Memorable TV The TV Shows (1950's) The Edge of Night

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During the CBS and early ABC years, EDGE used the Cincinnati, Ohio skyline in its title visuals but In 1981, they switched to the LA skyline. In 1983, the final year, the skyline was eliminated completely. From 1956-1981, for the closing credits, EDGE used the typical fade off title and run the crawl. In 81, the title remained in place as they used a half screen crawl. This was used until the next to last episode. On the last episode, they used the original Cortner/Barranco theme over a full screen crawl. Also, in 1983, the opening and closing background was different. The closing used a beach at sunset, while the opening used a rust colored background. EDGE moved from CBS to ABC because CBS wanted to expand ATWT to 60 minutes. CBS needed an extra 30 minutes. Local affiliates were far from happy and protested about giving up their local air time. Proctor and Gamble (the shows sponsers) had a policy that their shows could not air opposite each other. (One of CBS's proposals would have put EDGE against the last half of ANOTHER WORLD). P&G proposed moving EDGE to ABC. ABC was contractually bound to their schedule and a move in Sept 75 (CBS's original expansion of ATWT) would have put EDGE off the air for about two months. CBS moved the expansion of ATWT until DEC 75, making EDGE the first soap to change networks. Many ABC affiliated did not carry EDGE. Contrary to popular belief, ABC did not cancel EDGE. P&G withdrew
sponsorship because EDGE was airing on only 102 stations and was losing money. ABC apparently wanted to keep EDGE on the air. EDGE was the only Proctor and Gamble soap to air on ABC. Like The Guiding Light, EDGE also dropped 'THE' from the title. This happened in 1983.

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The Edge of Night

USA / CBS (until November 1975) then from 1 December 75 ABC / 7420 episodes / 1956-84 black and white until 1967. First Episode 2 April 1956

Creator: Irving Vendig / Executive Producer: Erwin Nicholson (1966-84) / Announcers: Bob Dixon (1956-57), Harry Kramer (1957-72), Hal Simms (1972-84) / Music: Paul Taubman (1956-76), Elliot Lawrence Productions (1976-84)

Had it been up to the network, there would have been a Perry Mason a year before the debut of the well-known nighttime lawyer series of that name. Erie Stanley Gardner, the author of a series of books about fictional attorney Perry Mason, had approved a CBS radio series from 1943—55 based on his creation. But when Procter & Gamble wanted to make it a daily 30-minute series (the first soap opera that length along with As the World Turns, which debuted the same day), Gardner refused permission. Undaunted, the head writer of the radio series Irving Vendig refashioned
the show slightly and hired its star John Larkin to come up with The Edge of Night.
Some similarities to Gardners approach could be seen from the start. Monticello (a fictional city) assistant district attorney Mike Karr's gung-ho, unorthodox approach to catching crooks in ways that sometimes skirted illegality mirrored the manner of Mason. But there were differences too, such as more action than the nighttime show, much of it realistically set. For example. Variety reviewed a December 1956 episode in which two policemen were clobbered and one lieutenant was shot. And remember, this was a live show until 1975. Another difference was that Mike's sweetheart Sara Lane had a more overt romantic involvement with her boss than Delia Street did. Sara also had a heck of a vicious family, with her brother Jack being pressured to join the illicit activities of their Uncle Harry. Harry s wife Cora objected to her husband s work, while his equally conniving secretary tried to drive her insane. Jack eventually went straight and married Betty Jean Battle in 1958, by which time Mike and Sara were wed as well.
Sara felt maternal instincts then for Bebe Spode (played by several actresses), the daughter of the troubled Martin and Hester Spode. Martin, a ne'er-do-well from the beginning, went to jail from 1956—57 and later was murdered, while good-hearted Hester wound up in a sanitarium. Sara and Mike did not adopt Bebe, but had a beautiful daughter named Laurie Ann instead. Alas, their joy with her was to be short-lived.
On February 17, 1961, a bus hit Sara as she tried to save her 2-year-old daughter, who had wandered out into the street. Sara died on February 22, 1961. The events prompted a huge outcry—a flood of calls to the network offices and at least 2,500 protest letters in one week. (One writer tried to intimidate the sponsor by sending a missive containing the heart-breaking information that she "had baked a Pet-Ritz cherry pie, but. . . could hardly eat it for
supper after that terrible episode.") Due to the response, the day after her "death," actress Teal Ames faced the camera and said she was fine in real life but had left the show for other career options.
