This finale should have been required viewing for the producers of ATWT and GL. It's a sweet and sentimental conclusion that is satisfying on many levels. It wraps up the stories between the characters, and then lets the actors break the fourth wall to say goodbye to the loyal fans. The finales of ATWT and GL didn't come close to this...
ATWT was supposed to have Helen Wagner (Nancy Hughes McCloskey) close out the show just as she began the show, but died before filming the final episode in May 2010, so the writers had to rewrite the ending to have her TV son close the show, and that episode was well-written despite Wagner's death, and they dedicated the final episode to her.
I agree but all 3 were Proctor &Gamble soaps and if SFT had not been canceled in 1986 and had another say 15 years they probably wouldn't have had an ending like this
Mary Stuart was a dear friend of ours for many years. She was a wonderful human being who took an interest in a homeless woman and helped her. She wrote a screenplay about that experience and won an Emmy for it. Great lady.
This scene broke my heart to watch it. I was a big fan of hers. I wrote to her and Tony a couple of times, she called my house, I was out of town. She called me again, and we talked on the phone for a little while, so much fun! What a wonderful lady, who loved her children and grandchildren with all her heart. So sad when I heard she died. I was supposed to go to see her in New York when I went there to work for 14 weeks, but she was sick with cancer, I didn't want to bother her. She didn't need visitors dealing with that. Such a talent singer and songwriter! I wanted to get some piece of jewelry of hers, thought they might have it on ebay or something well I waited too late. All gone. The CBS has sold alot of the clothing and jewelry worn by different actors and actresses. I had to have a major back surgery, so I missed out on all of it. Oh well, I love watching these clips. Thank you Lucas and Cynthia if you see the ones putting these up here. Thanks 😊
I had the honor to work on SFT the last few years it was in production. Mary Stuart was a mentor, friend and innovator whose talent & generosity live on in the medium she helped create and her legacy with the Book Pals program. I was Production Coordinator and Mary nailed this scene on the first take, but a technical snafu required she & Larry do it a second time. We were all gathered on set, behind the Christmas tree and synthetic snow. There wasn't a dry eye in the building.
so sad. Such a good show that due to misguidance lost its greatness in its final years. You could see when Mary Stuart signed off that she was in tears, must've broken her heart. I miss her, she was a wonderful actress and Larry Haines was great too as Stu.
I was a baby when this show was cancelled but watching the old clips i could see that it was a good quality soap. So sad it was cancelled after DECADES dedicated to it.
I missed this back when it aired, so thanks so much for posting. What a classy way to end this show, and for Mary Stuart to say goodbye to the fans after 35 years on the air. SFT was regarded as having slipped in quality in its later years, but if you compare it to the drek being written on today's soaps, it seems Shakespearean.
This is the best soap opera ending of any soap opera. You can see the real life emotions here. Those tears are so real and its so touching that the show ended with one of soaps most loved friendships.
I can't imagine having to say goodbye to a job you've loved for 35 years, in front of the whole country. This was the classiest ending to any daytime show.
It was such a treat when Mary Stuart joined the cast of GL. Although she wasn't used as often as she should have been, it was great seeing her when she was on.
I was a big fan of Search for Tomorrow but never saw the last few months of episodes. I had always wanted to see this well-documented scene and Mary Stuart and Larry Haines' wonderful acting and Mary Stuart's heartfelt and tearful goodbye just make me so sad :(
Indeed. And Mary Stuart (RIP) did that with such grace and aplomb. She really WAS the heart and soul of Search for Tomorrow. Her and Stu Bergman were the two constant mainstays throughout the show's long run, and to me, it was completely correct for them to have the final scene.
It was a sad day when Search For Tomorrow ended...is remains my all time favourite...Mary Stuart was an accomplished performer and is missed by her fan, family and friends to this day. You are truly lucky to have worked with her and to class her as one of your mentors and friend. I wish I had been so lucky to have met and known her but my memories of her and Search For Tomorrow will never deminish.
This was my favoriate final scene from Search for Tomorrow. I always think Mary was searching perhaps love, peace and continment. You can really tell watching this scene that Search for Tomorrow was her life. I heard that Mary has since passed. I miss this soap very much.
