Going Dutch
TV Guide, November 20, 1993
by Michael LoganU.S. soaps are frequently dubbed in foreign language and syndicated to great success around the globe, but here's a first: Dutch TV has purchased the original 200-page bible for Ryan's Hope (which aired from 1976 [actually, 1975] to 1989) and will produce a serial based on the material. The landmark soap about the Irish-American and very Catholic Ryan clan was situated around a New York City bar. The Dutch version will be set in an Amsterdam cafe and will downplay the religious aspect - but the differences won't stop there. According to RH co-creator Claire Labine, the soap's strong emphasis on N.Y. ethnicity will be redesigned to reflect modern Holland (for example, African-American medic Clem Moultrie, played by Hannibal Penney, Jr., will become an Indonesian). And apparently the Dutch aren't too keen on blond ditzes: RH's most popular character, Delia - the peroxide princess played by the buxom Ilene Kristen - will be transformed into a petite and savvier brunette.
[Note: A brunette, savvier Delia? Blasphemy! And Delia was not a ditz, dammit! It was merely a guise to force her way into the Ryan family, because it was the only use that they had for her.]