Bright Promise

Bright Promise is an American daytime soap opera that ran on NBC from September 29, 1969 to March 31, 1972.^[1]

Bright Promise
Genre	Soap opera
Created by	Frank and Doris Hursley
Written by	Larry Brody Rick Edelstein Frank and Doris Hursley
Directed by	Rick Edelstein Richard Franchot Gloria Monty
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of episodes	605
Production
Executive producers	Frank and Doris Hursley
Producers	Dick Dunn Jerry Layton
Running time	30 minutes (Approx.)
Production companies	Frandor Productions Bing Crosby Productions
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	September 29, 1969 (1969-09-29) – March 31, 1972 (1972-03-31)

Synopsis

The show revolved around students and faculty at the fictional Bancroft College, located in the community of Bancroft, somewhere in the American Midwest.^[2] The name of the show reflected the overarching theme of the bright promise that the leaders of tomorrow graduating from Bancroft would ostensibly bring. At first, the main character was College president Thomas Boswell (Dana Andrews). Later, the focus shifted from the College, to the town of Bancroft at large, and focused mainly on the Pierce and Jones families. The main character by this time was Sandra Jones, who had been a student at Bancroft College, and married herself into the wealthy Pierce family.

Bright Promise was created by the husband-and-wife writing team of Frank and Doris Hursley, who had previously created General Hospital, and was their last project prior to their retirement. Bing Crosby Productions (under the name Frandor Productions) was the packager, with assistance from Cox Broadcasting. The title and closing sequences were filmed at UCLA.

Having replaced the game show You Don't Say!, Bright Promise would give way to another serial, Return to Peyton Place, on the NBC daytime schedule; the serial had been soundly defeated in the Nielsen ratings by CBS' The Edge of Night and ABC's One Life to Live. Actress Gail Kobe, a regular on Bright Promise, would become Return's executive producer.

Cast

Original cast members included the show's star, Dana Andrews, with Susan Brown, Paul Lukather, Ruth McDevitt, Ivor Francis, Forrest Compton, Richard Eastham, Betsy Jones-Moreland, Coleen Gray, Gary Pillar, Peter Hobbs, Peter Ratray, Pat Woodell, Susannah Darrow, Cheryl Miller, and Eric James. Later additions included David Lewis, Annette O'Toole, Dabney Coleman, Marion Brash, Anne Seymour, Anthony Geary, Gail Kobe, John Considine, Philip Carey, Anne Jeffreys and Sherry Alberoni.^[3]

References

1. Schemering, Christopher (1987). The Soap Opera Encyclopedia (2nd ed.). Ballantine Books. pp. 48–49. ISBN 0-345-35344-7.
2. Hyatt, Wesley (1997). The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television. Watson-Guptill Publications. pp. 70–71. ISBN 978-0823083152. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
3. Copeland, Mary Ann (1991). Soap Opera History. Publications International. pp. 50–51. ISBN 0-88176-933-9.

External links

• Bright Promise at IMDb