1982. It continued on NBC until the final episode aired on December 26, 1986, a run of thirty-five years. At the time of its final broadcast it was the...
. The ratings slipped a bit (7.0 in the 1977-78 season) against a 7.5 rating for Search for Tomorrow, and Ryan's Hope never exceeded its peak 1976 achievement. By 1978, all the other ABC-developed soaps had stronger ratings than Ryan's Hope. In 1979, All My Children was the number one soap on tv, with a 9.0 rating, supplanted in 1980 by General Hospital with a 9.9 rating. While ABC otherwise flourished, Ryan's Hope struggled with its recasting and surreal storylines, and saw its ratings again at 7.0.
In 1981, CBS moved its ascendant The Young And The Restless
The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
to the same slot Ryan's Hope occupied, 12:30 Eastern US. The CBS soap garnered a 7.4 rating to a 6.9 for Ryan's Hope. By the following year, CBS earned an 8.0 for the timeslot while Ryan's Hope slid to a 5.6. ABC fared better against the second half of The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
, as All My Children had ratings of 9.4 for 1982-83. The ratings continued to decline for Ryan's Hope and ABC realized it couldn't perform apace its other soaps. Ryan's Hope was moved to the noon Eastern US timeslot in 1984 with the thought that if it had built an audience in a soap-free timeslot in its first 18 months, perhaps it could do so again.
Unfortunately, the ratings for Ryan's Hope never stopped eroding. ABC continued to air the show for years even though after 1984 it never had a rating higher than 3.4, about a third of what the top-rated soaps were earning. One exacerbating factor was that although the noon timeslot relieved Ryan's Hope of soap competition, some ABC affiliates were intent on airing lunchtime newscasts. They did not run Ryan's Hope, which meant it was not available in some communities, further diminishing the households tuned in. ABC finally canceled the show in October 1988, with the final episode airing Friday, January 13, 1989.
Nielsen Rating
- 1975-1976 5.7 14th/14 soaps
- 1976-1977 7.3 8th/15 soaps
- 1977-1978 7.0 8th/14 soaps
- 1978-1979 7.2 9th/14 soaps
- 1979-1980 7.0 9th/13 soaps
- 1980-1981 6.7 7th/13 soaps
- 1981-1982 6.9 7th/15 soaps
- 1982-1983 5.6 9th/14 soaps
- 1983-1984 5.0 10th/13 soaps
- 1984-1985 3.4 11th/14 soaps
- 1985-1986 3.2 12th/14 soaps
- 1986-1987 2.7 13th/14 soaps
- 1987-1988 2.5 12th/12 soaps
- 1988-1989 2.3 13th/13 soaps
Title sequence
| In its 13 years on the air, Ryan's Hope went through quite a few theme, visual, and credit revisions. Retained through the run were the title sequence New York scenes and the theme song, credited to Carey Gold but according to lore written as "Here's to Us," with input by Claire Labine. | |
 July 7, 1975 - February 29, 1980 |
The First Years During the first years of Ryan's Hope the sequence featured a montage of stills as members of the Ryan family along with Faith Coleridge and Bucky Carter picnicked in Central Park. The last shot of the original sequence was of Johnny and Maeve Ryan lifting their then-newborn grandson John Reid "Johnno" Ryan up toward a brilliant cloudless blue sky with Manhattan's skyline just visible on the horizon as the strains of "Here's to Us" played in a rather subdued flute, harp and string trio arrangement. By holiday season in late '76 recasting dictated that the visuals be changed, edited down to slow-motion scenes of Maeve and Johnny dancing with their grandson rosie-style in Central Park. These visuals raised the question just whose hope was referred to in the show's title-- aspiring politician? immigrant matriarch? third-generation Johnno? Closing credits for the majority of Ryan's Hope episodes usually ran over either a beauty shot or a still of Ryan's Bar. From July 1975 through fall 1978, Ryan's Hope’s closing credit lettering was in white Grotesque No. 9 Italic. From fall 1978 onward, the lettering was set in Souvenir Bold Italic. Also beginning at that time, the credits would sometimes run over a shot of an empty set featured in a particular episode. Between 1975 and 1980, Ryan's Hope was the only soap opera aired on ABC that contained a copyright notice at the end of every broadcast, which for most daytime soaps was not standard practice at the time. (Former ABC serial Dark Shadows Dark Shadows Dark Shadows is a gothic soap opera that originally aired weekdays on the ABC television network, from June 27, 1966 to April 2, 1971. The show was created by Dan Curtis. The story bible, which was written by Art Wallace, does not mention any supernatural elements... was the only other daytime soap to have used a copyright date.) This was due to the show's non-network ownership during the first five years, until Labine-Mayer Productions sold their creation to ABC in 1980. |
 March 3, 1980 - March 1983 |
