The Edge of Night 1972 Opening Theme

[Isotec1]

although the networks are canceling the soaps why not they rerun these classic episodes so the younger generations can see them and those who grew up watching them can relive the memories.Please networks,dump the reality TV shows.

[whatanightmare1]

I used to drive my mom nuts playing those piano chords when something "not-so-good" would happen....Mom burned the roast...DUN..dun duhhhn...Bad news phone call, same thing. I finally grew into a compassionate person around age 23

[sneeyize45]

@whatanightmare1 And stopped playing the EON theme on the organ? LMAO! (At your story of course.)

[whatanightmare1]

@sneeyize45 LOL...yes, I stopped and actually learned to sympathize with folks, instead of playing dramatic chords and having fun at their expense :~) I now have a teenaged daughter and it gets really tempting at times.

[sneeyize45]

@whatanightmare1 Someday for your teenage daughter you will live out your Serena Farraday/Josie split personality fantasy and start playing the EON chords on the organ? LMAO!

[tubeeorrnottubee]

Boy, do I remember thiss....ssceeaaarrrryyyy showww!!!!

[orbit14915]

I am grateful that we have these little snippets; what unbelievable memories those few bars of music bring back. I so wish that more of Harry Kramer as the announcer were available. He was the BEST

[calvintoronto]

This may have been answered elsewhere in the comments but.....What is the city being shown?

[saynotoursoap]

@calvintoronto The skyline is Cincinnati, Ohio, and the clip was filmed in the late 60's.

[Sheri451]

If I were a small child in 1972, That would have scared me out of my wits!

[ccie12933]

@Sheri451 I was, and it did. : )

[christheone8773]

@Sheri451 I was 8 years old in 1972, and trust me, it scared ME outta my wits, especially if it was a rainy day outside!

[Sheri451]

@christheone8773 I was nine then.

[christheone8773]

WOW, how I remember this opening - this soap was one of my late mother's favorites - it was the last soap opera of the day too -

[orbit14915]

I used to know the ORIGINAL bank name of the tallest building....it was something like central trust or midwest trust. does anyone remember/know? thanks

[gatorman295]

@orbit14915 Central Trust.

[woohooboy]

"The Edge of Night" along with "As The World Turns" were among the last daytime dramas that were broadcast live. By the early 1970's, many soaps have begun the process of being pre-recorded in advance.....

1972 was also the turning point for "The Edge of Night" when CBS switched it to an earlier timeslot which proved disastrous. The show went from the being one of the highest rated soaps and tumbled almost to the bottom of the ratings where it would remain until it's cancellation.....

[OceanKingNY]

@woohooboy Yes, I remember that time-slot change. "Edge" had aired at 3:30, the last soap of the day, which allowed it to have a large male audience as men arrived home early from work/school. Then CBS moved it back to 2:30, the middle of the afternoon, which was an odd time for a show called "The Edge of Night." Also, the writing went downhill at this time as Henry Slesar was writing two soaps at once. "Edge" never recovered, even after it moved to ABC and got a 4:00 time-slot.

[publicitypunk]

When I was a kid I used to run home from school to watch EON while my friends were watching "Dark Shadows" on ABC. One summer I was riding in the car with my cousin, Miriam Lee on the way to Cincinnati on I-75. When I saw the skyline of Cincinnati I screamed, "Look! The Edge of Night!" She always throught I was nuts.

[skingerskanger]

at least the buildings don't become silhouetted like in the 1980 version (shudder) right when that spooky music plays and the logo moves to the TOP of the screen where u can see the whole skyline in all it spooky glory...!!!!!

[SoapsGoldenAge]

this is great, but my heart lies with the 77-80 theme. The haunting melody, the vocals at the end followed by regular theme (SFT had a similiar setup back then)

Seems as though where harmony, is hard to find. Always on my mind. Frustrated days, hands without sight, the edge of night, half dark, half light, as we watch our heart. Trying to hold the tenderness, that we once ... I probably got it wrong, from memory, but like a game of telephone, it's what I heard

[soap1919jt]

@SoapsGoldenAge I'm with you 100% here, my friend. I loved the 77-80 theme, which interestingly enough, began with the original color visuals (after Edge moved to ABC), and carried over to next of visuals.

[msdonna1962]

EON was a soap that used to frighten me as a kid. Watching these old clips bring back alot of memories. The old soaps can run circles around some of the crap the current line-up airs.

[Sheri451]

That used to scare me too when I was little. It sounded like a horror movie beginning.

[Duck8107]

@Sheri451 That's so true! It used to scare the crap out of me when I was a kid; that and the opening of Dark Shadows!

