Bright Promise

[Mona Kane Croft]

Hiring former movie-stars into major daytime roles seemed to be a priority of NBC in the mid to late-1960s.  NBC had hired MacDonald Carey on DOOL in 1965. And on Another World, Hugh Marlowe was hired as patriarch, Jim Matthews, around 1968.  Also on AW around the same time, film actress, Ann Sheridan, was cast as Kathryn Corning.   Adding to all this, Dana Andrews role on Bright Promise, one might assume there had been significant pressure from NBC for daytime production companies to reach out to aging movie stars as possible cast members.  Although there was some of this happening on all three networks at the time, it seems to have been a larger priority at NBC.  

[Contessa Donatella]

Here is a general information post I made about Bright Promise last month on its anniversary day. 

Today is Fri., 9-29-23 and it is another important day in soap history. Bright Promise had its debut on this day in 1969. You might recall that it is one of the shows that uses Star BIlling with Dana Andrews in its opening. It was a half hour show, on NBC from 9-29-1969 to 3-31-1972. Gloria Monty was one of its directors. Gail Kobe was one of its actresses. They would both later be EPs, Monty at GH & Kobe at GL & Texas! The creators & then HWs were the Hursley husband-wife duo.

The fictional Bancroft College, situated in the town of Bancroft, someplace in the American Midwest, served as the center of the show's focus on its students and professors.

The show's title represented the main idea of the dazzling potential that Bancroft's graduating class of future leaders would ostensibly provide.

Thomas Boswell, the college president, was initially the primary character (Dana Andrews).

Subsequently, attention switched away from the College and toward the entire town of Bancroft, with a particular emphasis on the families of Pierce and Jones.

The major character at this point was Sandra Jones, a former Bancroft College student who wed into the affluent Pierce family.

Frank and Doris Hursley, a husband and wife writing duo who had previously written General Hospital, produced Bright Promise as their final work before retiring.

Cox Broadcasting provided support, and the packager was Bing Crosby Productions (doing business as Frandor Productions).

Filming for the opening and closing scenes took place at UCLA.

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. Isn't it amazing how many recognizable names were in this show?!

[Jdee43]

If Bing Crosby Productions was involved, any chance this show might still exist? They found Game 7 of the 1960 World Series in Bing Crosby's cellar. Maybe if they looked, they'd find some Bright Promise too? Maybe someone should contact Retro TV..

[jam6242]

Can't remember where I saw it, but I remember reading that Bright Promise was preserved. 

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Edited October 7, 2023 by jam6242

[jam6242]

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[Avatar610]

"Bright Promise" exists in full as it was made by Bing Crosby Productions, whose holdings are now part of CBS/Paramount.  The show is available for syndication like DS and DRS, but amazingly no takers so far.  

[Mona Kane Croft]

Interesting.  I'm surprised RetroTV hasn't jumped on this, since they had some success with The Doctors, and about four-years ago were serious about getting Edge of Night.  Maybe Paramount's syndication costs for Bright Promise are too expensive, or maybe BP is bundled with other shows that RetroTV is not interested in airing.  

Paramount could always decide to stream BP on Paramount+.  Wishful thinking??

 

[Jdee43]

I hope this is true! Do you have a source for this? Bright Promise is not listed in the CBS Syndication Bible

https://synbible.cbstvd.com/index_series

Edited April 26 by Jdee43

[Avatar610]

I checked that link and some shows are missing, most notably Dark Shadows, which is syndicated through CBS/Paramount!  

It's frustrating that the show has yet to be syndicated, especially considering the great links between it and General Hospital!  Both shows were created by Frank and Doris Hursley, and had Gloria Monty working behind the scenes (on BP she was a director).  Also, actors in common included Tony Geary, Susan Brown, David Lewis, Anne Jeffeys, and Lesley Woods.

[SoapDope]

I'm curious to see scenes of the character Tony Geary played after having read about it. I imagine him camping it up like everything else he has played. He appeared on All In The Family and The Partridge Family around the time he was on Bright Promise.

John Considine mentioned in an interview that he smoked some pot and unexpectedly was called in to do a scene at the last minute. He said he got a sexual phrase stuck in his brain while trying to do his lines and he wanted blurt it out. I would l love to see how that train wreck scene turned out....LOL

[danfling]

Actor Dabney Coleman (Dr. Tracy Graham) has passed away.

 

Dabney Coleman, the bad boss of ‘9 to 5’ and ‘Yellowstone’ guest star, dies at 92

 

Emmy winner Dabney Coleman died Thursday afternoon. 

(Julie Markes / Associated Press)

By Nardine SaadStaff Writer 

May 17, 2024 2:52 PM PT

 

Dabney Coleman, the beloved character actor who famously played the dastardly cad overseeing Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton in the movie “9 to 5,” has died. He was 92.

Coleman’s death was confirmed by his daughter Quincy Coleman who said he died “peacefully and exquisitely” at home Thursday afternoon.

“My father crafted his time here on Earth with a curious mind, a generous heart and a soul on fire with passion, desire and humor that tickled the funny bone of humanity,” she said in a statement obtained by The Times. “As he lived, he moved through this final act of his life with elegance, excellence and mastery.

