Since the SoapNet broadcasts of Ryan’s Hope have gotten us to the end of another year, this time being 1980, I wanted to assess where the program is at with the storylines. Some of this may not be accurate, as at times I’ll have technical difficulties and miss episodes.
In late 1979, Mary Ryan was murdered. Jack and Mary were the couple of Ryan’s Hope during the early years, but they were downed by recast problems once Kate Mulgrew left her role. Mary had seen too much and could testify against the Novatny crime family, so she had to be killed. This occurred on her younger sister Siobhan’s wedding day to Joe Novak. Joe was the nephew of Tiso the head of mob. Tiso knew what was going on, but Joe did not. Joe wasn’t squeaky clean, but he wouldn’t have killed his wife’s sister.
Mary had followed a lead to the fish warehouse. It was a guy with a cap, and Mary in her last words told Jack about him. Jack the investigative reporter that he is figured out who was responsible for Mary’s death, and got revenge. He bugged Joe’s fishing boat, and overheard a conversation between Joe and one of the men responsible who was begging Joe to help him. Before this man came to Joe, he had no idea that someone in the organization had killed his sister-in-law. Joe was horrified, and wanted even more to get out of the mob. Joe and Siobhan planned to leave together, but that was stopped. Tiso overheard the tape of Joe speaking with the lackey as Jack played it for Siobhan. He attacked them with a gun. Jack killed Tiso, and Joe came upon Jack who also had been shot.
Siobhan and Jack went into witness protection, and Joe left town. It was assumed Joe was dead too. Siobhan left New York City to visit her brother Patrick and try to pick up the pieces of her life. Siobhan fell in love with a man, whose family killed her sister, and then nearly killed her brother-in-law. If it had not been improper, Siobhan never would have had these issues with Joe as she and Jack had developed feelings for one another before Mary died. Siobhan falling in love with Joe should have been a blessing as she no longer coveted her brother-in-law, but it meant despair.
Jack had a hard time dealing with raising his and Mary’s daughter Ryan alone. Maeve’s help wasn’t enough and he got a babysitter named Amy. Unbeknownst to Jack, Amy was unstable and spent some time in a mental facility. Amy had fallen apart after getting pregnant by her high school boyfriend Michael Pavel. Michael had no idea about Amy’s problems, because if he did, he would have warned Jack as they got along well. Michael had lost his father to the same crime organization that killed Mary, which is how we met him as he gave some information to Jack. Amy kidnapped Ryan thinking the little girl was her own. Ryan ran away from her when they were hiding in a hidden area at The Crystal Palace. Maeve was trapped, but thankfully she was rescued before being seriously injured. Jack talked Amy down, and she went back to the hospital to help her deal with her emotional problems. In all the searching Jack had to do, he met Matthew and Rose Pearse, a father and daughter duo of private detectives. Rose who lost her husband years earlier, was extremely close to her father, and could sympathize with Jack. Rose and Jack fell in love with one another. While Rose was apprehensive when it came to Ryan, the little girl grew to consider Rose her best friend. Rose has a secret, which may ultimately destroy her relationship with Jack, but that has yet to be uncovered on screen during this run of Ryan’s Hope.
The aforementioned Michael Pavel became a major player in 1980. His attitude completely flipped from the poor boy from an outer-borough, who wanted to succeed by going to night school after his father had been murdered by the mob, to an ambitious and slightly oversexed guy. Michael and Kim started dating after Kim’s much older love interest Seneca broke up with her, for her own good. Rae paid off Michael to stay away from Kim. He didn’t disappear from their lives though as Rae hired Michael to be her personal assistant. Before Seneca, Kim seemed like a nice sweet girl, but it seemed that was an act. Eventually Seneca married Kim as he couldn’t live without her, but he is unaware of what she is capable of doing. Kim faked a miscarriage after aborting Seneca’s baby, just to get the lead role in a Broadway show. She then lost the role and became the understudy. With Michael’s help and dirty tricks, she got the part back from Connie who had taken it from her. Michael and Kim slept together after her opening night while Seneca was at the hospital. Rae interrupted them and Kim hid. So Michael is playing the mother and daughter and having sex with both of them.
Delia Reid Ryan Ryan Coleridge made a life of her own outside of Riverside. After her marriage to Roger busted apart, she got involved with evil Barry Ryan. Barry wasn’t exactly evil, but he couldn’t be monogamous. Delia set up a party where a tableful of Barry’s former loves came face to face and told him off ending their relationship. While taking a drunken Faith hope, Delia hit Barry with her car. She fled the scene, and put Faith in the driver seat. Delia had her son (with Frank), Little John and her brother Bob on her side, and finally made things right with the Ryan clan. Outside of the romantic realm, Delia had a career as owner of The Crystal Palace, a restaurant in Central Park. Delia had become psychic and used her skills to raise the money to buy the place. A gorilla in the zoo fell in love with her which left her battered and bruised, but she continued with her dream restaurant. The restaurant was a big success as celebrities would come to be seen and eat there.
Jillian who finally was free to marry Frank Ryan freaked out and fell in love with another man named Ken George Jones. Ken was a famous singer-songwriter, and he wooed Jillian who acted as his lawyer. They slept together while outside of New York City. Faith found out and that was another thing that made her drink as she saw them together at the beach. Jillian finally was happy, after everything that happened with Seneca, Frank and Rae. Seneca lied for years about Edmund being his son, but he was Frank’s child. It took Seneca getting involved with Kim Harris for Jillian to be with Frank. Ken wanted Jillian and Frank to be together even though he was in love with Jillian as Ken was dying. The affair was revealed to all after Ken was hospitalized. Little John who continued to love Jill and was a huge fan of Ken’s went to visit him while he was dying. Ken gave the boy a notebook with his photograph on the front of it. Inside the notebook was Ken’s suicide note, he had shot himself up with heroin and passed away quickly. Jill was charged with killing Ken, but suspected that Barry was guilty as he was in the hospital as a patient after being run over by Delia. Once it was discovered that Barry had an alibi, Jill faced the possibility of going to prison. The problem was no one realized that Little John had the suicide note, as Ken killed himself. Once that was discovered Frank, Maeve and Johnny worked together to find the note that had been cut into paper dolls by his cousin Ryan. The note was put back together, and Jill was free to go. Jill was horrified to find out that Frank was seeing her sister Faith, as was Bob.
This is a short summary of what has been going on with Ryan’s Hope in the last six or so months of broadcasting on SoapNet, which was one year in “real time”. SoapNet only airs Ryan’s Hope episodes through 1981, as the rest they don’t want to edit for music concerns. It will be interesting to see if they go back to the beginning of the run in 1975 or if they eliminate airing Ryan’s Hope completely.
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