A Night To Remember Characters

American television criminal offence drama and soap opera (1956-84)

The Edge of Night

Also known as	Border of Night
Genre	Soap opera Drama Offense drama Mystery
Created by	Irving Vendig
Starring	Donald May Ann Flood Forrest Compton Lawrence Hugo Lois Kibbee Sharon Gabet Joel Crothers Mandel Kramer
Composers	Elliot Lawrence Paul Taubman
Land of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	28
No. of episodes	seven,420
Production
Executive producer	Erwin Nicholson
Producers	Robert Driscoll Rick Edelstein Charles Fisher Freddie Bartholomew Jacqueline Haber Werner Michel Erwin Nicholson Charles Polachek
Running time	30 minutes
Production company	Procter & Gamble Productions
Release
Original network	CBS (1956–1975) ABC (1975–1984)
Picture format	Black-and-white (1956–1967) Color (1967–1984)
Audio format	Monaural
Original release	Apr two, 1956 (1956-04-02) – Dec 28, 1984 (1984-12-28)

The Edge of Night is an American boob tube mystery criminal offence drama series and soap opera, created by Irving Vendig and produced by Procter & Chance Productions.

It debuted on CBS on April two, 1956, and ran equally a alive broadcast on that network for most of its run until November 28, 1975. The series then moved to ABC, where it aired from December i, 1975, until December 28, 1984.^[one] 7,420 episodes were produced, of which some i,800 are available for syndication.

Writer Sir P.Yard. Wodehouse,^[2] actresses Bette Davis and Tallulah Bankhead,^[three] as well as Eleanor Roosevelt,^[3] were all reportedly devoted fans.

Concept [edit]

The Border of Night, whose working title was The Border of Darkness, premiered on Apr 2, 1956, equally one of the outset two half-hour serials on idiot box, the other being Equally the World Turns. Prior to the debuts of both shows, 15-infinitesimal-long shows had been the standard. Both shows aired on CBS, sponsored by Procter & Take chances.

The show was originally conceived as the daytime television version of Perry Stonemason, which was popular in novel and radio formats at the time. Stonemason'southward creator Erle Stanley Gardner was to create and write the prove, just a last-infinitesimal tiff betwixt the CBS network and him caused Gardner to pull his support from the idea. CBS insisted that Mason be given a dearest interest to placate daytime soap opera audiences, but Gardner refused to take Mason in that direction. Gardner eventually patched upwardly his differences with CBS, and Perry Mason debuted in prime fourth dimension in 1957.

In 1956, a writer from the Perry Bricklayer radio show, Irving Vendig, created a retooled thought of the evidence for daytime tv set—and The Edge of Night was born. John Larkin, radio'due south best identified Perry Mason, was bandage as the protagonist-star, initially every bit a detective, eventually equally an attorney, in a thinly veiled re-create of Perry Bricklayer.^[4]

Setting [edit]

Unlike Perry Stonemason, whose adventures took place in Southern California, the daytime series was set up in the fictional city of Monticello, located in the Midwestern U.s.. A frequent backdrop for the show'south early scenes was a restaurant called the Ho-How-do-you-do-Ho Better Known Every bit Ohio. The State of Ohio. The state capital, withal, was known generically every bit "Capital City"; the land in which Monticello was located had never been identified. From its beginning in 1956 until roughly 1980, the downtown skyline of the city of Cincinnati stood in as Monticello. Procter & Risk, which produced the testify, is based in Cincinnati. In later years, the Los Angeles skyline replaced that of Cincinnati. The skyline motif was somewhen eliminated altogether in the final 2 years of the testify, as was the word "The" in the title.

Format [edit]

During most of the show's run, viewers were treated to an announcer enthusiastically and energetically announcing the show's title, "Theee Edge...of Dark!" Bob Dixon was the kickoff announcer in 1956, followed by Herbert Duncan. The two voices most identified with the show, even so, were those of Harry Kramer (1957–1972) and Hal Simms, who announced until the series concluded in 1984.