Mikes private life may have had its troubles, but his work life was downright dangerous. Framed by district attorney Peter Dalton in the spring of 1958, he left his post as assistant D.A. in Monticello, but continued to fight crime. Winston Grimsley, a prominent citizen who married Saras mother Mattie, hired Mike privately to expose underworld boss J. H. Phillips, which Mike did before becoming the D.A. again. (Grimsley remained loyal to Mike through 1973, when actor Walter Greaza died.) A year later, Monticello police chief Bill Marceau teamed up with Mike and remained on the show as a defender of justice for the next two decades. There also were a number of deaths among baddies,
including the d.a's conniving secretary Sybil Gordon, Big Frankie the sadistic multiple strangler, and suave racketeer Victor Carlson. Social worker Judith Marceau, Bills daughter, was on trial for killing the latter in 1961, who used a fake justice to "marry" her. She was cleared and really wed lawyer Ed Gibson, who assumed lead status on the show for a few months when Mike went to the state capitol to organize a crime commission on October 10, 1961. In reality, actor John Larkin left his role to work in Hollywood, and Larry Hugo replaced him as Mike in 1962. Ironically, in 1963 Larry Hagman also left for Hollywood, so his character Ed and wife Judy were written off the show.
Other highlights from the early 1960s were Mike's assistance from businessman Phil Capice, who married Winston Grimsley s daughter Louise and had a daughter named Sara, and the marriage of Bill Marceau to his secretary Martha Spears, followed by their adoption of troubled 15-year-old Phoebe Smith. But the biggest development was Mikes romance and marriage (on April
22, 1963) with newspaper reporter Nancy Pollock, which spurred plot lines involving Nancys parents Rose and Joe, the latter a newspaper owner; her brother Lee, who married Gerry McGrath; and her sister Cookie, who wed Malcolm Thomas and then Ron Christopher after Malcolms murder. A measure of the series' success was a 1963 review of the genre in TV Guide by writer Marya Mannes, who judged The Edge of Night the best daytime soap opera. "The serial is loaded with action, suspense and emotion but (except for a grotesquely lurid interlude about plastic surgery and mixed identities last summer) is logically worked out, cleverly contrived and written with some sophistication," wrote
Mannes. "It is refreshing to find the sentiment occasionally leavened with humor, and some indication that the American female exists outside the kitchen."
A few years later, Mike finally found a permanent law partner in the person of Adam Drake, who followed Ed Gibson and John Barnes. His decade-long run on the show revolved chiefly around his romantic complications with Nicole Travis, whom he defended on the charge of murdering Stephanie Martin (Pamela Stewart, the vengeful wife of Nicole's ex-husband Duane, did the deed, mistaking Stephanie for Nicole). Nicole supposedly died at the hands of the mob in 1974 amid a convoluted story line, which involved her ex-convict father Ben Travis as a mob plant trying but failing to dissuade Adam from running for senator, after which
Bens caretaker Morlock Sevingy killed Ben because of the failure and then blew up a boat that Nicole was on. A grieving Adam found solace with assistant district attorney Brandy Henderson. He then learned Nicole was alive, and reconciled with her, but the syndicate was still after him, and one of the ring shot Adam in the back, leaving Nicole in mourning.
Other story lines in the late 1960s predominantly revolved around the rich Hillyer family. Patriarch Olin Hillyer learned that his wife Laura had committed a crime of passion by killing Rick Oliver, who loved the younger Phoebe Smith rather than herself. Laura killed herself, but her look-alike Julie Jamison emerged a few months later to romance and wed Olin and face a separate murder trial, in which Adam was her defender. Julie and Olin left town after the trial, while Olins daughter Liz Hillyer went through a failed
romance with lawyer Vie Lamont and then a marriage to Steve Prentiss which ended when he disappeared without a trace. (The same happened to Susan Forbes, Nicoles pal and co-worker at a dress shop, who left in 1970 for an extended vacation in Florida and never returned.) Lizs second marriage to Jim Fields in the early 1970s proved happier, although psychotic Elly Jo Jamison, a relative of the now-deceased Julie Jamison, died in her effort to kill Liz to get hold of Olin's money.