Post-Success Years In Spring 1980, after Labine and Mayer's 1979 sale of Ryan's Hope to ABC American Broadcasting Company The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948... , the network decided to make some image alterations as a plan to regain the success the show received in its first years. The opening sequence was changed during this time also so that instead of shots of the principal cast members of Ryan's Hope, there were panoramic views of New York and street shots of anonymous New York City people. This opening's shot sequence was as follows: 1. Aerial shot of the Chrysler Building 2. Statue of Liberty 3. Staten Island Ferry 4. The Brooklyn Bridge 5. A kindergarten teacher walking her young charges down the street 6. Two children on a swing set 7. A young couple sharing an apple 8. A zoom-in on sunlight reflected on a glass and steel skyscraper 9. A wealthy young woman stepping out of a limousine 10. Another young couple embracing 11. Boys playing soccer in Central Park. The title appears on the screen after the freeze-frame of the boys tossing the soccer ball up in the air. There was a new, more uptempo arrangement of Carey Gold's "Here's to Us" theme, arranged by either Sid Ramin, who had taken over the music of All My Children All My Children All My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia. The show features Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime's most... by early 1980, or one of the staff composer/arrangers at Elliot Lawrence Productions. The pastoral flute-harp-string trio arrangement was given a full orchestration with melody played by guitar with bass drum accents, traps brushing, brass section flourishes, and sweetening from a background string section. Within a year after ABC assumed production chores for Ryan's Hope, Carey Gold was replaced as principal music composer by General Hospital General Hospital General Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns.... s Charles Paul Charles Paul Charles Paul is an American composer and organist, most known for his musical accompaniment on radio and television.Originally providing musical accompaniment to such old-time radio programs as The Adventures of Ellery Queen and Young Doctor Malone, he transitioned to television in the 1950s... , whose cues for the show from 1981 through summer 1983 often had a General Hospital style and sound. From the first episode of Ryan's Hope that was produced under ABC's ownership in 1980, copyright notice at the end was changed to represent that of the network's, using at first medium-sized Arial font on a single line. For a year or so, the copyright appeared directly under the "Videotaped at ABC Television Center in New York" byline as the credit scroll paused (previously, "A Labine-Mayer Production" had appeared in the Grotesque then Souvenir credit fonts above the copyright). Since the start of the series, there had never been closing display of the show's title at the end of the sequence. By the end of 1981, the title finally began appearing at the end of the sequence, and the Arial copyright notice below it became smaller. |
 March 1983 - March 16, 1984 |
The New Direction of 1983 aka Recovery From "Kirkland's Hope" The changed changed in March 1983 to once again feature shots of the main cast members playing the Ryans and their friends. Of course, the opening main title footage was shot in locations around Manhattan. This was the first Ryan's Hope visuals package in which character shots were added or removed when contract cast members came and went. The final shot in this version had Johnny, Maeve, and several of the younger Ryan children sitting in Central Park surrounded by autumn leaves, as Johnny throws a soccer ball up in the air. The frame freezes just as the ball travels out of everyone's reach, with the title appearing on the top left-hand corner. The second remix of "Here's to Us" remained for the first five months of this opening's run; however on August 22, 1983, the theme was switched to an arrangement that had more of a discernible rhythm, and was the most uptempo to date. It was this rendition that remained over the title sequence and closing credits until the end of Ryan's Hopes run in January 1989. Within weeks of the debut of these visuals, Joseph Hardy replaced Ellen Barrett as the new executive producer, and was the first Ryan's Hope EP to be credited as such, in place of the "produced by" title. On May 16, 1983, "All Rights Reserved" was added to the program's copyright notice for the first time. Also, sometime during fall 1983, but no later than December 26 of that year, the established beauty-shot/empty set ending visuals were retired, in favor of stills of scenes from that day's episode. The credit fonts would remain the same until March 16, 1984. |
  March 19, 1984 - January 13, 1989 |
The Final Years The most substantial changes to the title sequence and closing credits of Ryan's Hope, that had occurred by the start of 1984, continued on March 19 of that year. A whole new series of filmed shots containing all contract principals premiered on that day, along with a mix of videotaped footage. There was now a distinct pattern among the character shots, as one character would look in a certain direction, while the next character(s) would be waving to or walking towards the previous person, or engaging in some leisure activity seen by the preceding character. Just as in the previous package, shots of the cast members were added or removed as they came and went, but continuing characters would have their shots updated a few times each. The title logo changed from the Schadow Bold type used since day one to that of Advertisers Gothic Bold, the same lettering used in the title sequences of The Streets of San Francisco The Streets of San Francisco The Streets of San Francisco is a 1970s television police drama filmed on location in San Francisco, California, and produced by Quinn Martin Productions, with the first season produced in association with Warner Bros... and Starsky and Hutch Starsky and Hutch Starsky and Hutch is a 1970s American cop thriller television series that consisted of a 90-minute pilot