The Edge of Night played on more artistic levels than probably any other soap of its time. Information technology was unique among daytime soap operas in that it focused on crime, rather than domestic and romantic matters. The police, district attorneys, and medical examiners of fictional Monticello, Us, dealt with a steady onslaught of gangsters, drug dealers, blackmailers, cultists, international spies, corrupt politicians, psychopaths, and murderous debutantes, while at the same fourth dimension coping with more than usual soap opera problems like courtship, union, divorce, child custody battles, and amnesia. The show's particular focus on crime was recognized in 1980, when, in laurels of its 25 years on the air, The Edge of Night was given a special Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America. The Edge of Night had more prominent male characters than most soap operas, and included genuine sense of humour in its scripts to balance the heaviness of the storylines.

Cast and characters [edit]

The show's central protagonist was Mike Karr, tireless crimefighter, introduced as a police officer who was finishing constabulary school. This character evolved from the before Perry Mason grapheme on radio.^[five] He then progressed to the district attorney'south role as an assistant commune attorney, hung his own shingle every bit a defense force chaser for several years, then became district attorney of Monticello. Karr was portrayed by iii actors: John Larkin (radio'due south Perry Bricklayer^[5]), Laurence Hugo, and Forrest Compton.

Among the show'due south bandage members who appeared on The Edge of Night early in their careers and later gained fame were Mariann Aalda, Leah Ayres, Conrad Bain, David Birney, Dixie Carter, Kate Capshaw, Philip Casnoff, Thom Christopher, Margaret Colin, James Coco, Jacqueline Courtney, John Cullum, Marcia Cross, Irene Dailey, Frances Fisher, Jennifer Joan Taylor, Lucy Lee Flippin, David Froman, Penny Fuller, Scott Glenn, Sam Groom, Don Hastings, Patrick Horgan, Earle Hyman, Željko Ivanek, Peter Kastner, Lori Loughlin, Bill Macy, Nancy Marchand, Doug McKeon, Julianne Moore, John Allen Nelson, Barry Newman, Bebe Neuwirth, Christopher Norris, Antony Ponzini, Lawrence Pressman, Tony Roberts, Reva Rose, Mark Rydell, Dolph Sweet, Millee Taggart, Kingdom of the netherlands Taylor, Richard Thomas, John Travolta, Ann Wedgeworth and Jacklyn Zeman.

Over the years, the prove featured many notable performers and celebrities, usually in modest cameo appearances, merely some in roles of import to the storylines. Among the show'due south invitee stars were Willie Aames, Amanda Blake, Dick Cavett, Nancy Coleman, Professor Irwin Corey, Selma Diamond, James Douglas, Alfred Drake, John Fiedler, Betty Guarde, Rita Gam, Eva Gabor, Jack Gilford, Frank Gorshin, Farley Granger, Cynthia Gregory, Micki Grant, Lisa Howard, Kim Hunter, Leon Janney, Rita Jenrette, Arch Johnson, Larry Male monarch, Nancy Marchand, Ed Marinaro, Donald May, Sam McMurray, James Mitchell, Meg Myles, Wade Nichols, Peaches and Herb, Minerva Pious, Anne Revere, Rosemary Rice, Hugh Reilly, Wallace Shawn, Pat Stanley, Shirley Stoler, Elaine Stritch, Jane White, Ann Williams, and Jerry Zaks.

Storylines [edit]

For the show's duration, the stories either revolved around or touched upon Monticello lawyer (and onetime Monticello police officer) Mike Karr.^[half-dozen]

The 1950s [edit]

Equally the prove began, Mike Karr's relationship with Sara Lane (Teal Ames) reproduced the radio serial'southward Perry Mason/Della Street relationship. Calculation a complication for Mike Karr, Sara's family was involved in organized law-breaking. In the early on years of the show, Sara's younger brother, Jack (Don Hastings), was fatigued into the criminal world by corrupt uncle Harry Lane (Lauren Gilbert). Nevertheless, Mike and Sara eventually married. Their happiness was short-lived when Sara was written out of the show, killed every bit she saved the life of their girl Laurie Ann, who ran into the street into the path of an automobile. By the 1960s, Laurie Ann was a teenager, supplying many plots for the bear witness, and a young married woman and female parent by the 1970s.

The 1960s [edit]

Mike later married Nancy Pollock (Ann Flood), a announcer who helped in many of his cases. Nancy had 2 siblings: Lee, who somewhen married Geri McGrath, and Elaine (nicknamed "Cookie"). Cookie, was also involved in major story arcs. Cookie was married first to Malcom Thomas, who cheated on her, and then fabricated her a widow. Later she married Ron Christopher, whose dealings with loan sharks affected Mike's good friends Louise and Philip Capice.

