Bob Reid dated Alicia Nieves (Ana Alicia) for a while, but she wasn't around all that long (1977-78). I don't even remember how she was written out, she may have just dropped out of sight, like a number of other minor RH characters.

Bob also managed Delia's Crystal Palace, so he was somewhat involved in all the Joe Novak/organized crime shenanigans (though, for a former cop he really was pretty clueless about what was going on around him). But I was surprised to learn from Earl Hindman's obituary that he had been on RH for the entire run.

This has always bugged me about Delia, with both Ilene Kristen and Randall Edwards. Why does Delia wear those flimsy little summer dresses even in the winter? Here it is Thanksgiving on the current episodes and she's running around in that little short-sleeved blue dress. The Ryans don't live in Florida, so her dresses have never made sense to me.

Ryan's Hope Bloopers: Because it's fun to hear half the cast yell "Fuck!" when they flub their lines.

I don't watch Ryan's Hope much, so who was that first woman in the sequence who went apeshit and yelled "FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!" after she missed the line? Is that Jillian?

Yes that was Jill, damn she was taking herself wicked serious in that flub.

Can I just say Bucky brings the HoYay like nobody's business with Pat. He's like the only man impervious to Delia.

Damn, I still love this show.

I'm liking Pat/Faith/Delia a lot better than Frank/Jill/Delia. What's interesting about it is that both Faith and Delia at one point were neurotic and possessive of Pat, but Faith grew and changed, whereas Delia, if anything, has devolved, so it's interesting to see that contrast. Plus, I like all three characters pretty much equally, which wasn't the case with F/J/D.

And I still really appreciate how much things like reactions and things like that matter. When something happens, you still want to see how everyone else is going to react to it. And people's reactions are themselves good drama--like the other day, when Johnny bellowed at Jack to get an annulment, I actually gasped, and it's been ages since I've done that with a soap.

Jack/Mary is really getting painful to watch, what with all the hurt and anger and intensity...but that's not a bad thing necessarily. Still, I'll be glad when they get through it.

I also liked that they brought back Nick Szabo for a day and tied up what happened with him and Reenie, because that ended so abruptly.

I just started watching again in December, and I have a few questions. Who is the kid Maeve and Johnny are twirling in the opening credits? (Little John?) I used to watch RH with my mother probably from the beginning up until 84ish, I loved Siobhan. I remember up until Ryan/Yasmine Bleeth and Grant Show were on. I remember some weird homeless southern girl (Pru?) showing up.

Watching now, I find it sometimes incredibly cheesy, the montages of Mary and Jack falling in love and Jill/Seneca at the beach. The production value is cringe worthy, I love all the scenes in the kitchen where there is a little tiny bag of sugar on shelf and it's supposed to be a restaurant kitchen. I remember many of the storylines, however, I never realized how much of a pompous tool Jack Fenelli was, I hope he gets over it soon. I just want to smack him.

Is SoapNet going to run through the entire show or rewind again after 1980something? I'd like to see what I never stuck around for back in the day.

thanks, for answering, The Last DodoI feel silly being so excited to watch a show that's so old, and I read those yearly summaries you posted upthread and now I'm mad that I spoiled myself for something I've already seen!

Yeah. Before the recasts of Faith and Frank there was another opening with more shots of other cast members and there was one of Delia feeding him.


Oh yeah. Those things drag on for like 5 minutes and the Jill/Seneca ones are just stills, fer chrissakes!!! And the uberdramatic music at the end of every scene cracked me up when I first started watching, but now I've gotten so used to it that I don't even really notice.


I get the impression this time they're going to keep going. It seemed like the reason they started over was because when they first started, hardly any households had the channel, and they got a lot of requests to go back to the beginning.

More questions, sorry. The Ryan kids are (eldest to youngest and I'm questionable on that) Kathleen (who was really only intermittent?), Frank, Patrick (hotty), Mary and Siobhan (although has she actually been a character up until now? she doesn't really appear for a while yet, yes?)

Also, I never knew that Mary died. I read the summary of the final episode, I presume that's years in the future but how and when? I feel silly putting that in spoiler tags but for anyone who hasn't seen, it's new.

