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Behind “The Edge of Night”

Twenty-five minutes past two, and the small control room is empty at CBS studio #53, except for the technical director, Harold Schutzman, who is sitting in front of a complicated control board, and the associate director Joel Aronowitz, seated nearby and chatting comfortably with Harold. A few minutes later, the announcer Hal Simms takes his place in a booth in the back of the room. More people stroll in, joking, and sit down. Ann Vettel, the production assistant, settles behind a small desk, with a stopwatch and script in her hands.

Two twenty-eight, Allen Fristoe, the director, enters, taking his seat in the front row. Associate producer Bud Gowen and Assistant to the Producer Niles Goodsite arrive and sit toward the back, conversing in low, easy tones.

Two twenty-nine. Producer Erwin Nicholson casually saunters in and heads for his chair in the back row. “Thirty seconds!” Joel calls into a microphone. “Ready on the set.” In the front of the control room, several large monitors show identical commercials, in color and in black and white. “Fifteen seconds. Ready music. Can we have some quiet on the set, please?” “Ten seconds to go.” “Five seconds. Stand by.”

Two thirty. Suddenly, organ music fills the control room. The familiar city skyline flashes onto all monitors. The announcer’s voice booms loud and clear. Millions of viewers all over the country are sitting on the edge of their seats, just as they have for over 18 years. “The Edge of Night” is on the air.

Benton and Bowles still produces “Edge” and “As the World Turns” which are owned by Procter and Gamble Productions, Inc. They are the only two daytime serials that are still televised live -the rest are pre-taped days or even weeks in advance. “There are a number of advantages to live televising,” said Fred Bartholomew, B&B’s manager of daytime programming. “For instance, there is more flexibility. We can respond to the desire of the viewers. Live television is a little like the theatre. The actors and actresses, the technicians, the director all have to be on their toes and know the lines. The show cannot be redone or taped again and they know it. I think they perform better because of this.”

Considering that it takes “Edge” people only eight hours to put together a very professional 26-minute show, the performers have to be experts. The daily 40-page script must be studied and learned quickly and the performers must be meticulous in delivering the lines exactly as rehearsed and in responding to cues. A blown line destroys cues not only for fellow actors but for camera switches, and possibly for sound effects or music.

Sometimes things don’t always go according to plan during televising, and the cast and crew must be quick to recover. “A while back,” said Nick, “we had a scene in which an actor was to enter a room through a front door. Well, because the wooden door was slightly warped and had just been painted, it stuck. When the actor tried to open the door, it wouldn’t budge. The whole set was shaking with his effort. So, he finally gave up and entered through the closet door, parting the clothes and stepping into the room as if it was the most natural thing in the world.” At another time, seven pages of script were totally skipped. But so good are the actors in improvising that they were able to get most of the lines in.

There are exceptions, of course. Usually the performance runs so smoothly that it’s like a beautifully choreographed ballet. In the control room high above the soundstage, Joel Aronowitz, following both the script and the monitors, speaks into the microphone calmly, as an instructor would speak to his dancing students. “Ready to rise. Ready three.” Director Allen Fristoe, arms up in the air like a conductor, changes the camera angle with a sharp snap of his fingers. “Take three!” Downstairs on the stage, actors and cameramen do each scene with finesse, every word and move calculated, as if the action has been rehearsed for months. John Sedwick alternates weekly with Allen as director of the show.

Possibly no other dramatic medium is as demanding as a daytime serial. The time pressure is tremendous and the day’s schedule is tight and precise. Nobody straggles in late to a rehearsal or meeting -to do that would be to interrupt the flow of the whole day.

A typical day for “The Edge of Night” people begins at 8:00 in the morning in a bare rehearsal hall on the top floor of Studio 53. The characters who are to appear in that afternoon’s show sit at a long table and rehearse the day’s script with the director and producer. After about an hour, they descend to the stage, where they rehearse for a while on the sets. At 11:00, there is a break which allows time for setting hair, getting a breath of fresh air, or grabbing a bite to eat before a full run-through on the sets at 12:15.