Other important characters were Police Chief Bill Marceau (Mandel Kramer), who was i of Karr'southward best friends and shared a tremendous mutual respect, rare between a defence attorney and a primary of police (perhaps considering Mike had once been a law officeholder himself), Marceau's secretarial assistant (and later wife) Martha (Teri Keane), fellow chaser Adam Drake (Donald May), his client, and then secretary (and later on, his wife) Nicole Travis (Maeve McGuire; Jayne Bentzen; Lisa Sloan), and wealthy socialite Geraldine Whitney (Lois Kibbee).

In i storyline, Nicole Travis (later on, Drake) was victimized by two different women, Stephanie Martin (Alice Hirson) and Pamela Stewart (Irene Dailey), who both wanted Nicole gone but for dissimilar reasons. Pamela was Adam Drake's ex-married woman and she knew Adam was falling in love with Nicole. She reasoned that Adam might render to her if Nicole were not at that place. Although Stephanie did attempt to kill Nicole on at least one occasion (by poisoning her bourbon), she more interested in terrorising her in revenge for the deaths of her husband and girl. Stephanie'south husband had borrowed money from loan sharks who answered to Nicole'due south gangster father. He could not repay the debt, so Nicole'south male parent ordered his men to cut the brakelines on his car. The whole family, including Stephanie, her husband, their son, and identical twin daughters Karen and Debbie were in the resulting accident, which just Stephanie and Debbie survived. (Debbie was struck impaired by the incident and was receiving in-patient therapy; while Stephanie unwittingly compounded the problem by calling her "Karen," thus making it clear she wished it had been the other twin who had survived.) Nicole's father was in prison, so Stephanie went after his daughter instead - gradually moving closer and closer, and eventually taking a job as i Nicole's two store administration. Stephanie was working late at the shop when she stabbed in the back, just as Nicole arrived to confront her - having learned before that evening that Stephanie was behind the threats on her life. Debbie, who had been sleeping on a window seat until simply before the stabbing occurred, saw her mother on the floor with the dagger in her back and shouted "Pull it out! Pull information technology out!";^[7] which Nicole did. Thus, Nicole was defendant of murdering Stephanie because her fingerprints were on the weapon; and Debbie was struck impaired again. Adam Drake defended Nicole against increasingly incommunicable odds, somewhen realising that Debbie was the key to Nicole's exoneration. He had to observe a way to make her speak again. Knowing Debbie had strong affection for the therapist who was helping her, he proceed to accuse the woman of existence the killer. This proved to be the catalyst the restored Debbie's ability to speak again, to defend her friend. Adam and so showed Debbie a pic of Nicole and asked if information technology was the woman who killed her mother and Debbie answered no. In a classic Perry Stonemason-like climax, Debbie was called to testify at Nicole's trial; and when asked on the stand if the woman who killed her mother was in court, she said "Yes. Her!" as she pointed to Pamela Stewart - who had killed Stephanie by mistake. In the darkness and because she attacked from behind, Pamela thought she was stabbing Nicole.

The 1970s [edit]

