The Young Marrieds

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The Young Marrieds
Format	Soap opera
Created by	James Elward
Starring	Susan Brown Peggy McCay Brenda Benet Susan Seaforth Hayes Charles Grodin Paul Picerni Michael Mikler
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	380
Production
Running time	30 Minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC (1964-1966)
Original run	October 5, 1964 – March 25, 1966

The Young Marrieds was an American daytime soap opera which aired on ABC from Monday, October 5, 1964, to Friday, March 25, 1966. The program was created by James Elward and written by Elward with Frances Rickett. It was produced in Hollywood by Selig Seligman through his production company Selmur Productions. Producers included Richard Dunn and Eugene Barr. The serial was directed by Frank Pacelli. Mike Lawrence was the series announcer. ^[1]

The Young Marrieds focused on the conflicts between three married couples in the suburban community of Queen's Point: Dr. Dan Garrett and his wife Susan, commercial artist Walter Reynolds and his wife Ann, and Matt and Liz Stevens, a young couple who were engaged and ready to begin their married life together.

Shortly into the soap's brief year-and-a-half run, the Stevenses were wed then written out of the storyline, which was refocused almost solely on the marital problems of the Garretts and the Reynolds. Susan Garrett struggled with the knowledge that she was the biological mother of 10 year old Jerry Karr, who had been adopted years before by Lena Gilroy, an actress. Susan wanted to gain custody of the boy, but Lena was unwilling to give him up. Meanwhile, the Garretts' neighbor Walter Reynolds saw his marriage unravel as wife Ann, his former model, embarked upon a career as manager of Halstead's, a successful local department store. Ann and Walter eventually agreed to divorce, but they secretly remained in love with one another, although circumstances continued to keep them apart.

The Young Marrieds aired immediately following General Hospital at 3:30ET/2:30 CT. Though it rated fairly well for fledgling network ABC, the serial aired directly opposite The Edge of Night, a top-rated soap opera on CBS, and failed to maintain enough of GH's lead-in audience to make it viable. The final telecast on Friday, March 25, 1966, ended with a cliffhanger that would remain forever unresolved, as a despondent Walter, having learned he would go blind from a serious illness, locked himself in his studio with a loaded gun, apparently ready to commit suicide.