After this run-through, the actors and actresses have one half hour to be made up and to change for the dress rehearsal. The make-up room is tiny and crowded, but make-up artist Andrew Eger, who was nominated for an Emmy award this year, works quickly and expertly. Meanwhile, others in the cast are climbing into their costumes. Doreen Ackerman, the costume designer, has selected the actresses’ wardrobes, which are furnished by New York fashion companies in exchange for credit at the end of the show. The men wear their own clothes.

Dress rehearsal begins precisely at 1:15, and while the cast and crew are taking the final kinks out of the performance, Paul Taubman, “The Edge of Night” organist, is preparing the music flourishes which add much of the suspense and mood to the action. Surrounded by a celeste, a piano, and a huge organ, he sits on a bench with earphones on his head, listening to cues and director’s signals. Paul has been with “The Edge of Night” since it began; he wrote the familiar “Edge” musical theme, which has now been taped and is played at the beginning and end of every episode.

After the dress rehearsal, finishing touches are added to make-up and wardrobe, and 45 minutes later, the show is on the air.

Nick Nicholson calls “The Edge of Night” a “suspense melodrama”, a series that deals primarily with exciting political intrigue, crime, and even the supernatural, rather than with conventional daytime serial subjects like love triangles and family entanglements. The action takes place in Monticello, a large fictional metropolis which is a short plane ride from Capitol City, the seat of the government for a nameless state. Actually, Monticello is Procter and Gamble’s home city of Cincinnati, as many people will recognize from the opening shot of the skyline.

Last year, “Edge” received an Emmy award as the best daytime serial, and few people will argue that the show deserves it, especially when considering the caliber of its fans. P.G. Wodehouse, Joan Crawford, and Bette Davis regularly tune in to “The Edge of Night” to catch the latest exciting adventures of such characters as criminal attorney Mike Karr (Forrest Compton), Chief of Police Bill Marceau (Mandel Kramer), and attorney Adam Drake (Donald May).

Henry Slesar, headwriter for “The Edge of Night,” won an Emmy award this year for his work. The main storyline is decided in meetings between Henry, the producer, and Procter and Gamble Productions. Once the story synopsis is written, Henry submits it to Nick for another approval, before breaking it down into weekly segments. Finally, the daily scripts are written with appropriate breaks for commercials, each one ending on a note of suspense so that the viewer will tune in the next day to see what happens. Henry actually writes three scripts a week, the other two being written by his associate Frank Salisbury, who resides in Los Angeles and mails his work to Henry. Then, after the daily scripts have been approved, they are mimeographed and distributed to the director, the actors, the set designer, and so on, so they can see in advance what will be needed for each show. There are always two or more storylines going on at one time in “The Edge of Night.” The “front burner” story as Nick calls it, is the main theme, but there is a “back burner story,” which is going on as well; this story is secondary, but can easily take the place of the main theme if that one wears out.

After the show is over, it’s back to the rehearsal hall for the cast, where they’ll work on the next show. It is grueling work, but fortunately, most of the actors work only a three day week since they don’t appear in all episodes.”

Many of the principal actors have been with "Edge" for a long time. Mandel Kramer (Chief Bill Marceau) has been acting in the show for 15 years, Ann Flood (Nancy Karr) 12 years, and Teri Keane (Martha Marceau) 11 years. Openings for running parts are not often available, but there is always casting for extras and bit parts according to casting director Ruth Levine, who's been casting for "Edge" for what seems like "100 years."

"Even for small parts," she said, "actors need a lot of experience. Because "Edge" is televised live, no one can make a mistake; they must have background and training in daytime serials. I often cast very talented people as extras, just so they can get the experience of being on the show. Then I know they're familiar with it when I'm looking for someone to fill a running part."

The cast and crew of "The Edge of Night," with one-third of their lives spent working on the series (260 shows a year), are like "one big happy family," Nick says. Nick, who has been with Benton&Bowles as producer of "The Edge of Night" for eight and one half years, started his showbiz career as an usher for CBS television studio audiences 12 years before that. And, after all of those years in television, Nick says he is assured of at least one avid fan -his mother , who lives in Buffalo and never misses a show. Although Nick always welcomes her suggestions about characters and storylines