Adam subsequently left Mike Karr's law business firm as partner and opened his own practice. He hired Nicole equally his secretary, and their romance blossomed. But when Nicole sensed his lack of involvement in marriage, she went to work for another attorney, Jake Berman (Ward Costello). She continued to date Adam and told him if he did not suggest to her by New Year's Eve, their relationship was finished. Soon afterward, she got a wedlock proposal from her new boss, widower Jake Berman. She did non accept it, but moved to New York City with him when he decided to become a partner at another law business firm. Adam so searched for Nicole in New York until he found her at the stroke of midnight on New year's day'due south Eve and proposed to her. When Adam and Nicole returned to Monticello, so did Jake, determined to preclude them from marrying. He plotted with exconvict Johnny Dallas (John LaGioia) to frame Adam for attempted murder. Johnny did non show up, but Jake was murdered by Joel Gantry (Paul Henry Itkin, Nicholas Pryor) and Adam was arrested for the murder immediately following his wedding ceremony to Nicole at the Karr residence. The day before the jury would take found Adam guilty, Joel Gantry was found by Kevin Jamison (Dick Shoberg) in San Francisco. Joel was actually Edith Berman'southward son from her previous union, and he was convinced that Jake had murdered his mother. Adam and Nicole thus were reunited and settled into married life. Former later, she was believed to have died in a boating accident in the Caribbean, only was discovered alive 18 months later by Kevin Jamison (and then played past John Driver) in French republic. At the aforementioned time, Adam proposed to Assistant District Attorney Brandy Henderson (Dixie Carter). Adam and Nicole somewhen reunited virtually 6 months later Nicole was discovered alive, and Brandy left boondocks some other six months later. Their marriage concluded when Adam was murdered. A young doctor, Miles Cavanaugh, came along and became interested in Nicole. Although the actress who played Nicole was just iv years older than the actor playing Miles, the producers replaced her with another actress who was 10 years younger than he - a rarity in the soap opera genre, presumably done to intermission completely with the prior Nicole storylines. Nicole and Miles somewhen married merely the new actress was herself replaced 4 years later by another actress. Two years after that, Nicole died after her makeup pulverization was poisoned.

In the testify'south later years, Mike'due south beautiful girl Laurie Ann (Emily Prager), by now a young adult, was an important character. Her relationship with Jonah Lockwood, a sociopath, nearly cost her her life, but he was revealed to exist an alternate persona of Keith Whitney, scion of the wealthy Whitney family, nemesis of the Karrs and Marceau. Laurie subsequently became engaged to marry Mike Karr'southward police force associate Vic Lamont (Ted Tinling). During this time Mike Karr was existence stalked by a gangster Lobo Haynes (Fred J. Scollay) over a shipment of drugs which led to Vic beingness pleading guilty to murder and going to prison house to behave clandestine work where he was nearly stabbed to death in a prison shower just his life was saved past inmate Johnny Dallas. Johnny was subsequently released from prison house and became the possessor of a restaurant The New Moon Buffet. Laurie (at present played by Jeanne Ruskin) played the pianoforte at the restaurant leading to her and Johnny falling in love. When Vic found out Laurie and Johnny were together in Chicago when he didn't bear witness upward to shoot and wound Jake Berman, he left Laurie. In a drunken daze, Vic married client Kay Reynolds (Elizabeth Farley). Laurie and Johnny eventually married and Vic was murdered saving Johnny's life in a staged holdup at the New Moon Buffet when information technology was revealed that Johnny was doing undercover work. Laurie (at present played by Linda Melt) and Johnny had a babe they named John Victor. Still, Laurie adult mental problems that led her to being placed in a mental institution, and Johnny ran abroad.

Another major grapheme introduced in the later years was Assistant District attorney Draper Scott (Tony Craig), who started out working aslope Brandy Henderson and tried to appointment her simply she was still in love with Adam Drake. Draper prosecuted Nicole's cousin Serena Faraday (Louise Shaffer) for the murder of her ex-married man Mark Faraday (Bernie McInery) but Adam dedicated her and proved it was her alternating personality "Josie" and she was sent to a mental establishment. Draper left the D. A. part and joined forces with Mike Karr after Adam Drake was shot and killed. He eventually married April Cavanaugh (Terri Davis) sister of Dr. Miles Cavanaugh. One of the later major story arcs was about a train wreck where Draper had been unjustly bedevilled of murder, escaping from the train blow. At that place was also a storyline in the mid-1970s involving a troubled adult female (Nicole's cousin, Serena Faraday) who inverse her personality to Josie as she donned a frizzy, blackness wig in peradventure a nod to I Life to Alive'south popular Victoria Lord/Niki Smith storyline. Another notable character was Charlotte "Raven" Alexander Jamison Swift Whitney (Juanin Clay, so Sharon Gabet), a duplicitous coquette who became more than stable and true-blue in the latter years.

Whitney family matriarch, tough Geraldine Whitney (Lois Kibbee) suffered the misfortune of losing most of those close to her to untimely deaths: her kickoff husband, two sons, a love daughter-in-law, a nephew, and she herself was nearly killed, having been pushed downwardly a flying of stairs in 1975 by her ne'er-do-well son-in-law Noel Douglas (Dick Latessa). She became shut to Raven Alexander and Raven'southward ex-husband Logan Swift during later years (and became de facto grandmother to Raven and Logan's son). However, when Logan was killed in 1984, Geraldine could inappreciably conduct the grief to learn that, through a serial of events, she had accidentally shot him.

