The Edge of Night (U.S. Syndicated Soap Opera)

The Edge of Night is an American television mystery series/soap opera based on the original version. The original version was produced by Procter & Gamble. It debuted on CBS on April 2, 1956, and ran as a live broadcast on that network for most of its run until November 28, 1975; the series then moved to ABC, where it aired from December 1, 1975, until December 28, 1984. The original version can be seen on the syndicated block "It's Worth Seeing Again." The updated version was launched in 2014 as a weekly syndicated series produced by Lady Luck Productions in association with Procter & Gamble Entertainment. During the NAHL off-season, UPN would air repeats of The Edge of Night on their Friday Night lineup. The updated version starts off 30 years after the original version left off.

Concept
The Edge of Night, whose working title was The Edge of Darkness, premiered on April 2, 1956, as one of the first two half-hour soaps on television, the other being As the World Turns. Prior to the debuts of both shows, fifteen-minute-long shows had been the standard. Both shows aired on CBS, sponsored by Procter & Gamble.

The show was originally conceived as the daytime television version of Perry Mason, which was popular in novel and radio formats at the time. Mason's creator Erle Stanley Gardner was to create and write the show, but a last-minute tiff between him and the CBS network caused Gardner to pull his support from the idea. CBS insisted that Mason be given a love interest to placate daytime soap opera audiences, but Gardner refused to take Mason in that direction. Gardner eventually patched up his differences with CBS, and Perry Mason debuted in prime time in 1957.

In 1956, a writer from the Perry Mason radio show, Irving Vendig, created a retooled idea for daytime television—and The Edge of Night was born. "John Larkin, radio's best identified Perry Mason, was cast as the protagonist-star, initially as a detective, eventually as an attorney, in a thinly veiled copy of Perry Mason."

The updated version stayed true to the original concept, with Tuc Watkins (from One Life to Live) taking the lead role.

Setting
Like the original version, The Edge of Night is set in the fictional Midwestern city of Monticello. A frequent backdrop for the show's early scenes was a restaurant called the Ho-Hi-Ho. The state capital, however, was known generically as "Capital City"; the state in which Monticello was located had never been identified. From its beginning in 1956 until roughly 1980, and since the updated version was launched in 2014, the downtown skyline of the city of Cincinnati stood in as Monticello. Procter & Gamble, which produced the show, was based in Cincinnati.

While most soap operas centered on extended families or large hospitals that tended to be insular in their scope, The Edge of Night was probably the only daytime serial to truly capture the dynamics of a medium-sized city. Indeed, the city of Monticello—for all of its longtime friendships, age-old family vendettas, and insidiously cutthroat District Attorneys and bad cops in the proverbial pockets of white-collar mobsters—was as vital a "character" as any human being depicted on the show

Format
During most of the show's run, the show's viewers were treated to an announcer enthusiastically and energetically announcing the show's title, "Theee Edge...of Night!" Bob Dixon was the first announcer in 1956, followed by Herbert Duncan. The two voices most synonymous with the show, however, were those of Harry Kramer (1957–1972) and Hal Simms, who announced until the series ended in 1984. In the updated version, Jim Thornton (from Wheel of Fortune) is the announcer

The Edge of Night played on more artistic levels than probably any other soap of its time. It was unique among daytime soap operas in that it focused on crime, rather than domestic and romantic matters. The police, district attorneys, and medical examiners of fictional Monticello, USA, dealt with a steady onslaught of gangsters, drug dealers, blackmailers, cultists, international spies, corrupt politicians, psychopaths, and murderous debutantes, while at the same time coping with more usual soap opera problems like courtship, marriage, divorce, child custody battles, and amnesia. The show's particular focus on crime was recognized in 1980, when, in honor of its 25 years on the air, The Edge of Night was given a Special Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America. It also should be stated that The Edge of Night had more prominent male characters than most soap operas, and included genuine humor in its scripts to balance the heaviness of the storylines.