movie and 92 episodes of 60 minutes each; created by William Blinn, produced by Spelling-Goldberg Productions, and broadcast between April 30, 1975 and May 15, 1979 on the ABC... , two ABC primetime series of the 1970s. The title now also appeared across on a single line. The freeze-frame shots in the final five years of the show featured Maeve Ryan only. From March 19, 1984 to April 3, 1987, the title was displayed over Maeve kneeling down in the street as pigeons fly away from her; from April 6, 1987 to January 13, 1989, Maeve was smelling spring blossoms off a tree branch, and then gazed to the side of camera view. With the extensive spring 1987 update, the cast montage was entirely videotaped footage, a single exception being the opening shot of Johnny riding a bike through the park, with Maeve in the rear of the seat, as the only film shot (from 1984) remaining. The title display went unembossed (from black shadowing) for a while beginning on April 6, 1987, mirroring the closing credit format, which had been unembossed for a year prior. In spring 1988, the title's black embossment was reinstated, as a result of Felicia Minei Behr Felicia Minei Behr Felicia Minei Behr is an American TV producer and network executive who has worked on three daytime serials. She was fired from All My Children in 1996 when ratings for the show began to decline.-Career: Executive Producer:... becoming what would be Ryan's Hopes final executive producer. (Behr, unlike Hardy, continued to be credited as only "Producer" even after she became EP.) The major graphic changes of this period even extended to the closing credits. As soon as the final theme package premiered, the Souvenir Bold Italic credit font used since 1978 changed to Advertisers Gothic Bold to match Ryan's Hopes new logo. These now ran over the episode stills that were introduced in the last months of the previous theme package. What was most noticeable about this latest credit format was that for the first time, the entire setup was run on a chyron Chyron Chyron may refer to:*Lower third, television graphics that occupy the lower area of the screen*Chyron Corporation, develops and manufactures on-screen graphics for the broadcast industry... , whereas before then credits were still run on a scrolling machine frame. Also, character names in the cast list went from being displayed below actors' names to above them. At the same time, the copyright notice also changed to the new generic version, in a stylized italic font, that was also used on All My Children, One Life to Live One Life to Live One Life to Live is an American soap opera which debuted on July 15, 1968 and has been broadcast on the ABC television network. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature racially and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social... , and all ABC News ABC News ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company... programs, including Good Morning America Good Morning America Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now... . These changes would remain until Ryan's Hope’s last telecast. Beginning in March 1986, black embossment normally seen in the closing credit text was removed completely. With the exception of the August 28, 1987 episode, the credits were in transparent white until the embossment was reinstated in spring 1988. |
Awards
Ryan's Hope won sixteen Daytime Emmy AwardDaytime Emmy Award
The Daytime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Los Angeles-based Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American daytime television programming...
s. Among the cast who received multiple nominations: Helen Gallagher had three wins for Best Actress (1976, 77, 88) from 5 nominations; Michael Levin received 3 nominations for Best Actor (78, 79, 80); Nancy Addison received two nominations for Best Actress (77, 79); Ron Hale received two nominations for Supporting Actor (79, 80).
- 1976: Helen GallagherHelen GallagherHelen Gallagher is an American actress, dancer, singer and makeup artist.-Early years:Born in Brooklyn, she was raised in Scarsdale, New York for several years until the Wall Street crash which heralded the Great Depression, and her family moved to the Bronx. Her parents separated and she was...
, Outstanding Actress (Maeve Ryan) - 1977: Outstanding Drama Series4th Daytime Emmy AwardsThe 4th Daytime Emmy Awards were held in 1977 to commemorate excellence in daytime programming from the previous year . The fourth awards only had three categories, and thus three awards were given.Winners in each category are in bold....
- 1977: Helen GallagherHelen GallagherHelen Gallagher is an American actress, dancer, singer and makeup artist.-Early years:Born in Brooklyn, she was raised in Scarsdale, New York for several years until the Wall Street crash which heralded the Great Depression, and her family moved to the Bronx. Her parents separated and she was...
, Outstanding Actress (Maeve Ryan) - 1977: Claire LabineClaire Labine-Early career:Although she originally aspired to be an actress, Labine eventually became a critically acclaimed writer. She attended the University of Kentucky where her major was journalism, but later she switched to playwriting major at Columbia University’s School of Dramatic Arts...
and Paul Avila MayerPaul Avila MayerPaul Avila Mayer was an American television writer and producer. His father was the late screen writer Edwin Justus Mayer, and his daughter is director Daisy von Scherler Mayer.-Positions held:...
