| The Young Marrieds | |
|---|---|
| Format | Soap opera |
| Created by | James Elward |
| Written by | James Elward Frances Rickett John Pascal Francine Pascal |
| Starring | Susan Brown Peggy McCay Brenda Benet Susan Seaforth Hayes Charles Grodin Paul Picerni Michael Mikler |
| Country of origin | USA |
| No. of episodes | 380 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Selmur Productions |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ABC |
| Original run | October 5, 1964 – March 25, 1966 |
The Young Marrieds is an American daytime soap opera which aired on ABC from October 5, 1964, to March 25, 1966.
The program was created by James Elward and written by Elward with Frances Rickett. Authors John Pascal and Francine Pascal also wrote for the series. 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]
Contents |
The Young Marrieds focused on the conflicts between three married couples in the suburban community of Queen's Point. (Queen's Point would later be retroactively revealed to be a suburb of an unnamed city; later revealed to be Port Charles, the setting of General Hospital) Dr. Dan Garrett and his wife Susan Garrett, commercial artist Walter Reynolds and his wife Ann Reynolds, and Matt Stevens 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 ABC Daytime, the serial aired directly opposite The Edge of Night, a top-rated soap opera on CBS, and failed to maintain enough of General Hospital's lead-in audience to make it viable. The final telecast on 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.
Dick Dunn
Paul Nickell
James Elward (Head Writer for the first 10 weeks)
John D. Hess
Frances Rickett