They are playing 2 episodes a day so that means we're going at double speed, right? so it was just christmas and then it'll be christmas again in June/July? Cool, I want to catch up fast. We could be at the end of 1978 by the end of this year.

I was reading on imdb.com about who played what and the kid playing Little John stayed little john from 1975-1985 which is odd because Ryan Fenelli isn't even born yet and by 1985 she was already Yasmine Bleeth. I was only watching during the summers and on school holidays by that point and it seems like at christmas, Ryan was in some kind of costume, like a ballerina or princess, I seem to remember wings, and by the summer she was an adult!

I'm so sorry this is getting too long, a few years ago I saw Jillian/NAA on Rosie O'Donnell and she looked fantastic. It must have been only shortly before she died but she was bubbly and excited, Rosie was a huge fan, and she said one of the guys (Jack Fenelli or Patrick Ryan, had kind of become a monk or something?) Am I insane? She was giving updates but of course at the time I had nothing to reference so it just went by me.

Frank is older than Kathleen; otherwise that's the correct order. I think when the show started originally Mary was supposed to be the youngest, because they referred to Siobhan teaching in Oregon, but then that was switched to Siobhan just being in college. Maybe she was a TA one semester.

Siobhan doesn't come on until early 1978. I'm kind of dreading 1978 coming up, actually, because Kate Mulgrew leaves at the beginning of the year and Malcolm Groome leaves midyear and I'm really not looking forward to either one leaving, but especially not Kate Mulgrew.

Mary dies at the end of 1979; she stumbles upon Joe's uncle's mob connections while reporting and is killed as a result. By that time they'd recast the role 3 times and none worked. But I've only read about that; I've never actually seen it.

OK, talking about cheesy--that ending the other day when the voices in Frank's head were shouting, "Lies, LIES, LIES!!!!"? Straight out of an Ed Wood film. MAN, that was bad.

The Last Dodo, I think you're my new best friend! I can't believe that was only 1979! I must have blocked it out and yes, Kate Mulgrew was always the definitive Mary for me, everything she's ever done I always say, "oh, look, it's Mary Ryan" although weirdly, I was shocked to learn that Marg Helgenberger was the 3rd or so Siobhan, she's the definitive for me. Frank was probably Daniel Hugh Kelly, although I vaguely recall Geoff Pierson, the current Frank bugs me. Him out stumbling and the voices in his head was laugh out loud funny.

I was also shocked to learn that Jack Fenelli stayed for the entire run of the show. I didn't realize how old he was. He would have been about 45 at the time, he's got some Law and Order episodes listed and I would kill to see him in a rerun. Hell, I want to see Jack happy and smiling just once before I die. He's really bugging the crap out of me.

I loved these recent episodes where Delia wants to get an abortion and Maeve is forced to collect her. So much so, in fact, that I'm considering getting up at 3AM each morning just to push record, then go back to sleep!

It will take a few months, but Jack will be smiling and not at Mary. When Ryan's Hope was airing the last time on SoapNet, I gave up during 1978's episodes because I couldn't take seeing Pat, Delia and Mary being played by other people.

Nancy Addison-Altman (Jill) was talking about Malcom Grooome leaving acting and going into eastern religion.

I will be sad when the current Pat leaves. He was a totally new discovery for me. I didn't remember him at all and he's pretty (and quite possibly the only guy on the show who isn't bugging me).

Thanks, StellStell for confirming my Jill story. It was entirely within the realm of possibility that I had lost my mind completely. I knew Malcolm Groome didn't have too much on his resume, I'm very intrigued by his eastern religion thing.

They were great. And they left off at such a point that Friday was a real cliffhanger...I was like, "Dammit, I want to see what Maeve says to Pat!"

Sort-of related thing....I went to this speed dating thing for gay men Saturday night where the first part is going around the room and having one minute to introduce yourself. Other people brought up TV shows they were into like Survivor and Trading Spaces, so for the hell of it when it was my turn, I deadpanned, "I watch and have written about both of those shows, but I'm probably the only one in the room who's addicted to Ryan's Hope reruns. Delia's causing all kinds of problems for Faith and Pat and it's just a mess." It got a laugh and sure enough, I had guys making a beeline for me during the mingling part being all, "So, are they up to the part where Delia's gone out on the ledge yet?" Hee!

