The show Ryan's Hope was created and owned (originally) by Claire Labine and Paul Avilla Mayer. They previously had written for Where the Heart Is (which featured Clarice Blackburn) and, after that show had been cancelled, Love of Life.
ABC asked them to create a show for them. The working title was called A Rage to Live, but it was changed to Ryan's Hope.
They used the same studio as Dark Shadows. Lela Swift was the original director of the show, and Sy Tomashoff, Tom McCue, Ramsey Mosteller, and Terry Ross were some of the people who worked on the early Ryan's Hope that had also worked eariler on Dark Shadows.
George Lefferts, one of the original producer, left the show after several months. Robert Costello became his replacement.
A few weeks ago, there were two epiosdes aired (just before the wedding of Mary Ryan and Jack Fenelli) with featured Craig Slocum.
Ruth Livingston (the wife of Leslie Barrett) had appeared a few episodes earlier.
And now, Nancy Barrett has joined the cast as Dr. Faith Coleridge.
There was a scene in which the character of Nick Szabo (Michael Fairman) gave Delia Reid Ryan (Ilene Kristen) a music box. The music box was the same one that had been used on Dark Shadows, and it even played Josette's Theme!
Also, ocassionally, there are props and parts of sets that can be recognized as having been on Dark Shadows earlier.