, Outstanding Writing - 1977: Lela SwiftLela SwiftLela Swift is a television director best known for her work on Dark Shadows, which she also produced from 1970 to 1971, and Ryan's Hope....
, Outstanding Individual Director - 1978: Claire LabineClaire Labine-Early career:Although she originally aspired to be an actress, Labine eventually became a critically acclaimed writer. She attended the University of Kentucky where her major was journalism, but later she switched to playwriting major at Columbia University’s School of Dramatic Arts...
and Paul Avila MayerPaul Avila MayerPaul Avila Mayer was an American television writer and producer. His father was the late screen writer Edwin Justus Mayer, and his daughter is director Daisy von Scherler Mayer.-Positions held:...
, Outstanding Writing - 1979: Outstanding Drama Series6th Daytime Emmy AwardsThe 6th Daytime Emmy Awards were held in 1979 to commemorate excellence in American daytime programming from the previous year . The sixth awards included supporting actor and actress categories, meaning that five awards were given out that year, a first in the awards show's history.Winners in each...
- 1979: Claire LabineClaire Labine-Early career:Although she originally aspired to be an actress, Labine eventually became a critically acclaimed writer. She attended the University of Kentucky where her major was journalism, but later she switched to playwriting major at Columbia University’s School of Dramatic Arts...
and Paul Avila MayerPaul Avila MayerPaul Avila Mayer was an American television writer and producer. His father was the late screen writer Edwin Justus Mayer, and his daughter is director Daisy von Scherler Mayer.-Positions held:...
, Outstanding Writing - 1979: Jerry Evans and Lela SwiftLela SwiftLela Swift is a television director best known for her work on Dark Shadows, which she also produced from 1970 to 1971, and Ryan's Hope....
, Outstanding Direction - 1980: Claire LabineClaire Labine-Early career:Although she originally aspired to be an actress, Labine eventually became a critically acclaimed writer. She attended the University of Kentucky where her major was journalism, but later she switched to playwriting major at Columbia University’s School of Dramatic Arts...
and Paul Avila MayerPaul Avila MayerPaul Avila Mayer was an American television writer and producer. His father was the late screen writer Edwin Justus Mayer, and his daughter is director Daisy von Scherler Mayer.-Positions held:...
, Outstanding Writing - 1980: Jerry Evans and Lela SwiftLela SwiftLela Swift is a television director best known for her work on Dark Shadows, which she also produced from 1970 to 1971, and Ryan's Hope....
, Outstanding Direction - 1981: Sy Tomashoff, Outstanding Set Design
- 1983: Louise ShafferLouise Shaffer-Biography:Shaffer was born in Woodbridge, Connecticut, where she showed an interest in acting early on in her life. After finishing high school, she attended Connecticut College for Women, then Yale Drama School...
, Outstanding Supporting Actress (Rae Woodard) - 1983: Claire LabineClaire Labine-Early career:Although she originally aspired to be an actress, Labine eventually became a critically acclaimed writer. She attended the University of Kentucky where her major was journalism, but later she switched to playwriting major at Columbia University’s School of Dramatic Arts...
and Paul Avila MayerPaul Avila MayerPaul Avila Mayer was an American television writer and producer. His father was the late screen writer Edwin Justus Mayer, and his daughter is director Daisy von Scherler Mayer.-Positions held:...
, Outstanding Writing - 1984: Claire LabineClaire Labine-Early career:Although she originally aspired to be an actress, Labine eventually became a critically acclaimed writer. She attended the University of Kentucky where her major was journalism, but later she switched to playwriting major at Columbia University’s School of Dramatic Arts...
and Paul Avila MayerPaul Avila MayerPaul Avila Mayer was an American television writer and producer. His father was the late screen writer Edwin Justus Mayer, and his daughter is director Daisy von Scherler Mayer.-Positions held:...
, Outstanding Writing - 1987: Outstanding Lighting
- 1988: Helen GallagherHelen GallagherHelen Gallagher is an American actress, dancer, singer and makeup artist.-Early years:Born in Brooklyn, she was raised in Scarsdale, New York for several years until the Wall Street crash which heralded the Great Depression, and her family moved to the Bronx. Her parents separated and she was...
, Outstanding Lead Actress (Maeve Ryan)
Actors and actresses nominated for their work on Ryan's Hope included film legend Joan Fontaine
Joan Fontaine
Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland , known professionally as Joan Fontaine, is a British American actress. She and her elder sister Olivia de Havilland are two of the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s....
(in a 1980 guest role), Tichina Arnold
Tichina Arnold
Tichina Rolanda Arnold is an American actress and singer. She is best known for having portrayed the roles of Pamela James on the FOX sitcom Martin and the family matriarch Rochelle on the UPN/CW sitcom Everybody Hates Chris....