In 1971 Mike Karr was on leave of absence when actor Laurence Hugo toured in a play. He never reprised the role, as Forrest Compton became the new Mike. Around then the show featured Laurie Ann Karr, Mikes grown-up daughter by Sara Lane, who lived as a hippie before having a flopped marriage with lawyer Vie Lamont. An affair and then marriage with Johnny Dallas, an ex-convict who ran the New Moon Cafe where she worked, produced a child by him and Laurie called John Victor, and for a while it seemed that their marriage would work. But there were complications, which would come to a head over the next few years. Despite Johnny's record, he was actually working to stop the mob, and its henchmen often found their way into his and Laurie's lives. In 1974 they killed Babs, a waitress at his cafe married to bartender Danny Micelli, and then Laurie's ex-husband Vie Lamont, who married Kaye Reynolds but unfortunately did not know her father Walter Le Page was the head of the syndicate and told Walter about Johnnys antimob activities. Learning that Johnnys life was in danger because of what he had told Walter, Vie took the bullet meant for Johnny in 1975. Both mob hits were ordered by Morlock Sevingy, who confessed while dying after a shoot-out. The 1974 arrival of Johnnys sister Tracy, an ex-hooker
who later wed Danny, added more stress to Laurie and Johnny's world.
But the topper came in 1977-78 from Laurie's parents Mike and Nancy. A few years earlier, a woman named Serena Faraday had attracted local attention during a bitter divorce from her husband Mark, who accused her of being promiscuous. Her slutty look-alike sister Josie appeared on the scene sounding more like Mark's description of Serena, and when Serena or Josie killed Mark at the courthouse, Adam Drake figured out that Serena/Josie was a split personality and the homicidal Josie personality was in control. The
Karrs' involvement here was the adoption of the Faradays' son Timmy following Serena's institudonalization. Mobster Beau Richardson abducted Timmy and told Nancy he would kill Timmy unless she gave him Mike's files on the mob. Given this impossible situation, Nancy left Mike to save him, but he thought she was having an affair with Beau. WTien another syndicate member killed Beau, the duo finally got back together and had a brief reunion with Timmy before he left for boarding school. But the effect of all the trauma on Laurie was a mental breakdown, and
Johnny left town with their son.
Interspersed with Laurie's, Adam's, and Nicole's troubles, the other top story in the early to mid-1970s involved the rich Whitney family: former senator Gordon Whitney; his bitchy wife Geraldine; and their sons Colin, also a senator, and Keith, another split personality whose alter ego, Jonah Lockwood, was a psychotic murdering hippie who died during an attempt on Laurie's life. Meanwhile, Colin's wife Tiffany cheated on him with Ron Christopher, Cookie Pollock's husband. Cookie went kooky but recovered and reunited with Ron, and they left town. Gordon and Colin later died in an accident.
Geraldine and Tiffany remained in town, with the latter marrying Noel Douglas, who turned the tables on Tiffany by sleeping with Tracy Dallas. Noel pushed Geraldine down a flight of stairs after she threatened to reveal his tryst to her ex-daughter-in-law, and Geraldine went into a coma. Reporter and friend Kevin Jamison went to Paris to try to find a cure and located Dr. Clay Jordan, who coincidentally had found the amnesiac Nicole. Meanwhile, Tiffany, who was planning to divorce Noel for his philandering, died after
being pushed out of a window by Jordan, with the help of his mob partner Gilbert Darcy. Meanwhile, Geraldine recovered and stayed with the show for the rest of its run. Though the story lines make it sound seamless, The Edge of Night actually went through a somewhat troubled time in the 1970s. One of the top-rated soaps since its start, it stumbled and became CBS's lowest-rated show following a move to 2 p.m. which had been requested by production company Procter &: Gamble and which cost the show much of its audience. CBS canceled the show in 1975, but ABC
picked it up for the 4 p.m. slot, although some affiliates aired it on a delayed basis and others, increasingly in the 1980s, did not carry it at all.
After nearly a decade of mob-related intricacies, including the blackmailing of Chief Marceau, who had, unwittingly, adopted a daughter in a black-market scheme, and the framing of his wife Martha in the staged death of the daughter s natural mother Taffy Sims, whom the mob later really killed, the syndicates activities wound down, and at the end of the 1970s, top boss Tony Saxon was killed in a hail of gunfire. The new emphasis was on whacked-out families. First case in point were the Cavanaughs. Dr. Miles Cavanaugh oversaw Nicole's birth of the late Adam Drake's
son, and his dying wife Denise noted a growing fondness between the two on which she intended to put the kibosh. She staged her death so that Miles s sister April would be accused of giving her a poisonous injection, and her plan seemed to be working until Denise's dad Dr. Gus Norwood confessed his part in the plot. Miles and Nicole became a happy new lead couple on the show until Nicole's bizarre death from putting on poisoned makeup while doing a TV news program in 1983.
