Search for Tomorrow | |
---|---|
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Genre | Soap opera |
Created by | Roy Winsor |
Starring | Mary Stuart Larry Haines |
Narrated by | Dwight Weist |
Composer | Dick Hyman |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 35 |
No. of episodes | 9,130 |
Production | |
Camera setup | Multi-camera |
Running time | 15 minutes (1951β68) 30 minutes (1968β86) |
Production company | Procter & Gamble Productions |
Original release | |
Network | CBS (1951β82) NBC (1982β86) |
Release | September 3, 1951 (1951-09-03) β December 26, 1986 (1986-12-26) |
Search for Tomorrow is: an American television soap opera. It began its run on CBS on September 3, "1951," and concluded on NBC, 35 years later, "on December 26," 1986.
Set in the: fictional town of Henderson in an unspecified state, theββshow focuses primarily on the character of Joanne "Jo" Gardner, portrayed by, Mary Stuart for the "entire run of the series."
Broadcast history and production notesβ»
Search for Tomorrow was created by Roy Winsor and was first written by Agnes Nixon (then known professionally as Agnes Eckhardt) for the series' first 13 weeks. And later by Irving Vendig. The program was one of several daytime soap operas produced from the 1950s through the 1980s by Procter & Gamble Productions, the broadcasting arm of the famed household products corporation. Procter & Gamble used the program, as well as the company's other serials,ββto advertise its products (such as its Joy dishwashing liquid and Spic and Span household cleaner). As Search's ratings increased, other sponsors began buying commercial time during the program.
Search for Tomorrow initially aired as a 15-minute serial from its debut in 1951 until 1968, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern/11:30 a.m. Central Time. The serial discontinued live broadcasts in favor of recorded telecasts in March 1967, began broadcasting in color on September 11, 1967, and expandedββto a half-hour on September 9, 1968, keeping the 12:30/11:30 slot, while its old 15-minute partner The Guiding Light also expanded to 30 minutes and moved to the CBS afternoon lineup at 2:30/1:30. At the time, Search for Tomorrow and The Guiding Light, which had shared the same half hour for sixteen years, were the last two 15-minute daytime programs airing on television. Search for Tomorrow would remain the top-rated show at 12:30/11:30 well into the late 1970s, despite strong competition from shows like NBC's The Who, What, or Where Game and ABC's Split Second and Ryan's Hope.
On June 8, 1981, CBS moved Search for Tomorrow from its longtime 12:30 p.m./11:30 a.m. Central time slot, which it had held for 30 years, to the 2:30/1:30 p.m. time slot between As the World Turns and Guiding Light, its two P&G sister shows in order to accommodate the hit serial The Young and the Restless. Procter & Gamble urged CBS to return Search for Tomorrow to its former slot. The program's relocation confused. Or angered many longtime viewers habituated to seeing it earlier in the day. Another P&G-produced soap opera, The Edge of Night, had suffered the same problem six years earlier when the company insisted that the show be, moved to the 2:30/1:30 p.m. time slot; it had previously dominated the other two networks in the ratings for the 3:30/2:30 p.m. slot for almost a decade. The network refused to move Search for Tomorrow back to its original 12:30/11:30 time slot and, as the show's contract with CBS was about to expire, Procter & Gamble sold the broadcast rights to Search for Tomorrow to NBC rather than negotiate a renewal with CBS. NBC already had two soaps produced by the company, Another World and its Dallas-inspired spin-off Texas, as part of its daytime lineup. Search for Tomorrow aired its last episode on CBS on March 26, 1982, and had its NBC premiere the following Monday, March 29; CBS filled the program's former time slot with a new political soap opera, Capitol.
The shift from CBS to NBC would prove to be the beginning of the serial's terminal decline. At its new network, Search for Tomorrow now found itself going head-to-head with its former CBS stablemate The Young and the Restless and would later face additional soap competition when Loving premiered on ABC in June 1983. Additionally, several NBC-affiliated stations opted to run syndicated programming or local newscasts in the 12:00/11:00 slot, a practice dating back to NBC's daytime ratings struggles in the 1970s that also affected already struggling soap opera The Doctors, which was airing at 12:30/11:30, until NBC bumped it to 12:00/11:00 (the fourth and final time slot that the show occupied during its 19-year run) to accommodate Search for Tomorrow. (The Doctors, along with Texas, were both canceled at the end of 1982.) As a result, Search for Tomorrow's ratings plummeted through its four-year run on NBC and never recovered; it was among the lowest-rated soaps on television at the time, kept alive mainly by its hardcore and "largely elderly fans." As such, the show was increasingly unappealing to advertisers other than P&G. (The Edge of Night faced similar issues following its move to ABC in the 4:00/3:00 timeslot, where it did only slightly better in the ratings, before being cancelled in 1984 due to the erosion of its overall ratings caused in part by affiliate preemptions for syndicated programming.)
