Our Five Daughters

Last updated
Our Five Daughters
Our Five Daughters cast 1961.jpg
Cast photo-first row from left: Michael Keene (Jim Lee-standing), Esther Ralston (Helen Lee-seated), Jacqueline Courtney (Ann Lee-seated). Top row: Patricia Allison (Barbara Lee), Iris Joyce (Marjorie Lee), Nuella Dierking (Jane Lee) and Wynne Miller (Mary Lee).
Genre soap opera
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
Running time30 minutes
Original release
NetworkNBC

Our Five Daughters is a daytime soap opera that ran on NBC from January 2 to September 28, 1962. [1] The show was written by Leonard Stadd and directed by Paul Lammers, and aired for a half-hour, five days a week, at 3:30 PM EST, right after Young Doctor Malone .

The show starred former silent film icon Esther Ralston, whose career had faded after refusing to sleep with a studio mogul; she had lost most of her money and had been working as a sales clerk before finding some acting roles here and there. [2] One of them was a brief appearance on the daytime courtroom drama The Verdict Is Yours . Verdict producer Eugene Burr liked what he saw and offered her the lead role in his new soap, Our Five Daughters.

Ralston played Helen Lee, mother of five daughters, whose husband Jim (Michael Keene) was critically injured in an accident. He became an invalid and the abrupt change caused havoc for his wife and children. The show did not gain a significant audience and was ended after several months, on the same day The Brighter Day ended its run.

The late Jacqueline Courtney, who played daughter Ann Lee, was also a popular actress on other daytime shows such as The Edge of Night , Another World , and One Life to Live . Remarkably, all five actresses playing the daughters resembled Esther Ralston in her heyday.

Wynne Miller, who played her sister, was later featured on the NBC serial Somerset as Jessica Buchanan Delaney. Janis Young, who played another of the sisters, later played a mad housekeeper on Another World .

Other performers included Janis Young, future writer Ralph Ellis, Wynne Miller, and Edward Griffith. [3]

Related Research Articles

<i>The Edge of Night</i> American television crime drama and soap opera (1956–1984)

The Edge of Night is an American mystery crime drama television series and soap opera, created by Irving Vendig and produced by Procter & Gamble Productions.

<i>As the World Turns</i> American television soap opera (1956–2010)

As the World Turns is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS for 54 years from April 2, 1956, to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips created As the World Turns as a sister show to her other soap opera Guiding Light. With 13,763 hours of cumulative narrative, As the World Turns has the longest total running time of any television show. In terms of continuous run of production, As the World Turns at 54 years holds the fourth-longest run of any daytime network soap opera on American television, surpassed only by General Hospital, Guiding Light, and Days of Our Lives. As the World Turns was produced for its first 43 years in Manhattan and in Brooklyn from 2000 until 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irna Phillips</span> American screenwriter and actress (1901–1973)

Irna Phillips was an American scriptwriter, screenwriter, casting agent and actress. She is best remembered for pioneering a format of the daytime soap opera in the United States geared specifically toward women. Phillips created, produced, and wrote several radio and television daytime serials throughout her career, including Guiding Light, As the World Turns, and Another World. She was also a mentor to several other pioneers of the American daytime soap opera, including Agnes Nixon, William J. Bell and Ted Corday.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew Ashford</span> American actor

Matthew Nile Ashford is an American actor who has played various roles on Days of Our Lives and The Bay. In 2012, he was nominated for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deidre Hall</span> American actress (born 1947)

Deidre Hall is an American actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Marlena Evans on the NBC/Peacock daytime drama Days of Our Lives, who she has played for over 45 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Seaforth Hayes</span> American actress (b. 1943)

Susan Seaforth Hayes is an American dramatic actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Julie Williams on the NBC drama Days of Our Lives, and her intermittent portrayal of Joanna Manning on the CBS daytime drama The Young and the Restless. She began playing the role of Julie on Days of Our Lives in 1968, and is the only actor to appear on the show for all seven decades it has been on the air. Seaforth Hayes still regularly appears on Days as Julie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Debbi Morgan</span> American actress

Deborah Ann Morgan is an American film and television actress. Morgan has appeared in a number of film and TV productions, and may be best known for the role of Angie Baxter–Hubbard on the ABC soap opera All My Children. Morgan was the first African American to win the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her performance as Angie in 1989. She is also known for her role as the Seer in the fourth and fifth seasons of Charmed. In film, her performance as Mozelle Batiste-Delacroix in Eve's Bayou (1997) earned critical acclaim and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female. More recently she played a recurring role as Estelle Green in the starz crime drama series Power and its spinoff Power Book II: Ghost from 2014 to 2021, and also co-starred in the Fox drama series Our Kind of People.

