Sneak Preview of New
ABC Serial - Ryan's Hope
Daytime TV Magazine, August 1975
Article Provided By WandaThere is excitement brewing at ABC these days. And it is being generated by their new serial, Ryan's Hope. This is the first new show the network has produced since 1970, when A World Apart, The Best of Everything and All My Children made their debut.
Written by the expert team of Claire Labine and Paul Avila Mayer (former writers of Love of Life), the setting is New York City. The producer is George Lefferts, with Monroe Carol as his associate producer. Both men are new to daytime, but have impressive credits from nighttime and movies.
Following is a breakdown of the characters and setting. As of our deadline, there had been no cast chosen. The final auditions were set, and ABC hoped to gather an expert group of faces familiar and new to the daytime audience. Also, changes in the characters and how they relate to each other could take place as the serial is further developed. But here is what is planned to take place, a sneak preview to tempt your viewing pleasure.
The people who share an attitude called Ryan's Hope come from different backgrounds and a wide range of experience, but they have certain qualities in common, independence, energy, determination, all directed toward being the best at what they do and making their lives count in a positive way. They all share in man's natural heritage of pain and trouble and occasional tragedy, but they prevail - and share a laugh somewhere in the process.
Three families dominate the on-going story, which is set in the Riverside community of the upper West side of New York City.
Largest of these is the Ryan family: Johnny, Maeve and their five children, whom they have taught to be responsible, loving and loyal.
Johnny Ryan owns a bar, which is in a curiously central location. To the east lies Broadway and pockets of urban poverty, largely Spanish and black. Directly across the street is the emergency entrance of Riverside Hospital. Down the block is the local precinct headquarters. And to the West is an increasingly affluent area of new apartment houses intermingled with traditional brownstones that extend all the way to the Hudson River.
Johnny Ryan was a high school dropout at 14, prohibition beer handler at 26, briefly a boxer, and W.W. II infantryman. He married his wife, Maeve, in Ireland and returned to the United States where he bought a bar after being a bouncer, bartender and bar manager. He is proud of his five children and worked hard to put them through college.
Maeve Ryan had her heart captured by Johnny when he was in Ireland. She is not afraid of life, is warm, passionate and full of opinions, which she is not afraid to express. She was born in Dublin of a poor Irish background.
Frank Ryan is everything a parent could want. He is dark, calm and placidly self-assured, and has been since a child. He is a detective on the police force and has a clouded marriage to Delia.
Delia Ryan is a beautiful Irish colleen. She met her husband thorough her brother Bob, since Frank and Bob are best friends. She is troubled and emotionally insecure.
Cathleen Ryan is the baby of the family, attended Manhattanville College and is now a novice of the Sisters of Sacred Heart.
Patrick Ryan, the third child, is a study in contrasts. He is fairly excitable and an intuitive leaper into knowledge. He loves himself and returns his family's devotion because he has felt loved. He vitalizes other people.
Siobhan Ryan Moscolo is married to a chemical engineer, Art, and lives in Pittsburgh. She has two daughters Maura and Deirdre. She is pretty, practical and predictable.
Ed Coleridge has tried his best to raise his two children. Roger and Faith. He is a physician, dedicating his life to medicine, and lives in the same brownstone in which he was born.
Roger Coleridge was a lonely, unhappy teen. He won't admit he is wrong about anything. He is is handsome with superficial charm and has never learned how to love. His central figure is his father, of whom he wants approval. He lives on the top floor of his father's brownstone. He is one of two first assistant residents at Riverside Hospital.
Faith Coleridge is daddy's girl. She isolates herself from emotional involvements and is determined to excel in her work. She, also, is a doctor, but many of her colleagues at the hospital don't like her. She is shy, inhibited and inexperienced and uses her intelligence as a protective barrier. She lives with her father and keeps house for him.
Clem Moultrie, a supremely confident black man, is an intern and first assistant resident. He can assume to be relaxed and congenial with others.
Ramona Gonzales is the head nurse at Riverside. She grew up in Spanish Harlem of parents who came to New York in the 1940's.
Bob is Delia's brother and Frank's best friend. They work together on the police force. Bob is the living prototype of every Irish cop. He is big, broad-featured, steady, easy-going, a man's man.
Seneca Beaulac is of of French Canadian background, a physician and is fierce and brooding. He has an excellent reputation as a doctor and will be a catalyst in the lives of the Coleridge's and Ryan families. His grandmother was full-blooded Seneca Indian from whom he got his name. He is precise, demanding, and intimacy does not come easy.
Nell Beaulac is Seneca's wife. She is of a wealthy Boston family, is fluent in French and was indulged in material things as a child. She is a determined research doctor and takes for granted the luxuries of life.
These are the characters, as now planned. Of course, there will be additions as time passes, but, for now Ryan's Hope looks to be interesting and different from anything now on the air.