It was a soap filled with intrigue, murder and rich, powerful men with mysterious pasts. Not necessarily bad ideas for a soap, but it just wasn't right for Ryan's Hope. When the show's creators, Paul Mayer and Claire Labine returned as head writers on the show early this year, they immediately spotted the cause of the dropping ratings. Ryan's Hope was a show about families: the Coleridges and the Ryans. Viewers turned in to watch the love and romance and the everyday triumphs and tragedies of those two families. To get the viewers back, the show had to return to its roots.

It seemed like it had been months since viewers had seen the interior of Ryan's Bar, but under the tender care of the show's creators, that place once again became the center of activity of all the characters. But it wasn't enough to reestablish the locale, Ryan's had to be filled with Ryans!