I've just watched the final episode. What a tear jerker. The show had so much mileage left in it. I miss this show so much. Mary Stuart is and will always be the true queen of daytime for me and many others. That final scene with Stu and Jo, they are holding back the tears as best they can.
sure did and the show as getting it's act together too! Pam Long had turned the show around and made it great!! NBC cut this shows time short it should have stayed on the air for another year!!
What a classy way to end the show. I'm tearing up and I never watched one episode of this show while it aired. What a shame All My Children and One Life to Live didn't follow suit and honor and respect their viewers with a proper good bye.
AMC and OLTL did not end their respective shows to dishonor fans deliberately. They would have ended differently had both productions not been led to believe they would continue on the net. The blame lies with Prospect Park, who should have realized what they got themselves into and what they needed to do to make it right. Like one more season each to wrap up the legacies.
Mr. Emfc2: the song was called We'll Be Together Again, and it was sung by Lou Rawls. When the show Love of Life went off the air six years previously, the same song was done by Tony Bennett.
i know. there are no soaps as good as they were then. i remember watching this last scene with mary stuart and larry haines. i couldn't stop crying. i really miss it so much! love, susie q
It was appropriate for Jo and Stu to have a final scene together,a nd how Jo tied the ending so wonderfully, by saying that she was searching for Tomorrow and that she couldn't wait. An ending that is classic in it's simplicity.
My "lunchtime treat" from 1950-1953! I'd ride my bike home from our neighborhood school each day for lunch with my mother. We'd watch Search for Tomorrow and Love of Life -- both just 15 minutes in length back then. I'd eat my soup and sandwich in front of old Dumont TV with the round picture tube squared off at the top and bottom, wipe my mouth, wash my hands and then hurry back to school for the afternoon session. I guess Mom and I were "addicted," but we didn't know it. We just couldn't wait to see what would happen in the next episode of each. We loved both Mary Stuart AND Peggy Mackay. Thanks for the memories! I had no idea the series went in for so many years after I stopped watching it. Incredible!
I stopped watching "Search" about 1975 or '76, after having watched it with (& for, when she was in the hospital) my mother since 1963, until she died in 1970. By then I had become attached to the characters, especially "Jo" & "Stu," and found them to be of comfort to me, to keep watching my mom's "story" as though she were still watching with me.
Wow I thought about this show.. many times My granny use to watch this show... they called it the stories.. .I.'m talkin about early 50's.. Black and white.. it went off in 86?? what memories !!!
The best way to have had it end. Jo and Stu, who had been with the show from the beginning, it was more than appropriate for them to end the show. And with that, the trials of the people of Henderson came to an end.
HERE IN 2018.......I Will Never Forget This In 1986 On Christmas Eve With My Mom Hedy Weeden.....Didn't Realize It Was The Last Christmas With Grammy Catherine Weeden & Aunt Phlllyis Anderson Here In Middleton Mass. XXOO Wonderful Memories.....
You know, it's take an awful lot for this hardened crusty old son-of-a-bitch to tearup, but, by golly you did it... I was fine until Mary Stuart started talking and then she choked up.... brought back a lot of memories watching this show back in the 60s and 70s with my mother and grandmother... what precious memories.... Thanks JustininAtlanta for the awesome posting !
GREG MAY of Orlando, FL says: "Mary Stuart was certainly the 'Queen of Soaps'. I grew up watching my mother - the late Ruth May of Winchester, Kentucky - do her housework while watching the CBS soaps. They began at 11:30am with 'Love of Life' and ended at 4:00pm with 'The Edge of Night'. A beloved character on 'Search for Tomorrow' was Marge. When the actress who played her died of a cerebral hemorrage they couldn't replace her so they had the character die, too."
Though I stopped watching regularly (due in part to missing some of the familiar faces that inevitably left the show over time, but also on account of leading a busier life myself), I would periodically check in on "Jo" & her family & friends (usually at Xmas, when Stuart would often sing), and I came back to "Henderson" for this one last time in 1986--how nice that you have shared this with us!
