''The Brighter Day'' is an American daytime
soap opera
A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...
which aired on
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
from January 4, 1954, to September 28, 1962.
Originally created for
NBC Radio
The National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (known as the NBC Red Network prior to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in operation from 1926 through 2004. Along with the NBC Blue Network it was one of the first t ...
by
Irna Phillips
Irna Phillips (July 1, 1901 – December 23, 1973) was an American scriptwriter, screenwriter, casting agent and actress. She is best remembered for pioneering a format of the daytime soap opera in the United States geared specifically toward wo ...
in 1948, the radio and television versions ran simultaneously from 1954–1956. Set in
New Hope, Wisconsin, the series revolved around Reverend Richard Dennis and his four children, Althea, Patsy, Babby and Grayling.
''The Brighter Day'' was the first soap opera to air on network television with an explicitly
religious
Religion is usually defined as a social system, social-cultural system of designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morality, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sacred site, sanctified places, prophecy, prophecie ...
theme. Another soap opera created by Phillips, ''
The Guiding Light
''Guiding Light'' (known as ''The Guiding Light'' before 1975) is an American radio and television soap opera. It is listed in ''Guinness World Records'' as the third longest-running drama in television in American history. ''Guiding Light'' a ...
'', initially had a religious theme as a radio show but dropped it by the time the series moved to television.
History
![The Brighter Day Scene 1954](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/The_Brighter_Day_Scene_1954.jpg)
''The Brighter Day'' had its roots in the radio soap opera ''
Joyce Jordan, M.D.
Joyce Jordan, M.D. is a radio soap opera in the United States. It was broadcast on ABC, CBS and NBC at various times during the era of old-time radio.
Donna Halper, in her book, ''Invisible Stars: A Social History of Women in American Broadcastin ...
''. Jim Cox, in his book ''The Great Radio Soap Operas'', wrote: "''The Brighter Day'' premiered on the NBC network on October 11, 1948. But it was actually rolled out on another drama some time before that."
Dr. Jordan lived near the Dennis family's hometown of Three Rivers, and listeners of the Jordan program became acquainted with the Dennises in 1948. In a seamless transition, Cox wrote, "By the time Dr. Jordan said 'good-by' on her final broadcast on Friday, October 8, 1948, the fans were already acquainted with the family that would replace her. The following Monday listeners could easily connect with the new series growing out of the show they had been hearing for so long."
[ Smoothing the transition even more, ''The Brighter Days announcer, sponsor, network and time slot were the same as those of ''Joyce Jordan, M.D.''][
The original radio version took place in the town of Three Rivers, but in late 1953 the Dennis family was forced to move to New Hope as a result of a ]flood
A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...
washing out Three Rivers. Later in the run, the Dennis family moved to Columbus, established as a college town
A college town or university town is a community (often a separate town or city, but in some cases a town/city neighborhood or a district) that is dominated by its university population. The university may be large, or there may be several sma ...
. There were five children in the radio version, but the oldest daughter, Liz (played from 1949–1954 by actress Margaret Draper
Margaret Ruth Draper (November 20, 1916 – October 14, 2011) was an American actress and international service worker.
Early years
Draper was born in 1916, the third of six children born to Delbert Morley Draper and Frances Mary Rogers. ...
), married and left the family as the show began on television. Also living with Reverend Dennis was his widowed sister, Emily Potter.
''The Brighter Day'' had mid-range Nielsen ratings
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...
for most of its run. During the 1950s, it was in the middle of the pack typically landing between 5th and 7th place over all and in the middle of all the CBS soaps. The show's best season was 1955–1956, when it did not have any competition from ABC and weak offerings from NBC.
With the premiere of ''American Bandstand'' in 1957 and ''Bandstands surge in popularity a year later, the CBS strip of ''The Verdict is Yours
''The Verdict Is Yours'' was an Americans, American court show#Dramatized court show, courtroom drama that aired on CBS Daytime from September 2, 1957, to September 28, 1962, and in prime time, primetime from July 3 to September 25, 1958.
Overvie ...
'' at 3:30, ''The Brighter Day'' at 4:00, ''The Secret Storm
''The Secret Storm'' is an American soap opera that the CBS television network transmitted from February 1, 1954, to February 8, 1974. It was created by Roy Winsor, who also created the long-running soap operas ''Search for Tomorrow'' and ''Love ...