The 1980s [edit]

Near the end of the series' run came a rather unusual story wherein Mike and Nancy, afterward sleeping in twin beds for nearly their entire married life, decided to "go all out, and purchase a double bed", thereby retiring their twin beds for practiced.

Uniquely among daytime dramas at the time, The Border of Night finished its run with an ominous (and intentional) cliffhanger, revealing that an old enemy—Louis Van Dine, who had supposedly been sent to the country penitentiary—had returned to settle some scores, and none of the main protagonists were safe. In addition, constabulary detective Chris Egan (Jennifer Taylor) - spying a supposedly-deceased henchman of Van Dine, Donald Hext - followed Hext into a previously unknown Monticello street called "Wonderland Lane." There, she discovered Van Dine'southward sis, Alicia Van Dine (Chris Weatherhead), in a store. Alicia's brother viciously stabbed her in the back; her allegedly dying words to Chris Egan were: "...Off, off with her head...." Egan barely escaped from the shop afterwards Van Dine and Hext attempted to capture her and ran out of Wonderland Lane, briefly falling by the post next to the street sign, a blimp white rabbit propped against it.

The final scene of the serial is of Chris Egan telling Mike Karr and others of her encounter with Louis Van Dine and Donald Hext, in addition to Alicia Van Dine'southward stabbing. The show's theme plays over the dialogue, masking Karr's words, merely the audience is left to know that the story of Monticello continues onward, albeit off the air. The reason for the cliffhanger was that Procter & Adventure believed that they could find another network to take over production of The Edge of Nighttime, or peradventure continue the show in get-go-run syndication, but in 1984, there were no cable networks willing to take on such an expensive endeavor.

Broadcast history [edit]

CBS [edit]

Unlike most soap operas, which build a solid audience slowly over many years, The Edge of Night was an instant hit with daytime viewers; it amassed an audience of nine million in its outset year,^[8] in some respects because the public perceived it as a daytime Perry Bricklayer, every bit the producers of The Edge of Night had intended. Through the 1960s, the show continued to proceeds popularity; it consistently ranked equally 1 of the top six rated soap operas, aslope the rest of CBS' daytime lineup. Information technology peaked at #2 (behind As the World Turns) in the 1966–67 television flavour and came in at #2 betwixt 1969 and 1971.

At i point, the audience for The Edge of Dark was estimated to be more 50% male, largely due to the testify's crime format and its late commencement time of 4:30 p.yard. (3:30 Central). On July i, 1963, the show was moved to the 3:thirty/2:30 time menstruation after CBS gave the 4:30/iii:30 slot back to its affiliates, primarily used past them for children's programs, local or syndicated. The Edge of Night dominated the 3:thirty slot even over otherwise-striking programs like NBC's You Don't Say! and ABC'due south Night Shadows and One Life to Live. Nonetheless, when the evidence moved to two:thirty p.m. (1:thirty Central) on September 11, 1972, per Procter & Chance's insistence upon running all of its shows in a continuous daily marathon (interrupted just by an affiliate break, normally for local newscasts, at 1 p.m./noon), it slid from 4th out of 17 daytime soaps in the Nielsen ratings downwards to 10th. It has been hypothesized that the show suffered this sudden and drastic ratings collapse because many male person viewers and teenagers were unable to go far habitation from work or school before in the afternoon to watch. This was not the beginning fourth dimension a Procter & Gamble soap experienced a dramatic drop in the ratings airing in the 2:30 p.m. timeslot; the same problem affected its long-running sis soap Search for Tomorrow when it was moved to that same timeslot nine years subsequently.

By summer 1975, CBS began considering expansions of two of the Procter & Gamble-owned soap operas, Search for Tomorrow and Every bit the World Turns, to 40-five minutes daily, in response to NBC'south total-hr expansions of Another Earth and Days of Our Lives some months earlier. The network changed its mind, however, when information technology realized that doing and so would strength them to take the thirty-minute affiliate break slot at 1/noon away from local stations. CBS then decided to simply expand As the Globe Turns, which was all the same the top-rated soap opera on television, to sixty minutes. Since CBS decided against taking the 1 p.g. slot from the affiliates, and the network did non intend to movement As the World Turns from its ane:30 p.thou. slot, this made the low-rated Edge of Night expendable, and CBS told Procter & Gamble it would not be renewing the serial.