, Richard Backus
Richard Backus
Richard Backus is an American actor and television writer. He has been nominated for four Daytime Emmy Awards for writing and one for acting.- Biography :...
, Bernard Barrow
Bernard Barrow
Bernard E. "Bernie" Barrow was an American actor and collegiate drama professor. He was best known as an actor for his role as "Johnny Ryan", a publican and the patriarch of an Irish-American family on the television soap opera, Ryan's Hope, on which he appeared from 1975 until the show's demise...
, Randall Edwards
Randall Edwards (actress)
Randall Edwards is an American television actress. She may be best known for her role on Ryan's Hope as Delia Reid Ryan Ryan Coleridge .-Biography:...
, John Gabriel
John Gabriel (actor)
John Gabriel is an American actor who is best known for his role as Seneca Beaulac in Ryan's Hope , and for which he received an Emmy Award nomination in 1980. Gabriel, who played The Professor in the original, unaired Gilligan's Island pilot, is the father of Lost actress Andrea Gabriel...
, Andrew Robinson, and Grant Show
Grant Show
Grant Alan Show is an American actor best known for his role on Melrose Place as Jake Hanson, which he played from 1992 to 1997.-Early life:...
.
Ryan's Hope won 12 Writers Guild of America writing awards. Year indicates date of award presentation, for work the prior year.
- 1976 Labine, Mayer, et al
- 1977 Labine, Mayer, et al
- 1978 Labine, Mayer, et al
- 1979 Labine, Mayer, et al
- 1981 Labine, Mayer, et al
- 1982 Labine, Mayer, et al
- 1983 Labine, Munisteri, et al
- 1984 Labine, Mayer, et al
- 1987 Tom King, Millee Taggart, et al
- 1988 Labine, Mancusi, et al
- 1989 Labine, Mancusi, et al
In America and overseas
In 2000, SOAPnetSOAPnet
SOAPnet is an American cable television channel that broadcasts current and past soap operas and primetime dramas, along with some original programming. The channel launched on January 20, 2000, and is owned by Disney-ABC Television Group, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
picked up reruns of Ryan's Hope, which was one of the few daytime dramas from before 1978 which saved all of its episodes. They aired the July 1975 through December 1981 episodes from 2000 to 2003. While reruns were originally abundant (airing daily in one-hour installments every six hours starting at noon, with two marathons of the week's episodes on weekends), by 2005 the show was only aired one hour per weekdays, and for a brief time, one hour a week. Currently, reruns are broadcast daily at 5 am EST. In September 2011, Soapnet stopped showing Ryan's Hope in the 5am timeslot in favor of old episodes of All My Children. Soapnet itself will go off the air sometime in 2012.
Ryan's Hope has also run on RTÉ 2 in Ireland and has previously aired in Australia. On January 3, 1994, a soap opera, Onderweg naar morgen (which literally means On the way to tomorrow), debuted on Dutch television; the Dutch writers based their show on story bibles originally written by Labine and Mayer.
Crew
| Years | Head writer(s) |
|---|---|
| July 1975 – July 1982 | Claire Labine Claire Labine -Early career:Although she originally aspired to be an actress, Labine eventually became a critically acclaimed writer. She attended the University of Kentucky where her major was journalism, but later she switched to playwriting major at Columbia University’s School of Dramatic Arts... Paul Avila Mayer Paul Avila Mayer Paul Avila Mayer was an American television writer and producer. His father was the late screen writer Edwin Justus Mayer, and his daughter is director Daisy von Scherler Mayer.-Positions held:... |
| July 1982 | Claire Labine Claire Labine -Early career:Although she originally aspired to be an actress, Labine eventually became a critically acclaimed writer. She attended the University of Kentucky where her major was journalism, but later she switched to playwriting major at Columbia University’s School of Dramatic Arts... |
| August 1982 – January 1983 | Mary Ryan Munisteri Mary Ryan Munisteri Mary Ryan Munisteri is an American television soap opera writer. She was head writer of Ryan's Hope , Guiding Light , and Loving... |
| January 1983 – December 1983 | Claire Labine Claire Labine -Early career:Although she originally aspired to be an actress, Labine eventually became a critically acclaimed writer. She attended the University of Kentucky where her major was journalism, but later she switched to playwriting major at Columbia University’s School of Dramatic Arts... Paul Avila Mayer Paul Avila Mayer Paul Avila Mayer was an American television writer and producer. His father was the late screen writer Edwin Justus Mayer, and his daughter is director Daisy von Scherler Mayer.-Positions held:... |