<i>Capitol</i> (TV series) American TV series or program

Capitol is an American soap opera which aired on CBS from March 29, 1982, to March 20, 1987, for 1,270 episodes. As its name suggests, the storyline usually revolved around the political intrigues of people whose lives are intertwined in Washington, D.C.

<i>The Brighter Day</i> American TV series or program

The Brighter Day is an American daytime soap opera which aired on CBS from January 4, 1954, to September 28, 1962. Originally created for NBC Radio by Irna Phillips in 1948, the radio and television versions ran simultaneously from 1954–1956. Set in New Hope, Wisconsin, the series revolved around Reverend Richard Dennis and his four children, Althea, Patsy, Babby and Grayling.

How to Survive a Marriage is an American soap opera which aired on the NBC television network from January 7, 1974 to April 18, 1975. The serial was created by Anne Howard Bailey, with much input from then-NBC Vice President Lin Bolen. The show's working title was From This Moment and was an in-house NBC production.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeanne Cooper</span> American actress (1928–2013)

Wilma Jeanne Cooper was an American actress, best known for her role as Katherine Chancellor on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless (1973–2013). At the time of her death, she had played Katherine for over 40 years, and her name appears on the list of longest-serving soap opera actors in the United States.

A World Apart is an American daytime drama that ran from March 30, 1970, to June 25, 1971, on the ABC television network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Esther Ralston</span> American actress (1902–1994)

Esther Ralston was an American silent film star. Her most prominent sound picture was To the Last Man in 1933.

<i>From These Roots</i> American TV series or program

From These Roots is an American soap opera that aired from June 30, 1958, to December 29, 1961. It was created and written by Frank Provo and John Pickard. The show was seen on NBC.

<i>Young Doctor Malone</i> American television series

Young Doctor Malone is an American soap opera, created by Irna Phillips, which had a long run on radio and television from 1939 to 1963. The producer was Betty Corday (1912–1987), who also produced Pepper Young's Family and later was a co-creator with husband Ted Corday of NBC Daytime's Days of Our Lives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julie Olson Williams</span> Soap opera character

Julie Olson Williams is a fictional character and member of the Horton family on the NBC daytime drama, Days of Our Lives, a long running serial about working class life in the fictional town of Salem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morning Star (TV series)</span>

Morning Star is an American daytime soap opera which aired on NBC from September 27, 1965 to July 1, 1966. The show was created by Ted Corday who would later create the daytime serial Days of Our Lives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caroline Brady</span> Soap opera character

Caroline Brady is a fictional character from the NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives, a long-running serial drama about working class life in the fictional United States town of Salem. Matriarch of the series' Brady family, the character has been continually featured since her debut. Created by writer Margaret DePriest, the role was originated by actress Peggy McCay on February 7, 1983. Jody Carter stepped into the role briefly in 1984, followed by Barbara Beckley from 1984 to 1985. McCay returned to portray Caroline from July 17, 1985, to December 5, 2003, when the character was seemingly murdered by a serial killer. McCay returned in 2004 when Caroline was found alive. She played Caroline for another 12 years; last appearing in August 2016.

<i>Days of Our Lives</i> American daytime soap opera (1965–present)

Days of Our Lives is an American television soap opera that streams on the streaming service Peacock. The soap, which aired on the American television network NBC from 1965 to 2022, is one of the longest-running scripted television programs in the world, airing nearly every weekday since November 8, 1965. A co-production of Corday Productions and Sony Pictures Television, the series was created by husband-and-wife team Ted Corday and Betty Corday. During Days of Our Lives' early years, Irna Phillips served as a story editor for the program and many of the show's earliest storylines were written by William J. Bell, who would depart the series in 1975 to focus full-time on The Young and the Restless, which he created for CBS in 1973. Following the 2007 cancellation of Passions, Days of Our Lives remained the only soap opera airing on NBC. On August 3, 2022, NBCUniversal announced that it would relocate the series exclusively to its Peacock streaming service beginning September 12 after 57 years on the network and leaving NBC as the only Big Three network without a daytime serial.

References

  1. Hyatt, Wesley (1997). The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television . Watson-Guptill Publications. p.  330. ISBN   978-0823083152 . Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  2. Schemering, Christopher (1987). The Soap Opera Encyclopedia (2nd ed.). Ballantine Books. pp. 178–179. ISBN   0-345-35344-7.
  3. Copeland, Mary Ann (1991). Soap Opera History . Publications International. p.  273. ISBN   0-88176-933-9.