I read the updates on SoapNet, and it said that Delia really didn't want the abortion, and the distress she exhibited in the doctor's office was fake. What the hell was wrong with her?

It's all emotional manipulation to get Pat to marry her.

But isn't he going to be married to Faith? Oh, damn. I really do need to watch this show.

Hmmmm...as briefly as possible, Delia and her brother grew up around the corner from the Ryans in an extremely dysfunctional household, so Delia has always wanted to be part of the Ryan family because it makes her feel safe and secure. She and Pat dated in high school but he broke up with her because he didn't want to get married, so she started seeing his brother Frank and they got married. When their marriage fell apart years later, the final straw being when Frank caught Delia having an affair with Roger Coleridge, Pat was the only one of the Ryans who really stood up for Delia, pointing out that it was hypocritical for them to be upset with her when Frank had been having an affair with Jill Coleridge for years first (which it was; at that point I was squarely on Delia's side in all of it). Delia switched her attention from staying married to Frank to marrying Pat, and started using all sorts of emotional manipulation to land him, culminating in running away with Roger Coleridge at the peak of her monthly cycle so that Pat would save her and then she'd seduce him, which is what happened and she got pregnant as planned. When they got back from Boston (where it happened), the family priest advised Pat to stay away from Delia, and he also began seeing how she had manipulated him. He started spending more time with Faith; they had dated last year, but he broke up with her when she became neurotically clingy; however, lots of therapy and 2 recasts later, Faith had grown emotionally to the point where they were now equals, and they fell in love and planned to be married. Delia, however, was pregnant by Pat and planned to use it to get him to marry her instead. When he balked, she ran to have the abortion, but again, was using it as a tactic to manipulate things to get her way. When Delia is in a corner, she falls back on acting helpless and using manipulation and guilt trips, although sometimes I'm not even entirely sure she's conscious of it. Hope that helps!

I'd never heard of it before, but I Googled it and the Leboyer method is indeed a real childbirth technique that came onto the scene with a book about it in 1975, so they obviously did their research.

Also, I'm glad that they now have Ilene Kristen doing the bumper telling us we're watching Ryan's Hope. Before it was Linda Dano and I was always like, "What the hell business is it of yours?" Natalia Livingston, however, needs to shut the hell up. I don't even watch General Hospital but that ending voiceover promo that always plays over the second episode is enough to tell me she'd grate on my last nerve.

I saw one episode last year and I really hated the Faith from when she was blind. I really like Catherine Hicks in this role. It's ironic, though, because I can't hate her more as Annie Camden.

I have started taking my lunch from 1-2 so that I can go home and watch RH. My mom watched it when I was little and I watched it even after she went back to work. As I am now scarred by watching GH on a regular basis, it's like a breath of fresh air to watch RH and see non-sucky daytime television. Even though I know what's going to happen.

Oooh! Pat's attempted swing at Da was funny. Not convincing at all.

Was every woman on the show always pregnant? I'm with Jack, ready for the prenancies to be over.

Did Bucky/Justin Deas ever have a storyline? Forget the Ryan's, I'd be all over the guy with $30 million. He seems like a nice guy, I know he had a secret thing for Faith but they don't seem to do anything with him.

Still loving this show.

It's interesting: in the Frank/Jill/Delia triangle I was pretty much on Delia's side and thought the others were being a bunch of self-righteous hypocrites, but with Pat/Faith/Delia I find myself siding with Faith. I think it's partly that I just like the character better than Frank and Jill, and partly that not only has she not done anything wrong in all this, but like I've said before, she's pulled herself together after one of the worst years you could possibly imagine and definitely is due for some happiness. I thought the Faith/Delia confrontations were excellent and quite frankly, Delia had it coming.