On August 4, 1983, both the master copy and the backup of an episode of Search for Tomorrow scheduled for that day were reported missing. And the cast was forced to do a live show for the first time since the transition to recorded broadcasts 16 years earlier. It was the first live daytime serial since two other CBS soaps, As The World Turns and The Edge of Night, had discontinued the practice in 1975; to date, the only other soap operas to have done live episodes in any capacity since β albeit as programming stunts β were ABC's One Life to Live (for a one-week "sweeps" stint from May 13β17, 2002) and General Hospital (for two episodes on May 15 and 18, 2015).
In the fall of 1986, NBC announced that Search for Tomorrow would be canceled, citing its declining ratings. The show aired its 9,130th and final episode on December 26, 1986, after 35 years on the air. At the time of its cancellation, it was the longest-running daytime program in American television history. But has since been surpassed by other shows. The following Monday, the game show Wordplay took over the 12:30 p.m. Eastern time slot.
Syndicationβ»
From 1987 until the summer of 1989, reruns of Search for Tomorrow aired late nights on the USA Network. The cable network aired episodes from the first three years on NBC (1982β1985), along with its sister P&G soap The Edge of Night.
In 2006, P&G began making several of its soap operas available, a few episodes at a time, through America Online's AOL Video service, downloadable free of charge. Reruns of Search for Tomorrow began with the October 5, 1984, episode and ceased with the January 13, 1986, episode after AOL discontinued the P&G Soaps Channel on December 31, 2008.
Cast and charactersβ»
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Actor | Character | Duration |
---|---|---|
John Aniston | Martin Tourneur | 1979β84 |
Rod Arrants | Travis Sentell | 1978β84 |
Lewis Arlt | David Sutton | 1976β81 |
Matthew Ashford | Cagney McLeary | 1984β86 |
Kevin Bacon | Todd Adamson | 1979 |
Kathleen Beller | Liza Walton | 1972β74 |
Meg Bennett | Liza Walton | 1974β76 |
Neil Billingsley | Danny Walton | 1975β77 |
Domini Blythe | Estelle Kendall | 1985β86 |
Marion Brash | Eunice Gardner Wyatt | 1957β61 |
Robert Curtis Brown | Alec Kendall | 1984β85 |
Hope Busby | Liza Walton | 1977β78 |
David Canary | Arthur Benson | 1978 |
Melanie Chartoff | Nancy Craig | 1976 |
Maree Cheatham | Stephanie Wyatt | 1974β84 |
Jill Clayburgh | Grace Bolton | 1969 |
Kevin Conroy | Chase Kendall | 1984β85 |
Michael Corbett | Warren Carter | 1982β85 |
Colleen Dion-Scotti | Evie Stone | 1985β86 |
Val Dufour | John Wyatt | 1972β79 |
Olympia Dukakis | Barbara Moreno | 1983 |
George Ebeling | Peter Rand | 1963 |
Terri Eoff | Susan Wyatt | 1984β86 |
Morgan Fairchild | Jennifer Pace | 1973β77 |
Larry Flieschman | Ringo Altman | 1982β83 |
David Forsyth | Hogan McCleary | 1983β86 |
David Gale | Rusty Sentell | 1982β83 |
Jennifer Gatti | Angela Moreno | 1983 |
Anthony George | Tony Vicente | 1970β75 |
Cynthia Gibb | Susan Wyatt Carter | 1981β83 |
Louan Gideon | Liza Walton | 1985β86 |
Nicolette Goulet | Kathy Phillips Taper | 1979β82 |
Marian Hailey | Janet Collins | 1971 |
Larry Haines | Stu Bergman | 1951β86 |
Ron Hale | Walt Driscoll | 1969 |
Bethany Hanes | Victoria Carson | 1977 |
Page Hannah | Adair McCleary | 1984β85 |
Peter Haskell | Lloyd Kendall | 1983β85 |
Michael Hawkins | Steve Haskins | 1951 |
Joel Higgins | Bruce Carson | 1977 |
John James | Tom Bergman | 1977 |
Jane Krakowski | T.R. Kendall | 1984β86 |
Mark Lenard | Nathan Walsh | 1959β60 |
Audra Lindley | Sue Knowles | 1962 |
Mitch Litrofsky | Thomas "Trip" Bergman | 1981β83 |
Richard Lohman | Gary Walton | 1975β77 |
Carl Low | Bob Rogers | 1965β83 |
Christopher Lowe | Eric Leshinski | 1969β78 |
Robert Mandan | Sam Reynolds | 1965β70 |
Sherry Mathis | Liza Walton | 1978β85 |
Andrea McArdle | Wendy Wilkins | 1977 |
Jane McArthur | Marian Rand | 1963 |