'' at 4:15 and ''The Edge of Night
''The Edge of Night'' is an American television mystery crime drama series and soap opera, created by Irving Vendig and produced by Procter & Gamble Productions.
It debuted on CBS on April 2, 1956, and ran as a live broadcast on that networ ...
'' at 4:30 all took a hit of about one rating point. Though The Secret Storm'' and The Edge of Night'' rebounded, ''The Brighter Day'' and its lead-in ''The Verdict Is Yours'' did not. By the 1960–61 season, both shows were holding their own, but had still taken a ratings hit.
In Summer 1961, Procter & Gamble
The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer hea ...
gave up production of the show to CBS and moved production of the series from New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
to Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
in an effort to save money. Key characters and stories were dropped when their actors did not wish to relocate. In the Summer of 1962, with ''The Secret Storm'' and ''The Edge of Night'' proving formidable against ''American Bandstand'', CBS decided to expand ''The Secret Storm'', creating a powerful hour-long soap block to counterprogram against ''American Bandstand''. This decision had both ''The Brighter Day'' and ''The Verdict is Yours'' moving from their mid/late afternoon slots to mid/late morning. The timeslot change was the final nail in the coffin, as both series lost almost half their audience, with ''The Brighter Day'' falling from a 6.9 to 3.7. Mid-late morning had never been successful for serials, and this instance was no different.
In August 1962, the show made history by creating the first daytime television contract role for an African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
. The actor, Rex Ingram, appeared as an ordained minister named Victor Graham beginning on September 17, but had no time to make much of an impact, as the show was cancelled two weeks later on September 28.
The network announced that the show would be cancelled with less than two weeks before the final episode aired. In the final episode, actor Paul Langton
Paul may refer to:
*Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name)
*Paul (surname), a list of people
People
Christianity
*Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chris ...
addressed the viewers in character as Uncle Walter, wrapping up the storylines and explaining how the characters would resolve their problems. Langton ended the show with a final farewell: "The microphone can't pick up their voices and soon the picture will fade. If on occasion you think of us, we hope your memory will be a pleasant one."
Among the show's writers were Doris Frankle, and Sam Hall. Agnes Nixon
Agnes Nixon ( Eckhardt; December 10, 1922 – September 28, 2016) was an American television writer and producer, and the creator of the ABC soap operas '' One Life to Live'', '' All My Children'', as well as '' Loving'' and its spin-off '' The ...
had been hired to write the show (and had created the character on which Ada and Rachel Davis, two characters on NBC's '' Another World'' were based), but the show was cancelled before her work was ever taped. Ms. Nixon then went to write ''The Guiding Light
''Guiding Light'' (known as ''The Guiding Light'' before 1975) is an American radio and television soap opera. It is listed in ''Guinness World Records'' as the third longest-running drama in television in American history. ''Guiding Light'' a ...
'' and, later, '' Another World'' before creating her two classic soap operas on the ABC network.
Among the actors who appeared on the series, the most famous alumni are Hal Holbrook
Harold Rowe Holbrook Jr. (February 17, 1925 – January 23, 2021) was an American actor, television director, and screenwriter. He first received critical acclaim in 1954 for a one-man stage show that he developed called ''Mark Twain Tonight!'' ...
(Grayling Dennis), Lois Nettleton
Lois June Nettleton (August 16, 1927 – January 18, 2008) was an American film, stage, radio, and television actress. She received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations and won two Daytime Emmy Awards.
Early life
Lois Nettleton was born on Au ...
(Patsy Dennis Hamilton), and Patty Duke
Anna Marie "Patty" Duke (December 14, 1946 – March 29, 2016) was an American actress and mental health advocate. Over the course of her acting career, she was the recipient of an Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, three Primetime Emmy Aw ...
(Ellen Williams Dennis).
See also
* List of radio soaps
Radio daytime drama serials were broadcast for decades, and some expanded to television. These dramas are often referred to as "soaps", a shortening from "soap opera". That term stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that h ...
References
External links
*
Public domain episode at the Internet Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brighter Day, The
1954 American television series debuts
1962 American television series endings
1950s American television series
1960s American television series
1940s American radio programs
1950s American radio programs
American radio soap operas
American television soap operas
Black-and-white American television shows
Television shows set in Wisconsin
CBS original programming
English-language television shows
Television series by Procter & Gamble Productions
Television series created by Irna Phillips
NBC radio programs
CBS Radio programs