The 40 Best Soap Operas Ever – Ranked

Published on February 4, 2020 By Leah Goldberg

36. The Brighter Day

CBS’s The Brighter Day ran from the 4th of January, 1954, until the 28th of September, 1962. It was specifically made for radio but spilled over to TV, and from 1954 until 1956, both versions ran at the same time. The cast included Mona Bruns, Patty Duke (mother of Sean Astin), James Noble, Lois Nettleton, Hal Holbrook, and Lanna Saunders, among others.

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The Brighter Day centered around the Dennis family. Originally, there were five Dennis children, but when the television version began, the oldest child, Liz, married and left the family. The show took place in a place called Three Rivers, but the Dennis family relocated to a new place due to a flood, called New Hope. Eventually they moved to the college town, Columbus. This was one of the few soap operas that began on radio and ended up on television.