[tomk773]

I remember when this went into syndication..

[brooke050870]

My grandma used to watch this in the early 1970s, when I was a very young toddler. The music and the announcer's voice scared the crap out of me, and even in the later 1970s, the bit of the newer song that they would play before commercials scared me too. I wouldn't watch/listen to it alone.

[5171967cafk]

Seemed more like a horror movie intro.........I remember it well from back then.

[GypsyFairy69]

Kind of spooky.

[lennomenno]

Thanks for sharing..I was looking for this specific EON Intro...I was 8 years old when this was on TV...Those 16 seconds makes me feel like I'm a kid again in the living room with my mom ..It's almost like time travel.. !

[JohnnyNW]

mmmmmmm, opening sounds a tad like Warsaw Concerto!

[shadowylie]

@JohnnyNW it definately does have that piano concerto sound, but that was a big way of being forceflly dramatic (or melodrmatic) in the soaps and films. very cool!

[wesinalabama]

"presented live".....in 1972? I thought all daytime went to video in the early-mid 60's.

Shirley MacL won the "SourApple" award several times by the people who put on bookseller tours for celebs. Apparently not a nice lady. Perhaps better in the next life or her last life?

[Supremes59]

The Edge of Night and As the World Turns were live until 1975.

[disabled1955]

there was a time when most shows were live, and the minority was those that were recorded, and they got the designation 'the preceding program was pre-recorded'..then the worm turned, and at some point, ATWT and EON were the only live shows left, and were specified as such..we also heard 'a portion of this program was recorded..in late 1975, when EON moved to ABC and ATWT expanded to an hour, marking the end of any live shows in daytime...

[soap1919jt]

@disabled1955 Count Search for Tomorrow as well, here. The announcer would say "Some or all of today's CBS television network program was recorded earlier in the day, for broadcast in this time zone." This announcement was used mostly for the west coast, and was used for both Search for Tomorrow and Edge, before Edge moved to ABC.

[disabled1955]

@soap1919jt for some reason, at the end of 1977, this 'some or all...' disappeared and SFT's opening went uninterrupted..i also noticed a change in the sound quality of all network shows (daytime and prime time)..i assume 'recorded earlier in the day' meant during their east coast airings 'for broadcast in this time zone'..there may have been a connection between the change in sound quality and the dropping of this voice over with how shows were being fed to the west coast...

[DJRakow]

Did you know that Actress/Author Shirley MacLaine was a Fan of the Daytime Crime Soap The Edge Of Night.

In fact I saw MacLaine in the newly recent Movie Valentine's Day playing the role of Estelle Edison's Grandmother.

[GOPMom]

This music, combined with the name of the show, really scared me! But listening and seeing it now, I feel like I'm sitting in my grandmother's living room, on the floor in front of the couch (the adults sat on the couch and chairs, children on the carpet), watching on the big rectangular floor-model TV. Awesome memory!

[pabc]

WOW!! I remember coming home and my grandmother would be glued to the TV with this music playing!

[ChrisC1]

Does anyone remember the stories with "Cookie"?

[soap1919jt]

@ChrisC1 Yes, I remember some of them.

[softwater88]

Today is Mon Dec 28, 2009 the 25th anniversay of the last episode of The Edge Of Night . . . . :-(

[Myra1959]

I love that jingle. I remember the scene so well. It is still fasinating.

[Myra1959]

I love nostaglia. I grew with that jingle. It sounds scary to me today.

[softwater88]

@Myra1959 This opening theme used to scare me as a kid, it made me jump. Still love it though.

[Myra1959]

The opening them is scaring me now than it did when I was a kid. It scares me so much that I refuse to listen to it just beford turning out the lights to go to bed. But I still love the opening and the closing theme.

[4021971]

The best soap ever, until ABC made the show all crazy and weird.

[DJRakow]

I Agree 100%.

[softwater88]

@4021971 Yeah, ABC didn't do much to keep this soap on the air either. I guess ABC wanted to spend all their funds on their beloved General Hospital . . . remember the Luke & Laura wedding in 1981. Not to mention All My Children, and One Life To Live.

[Myra1959]

I stopped watching a few months after the show's move to ABC. My favorites were from the 1960s and 1970s.

I grew up when Laurence Hugo (2nd Mike Karr) was the star of the show. This man fascinates me. I also like Adam Drake. The Stephanie Martin story was the most memorable for me as well as the Serena/Josie stories.

[soap1919jt]

@4021971 I agree, too!

[skingerskanger]

I agree with Albie G...and I didn't care much for the 1980 opening when I was little either..

