It's Only My Opinion
Soap Opera Weekly, April 16, 2002
by Carolyn Hinsey
Article Provided By CarolI caught some of the RYAN's HOPE St. Patrick's day marathon on SoapNet, and it's the best illustration ever of how multiple recasts can kill a show. I swear to God, if Ilene Kristen was still playing Delia, Kate Mulgrew was still playing Mary and Malcolm Groome was still playing Patrick, that show would be on the air today. Fans lose the connection to a character when there's a recast, and it takes years to get used to a new face. No matter how good the writing was (and when Claire Labine was there, it was good), the fact that five actors played Frank, four actresses played Mary, four actors played Pat, five actresses played Siobhan and four actresses played Delia just sunk our favorite little Irish bar.
Here was my favorite line from Delia (played by the only "real" one, Ilene Kristen) to Maeve about how she can't understand why Patrick doesn't love her: "I'm not ugly, and I'm not mean and I'm only a little bit blind."
Former RH stars Ron Hale
(ex-Roger) and Ilene Kristen
(ex-Delia) should still be
bellying up to that bar.