The Edge of Night

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.^[1] 7,420 episodes were produced, of which some 1,800 are available for syndication.


Writer Sir P. G. Wodehouse,^[2] actresses Bette Davis and Tallulah Bankhead,^[3] as well as Eleanor Roosevelt,^[3] were all reportedly devoted fans.

Episode status[edit]

Most CBS episodes of The Edge of Night no longer exist as the series was broadcast live until September 1975, shortly before the move to ABC. The network had terminated its wiping practice of shows it owned in September 1972, but Procter & Gamble continued wiping tapes until 1978. Many monochrome episodes and some color episodes of the show were kinescoped; the color episodes in this format survive in black-and-white. Forty-five episodes of the CBS era are known to exist, the best-known of which include the Christmas Day 1974 episode and a September 1975 episode depicting the attempted murder of Geraldine. Some fans also have the second episode of the series (April 3, 1956), which featured Don Hastings, John Larkin and Teal Ames. The first two years of the ABC run also followed the tape-erasure practice, which ceased in 1978 for ABC and all Procter & Gamble shows.


From August 5, 1985, to January 19, 1989, reruns aired in a daily late-night timeslot on cable's USA Network, airing episodes from June 1981 up to the 1984 series finale.


From August 2006^[13] to January 2009,^[14] Procter & Gamble made several of its classic soap operas available, a few episodes at a time, through AOL Video Service, downloadable free of charge. AOL downloads of The Edge of Night commenced with episode #6051, from July 17, 1979, and concluded with episode #6380, from November 6, 1980.