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“A teacher, a hero and a king, Dabney Coleman is a gift and blessing in life and in death as his spirit will shine through his work, his loved ones and his legacy … eternally.”

No cause of death was given.

The actor, who also starred in the TV series “The Guardian” and “Boardwalk Empire” and had a guest turn as John Dutton Sr. in “Yellowstone,” was nominated for six Emmy Awards. He won in 1987 for the TV movie “Sworn to Silence.” He also starred in the films “Tootsie,” “On Golden Pond,” “War Games,” “The Beverly Hillbillies” and “Where the Heart Is.”

“I like to say things funny, not say funny things. There is more acting involved than just saying that supposedly funny line that a lot of sitcoms rely on. I don’t want to do jokes,” the actor told The Times in 1991 when he gained a reputation as the king of TV curmudgeons in the unconventional TV comedies “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” “Buffalo Bill” and “The Slap Maxwell Story.”

 

“I lean toward mean,” Coleman, who was in his late 50s at the time, said. “I like that. It’s fun and it will never cease to be fun because you can’t do that in your real life. At least you can’t get away with it.”

 

Born on Jan. 3, 1932, in Austin, Texas, to Melvin Randolph Coleman and Mary Wharton, the actor was the youngest of four children and was raised by his mother after his father died of pneumonia when Coleman was 4. He grew up in Corpus Christi.

With a background as eclectic as his characters, Coleman studied at the Virginia Military Institute and served in the U.S. Army in Europe in 1953 and, as an avid player, played for the U.S. Army tennis team while posted there for two years

He continued his education at the University of Texas, where he studied law and met his first wife, Ann Harrell. Through her, he met actor Zachary Scott, who inspired him to drop out of college and pursue acting, a career he admits he came to “late in life.” Coleman and Harrell married in 1957 and divorced in 1959.

Coleman and his second wife, Jean Hale, married in 1961. They traveled to Los Angeles where he began regularly appearing on television in shows such as “Naked City” and “The Outer Limits.”

In the 1970s, he clinched notable parts on “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” and in the feature films “Downhill Racer” and “The Towering Inferno.” But his career as a humorous cad took off in 1980 when he landed the part of the “sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot” Franklin Hart Jr. in Colin Higgins’ radical feminist comedy, “9 to 5.” Coleman said he always had “more fun playing bad guys” and relished the “rottenness” of his chauvinistic character.

“Any amount of rottenness he wants to display is perfect for this character because he has no redeeming qualities at all,” he said in a 1980 interview. “He is a bad person but that’s the fun of it but also it’s why anyone who would take that seriously and say, ‘Well that is not what all male bosses are like,’ is missing the point. They missed what we’re trying to do, which is trying to make a funny movie.”

Looking back at his role in the film, Coleman was struck to be starring amid “these three icons,” he said in Brian Beasley’s 2017 documentary “Not Such a Bad Guy: Conversations With Dabney Coleman.”

He played similar roles in “Modern Problems” and “Tootsie” and took on more serious roles in “On Golden Pond” and “Cloak and Dagger.” On television, he also starred in the acclaimed but short-lived series “Buffalo Bill” in the early 1980s and earned a Golden Globe for his role in the late 1980s comedy “The Slap Maxwell Story.”

 

Coleman told The Times that he took a role in the comedy series “Drexell’s Class” in 1991 to gain visibility that he thought could land him significant parts in feature films. At the time, he wanted to work with filmmakers such as Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese. He got his wish in 2010 when he appeared in the first two seasons of HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire,” which was executive-produced by Scorsese. He played Commodore Louis Kaestner, a mentor to Steve Buscemi’s Enoch “Nucky” Thompson in the mob drama.

The actor also had a memorable guest turn on the hit Kevin Costner drama “Yellowstone,” appearing in the Season 2 finale as Costner’s father in the final moments of his life. The role was his last onscreen credit.

Coleman is survived by children Meghan, Kelly, Randy and Quincy Coleman and grandchildren Hale and Gabe Torrance, Luie Freundl, and Kai and Coleman Biancaniello, his daughter’s statement said.

[Xanthe]

I was discussing Dabney Coleman's death with my mother and although she does not remember Bright Promise she said she had a vivid recollection of a scene where Dabney Coleman was kissing a woman and she made a comment about wanting to come up for air and he took offense. Any idea who the woman could have been and what the relationship between the characters was?

[te.]

I guess they're not listing their daytime shows there? In general, most aren't interested in syndicating daytime soaps - Dark Shadows is an outlier. Plus it probably hasn't been digitally transferred and isn't really a brand name...

[Contessa Donatella]

It's one of the mere handful of soaps to feature star billing.

[dc11786]

From what's been made available in soap books, Dabney Coleman's Dr. Tracey Graham was the end run love interest of Susan Brown's Martha Ferguson. They even got married in the final episode after Martha was released from prison when it was suspected she had murdered Sylvia Bancroft, the biological mother of Martha's adopted son David Lockhart (Tony Geary).