April, on the other hand, found her romance with prosecuting attorney Draper Scott jeopardized by the discovery that hard-driving Margo Huntington, the owner of the local TV station WMON, was her and Miles's real mother. April was thrown off by Margo, who married one-time cult leader Eliot Dorn and interfered with April's marriage to Draper. When Margo died, Draper became a suspect and was convicted of the crime. Then, hours before his exoneration, the plane taking him back to prison crashed and he lost his memory. Emily Michaels and her maid Molly Sherwood found him, and Emily's delusions made her think he was her missing husband Kirk. Her mad obsession with Draper even after he remembered his past soon overwhelmed Molly, and she killed Geraldine Whitney s pal Nadine Alexander and Eliot Dorn when they inadvertendy stumbled onto her plots to kill April. Molly fell to her death before succeeding, and Draper and April moved to Europe to investigate the connections of Dr. Kenneth Bryson, the mental clinic head who had let Emily run free. Margo's real killer was Nola Madison, a real nut case. Nola was an actress playing witch Martha Cory in a horror film whose macabre alter ego was taking over her personality. Still in love with her estranged husband Owen, although having an affair with Eliot Dorn, she plotted to
kill his new lover Deborah Saxon, a police officer with the
shame of having been the daughter of crime boss Tony
Saxon. She drugged Miles into a semicrazed state and
presided over a household where her children Brian and
Paige fell in love even though they believed they were half-
brother and sister. (When Brian learned that Owen was not
his father, they were free to marry and did so.) Policeman
Steve Guthrie fingered Nola as Margo's killer and went on
to romance Deborah.
Other major plot lines in the late 1970s revolved around temptress Raven Alexander, Nadines daughter. Kevin Jamison, who was married to Phoebe Smith until her mob-related death in 1976, then married Raven, but Kevin died in 1978. Logan Swift, an up-and-coming star in the D.A.'s office, was Raven's adulterous lover and then husband after Kevins death, and then ex-husband after she had a fling with Eliot Dorn (however, Logan had an affair with Winter Austen, an ex-hooker who murdered Wade Meecham when the latter threatened to expose her). Lawyer Ansel Scott had a fling with Raven before marrying her mom. And Derek Mallory, who replaced Bill Marceau as police chief, also had a go at Raven.
The show apparently was on a "youth kick" in 1979, because it got rid of not only Bill Marceau but also Nancy's parents Joe and Rose. The trend continued in the 1980s with the arrival of Nancy Karr's curly-haired nephew Kelly McGrath; his girlfriend Jody Travis; Nicole's half-sister, Gavin Wylie, a dance teacher with whom Jody fell in love; and Valerie Bryson, Kelly's new girlfriend and the daughter of the late Dr. Bryson. After her time with Kelly, Valerie went with Jim Diedrickson, who used actor brothers Hector
and Smiley Wilson in a con game to make Raven think she had killed actress Jinx Avery. The Wilsons were killed, and Jinx died from a fatal illness a few days after marrying Derek Mallory, thus keeping his record of luckless romances intact. Derek's former squeeze Raven found herself entangled in the most intriguing mystery of all, involving Geraldine Whitney's nephew "Sky" Schuyler, whom she romanced and wed before learning he was an imposter who was blackmailing dancer Martine Duval about her theft of jewels in Europe and who had a bald sidekick, Gunther Wagner, who was responsible for some dirty deeds of his own. Raven fell in love with both the real and fake Skys (some surprise), but eventually the real one won out—as did the real Gunther, whose brother Bruno impersonated him for a time as well! Sky went on to purchase W^MON-TV and brought his assistant Spencer Varney to Monticello to join him. Gunther became the object of an unlikely love triangle between Mitzi Martin, a spacey waitress once involved with lawyer Cliff Nelson, and Nora Fulton, whose boss Camilla Devereaux was an ex-lover of Spencer's and had a brother lan who was in love with Raven. Nora tried to murder Mitzi, but the attempt failed when spy David Cameron killed her instead. Later, Sky recovered $40 million worth of diamonds that
Spencer had stolen from his family, and Spencer was revealed
as the thief.
On other fronts, Jody allowed herself to be used in a plot by mobster Dwight Endicott, but Mike, Derek, and cop Damian Tyier destroyed Dwight s plans. Her relationship with Gavin Wylie went downhill, and he left to become a director. Another relationship, with John "Preacher" Emerson, also failed, but Preacher hooked up with Liz Corell, and Jody found love with Jeremy Rhodes.
