The Brighter Day
Encyclopedia
The Brighter Day is an American daytime soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...

 which aired on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 from January 4, 1954 to September 28, 1962. Originally created for NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 radio by Irna Phillips
Irna Phillips
Irna Phillips was an American actress and most notably writer who created and scripted many of the first American soap operas.Phillips created radio and TV soap operas including:...

 in 1948, the radio and television versions ran simultaneously from 1954-1956. Set in New Hope, Wisconsin
New Hope, Wisconsin
New Hope is a town in Portage County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 736 at the 2000 census. The unincorporated community of Peru is located in the town.-Geography:...

, 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
Guiding Light
Guiding Light is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running drama in television and radio history, running from 1937 until 2009...

, initially had a religious theme as a radio show but dropped it by the time the series moved to television.

History

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
Flood
A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. The EU Floods directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water...

 washing out Three Rivers. Later in the run, the Dennis family moved to Columbus, established as a college town
College town
A college town or university town is a community which is dominated by its university population...

. There were five children in the radio version, but the oldest daughter, Liz (played from 1949-1954 by actress Margaret Draper
Margaret Draper
Margaret Ruth Draper was an American actress and international service worker. She 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 low Nielsen ratings
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...

 for most of its run. For most of the 1950s, it was among the lower-rated soaps, and as the show entered the 1960s, it usually ranked last. In Summer 1961, production of the series moved from New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 in an effort to save money and key characters were dropped abruptly from the storyline when their actors did not wish to relocate. In early 1962, the show moved from its traditional late-afternoon timeslot to late morning, and the ratings took even more of a dip.

In August 1962, the show made history by creating the first daytime television contract role for an African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

. The actor, Rex Ingram
Rex Ingram (actor)
Rex Ingram was an American stage, film, and television actor.-Early life and career:Born near Cairo, Illinois on the Mississippi River, Ingram's father was a steamer fireman on the riverboat Robert E. Lee...

, did not make much of an impact, and the show was cancelled one month after his debut. Among the actors who appeared on the series, the most famous alumni are Hal Holbrook
Hal Holbrook
Harold Rowe "Hal" Holbrook, Jr. is an American actor. His television roles include Abraham Lincoln in the 1976 TV series Lincoln, Hays Stowe on The Bold Ones: The Senator and Capt. Lloyd Bucher on Pueblo. He is also known for his role in the 2007 film Into the Wild, for which he was nominated for...

 (Grayling Dennis), Lois Nettleton
Lois Nettleton
Lois June Nettleton was an American actress of film, stage, and television. She was Miss Chicago of 1948 as well as a semifinalist at that year's Miss America Pageant.-Early years:...

 (Patsy Dennis Hamilton), and Patty Duke
Patty Duke
Anna Marie "Patty" Duke is an American actress of stage, film, and television. First becoming famous as a child star, winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at age 16, and later starring in her eponymous sitcom for three years, she progressed to more mature roles upon playing Neely...

(Ellen Williams Dennis).
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