Showing posts with label Michael Levin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael Levin. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

FLASHBACK: You Are Cordially Invited to A (Soap) Wedding (Part 2)

Ryan's Hope producers sent Mary (Kate Mulgrew) and Jack Fenelli
(Michael Levin) to Ireland when they reconciled and remarried. The
cameras followed, and viewers were treated to weeks of on-location filming.
You Are Cordially Invited to A (Soap) Wedding

The Soap Box
Vol. IV No. 2 February 1979
by Linda Susman

(continued from Part 1)

Not all of Pine Valley's weddings have been so traditional or well-attended. The unorthodox "wedding" of Tara Martin and Phil Brent was the basis for a major AMC storyline that continues to complicate the lives of many Pine Valley residents even today.

Tara and Phil had been high school sweethearts; but after Phil ran away to New York when he found out he was adopted, Tara became engaged to Chuck Tyler, Phil's best friend. Although Phoebe Tyler, the boy's grandmother, wanted a huge, fancy affair, Tara chose a simpler wedding in her grandmother's garden. During the ceremony, Chuck fainted, suffering from a serious kidney disease. While he was in the hospital, Phil and Tara realized they were still in love, but they didn't want to upset Chuck until he had fully recovered. Meantime, Phil was drafted and they decided to marry secretly the night before he was to leave for Vietnam.

Although the young lovers made careful plans, they didn't count on a blizzard that would prevent them from reaching a justice of the peace. Desperate to take their vows before morning, they found a tiny, deserted chapel and performed a ceremony themselves they considered binding. Tara became pregnant that night, and when Phil was listed as missing-in-action, she finally told Chuck the whole story. He still loved her, and she agreed to marry him so her child would have a father.

Friday, August 17, 2012

CLASSIC CLIP: Jack & Mary's Wedding on RYAN'S HOPE 1976


Jack and Mary were married on RYAN'S HOPE in 1976 in a beautiful ceremony filmed on location at St. Benedict the Moor Church on Manhattan’s West Side. Watch the clips below:

50 Greatest Soap Couples: #11 Jack & Mary From RYAN'S HOPE

COUPLE: Jack Fenelli & Mary Ryan
SHOW: RYAN'S HOPE
RANK: 11
PLAYED BY:
Jack: Michael Levin
Mary: Kate Mulgrew, Mary Carney, Kathleen Tolan, Nicolette Goulet
YEARS: 1975-1979; As a ghost/spirt in 1983, 1989

STORY:
While working on her brother's (Frank) political campaign Mary met Jack, a young reporter assigned to cover the campaign for the Village Banner.   They clashed for many reasons from their backgrouns (he was Italian and she was Irish) to him being a devout bachelor versus her stubborn career-minded and family-oriented lifestyle.  Her family was the center of much of their conflict.  An opposites attraction kept them coming back to each other.  When they finally made plans to marry, Jack went on an all-night drinking binge the night before and didn't show up at the church.  Mary's father, Johnny, finally found Jack and sobered him up by throwing him into a cold shower.  Their beautiful wedding was filmed on location at St. Benedict the Moor Church on Manhattan’s West Side.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

CLASSIC CLIP: Jack & Mary in RYAN'S HOPE 1983 & 1989

The spirit of Mary visited Jack in 1983 to help convince him to move on. She returned in 1989 (Kate Mulgrew's voice anyway). Watch the clips below:

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

CLASSIC CLIP: Jack & Mary in RYAN'S HOPE 1977

Jumbo demanded Jack try to fix this with Mary and baby Ryan on RYAN'S HOPE in 1977.  Watch the clip below:

Friday, April 16, 2010

FLASHBACK: Michael Levin 1978

A Remarried Father Welcomes His Son Back Home

By Jason Bonderoff
Daytime TV
February 1978

On RYAN'S HOPE, Jack Fenelli underflows with the milk of human kindness. Marriage makes him nasty. Babies make him nervous. Family life makes him lose his appetite.

Ironically, Michael Levin, who plays Jack with such grim and grizzly precision is actually a devoted family man himself. He shares a charming tudor house in the New York suburbs with his wife, Elizabth, two dogs, one cat and three teenage boys. The kitchen bulletin board is littered with PTA reminder notes. There's sports equipment in the driveway and schoolbooks on the hall table.

50 Greatest Soap Actors: #24 Michael Levin

NAME: Michael Levin
RANK: 24
SOAP ROLES: Tim Gould, ALL MY CHILDREN (1993); John Eldridge, AS THE WORLD TURNS (1991-1992); Jack Fenelli, RYAN'S HOPE (1975-1989)

AWARDS:
1980 Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Daytime Drama Series
1979 Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Daytime Drama Series
1978 Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Daytime Drama Series

COMMENTS FROM THE PANEL:
Connie Passalacqua Hayman (Marlena De Lacroix): As reporter Jack Fenelli on RYAN'S HOPE, he was a volcano of emotion. All kinds. He and Kate Mulgrew as Jack's wife Mary Ryan were just fascinating to watch. Tumultuous love, tumultuous acting

Sunday, January 10, 2010

CLASSIC PHOTO: Kate Mulgrew & Michael Levin


In honor of Kate Mulgrew being selected as the #38 Greatest Soap Actress of All Time, here is a classic photo of one of the most memorable couples in soap opera history, Mary Ryan and Jack Fenelli, played by Mulgrew and Michael Levin.

Thanks to Rob Wargo for the photo.