Soap Hub Flashback Friday: Ryan’s Hope Ended 35 Years Ago

Ryan’s Hope, which told the story of the Ryan clan and their friends and foes in New York City, wrapped up a 13-year run on January 13, 1989. The beloved ABC series was created by Claire Labine and Paul Avila Mayer. Soap Hub chatted with Ryan’s Hope expert and author Tom Lisanti to take a look back at the memorable finale that didn’t leave a dry eye in the house.

Ryan’s Hope: Last Call

Much of the action over the years on Ryan’s Hope took place at Ryan’s bar, which was owned by Johnny (Bernie Barrow) and Maeve Ryan (Helen Gallagher). So it was only fitting the show’s final moments took place there. The bar was the setting for Jack and Leigh’s wedding reception.

The last episode began with Jack preparing for the ceremony. While he was happy to be entering a new chapter of his life, he knew it meant saying goodbye to Mary, his first wife. (Kate Mulgrew reprised Mary via telephone.) “Loving you and losing you…trying to make sense out of love and loss has been the most important part of my life…till now,” Jack told Mary as he wondered why he couldn’t let go of her. The answer? “I am still and will be to my dying day as defended against loss and goodbye as a human being can be. But the reality is, I don’t have to say goodbye to you. Nor you to me because we have been and we are one and always will be.”

“On soaps, people have spouses die and they remarry within a year,” says Lisanti, who authored the book Ryan’s Hope: An Oral History of Daytime’s Groundbreaking Soap. “The show had kept Jack [Michael Levin] single for a decade [after Mary’s death]. He had other relationships with Rose [Rose Alaio], Leigh [Felicity LaFortune], Sydney Price [Robin Greer], but the fact is the show never had him get married until the very end. I thought it was great that Mary visited him and said she wasn’t sure she was okay with him getting married.”

Friends Old and New

Most everyone was given a final emotional heartbeat to play in the finale or in the shows leading up to the last episode. After giving Lizzie (Catherine Larson) a passionate kiss, Ben Shelby (James Wlcek) took off for Australia. Nancy Don (Maria Pitillo) was right behind him after saying farewell to Chaz (Brian McGovern) and suggesting to Ryan (Yasmine Bleeth) that she “chill out.” Bob Reid (Earl Hindman) won the lottery, ensuring (hopefully) his financial future. Siobhan (Barbara Blackburn) had a heart-to-heart with Maeve, telling her she was afraid to enter a personal relationship with Fenno (Casey Biggs), her professional partner. Maeve advised her daughter to simply: “Live. Go. Do.”

In the days leading up to the Ryan’s Hope finale, beloved favorites returned including Nancy Addison (Jill), Cali Timmins (Maggie), Malcolm Groom (Patrick), and Karen Morris Gowdy (Faith). “I thought it was very good that they brought back a lot of the original actors and characters back,” says Lisanti. “But where was Amanda Kirkland [Ariane Munker] for her sister’s wedding? Rae Woodard [Louise Shaffer] came by to wish Jack and Leigh well on their big day, which didn’t ring true but that’s nitpicky.

“I was glad Cali Timmins came back and I also liked that the show left a question mark as to whether or not Patrick was the father of Faith’s daughter Grace,” Lisanti says.

Ryan’s Hope: Have a Good Life!

The show’s final moments called for Maeve to sing “Danny Boy” as she’d done over the years. Gallagher adlibbed asking everyone to join in as Maeve sang. “It was too emotional for her to sing alone but most of the other actors didn’t know the lyrics to the song,” Lisanti says with a laugh.

Ryan’s Hope ended with a freeze-frame close-up of Maeve, who looked into the camera and said, “Have a good life!” Lisanti says: “I remember watching at home. I just bawled like a baby.”

The early years of Ryan’s Hope lived on in reruns on the now-defunct cable network SOAPnet. In 2013, Ilene Kristen popped up on General Hospital as Delia Reid was revealed to be Ava Jerome’s (Maura West) mother. “Ilene told me there was talk of Delia being kidnapped,” says Lisanti referring to Ava being threatened with harm coming to her mom last year.

“I’d be happy to see a few Ryan’s Hope characters show up on GH,” Lisanti says. “It’d be great if [the show] were revived, but I’d love there to be a channel where Ryan’s Hope could be rebroadcast. I’d be happy to see the year 1982 again. I loved that year and that was before everyone had a VCR.”