USA
/ CBS / x15m-e / January
4, 1954-September 28, 1962
B&W
"Our
years are as the falling leaves.
We live, we love, we dream, and
then we go. But somehow, we keep
hoping that our dreams come true
on that brighter day."
The Brighter Day began on NBC
radio on October 11, 1948
as a replacement of lrma
Phillips's soap Joyce Jordan,
M.D.
and ran there until 1956. The
character of Liz Dennis had
been introduced on the latter
show a few weeks earlier, and
the new series, created by Irma
Phillips, emphasized the
Dennis family. Liz was happily
married and rarely seen by
the time the series came to
television on CBS in 1954, but
the others arrived intact,
including patriarch widow the
Rev.
Richard Dennis, his daughters
Althea, Patsy, and Babby, and
his son Grayling. The main
change on the show was its
locale,
which went from the town of
Three Rivers to New Hope,
Pennsylvania on television due
to a flood which forced the
Dennis's to leave (later in the
1950s, the Dennis's moved to
Columbus, a college town).
Althea, the second oldest
daughter, was the focal point
during much of the show's early
run. Her husband Bruce
Bigsby died in the Korean War,
and she found herself going
insane. After being
ineffectually treated by Dr.
Blake
Hamilton, her psychiatrist
brother-in-law (he was Patsy's
husband), she left to pursue an
acting career in New York
City. By the late 1950s Grayling
had taken center stage, with
his business and romantic life
getting a thorough airing.
On the work front, Grayling was
a partner with reverend-
turned-reporter Max Canfield for
the struggling New Hope
Herald, a newspaper which
included a regular column by
Aunt
Emily Potter, a family
housekeeper and surrogate mother
to
the Dennises. Grayling had an
earlier business partner named
Robert Ralston who had been
connected to newcomer Sandra
Talbot, a shady character indeed
(she was once a murder trial
suspect). Sandra had married
Grayling by 1958, and later
had a breakdown when it appeared
she could never conceive
a child. Grayling, a weak-willed
alcoholic, then had a fling
with Sandra's nurse when Sandra
finally did get pregnant.
Also seen in the late '50s were
Lydia Harrick, Max
Canfield s wife, who was
involved with 21-year-old Ted
Blake
in 1958 (Babby had a crush on
Ted at the same time);
Lenore Bradley, Lydias socialite
sister who eventually lost her
snobbish ways toward the
Dennises; Steven Markley, a
young
minister whom the Rev.
Dennis
wanted Babby to marry;
Ellen Williams, a girl who was a
Dennis family friend; and
members of the Clark family.
Throughout the 1950s, The
Brighter Day, like the other
CBS soaps, had good ratings,
though it usually ranked last
in the bunch. But in 1961, as
Rev. Dennis tried to persuade
a French teacher to have an
operation to restore her
eyesight
and Babby married one-time
gambler Peter Nino, the series
took a serious blow when
production shifted from New York
to CBSs studios in Hollywood.
The switch on July 3, 1961
meant that Peter and Babby
suddenly disappeared during a
big business deal (Joe Sirola
went to play a doctor briefly on
As the World Turns, while Nancy
Malone starred in the
prime-time ABC police drama
Naked City), as did Sandra
and Grayling after learning they
were going to have a child.
Also disappearing without
warning were Ellen Williams, her
mother Nurse Lots Williams, and
her boyfriend.
The dropping of these
characters, some of which
occurred without explanation on
air, led to audience erosion,
which only increased when the
series went from the afternoon
to the late morning in early
1962 (typically soap operas
perform poorly before noon).
That year there was an influx of
new characters and stories,
including
the introduction of Walter and
Emilys hapless brother Dennis
and the return of Patsy
following the death of her
husband Dr. Randy Hamilton. In
August the shows producers
announced the hiring of the
first black regular on a soap
opera, an actor named Rex
Ingram, but he had little to do,
as the series vanished a month
later, ending its eight-year
run.
Cast
Mike
Barton.... Chris Hamiliton
(1960-1961)
Mary Linn Beller.... Babby
Dennis (1954-1959)
Walter Brooke.... Donald Harrick
(1956-1958)
Mona Bruns.... Aunt Emily Potter
(1954-1962)
Brook Byron.... Althea Dennis
(1954-1955)
Forrest Compton.... Grayling
Dennis (1961-62)
Blair Davies.... Rev. Richard
Dennis #2 (1954-1962)
June Dayton.... Patsy Dennis #2
(1961-1962)
Peter Donat.... Steven Markley
(1958)
Patty Duke.... Ellen Williams
Dennis #1 (1958-1959)
Diane Gentner.... Sandra Talbot
Dennis #1 (1956)
Ernest Graves.... Eliot Clark #2
(1960)
Dean Harens.... Dr. Charles
Fuller (1960-1961)
Jayne Heller II.... Althea
Dennis (1956)
Hal Holbrook.... Grayling Dennis
(#1) (1954-1959)
Gloria Hoye.... Sandra Talbot
Dennis #2 (1957-1959)
Paul Langton .... Walter Dennis
(1962)
Nancy Malone.... Babby Dennis
(1959-1960)
Lori March.... Lenore Bradley
(1956-1958)
Anne Meacham.... Althea Dennis
(1960-1961)
Lois Nettleton.... Patsy Dennis
(1954-1957)
James Noble .... Grayling Dennis
#2 (1959-1960)
Maggie O'Neill .... Althea
Dennis (1960)
Don Penny.... Toby Ballard
(1962)
Nicholas Pryor.... (1958)
Nancy Rennick.... Sandra Talbot
Dennis #4 (1961-1962)
Benny Rubin.... Mort Barrows
(1962)
Lanna Saunders.... Ellen Dennis
Williams #2 (1960-1961)
Charles Taylor .... Bud Clark
(1959)
Larry Ward.... Dr. Randy
Hamiliton (1954-1957)
Larry Weber.... Eliot Clark #1
(1959)
Mary K. Wells.... Sandra Talbot
Dennis #3 (1960-1961)