| December 1983 – February 1985 | Pat Falken Smith Pat Falken Smith Patricia Falken Smith was a television writer, most famous for her stints as head writer of several soap operas, including General Hospital and Days of our Lives.-Biography:... James E. Reilly James E. Reilly James E. Reilly was an American soap opera writer. Known for his work as the head writer of NBC's Days of our Lives and creator/head writer of Passions, Reilly won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series Writing as co-head writer for Guiding Light in 1993.Reilly died suddenly in October... |
| February 1985 – March 1987 | Tom King Tom King (writer) Tom King is an American television writer and story board artist best known for his work on the animated children's shows The Ren and Stimpy Show, SpongeBob SquarePants, Camp Lazlo, Chowder and The Fairly OddParents... Millee Taggart Millee Taggart Millee Taggart is an American actress, best known for her long-running role as Janet Bergman Collins on Search for Tomorrow. She portrayed the character from 1971 to 1982... |
| March 1987 – March 1988 | Claire Labine Claire Labine -Early career:Although she originally aspired to be an actress, Labine eventually became a critically acclaimed writer. She attended the University of Kentucky where her major was journalism, but later she switched to playwriting major at Columbia University’s School of Dramatic Arts... Eleanor Labine Eleanor Labine Eleanor Labine is an American TV writer, the daughter of Claire Labine and the sister of Matthew Labine.-Positions held:Another World*Associate Head Writer General Hospital*Associate Head Writer Guiding Light... |
| March 1988 – September 1988 | Claire Labine Claire Labine -Early career:Although she originally aspired to be an actress, Labine eventually became a critically acclaimed writer. She attended the University of Kentucky where her major was journalism, but later she switched to playwriting major at Columbia University’s School of Dramatic Arts... Matthew Labine Matthew Labine Matthew Labine is an American soap opera writer, the son of Claire Labine and the brother of Eleanor Labine Mancusi.In spring 1996, Claire Labine was offered the Head Writer role at CBS Daytime's As the World Turns but turned it down because she and Matthew Labine were trying to get Heart And Soul... |
| September 1988 – January 13, 1989 | Claire Labine Claire Labine -Early career:Although she originally aspired to be an actress, Labine eventually became a critically acclaimed writer. She attended the University of Kentucky where her major was journalism, but later she switched to playwriting major at Columbia University’s School of Dramatic Arts... Matthew Labine Matthew Labine Matthew Labine is an American soap opera writer, the son of Claire Labine and the brother of Eleanor Labine Mancusi.In spring 1996, Claire Labine was offered the Head Writer role at CBS Daytime's As the World Turns but turned it down because she and Matthew Labine were trying to get Heart And Soul... Eleanor Labine Eleanor Labine Eleanor Labine is an American TV writer, the daughter of Claire Labine and the sister of Matthew Labine.-Positions held:Another World*Associate Head Writer General Hospital*Associate Head Writer Guiding Light... Paul Avila Mayer Paul Avila Mayer Paul Avila Mayer was an American television writer and producer. His father was the late screen writer Edwin Justus Mayer, and his daughter is director Daisy von Scherler Mayer.-Positions held:... |
| Years | Executive Producers |
|---|---|
| 1975 – 1982 | Claire Labine Claire Labine -Early career:Although she originally aspired to be an actress, Labine eventually became a critically acclaimed writer. She attended the University of Kentucky where her major was journalism, but later she switched to playwriting major at Columbia University’s School of Dramatic Arts... Paul Avila Mayer Paul Avila Mayer Paul Avila Mayer was an American television writer and producer. His father was the late screen writer Edwin Justus Mayer, and his daughter is director Daisy von Scherler Mayer.-Positions held:... |
| 1982 – April 1, 1983 | Ellen Barrett Ellen Barrett Ellen Marie Barrett was the first openly lesbian priest to be properly ordained by the Episcopal Church, shortly after the General Convention approved the ordination of women in 1977. Barrett's candor about her homosexuality caused great controversy within the church... |
| April 4, 1983 – June 17, 1988 | Joseph Hardy Joseph Hardy (director) Joseph Hardy is an American Tony Award-winning stage director, film director, television producer, and occasional performer.... |
| June 20, 1988 – January 13, 1989 | Felicia Minei Behr Felicia Minei Behr Felicia Minei Behr is an American TV producer and network executive who has worked on three daytime serials. She was fired from All My Children in 1996 when ratings for the show began to decline.-Career: Executive Producer:... |