The Edge of Dark moved to ABC because Procter & Risk wanted to go along the series. The lather'due south move to ABC was due to it being CBS'south lowest-rated lather at the time of the network's conclusion to expand As the World Turns, which did not happen until December. Withal, CBS was nonetheless in a bind because it had already expanded some other of its daytime shows to an hour. The game show The Cost Is Right was expanded to a total hour a month before; that move proved to be a huge ratings success for the network, more so than the expansion of Equally the Earth Turns in Dec.

ABC [edit]

ABC, meanwhile, expressed interest in picking up The Edge of Dark and was willing to return it to tardily afternoons where it had previously done so well. It was the only network that did not accept, then or in the past, a P&G series on its schedule, and was excited to work with the company. However, a major issue almost resulted in the outright counterfoil of the serial before such a move, the first of its kind, would take place.

CBS had originally planned on expanding Equally the Globe Turns at the outset of the new season in September 1975. ABC's daytime schedule was total at the fourth dimension with programs whose contracts it had to accolade, and the earliest it could accept a spot open up on the schedule would be in December. This meant that it would be approximately three months at least before Edge would air its first episode on ABC and the network was worried that a three-month absence would result in a loss of viewers. Instead, a compromise was struck where CBS would keep The Edge of Night on its schedule for the time being, and once ABC found a identify for it, which it did when information technology canceled You Don't Say! in November 1975, the expansion of Every bit the World Turns and network change of The Edge of Night would take place.

The concluding CBS episode of The Edge of Night, which aired on Nov 28, 1975, ended with the discovery that Nicole Drake was live. She had been presumed dead in an explosion eighteen months before while on a boating trip with her married man Adam. ABC aired the bear witness start on Dec i, with a ninety-minute premiere. This episode picked upwards where CBS had left off the previous Friday, with Geraldine Whitney still in a coma after having been pushed downwards a flight of stairs in a murder attempt past her daughter-in-police force Tiffany'southward second husband, Noel Douglas. Nicole - with the assist of Geraldine'south adopted "son", Kevin Jamison - regained her identity subsequently suffering from amnesia since the boating-trip explosion. The terminal scene of that day's episode was a climax in which Serena Faraday, in her "Josie" split personality, shot and killed her husband on the steps of the courthouse.

The movement to ABC made The Edge of Nighttime the showtime serial to alter networks. (The just other soap to do so existence its former CBS stablemate and fellow Procter & Gamble serial Search for Tomorrow, which would move to NBC in 1982, post-obit a dispute with CBS over its 1981 shift from 12:xxx, where the show had aired since its 1952 premiere, to the two:30 slot that caused the viewership decline that led to The Edge of Night 's initial counterfoil by CBS over half-dozen years before.)

Initially, The Border of Night showed promise when it began ambulation on ABC. ABC aired Edge in the 4:00/iii:00 p.m. belatedly-afternoon time slot for in the Eastern and Primal Fourth dimension Zones, and, due to a different scheduling pattern for ABC's Westward Declension feed, at noon in the Pacific Time Zone. At first, the show'due south overall ratings declined considering fewer homes had access to it; this happened because many ABC affiliates had opted for local or syndicated programming at the 4:00/3:00 slot instead of the network feed for many years, and decided not to abandon the do. As a result, in some markets, Edge disappeared afterwards relocating from CBS to ABC. In other markets, stations (either a local ABC affiliate or an independent station that picked the show upwards) taped the program for delayed broadcast in a morning slot. Nevertheless, The Border of Night was typically either commencement (or a close 2d) in its timeslot in markets where the local ABC station cleared it at iv:00 p.m. (Eastern Time); this was due mainly to the weakness of competing programs on CBS and NBC. Somerset, the spinoff to NBC'due south highly-rated Some other World, was the only other soap still airing in that timeslot, but never got the ratings that the female parent show received from airing one hour before; that testify concluded upwardly beingness canceled the following twelvemonth. Furthermore, the show'south demographics were significantly better on ABC because the show got its youth and some of its male demographics back; thus, ABC was able to charge higher advert rates for it than several serial with college audience ratings.