I wonder who or what is finally going to shake some sense into Jack? It's all the more frustrating because to some extent you can kind of understand why he's doing this, but that just makes you want to throttle him all the more.

Finally, if I'm feeling like I can offer classes in the Leboyer technique at this point, it might just be a wee bit of overkill.

I missed Friday/Saturday morning's episodes. What happened with Bob's plan to buy Delia an apartment to keep her away from the Ryans?

Delia refused when Frank tossed in his two cents about the situation, and ran off to Pat to play the "coming clean" card. She admitted she's manipulative and awful and yada yada yada. Hee and I'll be damned if I wasn't almost buying it, Pat of course did whole hog. He looked all hot with the bed hair and the happy trail too.

I also find myself sympathizing with Faith in this triangle where I was totally on Delia's side during Delia/Frank/Jill. I know she's terrified of being out from under the Ryan roof but sheesh, Pat is the only one she likes and gets along with really who also treats her with any kind of kindness or respect. I don't get why Roger isn't a really attractive alternative at this point what with his money and adoration and frustration with the Ryan's. Maybe it's a little to do with spite towards Frank/Mary, that they look down on her and yet they can't get her out of their lives, but oy.

The one constant with Delia, at least during the years I watched (thru sometime in the mid-80s), was that she was obsessed with the Ryans and wanted to be one of them, so it didn't really matter how they treated her. If I were a Ryan, I would have kicked her to the curb long ago. That passive-agressive business with Johnny on Friday got on my last nerve. As far as the Delia/Frank/Jillian traingle is concerned, I really couldn't muster sympathy for any of them, although I do think the Ryans' treatment of Delia was pretty hypocritical considering Frank's behavior.

That amused me so much. Mostly because Catherine Hicks just comes off as this perfectly together, intelligent WASPY girl whereas first Faith came off as two years away from joining a cult. And yes, I agree completely about Pat/Delia/Frank. Delia, even after the affair, was the one wronged in the original storyline, but here she is morphing into a manipulative bitch.

RH is just so good right now. But why does everyone want Frank? I want Jill to wake up and smell the Seneca!

I only saw First Faith in one episode, but my God, you are so right. How odd is it that Catherine Hicks comes off as "the good one" compared to anyone?

I liked the first Faith, at least at first, because I thought she did a really good job of playing an introverted socially awkward wallflower, which is what Faith was at the time, and I really liked her together with Bucky...it was kind of this whole "geeks in love" vibe. But I didn't really like her with Pat, and then by the time she went insane after the whole Kenneth thing (which I found really contrived and "soapy" compared to the rest of the storylines) and took to hiding in closets shrieking, "DADDY!!! DADDY!"...oy.

Catherine Hicks is my favorite Faith so far...she just has a very natural, genuine quality to her.


Hee! I know what you mean. But at least it's more understandable with Andrew Robinson than Michael Hawkins.

I'm loving the show right now, but I think I will scream if one more person accuses Delia of "getting herself pregnant." With the exception of Maeve and Johnny, everyone is acting as if Delia is 100% to blame for this problem baby and poor Pat is just an innocent victim. Yes, Delia is manipulative, etc., etc., but she didn't rape Pat and he is a big boy who should be capable of making his own decisions and dealing with the consequences.

I was a kid at the time so I wasn't so aware of such things, but was it routine for soaps to be so misogynist in the 70's? With all the Ryan boys it seems to be acceptable for them to have sex with whomever they like and it's always the woman's fault and problem when things go badly. Even in the Jack/Mary storyline I don't get how Jack could get married, have sex without using birth control, then claim that he was duped when his wife gets pregnant. Was/is that really an acceptable reason for a Catholic annulment? I also find it interesting that the women who are supposed to be independent career women (Mary, Faith, Jill) are complete doormats in their romantic relationships. Then again, come to think of it, many of the same attitudes are prevalent in soaps (and other genres) today.

One more thing...if I ever, ever hear the offkey caterwauling that passes as "Jill's Theme", complete with accompanying five minute stills montage, it'll be too soon. Maybe that's why Jill likes Frank better...he doesn't come with that damned song!

