The Edge of Night

I was fortunate enough to get a double serving of EON during summer break. When EON moved to ABC, the Baltimore affiliate aired the show at 4:00p.m. directly following GH. However, my hometown of Washington, DC would broadcast the same episode the next morning at 10:30 a.m. The quality of the Baltimore channel was clear when it was cloudy but otherwise snowy at best.

Murder mysteries were EON's forte and the one effect they did better than any other daytime drama was the quick fade to black. There was no slow resolve to black. The music would swell, then suddenly the screen goes black. I loved it!!!!!!

The character names were straight out of period pieces

Just to name a few: Adam Drake, Nicole Travis (Drake), April Cavanaugh, Preacher Emerson, Miles Cavanaugh, Margo Huntington Dorn, Elliot Dorn, and two of my favorites villains Molly Sherwood and Winter Austin.

My favorite Friday cliffhanger occurred at the WMON studios. Winter had reached wits end and decided to confront Nicole in the news studio. The mad chase lead to the catwalk and the overhead in the studio. They both wore a white button-up blouse and blue jeans. There hair were a similar honey hue. When the railing broke, one of the two flipped over the railing and fell face first onto the floor below.

It was awesome, but the kicker was, they waited until Tuesday to pick up the story. They sure don't make'em like they used to.

"The Edge of Night" was the consequential daytime drama that totally different from the norm. This was a daytime serial that ran its course for an impressive 28 years from 1956 until 1984,producing a total of 7,420 episodes and it ran on two major television networks,CBS and later on ABC. It's staying power on CBS ran for 19 years ending in 1975 and later ended its run on ABC for nine seasons when it went off the air for good in the summer of 1984. Produced for Proctor & Gamble Productions. "The Edge of Night" was totally different from the regular basically melodrama of daytime soap operas,and it had a premise that kept its audiences tuned in to see what happens next. This was a show that was a mixture of daytime drama, mystery, police detection, courtroom drama,dealings with the supernatural, murders,and beyond. And what kept the show going was that the wonderfully written scripts about mysteries and suspense that in fact were written by some of the best writers of its day. And it shows in the number of Emmys the show received for the remainder of its run. It kept you on the edge of your seat.

A grand murder mystery serial. A brilliant whodunit leading to the causes of the scenes and the stark reality of the culprit who committed the unthinkable. And the innerworkings of both the police and the courtroom which fought on the side of the law. The show was so great it really boosted a strong alumni that went through its door including Dixie Carter,Larry Hagman,Richard Dreyfuss,Jon Voight,and even John Travolta played a delivery man in one episode. Not to mention Julianne Moore,Richard Thomas and even Hector Elizondo were part of the cast. It was just that brilliant.

"The Edge of Night"-The CBS Years from 1956-1975. The Black and White episodes: 1956-1967. The Color Episodes: 1967-1984.

"The Edge of Night"-The ABC Years from 1975-1984. *When ABC cancelled this brilliant show in May of 1984,the network replaced it with the greatest travesty of the worst kind..The Gary Collins Show.

An interesting fact about this show is that it had its origins in the Perry Mason radio show before it was a TV show.

The radio show ran from 1943 to 1955, five days a week, on the CBS radio network.

It was part soap opera and part detective story.

When the radio show moved, with most of the cast and the production staff, to TV, it was renamed Edge of Night.

The cast members were given new character names.

The Perry Mason character was dropped. On September 21, 1957, CBS aired a new show, Perry Mason, starring Raymond Burr.

`The Edge of Night' was the consequential daytime drama of mystery, suspense, police detection and crime. For anyone who loved a good murder mystery, this was indeed the afternoon drama to watch. In most instances, you worried every week if lead attorney and crime stopper Mike Karr, his wife Nancy Pollock Karr, or daughter Laurie Ann, would vanish off the face of the earth or be murdered by a larger than life villain who was as well causing grief for Bill Marceau, the chief of police, and the very good citizens of Monticello. The romance between attorney Adam Drake, and socialite and often stalked Nicole Travis Stewart, started `The Edge of Night's' first real super couple and the dynamic twosome simply took our breaths away when they finally wedded in a handsome ceremony in the Karrs garden. It wasn't often that fans of `The Edge of Night' got treated to afternoon romance, bed-hopping and hen-peck husbandry similar to the scenery on most of the other daytime dramas...since `Edge's' important characters were simply too busy scheming about other relevant matters or solving `whodunnit' if `whodunnit' didn't kill them first.

The murder of fan favorite Adam Drake in 1977, was perhaps the show's biggest shocker.

I remember watching this show when I got home from school in the late 70's and early 80's. What stands out most in my mind was a storyline involving the character April Scott. If I recall correctly, she was pregnant and having hallucinations for weeks involving the sound of a train whistle and a shadowy man. When her hallucinations finally ended, there was a really spooky finale scene where Satan (sinister laughter, horns, and all!!!!!) appeared in a cloud of smoke on the balcony of the apartment she shared with Draper. I was terrified for days! You weren't sure whether it meant that Satan had caused her hallucinations, or was just following her around for Halloween, or what, but the fact that a soap opera would use horror movie imagery like this will always make The Edge Of Night something I look back on REALLY fondly! :-)