Despite never recovering the footing it lost from its CBS days, even sliding into the lowest tertiary tier in the ratings by 1977, ratings for The Border of Night improved slightly during the early 1980s, thanks in no pocket-size part to the overall rise of other soaps on ABC's lineup like General Hospital, All My Children & One Life To Alive all winning in that location respective timeslots. Along with fresh new characters such equally Steve, Draper, Logan, Deborah, April, Raven, and Damian. While the numbers were less solid, The Border of Dark still pulled in ratings in the 5.0 range and improved its position on the ratings listing, peaking at 11th in both 1981 and 1982. Nonetheless, from 1982 on, ratings barbarous as even more ABC affiliates dropped the show in favor of the same syndicated offerings. At the end of the 1981-82 tv set season, The Edge of Night pulled in a five.0 rating, but with the resulting preemptions, the show's rating dropped to a 3.8 in 1983. This acquired Procter & Gamble's profit margins on the program to shrink with each passing yr.

The series was also broadcast in Canada on CBC Tv kickoff in the early 1970s, only after more than than a decade, CBC opted in the fall of 1982 to drop The Edge of Nighttime from its daytime afternoon lineup and supersede information technology with the ABC-owned soap opera, All My Children.

In May 1983, Procter & Gamble dismissed the prove's head writer, Henry Slesar, whose 15-year task with the soap opera was at that fourth dimension the longest in daytime serial history, and appointed as its new head writer Lee Sheldon, a writer and producer of primetime television shows. (He had been a writer on CBS's Tucker'south Witch before in the season.) Although Sheldon's accent on humor (an aspect he had honed while working on Tucker'due south Witch) reflected an endeavor to boost ratings, the show's ratings slump merely worsened as even more ABC affiliates dropped the show.

By fall 1984, The Edge of Night aired on merely 106 of ABC's 213 affiliate stations.^[nine] A farther two dozen affiliates planned to drib the series in the first quarter of 1985, with many station managers doing and so because they wanted local or syndicated programming to air in the 4:00 timeslot. Although ABC intended to proceed The Edge of Night, even offering to move it to a mid-morning time timeslot, Procter & Run a risk could no longer beget to continue producing the show due to the abiding loss of revenue from frequent preemptions. Thus, on October 26, 1984, ABC and Procter & Hazard made a articulation announcement that the final telecast of Edge of Night (whose title had been shortened to three words) would take place on Dec 28 of that year. At this point, the show'southward ratings were less than one-half of what they had been at the start of the decade; at the end of the 1984–85 television flavour, it finished concluding in the daytime ratings race with a 2.6 rating in only four months of episodes.

To date, The Edge of Night is the last regularly-scheduled ABC network program to take aired in the iv:00–4:30 p.m. (Eastern Time) time slot; ABC returned the one-half-hour slot to its affiliates after The Edge of Night finished its run. NBC had done this in 1977, while CBS, which programmed the 4:00 p.m. fourth dimension slot with Body Language when The Edge of Night left the air, followed suit in September 1986 later canceling Press Your Luck a month prior.

Mail-cancellation aftermath [edit]

The cancellation of The Border of Night, along with ABC's relinquishing of what had go a decease slot at the fourth dimension of the show's demise, had a major impact on the first-run syndication market as ABC affiliates sought new programming to fill the open timeslot in the midst of the 1984-85 television flavor. The about significant impact occurred in the New York goggle box market, where the counterfoil of The Edge of Night created an opening on ABC'south New York City flagship, WABC-TV. Taking advantage of this opening, syndication benefactor King World Productions reached an agreement to move a contempo revival of the Merv Griffin game show Jeopardy!, already in the heart of its starting time season, over to WABC'south open iv p.chiliad. slot from WNBC-Television set, where it had been airing in an overnight time slot.^{[ citation needed ]}

In Dec 1986, afterwards struggling to find a potent pb-out to complement Jeopardy! earlier its five p.one thousand. newscast, WABC filled the unabridged hour with The Oprah Winfrey Testify (as well distributed by King World, which came to boss the 4 p.m. timeslot in New York and many other markets). At the same time, WABC moved Jeopardy! to the primetime access hr at seven p.grand., pushing ABC'south broadcast of Earth News Tonight alee by a half-hour and reducing the length of its half-dozen p.m. newscast to thirty minutes; locally, this move would later repeat itself at WNBC and WCBS-Boob tube, and somewhen at network affiliates in many other markets where such scheduling patterns are at present considered standard practise for the broadcast television manufacture.