Meanwhile, the audience share of The Edge of Night was heading south, toward single digits. In 1983 ABC installed Lee Sheldon as head writer to replace Henry Slesar, who had held the position since 1968 and won an Emmy for his work. Needless to say, this change made many cast members "edgy." But Sheldon showed he had quite a few surprises in store for viewers, like returning Logan Swift only to have him be killed alone in a locked room. Nonetheless, ratings did not improve, so ABC killed the show by the end of 1984.
The final weeks wrapped up most story lines. Widower Miles Cavanaugh married radio psychologist Beth Corell. After a kidnapping by Mark Hamilton, Raven gave birth to a girl. Calvin Stoner and Didi Bannister, Calvin's second wife after nightclub singer Star, were expecting. And, after an eight-year absence, a sane Laurie Ann visited the Karrs. Even Geraldine WTiitney was happy at the wrap-up New Year's Eve party, though the goodwill in evidence at the party was quite a switch from the mayhem seen over the previous 28 years.
After the cancellation, ABC turned over the 4-4:30 p.m. time slot to local stations to program. The Edge of Night was not quite over, however. The USA cable network ran repeats of the series nightly after midnight E.S.T. for several years starting August 5, 1985, beginning with episodes from June 1980 on. And One Life to Live had several Edge alumni in its cast in 1988, including Mark Arnold, Sharon Gabet, and Lois Kibbee.

Cast

CONRAD BAIN as Dr Charles Weldon (1970) / WILLIAM PRINCE as Senator Benjamin Travis(1968-69) / KEN BRUCE MARTIN as Dr Charles Weldon (1971) / MARIANN AALDA as Did Bannister Stoner (1981-84) / POLLY ADAMS as Carol Barclay R.N. (1977-78) / BILLIE ALLEN as Ada Chandler (1973-75) / TEAL AMES as Sarah Lane Kerr (1956-61) / EVALYN BARON as Louise / JACKSON BECK as Willie Saffire / JOHN BEDFORD LLOYD as Walter Gantz / SARAH BURTON as Cora Lane (1956-57) / JOSEPH CAMPANELLA as Leo Magagnoli (1962) / DIXIE CARTER as Brandeis 'Brandy' Henderson (1974-76) / JOY CLAUSSEN as Corky / KATHLEEN CODY as Laurie Ann Karr Lamont Dallas (1965-67) / FORREST COMPTON as D.A. Mike Karr (1972-84) / PATRICIA CONWELL as Tracy Dallas Micilli (1974-77) / TONY CRAIG as Draper Scott (1975-81) / LOU CRISCUOLO as Danny Micelli (1973-77) / JOEL CROTHERS as Dr Miles Cavanaugh (1977-84) / HERB DAVIS as Lt Luke Chandler (1973-78) / DANA ELCAR as Clinton Wheeler / ALAN FEINSTEIN as Dr Jim Field (1969-74) / FRANCES FISHER as Detective Deborah 'Red' Saxon (1976-81) / MARTHA GALPHIN as Roxanne Carey (1968-69) / BETTY GARDE as Mattie Lane Grimsley (1956) / JOHN GIBSON as Joe Pollock (1962-71) / PRISCILLA GILLETTE as Sybil Gordon (1957-58) / ALBERTA GRANT as Liz Hillyer Prentiss Field (1966-74) / WALTER GREAZA as Winston Grimsley (1956-73) / DON HASTINGS as Jack Lane (1956-60) / LISA HOWARD as Louise Grimsley Capice (1956-61) / LELA IVEY as Mitzi Martin (1981-84) / TERI KEANE as Martha Spears Marceau (1964-75) / MANDEL KRAMER as Police Chief Bill Marceau (1959-79) / JOHN LAGIOIA as Johnny Dallas (1973-77) / JOHN LARKIN as D.A. Mike Karr (1956-61) / LUCY MARTIN as Tiffnay Whitney Douglas (1971-76) / BARRY NEWMAN as John Barnes (1964-65) / NANCY PINKERTON as Beth Anderson Barnes (1963-67) / HUGH REILLY as Simon Jessup (1971-73) / BROOKS ROGERS as Dr Hugh Lacey (1976-83) / MARK RYDELL as Walt Johnson (1956) / FRAN SHARON as Elaine 'Cookie' Pollock Thomas Christopher (1962-72) / MAXINE STUART as Grace O' Keefe (1956) / JENNIFER TAYLOR as Detective Chris Egan Gantz (1983-84) / TED TINLING as Vic Lamont (1969-75) / ERNIE TOWNSEND as Cliff Nelson (1978-84) / JERRY ZAKS as Louis Van Dine (1983-84)