Ryan's Hope is an American soap opera created by Claire Labine and Paul Avila Mayer, airing for 13 years on ABC from July 7, 1975, to January 13, 1989.

Older morals about lifetime marriages, church-proscribed divorce, and chastity outside of wedlock were constantly being tested by "New-World," "New-Era" urban values.

Mary became irresistibly attracted to a reporter exposing Frank's blackmailing scandal, the fiery Jack Fenelli, and eventually moved in with him without benefit of marriage.

Michael Hawkins left the role of Frank Ryan in 1976, and subsequent replacements included Andrew Robinson (1976–1978), Daniel Hugh Kelly (1978–1981), Geoffrey Pierson (1983–1985), and John Sanderford (1985–1989).

Malcolm Groome chose to leave the role of Dr. Pat Ryan in 1978 and was replaced with John Blazo (1978–1979), Robert Finoccoli (1979), and Patrick James Clarke (1982–1983).

Among the other characters not related to the Ryans who passed through was the Irish-born Tom Desmond (Thomas MacGreevy), who briefly dated Mulgrew's Mary, then married Faith Coleridge in order to stay in the country.

Subsequent interviews with the head writer Claire Labine, however, reveal that the network was not the driving force behind the surrealism: "Everyone always cites Prince Albert the ape story as a mistake.

None were considered plausible-- "the Raiders story... appears neither comfortable nor realistic," not told within a soap's context of real life, just as the King Kong and Jaws plots "were universally criticized.

As more and more Kirklands began to show up (including Christine Jones as Hollis' wife Catsy; with Mary Page Keller and later Ariane Munker as his daughter Amanda), less attention was paid to the Ryans and Coleridges.

In addition, at the same time, original cast members Malcolm Groome and Ilene Kristen returned to their roles as Pat Ryan and Delia Reid.

In the spring, Kate Mulgrew briefly returned to the role of Mary Ryan when the character was brought back as a ghost who communicates with her widowed beloved Jack and, while professing that she still loves him, urges him to move on with his life.

Hungry for money, her teenage daughter Maggie (Cali Timmins) takes the first bus to New York to find Jillian, eventually causing Bess to head east as well.

At the end of 1983, Labine and Mayer were let go again and replaced with General Hospital scribe Pat Falken Smith (with James E. Reilly joining as a staff writer).

Durham arrived in October 1985 as Dakota Smith, who was brought to the Ryan family's attention following Johnny's admission of a tryst he'd had with a woman who stepped in as his caretaker while he was ill, and away from Maeve, in the 1950s.

News of this latest unexpected arrival to the Ryan clan soon brought Ilene Kristen back to the show as Delia, to meet her grandson and to cause more upheaval.

Her return on September 8, 1986, which proved to be permanent, opened with the revelation that she had been having financial difficulty – the number one indication that, for once, she had not run off to marry another wealthy bachelor to advance her fortune.

Lizzie came to protect John and Owney from her ruthless father, Harlan Ransome (Drew Snyder), who wanted to take the baby and sell him for his own purposes, since he disapproved of such a young couple raising a child.

That same month, after successfully taking down Overlord, a local organized crime syndicate that had been terrorizing the Riverside area for almost a year, Siobhan and Joe announced they were leaving New York to seek their fortunes; along with their three-year-old son Sean (Danny Tamberelli), they bid farewell to everyone at the Ryans' annual St. Patrick's Day celebration (aired March 17, 1987).

Jack, who had been wounded at the scene of the Overlord takedown, met a homeless teenage girl, Zena Brown (Tichina Arnold), while recovering at Riverside.

Lizzie, who had started working for Delia at her art gallery, had bought a painting from Ben, who under both his identities was a struggling artist who despised high society – the very explanation as to why he had been estranged from his family for some time.

Ben caused friction with his family and their friends, but ultimately tried to prove himself a local hero when he was the first to witness John Reid Ryan's temporary infidelity to Lizzie.

Wellman reporter Chaz Saybrook (Brian McGovern) and Concetta's brother Mark D'Angelo (Peter Love) were among the many eligible bachelors who vied for Ryan's affection.

To help with finances, Delia contacted influential politician Malachy Malone (played by Regis Philbin, in a rare dramatic role), who agreed to back Dakota.

Jill also had her hands full, focusing on her new baby with Frank, and counseling a determined Ryan to accept the fact that Rick was through with marriage, so a divorce could proceed.

As Bernard Barrow told Good Morning America on January 10, 1989, the show's Nielsen numbers were still openly revealed to cast and crew until Ryan's Hope fell to dead last in the daytime ratings during the 1987–1988 TV season.

In October 2013, Ilene Kristen made several appearances on General Hospital, reviving her role as Delia, now much older and running Ryan's Bar (it was largely implied that both Johnny and Maeve had died).

When Ryan's Hope premiered on July 7, 1975, ABC scheduled it at 1:00 p.m. Eastern/12 Noon Central, a timeslot previously occupied by All My Children (pushing that soap ahead to the 12:30 p.m./11:30 a.m.

Labine and Mayer declined to expand Ryan's Hope, which was moved to 12:30 p.m. Eastern/11:30 a.m Central in January 1977, in order to allow All My Children to shift to hour-long episodes on a permanent basis, after the 1975 trial run mentioned above.

In June 1980, daytime television's most-popular game show at the time, Family Feud (original Richard Dawson version), moved into the lead-in 12 noon/11 Central position, but Ryan's Hope retained little if any of that audience.

Another exacerbating factor was that although the noon timeslot relieved Ryan's Hope of soap competition in Eastern Time Zone markets, many ABC affiliates there were intent on airing local newscasts or other syndicated programming in that slot; they did not run Ryan's Hope, often relegating it to independent stations within their markets, which further diminished the number of households tuned in, due to those stations' typically lower public profile.