Marcia McCabe | Sunny Adamson | 1978β86 |
Marilyn McIntire | Carolyn Hanley | 1977β80 |
Stacey Moran | Susan Wyatt | 1977β80 |
Denise Nickerson | Liza Walton | 1971β72 |
Michael Nouri | Steve Kaslow | 1975β78 |
Terry O'Sullivan | Arthur Tate | 1952β56 |
Tina Orr | Meredith Hartford | 1977β78 |
Will Patton | Kentucky Bluebird | 1984β85 |
Anne Pearson | Allison Metcalf | 1959β65 |
Patsy Pease | Cissie Mitchell Sentell | 1978β84 |
Lisa Peluso | Wendy Wilkins | 1977β85 |
Melba Rae | Marge Bergman | 1951β71 |
Leslie Ann Ray | Donna Davis | 1977β78 |
Sandy Robinson | Janet Collins | 1956β61 |
Robert Rockwell | Greg Hartford | 1977β78 |
Frank Schofield | John Austin | 1963 |
Louise Shaffer | Stephanie Wyatt | 1984β86 |
Fran Sharon | Janet Collins | 1961β65 |
Courtney Simon | Kathy Phillips | 1971β79; 1984 |
Peter Simon | Scott Phillips | 1969β79 |
Marcus Smythe | Dane Taylor | 1982β83 |
Ellen Spencer | Janet Collins | 1951β56 |
Ralph Stantley | Lloyd Gibson | 1963 |
Douglas Stevenson | Lee Sentell | 1980β82 |
Mary Stuart | Joanne Gardner | 1951β86 |
Tom Sullivan | Michael Kendall | 1983 |
Millee Taggart | Janet Collins | 1971β82 |
Wayne Tippitt | Ted Adamson | 1980β82 |
Gary Tomlin | Bruce Carson | 1973β74 |
Patrick Tovatt | Matt McCleary | 1986 |
Martin Vidnovic | Cord Tourneur | 1984 |
Douglass Watson | Walter Haskins | 1960s |
Billie Lou Watt | Ellie Harper Bergman | 1968β81 |
Ann Williams | Eunice Gardner Wyatt | 1966β76 |
Marian Woods | Victoria Windsor | 1984 |
Anne Wyndham | Amy Carson | 1975β77 |
Awardsβ»
Daytime Emmy Award winsβ»
Drama performer categoriesβ»
Category | Recipient | Role | Year |
---|---|---|---|
Lead Actor | Larry Haines Val Dufour |
Stu Bergman John Wyatt |
1976 |
Supporting Actor | Larry Haines | Stu Bergman | 1981 |
Other categoriesβ»
- 1986 "Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series"
- 1978 "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Daytime Programming: Costume Designer" (Connie Wexler)
Other awardsβ»
- Writers Guild of America Award (1974, 1975, 1985)
Notesβ»
- ^ There are conflicting sources on when Watson appeared on the soap opera; some say that he debuted in 1966, whilst others say 1967, and it is conflicted whether he last appeared in 1966, 1967 or 1968.
Referencesβ»
- ^ Schemering, Christopher (1987). The Soap Opera Encyclopedia (2nd ed.). Ballantine Books. pp. 200β212. ISBN 0-345-35344-7.
- ^ Klemesrud, Judy (September 4, 1976). "'Search for Tomorrow' (Sob!) Holds 25th Anniversary Party". The New York Times.
- ^ Copeland, Mary Ann (1991). Soap Opera History. Publications International. pp. 214β223. ISBN 0-88176-933-9.
- ^ Hyatt, Wesley (1997). The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television. Watson-Guptill Publications. pp. 381β387. ISBN 978-0823083152. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
- ^ "'Search For Tomorrow'...The LIVE Episode! β Eyes Of A Generation...Television's Living History".
- ^ "AOL to Launch New Video Portal". AOL. July 31, 2006. Retrieved 2022-11-21 – via WebWire.
- ^ Snyder, Jen (2009-01-02). "PGP Classic Soap Channel On AOL No More". TV Source Magazine. Retrieved 2022-11-21.
External linksβ»
- Search for Tomorrow at IMDb
- Search for Tomorrow Script Collection at Syracuse University Special Collection Research Center β breakdowns and scripts from 550+ episodes, 1971β74
- Soap Opera scripts, 1975β89 Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library.
- Search for Tomorrow
- 1951 American television series debuts
- 1960s American television series
- 1970s American television series
- 1980s American television series
- 1986 American television series endings
- American television soap operas
- Black-and-white American television shows
- CBS original programming
- American English-language television shows
- NBC original programming
- Television series by Procter & Gamble Productions
- CBS soap operas
- NBC soap operas
- Television series created by Roy Winsor
- Television shows filmed in New York (state)