General Hospital brought Delia to Port Charles

Tom Lisanti, author, Ryan’s Hope: An Oral History of Daytime’s Groundbreaking Soap, wrote on Facebook: “37 years ago today, Ryan’s Hope sadly aired its final episode. Seeing it on YouTube still brings tears to my eyes. RH was no doubt my favorite soap of all time…However, I had my ups and downs with it during the period I watched from March 1980 to January 13, 1989.”

While ABC temporarily didn’t have access to characters from All My Children and One Life to Live, it was able to use Ryan’s Hope‘s Delia, played by Ilene Kristen. The show brought her to Port Charles as Ava’s (Maura West) mother in 2014, which thrilled Listani and other RH devotees.

“I was overjoyed that they were bringing Ilene as Delia onto General Hospital,” Lisanti tells Soap Central, “and I didn’t even mind that they rewrote RH history. I just wish that they had incorporated her into the show [more] because the brilliant Ilene Kristen had a great rapport with Maura West. It was a missed opportunity in my opinion.”

General Hospital, Loving Ryan’s Hope

“I loved the 1980 to early 1983 years the most,” Lisanti says. “Of course, I loved Helen Gallagher [Maeve] and Bernie Barrow [John] as the matriarch and patriarch of the Ryan clan throughout the course of the show. Beginning in 1980 and onward, I was hooked on the Delia/Barry romance (that brought well-deserved Emmy nominations to Randall Edwards and Richard Backus) that ended with a hit-and-run and frame up of an innocent woman; the Witches of Coleridge, Faith (Karen Morris-Gowdy) and Jill (Nancy Addison), battling each other due to Frank Ryan jilting Faith days before their nuptials; the sexy, sinful quadrangle of Seneca (John Gabriel)/his teenage bride Kim (Kelli Maroney)/her secret, studly lover Michael (Michael Corbett/his secret lover media maven and Kim’s mother Rae (Louise Shaffer), that had the college kids like myself tuning in in droves but had the older crowd clutching their rosary beads in horror.

Lisanti also enjoyed watching the “sizzling Roscoe Born as the presumed dead mobster Joe Novak back to claim his wife cop Siobhan Ryan (Ann Gillespie); the comical romance of gruff widow Jack (Michael Levin) and sharp-tongued private eye Rose (Rose M. Alaio); the introduction of the rich and powerful Kirkland family; and the turn of Elizabeth Jane Ryan (Maureen Garrett) from Miss Perky Perfect to a liar and almost bigamist leaving roguish Roger (Ron Hale, who played Mike on General Hospital) at the altar.”

Lisanti took breaks from the show but returned as a faithful viewer in 1986 until its cancellation. “The show introduced another fantastic quadrangle with the show’s four most scheming characters Dakota/Delia (now played again by the brilliant Ilene Kristen)/Roger (Ron Hale)/Maggie (Cali Timmins), who was once again the gold digger we loved to hate. It was an entertaining roundelay of gaslighting, double-dealing, bed hopping, adultery, etc. And when Roscoe Born returned as Joe Novak, I was in heaven, and it felt like 1981 all over again for me. Sadly, Joe was killed off, and three months later so was the show.”

The series finale featured the wedding of Jack and Leigh. Maeve sang “Danny Boy,” as she had in past episodes. Gallagher, a three-time Daytime Emmy-winner for her role as Maeve, ad-libbed to the camera in the show’s final moment, “Have a good life!”