ryan hope and the story of the ryan family and be a wonderful show film in new york city and thereby give it the advantage of some veteran stage actor as well a newcomer . the cast be lead by the amazing helen gallagher and a great musical theater star and a the matriarch of the ryan family and maeve . maeve and her husband johnny ( the late bernard barrow ) run a bar or restaurant and be the linchpin of the soap . their child be frank and mary and siobhan and patrick and and the seldom see kathleen . the coleridge attorney jillian and two doctor and faith and roger be the other family and a bit higher in class but nevertheless closely tie to the ryans . along the way and many young actor cut their teeth on ryan hope kate mulgrew and daniel hugh kelly and corbin bernsen and marg helgenberger and ilene kirstin and gordon thomson and roscoe born and earl hindman and ron hale and to name just a few . today hale and kirstin be still soap actor and a be roscoe bear until recently and while hindman and mulgrew and bersen and daniel hugh kelly and helgenberger go on to tv series fame ( hindman be the neighbor in home improvement ) . in the beginning and the great interest ( for me anyway ) be the love story between sexy reporter jack fenelli ( michael levin ) and mary ryan ( kate mulgrew ) . the character of frank start out with an old actor christian slater father and if memory serf and there be several frank and the best remembered probably be daniel hugh kelly . the beautiful and classy nancy addison and unfortunately now deceased and be jill coleridge throughout the series and and hale be her brother roger . their sister and faith and be play by more the one actress and the most memorable be karen morris gowdy ( now a connecticut socialite ) . delia and frank wife and ultimately ex wife and and roger wife and ultimately ex wife and and a royal pain and be play by both randall edward and ilene kirstin and more successfully by kirstin and in my opinion . the series have some interesting plot . two i especially like be the gordon thomson story arc where he play alexander benedict white and an egyptologist who become involve with faith in an intriguing story while and the other involve a relative of the ryan and e. j. and an ambitious reporter try to find out if a soap actress and barbara wilding and be fake leg paralysis . unfortunately for me and soapnet stop the series in 1981 in the middle of both of these plot . the word be that they be go to continue the series this time around . let hope . ryan hope start to lose steam around 1983 and limp to cancellation in 1989. but see it on soapnet and one be remind of how good it be at least from 1975 1983 and before it become influence by the breakout success of general hospital and veer from it original structure . at it best and ryan hope be more like the english soap such a crossroad about the middle class in a big city and their life and love .