[softwater88]

@skingerskanger I actually loved the 1980 opening when it debuted. I was a teenager. It was way cool. I totally hated the opening sequence that debuted in Sep 1983. After I saw that new opening sequence I thought, this is the end of this soap. And it was.

[joninindiana]

Does anybody remember a story line in the early 70's about a man named "Jake" who hid in a secret room in the basement of a judge's house? The poor judges wife swore something was going on, but nobody believed her. I can still remember when they found the secret room.

[gymnastix]

Although Hal Simms was the announcer who delivered the really elongated voice-over, "The Ed-g-g-g-ge . . . of Night!" Simms succeeded Kramer in 1972.

Simms (along with Lee Vines) had also been an announcer on such Goodson-Todman panel game programs as "To Tell The Truth" and "What's My Line?" before Johnny Olson became the G-T mainstay announcer.

[gymnastix]

And as these were all CBS-aired affairs, no doubt that's why Simms got the gigs; although Ken Roberts was the voice-man for "Love Of Life" and "The Secret Storm" for most of their long runs, as well the CBS Sunday religious program, "Lamp Unto My Feet."

[yearinyale]

I read where Hal Simms was considered for the announcer on the Tonight Show but lost out to Ed McMahon

[pawt1963]

Not quite. Simms was Carson's first choice for announcer. However, when Carson took over the Tonight Show in 1962 it was still being filmed in New York. Simms was living in Los Angeles and didn't want to relocate. McMahon was then offered the job.

[BauerBro]

Wow, what memories this brings back. This is the dramatic opening theme I remember hearing when I watched the creepy Jonah Lockwood serial killer storyline in 1971. That remains one of the most suspenseful stories I have ever seen on TV. And sadly, since the show was done live then, probably very few (if any) of those episodes survive.

[staytunedfor]

This is the open I remember and love ... used to scare the hell out of me as a kid but I watched anyway.

[AlbieGray]

You know it. And I can sympathize! It also scared the bejeebers out of me too!

AlbieGray

[Chicago10281]

@AlbieGray This was kinda frightening, wasn't it? What was so scary about it? Harry Kramer's announcing voice? Paul Taubman's music? The Cincinnati skyline?

[AlbieGray]

@Chicago10281 When it scared me, I was about three years old, that was why it scared me so. It doesn't so much now, but back then, YOW!

[brooke050870]

@Chicago10281 All of it! The music, the way the sky turned black, and Harry Kramer's voice! As a toddler, I used to go hide whenever I heard/saw it on TV.

[soap1919jt]

@staytunedfor lol...It used to spook me, too...especially the original opening, where the Edge logo would zoom rapidly from over the Cincinnati skyline. It looked as though it was going to jump out of the screen.

[TheWhatsinaname]

@staytunedfor I agree it was kind of frightening, even for a slightly older 8 year old. But yeah, I watched anyway -- hard not to watch Edge if you were home when it was on -- it was certainly the most fast paced soaps, with a lot of good and interesting mysteries in terms of storyline, in that era. Other soaps would catch up to that by the next decade.

[alijn7]

@staytunedfor The Edge of Night Theme song used to scare the Hell out of me also but I didnt have a choice but to watch because I was too young to change the channel. It sounded more like music for a funeral lol.

[blklthrtn]

@staytunedfor

I thought it was just me that was terrified by the show title card. We should all sue CBS for giving all of us PTSD

[kohstamojahn]

@staytunedfor HELLZ YAH! this was spooky!

[soap1919jt]

@staytunedfor lol . . . this, along with The Secret Storm both scared the hell outta me, too. I think a lot of kids were spooked by Edge's opening back in the day. In fact, it was my fear of both that sparked my interest in soap opera themes and visuals.

[a59616]

@staytunedfor I'll say especially with the title coming right out straight at you!

[jonathanbarber0123]

When I was a little boy, I wrote Paul Taubman and he sent me a copy of the sheet music he used when he wrote this mysterious theme. I still have it. I probably should try to sell it on Ebay!!!

[Chicago10281]

I remember Harry Kramer and this here 1972 opening! The Cincinnati skyline, the Brent Spence bridge!

[lno2k6]

That's from the 1971-1972 season before the next season when Hal Simms took over until at least 1978.

[DJRakow]

If you were living in Philadelphia,PA during the 1960's-early 1970's and You got off Shift at 3:00PM you would rush home so You can be able to catch The Edge Of Night at 3:30PM on then WCAU-TV Ch. 10 when CBS Owned that TV Station.

[geoandscot]

Thank You!!!!! Geo.