| Years | Producers |
|---|---|
| 1975 | George Lefferts George Lefferts George Lefferts is a writer, producer, playwright, poet, and director of television dramas, motion pictures, radio dramas, and socially conscious documentaries... |
| 1975 – 1978 | Robert Costello |
| 1978 – 1982 | Ellen Barrett Ellen Barrett Ellen Marie Barrett was the first openly lesbian priest to be properly ordained by the Episcopal Church, shortly after the General Convention approved the ordination of women in 1977. Barrett's candor about her homosexuality caused great controversy within the church... |
| 1982 – April 1, 1983 | None |
| April 4, 1983 – June 17, 1988 | Felicia Minei Behr Felicia Minei Behr Felicia Minei Behr is an American TV producer and network executive who has worked on three daytime serials. She was fired from All My Children in 1996 when ratings for the show began to decline.-Career: Executive Producer:... |
| June 20, 1988 – January 13, 1989 | Nancy Horwich |
| Years | Associate Producers |
|---|---|
| July 7, 1975 – September 1978 | Ellen Barrett Ellen Barrett Ellen Marie Barrett was the first openly lesbian priest to be properly ordained by the Episcopal Church, shortly after the General Convention approved the ordination of women in 1977. Barrett's candor about her homosexuality caused great controversy within the church... |
| September 1978 – 1982, April 4, 1983 – June 17, 1988 | Nancy Horwich |
| 1982 – April 1, 1983 | Nancy Horwich Felicia Minei Behr Felicia Minei Behr Felicia Minei Behr is an American TV producer and network executive who has worked on three daytime serials. She was fired from All My Children in 1996 when ratings for the show began to decline.-Career: Executive Producer:... |
| June 20, 1988 – January 13, 1989 | Jean Dadario Burke Jean Dadario Burke Jean Dadario Burke is an American television New York City-based soap opera producer and director.-Positions held:All My Children*Executive Producer *Senior Producer *Director... |
Before they were stars
Many primetime stars got their start on Ryan's Hope, including Tichina ArnoldTichina Arnold
Tichina Rolanda Arnold is an American actress and singer. She is best known for having portrayed the roles of Pamela James on the FOX sitcom Martin and the family matriarch Rochelle on the UPN/CW sitcom Everybody Hates Chris....
, Catherine Hicks
Catherine Hicks
Catherine Mary Hicks is an American stage, film, television actress and singer. She is best known for her role as Annie Camden on the long-running television series 7th Heaven and as Karen Barclay in Child's Play.-Personal life:...
, Yasmine Bleeth
Yasmine Bleeth
Yasmine Amanda Bleeth is an American actress. Her television roles include Caroline Holden in the long-running series Baywatch.-Early life and career:...
, Grant Show
Grant Show
Grant Alan Show is an American actor best known for his role on Melrose Place as Jake Hanson, which he played from 1992 to 1997.-Early life:...
, Nell Carter
Nell Carter
Nell Carter was an American singer, and film, stage, and television actress. She won a Tony Award for her performance in the Broadway musical Ain't Misbehavin, as well as an Emmy Award for her reprisal of the role on television...
, Corbin Bernsen
Corbin Bernsen
Corbin Dean Bernsen is an American actor and director, known for his work on television. He is best known for his roles as divorce attorney Arnold Becker on the NBC drama series L.A. Law, and as retired police detective Henry Spencer on the USA Network comedy-drama series Psych...
, Marg Helgenberger
Marg Helgenberger
Mary Marg Helgenberger is an American film and television actress known for her roles as Catherine Willows in the CBS drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and as K.C...
, Christian Slater
Christian Slater
Christian Michael Leonard Slater is an American actor. He made his film debut with a small role in The Postman Always Rings Twice before playing a leading role in the 1985 film The Legend of Billie Jean...
(who's Michael Hawkins' son in real life), Dominic Chianese
Dominic Chianese
Dominic Chianese is an American film, television and theatre actor, perhaps best known for his role as Corrado "Junior" Soprano on the HBO TV series, The Sopranos.-Early life:...
, and Kate Mulgrew
Kate Mulgrew
Katherine Kiernan Maria "Kate" Mulgrew is an American actress, most noted for her roles on Star Trek: Voyager as Captain Kathryn Janeway and Ryan's Hope as Mary Ryan...
. Earl Hindman
Earl Hindman
Earl John Hindman was an American actor, best-known for his role as the kindly neighbor Wilson W. Wilson Jr...
, Delia's long-suffering brother Bob Reid, went on to co-star for eight years on Home Improvement, as the Taylor's over-the-fence neighbor Wilson, whose face was always partially hidden behind his fence.
