The Brighter Day is an American daytime soap opera that aired on CBS from January 4, 1954, to September 28, 1962. Originally created for NBC Radio by Irna Phillips in 1948, the radio and television versions ran simultaneously from 1954–56. 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 theme. Another soap opera created by Phillips, The Guiding Light, initially had a religious theme as a radio show but dropped it by the time the series moved to television.

History

thumb|left|180px|Three of the Dennis children, 1954. From left: Babby ([[Mary Linn Beller), Grayling (Hal Holbrook), and Patsy (Lois Nettleton).]]

The Brighter Day had its roots in the radio soap opera Joyce Jordan, M.D. 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. According to Jim Cox in The Great Radio Soap Operas, "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 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 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. Towards the end of the series, Agnes Nixon was 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. Nixon went on to write The Guiding Light and, later, Another World, before creating her two classic soap operas on the ABC network, All My Children and One Life to Live.

Among the actors who appeared on the series, the most famous alumni are Hal Holbrook (Grayling Dennis), Lois Nettleton (Patsy Dennis Hamilton), and Patty Duke (Ellen Williams Dennis).

See also

  • List of radio soaps

References

  • Public domain episode at the Internet Archive