Search for Tomorrow

Search for Tomorrow
Title card, 1982–86
Genre Soap opera
Created by Roy Winsor
Starring Mary Stuart
Larry Haines
Narrated by Dwight Weist
Composer(s) Dick Hyman
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 35
No. of episodes 9,130
Production
Camera setup Multi-camera
Running time 15 minutes (1951–68)
30 minutes (1968–86)
Production company(s) Procter & Gamble Productions
Distributor Americana Entertainment (1951–82)
Release
Original network CBS (1951–82)
NBC (1982–86)
Picture format Black-and-white (1951–67)
Color (1967–86)
Audio format Monaural
Original release September 3, 1951 (1951-09-03) – 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 after 35 years on December 26, 1986.

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 thirteen weeks and later by Irving Vendig. The program was one of several packaged from the 1950s through the 1980s by Procter & Gamble Productions, the broadcasting arm of the famed household products corporation, who were also responsible for the likes of Guiding Light, As the World Turns, The Edge of Night, and Another World.

Transition to tape

Search for Tomorrow aired as a fifteen-minute serial from its debut in 1951 until 1968, at 12:30 p.m./11:30 a.m. Central Time. Procter & Gamble used the show to advertise mainly Joy dishwashing liquid and Spic and Span household cleaner. As the show's ratings increased, other sponsors began buying commercial time. Both "Joy" and "Spic and Span" continued to be the primary products Procter & Gamble advertised on the show, well into the 1960s.

The serial discontinued live broadcasts in favor of recorded telecasts in March 1967, began broadcasting in color on September 11, 1967, and expanded to 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, moved to the CBS afternoon lineup at 2:30/1:30.[1] At the time, Search for Tomorrow and The Guiding Light, which had shared the same half-hour for sixteen years, were the last two fifteen-minute soap operas airing on television. Search for Tomorrow would remain the top-rated show at 12:30/11:30 until 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.

In 1983 (by which time the show had spent more than one full year on NBC), both the master copy and the backup of an episode of Search for Tomorrow were lost, and on August 4, the cast was forced to do a live show for the first time since the transition sixteen years before (as well as the first live daytime drama since 1975). Many soap critics and daytime television insiders speculated that the live episode was most likely a stunt orchestrated by NBC and Procter & Gamble to boost the show's sagging ratings. The show aired its final episode on December 26, 1986, after 35 years on the air. At the time of its cancellation, it was the longest-running daytime television program in history. It was replaced the following Monday in its timeslot by the game show Wordplay.

Reruns

From 1987 until summer 1989, reruns aired on cable TV in late night on the USA Network. The network aired episodes from the first three years (1982-1985) of the NBC run.

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.[2] Reruns of Search for Tomorrow episodes began with the October 5, 1984 show and ceased with the January 13, 1986 episode after AOL discontinued the P&G Soaps Channel on December 31, 2008.[3]

Awards

Daytime Emmy Award wins

Drama performer categories

Category Recipient Role Year
Lead Actor Larry Haines
Val Dufour		 Stu Bergman
John Wyatt		 1976[4]
1977[5]
Supporting Actor Larry Haines Stu Bergman 1981[6]

Other categories

  • 1986 "Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series"
  • 1978 "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Daytime Programming: Costume Designer" (Connie Wexler)

Other awards

References

  1. ↑ Soaps 1968
  2. ↑ "AOL to Launch New Video Portal," WebWire.com, July 31, 2006.
  3. ↑ "PGP Classic Soap Channel," pgpclassicsoaps.com, January 1, 2009.
  4. ↑ "Daytime Emmys – 1976". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2013-02-22.
  5. ↑ "Daytime Emmys – 1977". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2013-02-22.
  6. ↑ "Daytime Emmys – 1981". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2013-02-22.
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