Deceased cast members
| Actor | Character | Year of Death | Years On Ryan's Hope |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wesley Addy Wesley Addy Wesley Addy was an American actor.He played many roles on the Broadway stage, including several Shakespearean ones, usually opposite actor Maurice Evans... |
Bill Woodard | 1996 | 1977–1978 |
| Nancy Addison Altman Nancy Addison Nancy Addison was an American soap opera actress, best known for her role on the television soap opera Ryan's Hope as Jillian Coleridge, which she played from 1975 until the show's demise in 1989.-Biography:... |
Jillian Coleridge | 2002 | 1975–1989 |
| Tom Aldredge Tom Aldredge Thomas Ernest "Tom" Aldredge was an American television, film and stage actor.-Life and career:Aldredge was born in Dayton, Ohio, the son of Lucienne Juliet and W. J. Aldredge, a colonel in the United States Army Air Corps... |
Matt Pearse | 2011 | 1979-1982 |
| David Bailey David Bailey (actor) David Bailey was an American actor. Born in Newark, New Jersey, he went on to have a lengthy career in theater and television, perhaps his best known role being Dr... |
Teddy Malcolm | 2004 | 1988–1989 |
| Bernard Barrow Bernard Barrow Bernard E. "Bernie" Barrow was an American actor and collegiate drama professor. He was best known as an actor for his role as "Johnny Ryan", a publican and the patriarch of an Irish-American family on the television soap opera, Ryan's Hope, on which he appeared from 1975 until the show's demise... |
Johnny Ryan | 1993 | 1975–1989 |
| Nell Carter Nell Carter Nell Carter was an American singer, and film, stage, and television actress. She won a Tony Award for her performance in the Broadway musical Ain't Misbehavin, as well as an Emmy Award for her reprisal of the role on television... |
Ethel Green | 2003 | 1978–1979 |
| Cesare Danova Cesare Danova Cesare Danova was a television and screen actor. Born as Cesare Deitinger in Bergamo, Italy to an Austrian father and an Italian mother, he adopted Danova as his stage name after becoming an actor in Rome at the end of World War II. He emigrated to the United States in the 1950s to make the film... |
Silvio Conti | 1992 | 1988-1989 |
| Nicolette Goulet Nicolette Goulet Nicolette Goulet was an Canadian-American film, television and musical theatre actress.Goulet got her start in acting on the television series Ryan's Hope with the role of Mary Ryan Fenelli in 1979. She was the fourth actress to portray the character... |
Mary Ryan Fenelli #4 | 2008 | 1979 |
| Peter Haskell Peter Haskell Peter Abraham Haskell was an American actor who worked primarily in television.-Early years:Haskell was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Rose Veronica Golden and geophysicist Norman Abraham Haskell... |
Hollis Kirkland III | 2010 | 1982–1983 |
| Earl Hindman Earl Hindman Earl John Hindman was an American actor, best-known for his role as the kindly neighbor Wilson W. Wilson Jr... |
Bob Reid | 2003 | 1975–1989 |
| Frank Latimore Frank Latimore Franklin Latimore was an American actor best known for his character ‘Dr. Ed Coleridge’ on the television soap opera Ryan's Hope.... |
Ed Coleridge | 1998 | 1975–1976 |
| Irving Allen Lee Irving Allen Lee Irving Allen Lee was an African American actor known for playing Detective Calvin Stoner on The Edge of Night from 1977-1984 and Dr. Evan Cooper on Ryan's Hope from 1986-1988. He died from an AIDS related illness in 1992.-External links:* on The Internet Movie Database... |
Evan Cooper | 1992 | 1986–1989 |
| Kenneth McMillan Kenneth McMillan (actor) Kenneth McMillan was an American actor. McMillan was usually cast as gruff, hostile and unfriendly characters due to his rough image... |
Charlie Ferris | 1989 | 1975–1976 |
| Harve Presnell Harve Presnell Harve Presnell was an American actor and singer. He began his career in the mid 1950s as a classical baritone, singing with orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States... |
Matthew Crane | 2009 | 1984 |
| Anne Revere Anne Revere Anne Revere was an American stage, film, and television actress.-Early life:Born in New York City, Revere was a direct descendant of American Revolution hero Paul Revere. Her father, Clinton, was a stockbroker, and she was raised on the Upper West Side and in Westfield, New Jersey... |
Marguerite Beaulac #2 | 1990 | 1977 |
| Sylvia Sidney Sylvia Sidney Sylvia Sidney was an American actress who rose to prominence in the 1930s appearing in numerous crime dramas.-Early life:... |
Sister Mary Joel | 1999 | 1975–1976 |
| Gale Sondergaard Gale Sondergaard Gale Sondergaard was an American actress.Sondergaard began her acting career in theatre, and progressed to films in 1936. She was the first recipient of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her film debut in Anthony Adverse... |
Marguerite Beaulac #1 | 1985 | 1976 |
| Diana van der Vlis Diana Van der Vlis Diana Van der Vlis was a Canadian stage, screen and television actress best known for her characters ‘Dr. Nell Beaulac’ on the ABC soap opera "Ryan's Hope" and 'Kate Hathaway Prescott’ on the CBS soap opera Where the Heart Is... |
Nell Beaulac Sherry Rowan | 2001 | 1975–1976 1988-1989 |