As of 2021, the 4 p.one thousand. fourth dimension slot is at present largely filled by local newscasts on most major network affiliates, including most of ABC'due south owned-and-operated stations, since the conclusion of Oprah in 2011.^[10]

Episode status [edit]

Nearly CBS episodes of The Edge of Night no longer exist as the series was broadcast live until September 1975, shortly before the movement to ABC. The network had terminated its wiping practice of shows it owned in September 1972, but Procter & Gamble connected wiping tapes until 1978. Many monochrome episodes and some color episodes of the bear witness were kinescoped; the color episodes in this format survive in blackness-and-white. Twoscore-five episodes of the CBS era are known to be, the best-known of which include the Christmas Day 1974 episode and a September 1975 episode depicting the attempted murder of Geraldine. Some fans besides have the second episode of the serial (April 3, 1956), which featured Don Hastings, John Larkin and Teal Ames. The beginning 2 years of the ABC run too followed the tape-erasure practice, which ceased in 1978 for ABC and all Procter & Gamble shows.

From Baronial 5, 1985, to Jan 19, 1989, reruns aired in a daily late-night timeslot on cablevision's The states Network, airing episodes from June 1981 up to the 1984 series finale.

From August 2006^[11] to January 2009,^[12] Procter & Gamble fabricated several of its classic lather operas available, a few episodes at a fourth dimension, through AOL Video Service, downloadable free of charge. AOL downloads of The Edge of Night commenced with episode #6051, from July 17, 1979, and concluded with episode #6380, from Nov six, 1980.

Awards [edit]

Daytime Emmy Award wins [edit]

1985 "Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series"
1984 "Outstanding Achievement in Any Surface area of Creative Technical Crafts - Electronic Camerawork"
1979 "Outstanding Achievement in Technical Excellence"
1974 "Outstanding Drama Serial Writing"

Primetime Emmy Award wins [edit]

1973 "Outstanding Plan Accomplishment in Daytime Drama" (Drama Series)

References [edit]

^ Waggett, Gerard J. (November 1997). "The Border of Night". The Soap Opera Encyclopedia. Harper Paperbacks. pp. 254–266. ISBN0-06-101157-6.
^ Wodehouse, P. Thousand. (four February 2013). P. One thousand. Wodehouse: A Life in Letters. West. W. Norton & Company. ISBN9780393089875 – via Google Books.
^ ^a ^b "This Time There's No Doubt Whodunit as ABC Turns Out the Lights on the Long-Running Lather Edge of Well-night". people.com.
^ Cox, Jim, Radio Crime Fighters, 2002, p. 201, McFarland, Jefferson, Due north Carolina, ISBN 0-7864-1390-5
^ ^a ^b Lackmann, Ronald W. (2000). The Encyclopedia of American radio: an A-Z guide to radio from Jack Benny to Howard Stern. Facts On File. ISBN0-8160-4137-7.
^ Schemering, Christopher (1987). The Soap Opera Encyclopedia (2nd ed.). Ballantine Books. pp. 90–97. ISBN0-345-35344-7.
^ Lackmann, Ron (1976). Soap Opera Almanac. Berkley Publishing Corporation, New York. p. 72.
^ Copeland, Mary Ann (1991). Lather Opera History. Publications International. pp. 116–121. ISBN0-88176-933-ix.
^ Holsopple, Barbara (October 30, 1984). "Did affiliate battle kill Edge of Nighttime?". The Pittsburgh Press. 101: 19.
^ "KGO to add 4pm News after Oprah says cheerio". www.adweek.com . Retrieved 2018-07-06 .
^ "AOL to Launch New Video Portal". www.businesswire.com. 2006-07-31. Retrieved 2017-07-29 .
^ "PGP Classic Lather Aqueduct," pgpclassicsoaps.com, January 1, 2009.

External links [edit]

Edge of Dark Home Page
Classic Television receiver Hits: The Edge of Night
The Edge of Night at IMDb
The Edge of Dark on MemorableTV.com