Word! That's why I'm glad I have to tape the show and watch it in the evenings. Whenever that montage (along with the Jack & Mary montage - and I like Jack & Mary) comes along, I can't hit that fast-forward button soon enough.

I have a very vivid memory of Jill going into labor at the beachhouse with Seneca outside being dopey and thinking about love while she's inside screaming for help. I was maybe 6 or 7 and I was yelling at the tv for him to go get help. it's so funny to see it now.

I wish I had seen the first Faith. I'm so curious now.

Heh. I haven't seen these upcoming eps, but that does sound like current vintage Seneca. But still. How could would one pine over Frank when Seneca is right there?



I thought Hawkins was more understandable than RobinsonFrank, who I find distasteful for some reason. He does have the right look, though. He looks like Mary's brother, and upcoming Siobhan.

How much longer do we have of RealMary and RealPat?

I didn't think Hawkins was a great actor, but the main thing is I just thought he was way too old for the part. While he didn't look quite this old, according to IMDB he was less than a year younger than Bernard Barrow (Johnny)!


Right now it's March 1977. Kate Mulgrew, from what I've read, leaves around the first of the year in 1978. Malcolm Groome also leaves in 1978, according to IMDB, but I'm not sure when.

OK, that whole "Paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat....Sooooooooooooooooooon" sequence was another one for the Camp Hall of Fame. If this calculated "suicide attempt" rewards Delia by getting Pat to marry her instead of being the final straw to make her get her some desperately needed therapy, I'll hit the ceiling (along with Faith, most likely). I mean, now we've crossed the line into just being deliberately cruel with people's emotions. You don't screw around like that. You just don't. [/soapbox] (Sorry, that's just something I feel strongly about in real life!)

I've not liked Faith in future eps, and she's annoyed me in the past, but she's coming out of the Delia/Pat mess the best. Love how she's calling how Pat needs to feel like the rescuing hero. (Also loved the look of horror/resignation on Pat's face when Delia was making him tell her fairy tales) Now she just needs to fall for Bucky!

The Coleridge Sisters would have fared So.Much.Better. if they could've just let go of falling for the Ryan men!

Mary and Jack broke my heart. It's a testament to Jack's protrayer (whose name is escaping) that I think his character is behaving like an absolute ass but I'm still moved to sympathy for him. And I see why Mary can't just let go.

Loved her smackdown to Delia as well. Normally I think Delia gets unfairly dumped on, but not in this situation.

I completely agree. Because you can see just enough that he truly thinks this is what is best for her, as much as you want to throttle him.


Right. And, I mean, look at it from her perspective. Pat dumped her because she was too neurotic and clingy. Shortly thereafter, she was kidnapped, her father was killed by her kidnapper, and she had a nervous breakdown. She went through therapy, pulled herself together, changed specialties, and is a lot happier, more independent, and well-adjusted. As an unintentional side bonus, Pat starts liking her again for precisely those reasons, and tells her that's why he's falling in love with her. So what happens? She winds up dumped...for someone who's neurotic and clingy. Which is precisely the reason she was dumped in the first place. Yet Delia gets rewarded for the same thing. (Yeah, I know there's the matter of the baby, but Faith and others have provided any number of scenarios that were workable without Pat having to marry Delia--torpedoed only because Delia wouldn't hear of them.)

Actually, I think Pat and Delia got off pretty damned easily with some aquavit-fueled barbs. If I were her I'd be taking hostages!

Anna Alicia's accent as "Mrs. Brown's" nurse is really terrible. Is she supposed to be Puerto Rican? She sounds russian or something. I was racking my brain trying to figure out why the other nurse looked so familiar and then it hit me, It's Brandon Walsh's mom! from Beverly Hills 90210!

Ack! Fake Mary. Fake Mary. Nooooo. I was totally blindsided and I knew it was coming but darn I thought Kate Mulgrew was around till the baby birthed.

I know! I'm used to her as Melissa on Falcon Crest, where she had no accent whatsoever (only 4 years later), so when she opened her mouth and had that riotously THEEEEECK accent my jaw dropped. It's just jarring because it sounds completely fake and overdone. She's meant to be Latina, definitely, although I don't know about specifically Puerto Rican; I also noticed that she's billed as "Ana Alicia Ortiz" here.


It was just a temporary replacement, thankfully. This is May of 1977 and Kate Mulgrew's around until the beginning of January 1978. What's odd is that vocally she kind of sounded like Delia.

Speaking of whom, it's tribute to Ilene Kristen's talents that no matter how maddening Delia may be, you can never completely hate her. If you could, however, now would probably be pretty close to a time when you would. I wonder if the Ryans will turn their backs on her once and for all when the truth comes out about the miscarriage?

Just today I was thinking that as insane as Delia is, she is my favorite character on the show right now and one of the few that I can stand. I had only seen Randall Edwards' (?) Dee until this run of the show, so IK's performance is fresh for me. In an unrelated side note, I saw IK in Duane Reade about 2 years ago. She's really tiny in real life.

Doesn't Robin Mattson end up playing Delia down the road? I couldn't imagine that. They really did drop the ball regarding recasts on this show.

I'm in the minority in that I couldn't stand Ilene's Delia back then and don't like her now either. I thought Randall's Delia was funny (except for that gorilla thing) but had stopped watching by the time Robin Mattson (who will always be GH's Heather to me) came along.


Then we have very little time left with realMary. They really should have just killed her off when Kate left. How soon before my favorite soap villain, Rae Woodard, arrives?

I just went through SoapNet's episode archive. Unless I went too far in, it indicates that Louise Shaffer first appears as Rae Woodard on September 16, 1977.

Thank Bob someone is still watching! I can't admit to other living persons that I watch a soap that's 25 years old.

Damn, Jack looked hot yesterday with his shirt off! although, when he started shouting at Mary his neck and shoulder muscles started freaking me out. He looked like the incredible hulk "Me, Jack, Jack mad! Jack smash!"

Hah. Today I was coming to post about how HOT Pat Ryan is shirtless. Seriously, I'm nursing a crush on someone who was my age thirty years ago.

I also like how although its clear Delia frays his nerves, he is obviously sexually entranced with her.

I'm kind of amazed how forward this show was so long ago. Not like 1977 was the dark ages or anything but aside from the Ryans' staunch catholicism (ie, Pat must marry Delia, in the eyes of the church she's still Frank's wife) they don't seem to blink an eye at Frank's infedility. They are so very technical about some things, the le boyet birth, I think we could all qualify as midwives. If I have to hear any more about blood sub-types! Delia being able to call up and get info on how to fake a miscarriage she also got all the information she needed on how/when to get knocked up. I can't picture my grandmother watching that. I wonder how she felt about Jack's impotence, hee!

I think there's at least one underlying theme to the show as it was conceived, and this lasts at least while Claire Labine and Paul Avila Mayer are in charge: that the Ryan children are the young moderns whose actions often lead them into conflict with their more traditional parents, but ultimately, their values are really not so different after all.

And Maeve had several scenes over the years with Jill, where she reiterated her closeness to Jill and the Coleridges, but was adamant that she wouldn't be comfortable with Jill as Frank's wife. Lazier writing would mean that Maeve and Jill should be "enemies," instead of the more realistic angle taken; that all these people were connected and had to coexist, and extended open warfare wasn't an option (even Johnny eventuially came to accept Jack).

I think that's one of the things that made the show so good, at least while Labine & Mayer were involved. These characters seem more layered to me than characters on current soaps (which I watched during my period of unemployment last year). Must be why RH is the only soap I watch now, even though we're getting close to the episodes where I first started watching back in the 70s. I love the Maeve/Jack relationship, and always thought Helen Gallagher and Michael Levin played their roles beautifully.

If there were ever a chance of me seeing Elsa Enchanted, it was blown when I arrived home and played my tape back tonight!

Oh, I know, that damn "Ella Enchanted" WTF?! Not that I even care much that Little John is out wandering in the dangerous park. Frank didn't seem too concerned. I sure wish they'd change the opening to the show, I don't care to see LilJ get twirled anymore. bring on the pigeons!