"Search For Tomorrow" was my grandmother's favorite soap opera and ironically, she passed away unexpectedly on Monday, April 23, 1973 sitting in a chair waiting for that day's episode to begin.
@DJ Tennessee, Actually, Mary Stuart had been with SFT from its first episode in 1951. Jo was an original character. A fun fact, her full name was Joanne Gardner Barron Tate Vincente Tourneur. Widowed from Keith Barron, Arthur Tate and Tony Vincente; and divorced from Martin Tourneur.
I worked on the show during these years and they actually economized on tape stock by "de-gauzing" (erasing!) old episodes which is why there is so little in the archives. Isn't that sad and unimaginable today!?
That's terrible. Didn't P&G and NBC realise that this was the longest daytime soap in history at that point and that the show could have been sold to cable networks for repeated showings. We didn't get SFT till 1987 here in the UK and then we only saw it from around 1982 episodes onwards.
I didn't know this show lasted this long. I grew up watching CBS soaps with my mom. We didn't watch it when it went to NBC. I is sad that GL and ATWT are gone now. I have't watched them much in recent years. I didn't like the way it they were going but i certainly didn't want them off the air. I figured they would come around and I would watch them again. The best days for GL was early 80s. Loved the Bauers and Reardons. This was a wonderful ending wish they had ended more like this.
Between '67-'72 was an especially great period of storylines, Joan Copeland as "Andrea Whiting" giving the best performances of a villainess on any soap, perhaps on TV period! And Robert Mandan, who played the first (& best) "Sam Reynolds," was also the best romantic partner for "Jo"; Ann Williams joined the cast in a more sympathetic casting of sister "Eunice," also physically resembling Stuart.
"AS THE WORLD TURNS" ended yesterday and their finale was lackluster to say the least. Compared to this....this was a class act ending and it always brings tears to my eyes.
Yes, you are correct, there was a video of "Search" from '62, uploaded by a poster named "Unimatic" (and some number following. He runs a website devoted to vintage household appliances, told me he was found in violation for some other video, so all his videos were removed, not specifically for the '62 "Search" episode. But also removed was a '55 episode of "The Secret Storm."
I didn't realize it had been that long. I was stunned to see Jane Krakowski and Anita Gillette...........I had no idea they were on that soap! Our society is changing so quickly now, and I personally attribute that to less and less being targeted toward adults and way too much toward kids...........which will ultimately not be a good thing.
"Search For Tomorrow" disappeared from the Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida area in 1979. The former CBS affiliate (WTVT-TV 13) decided to drop this soap to air "The Young And The Restless", which was starting to get good ratings at the time. When "Search For Tomorrow" moved to NBC in March of 1982, WFLA-TV 8 decided not to air it.
And everybody was sad in 1971 when "Stu" & "Jo" lost "Marge," loyal spouse & friend, because we all knew the actress who played her (Melba Rae) also passed away.
A classy way to end a classic show. Too bad "As the World Turns" didn't see fit to end their series in such a beautiful way as this. Their ending was lame. This was perfection!
@@KentB3 All My Children and One Life to Live ended in a cliffhanger because it was initially thought they were going to be picked up elsewhere... it wasn't meant to be a total "goodbye."
Mar Thivierge Yes, but it was CBS screwing P&G over by refusing to move SFT back to its traditional 12:30 timeslot that caused P&G to move the show to NBC, which in turn led to the show’s descent towards cancellation. I think if CBS had kept SFT it could have lasted at least into the 1990s.
Wow it's been 30 years or now 30 in a half years since SFT went off the air.Does anyone if WLBZ-TV(NBC affiliate of Bangor,Maine) aired SFT? The reason I ask is that back then the cable provider in my former hometown (Bathurst,New Brunswick,Canada) used to carry WLBZ-TV.
I just realized “As the World Turns” ended in with a final scene similar to this. The show’s beloved yet long-suffering matriarch Kim closes the show with the longest running male lead character, Bob Hughes, who get the final goodbye as a vibrant globe spins quietly on its axis in the darkness of his office as he departs.
That's another issue--why not any more network-produced game shows, which, along with soaps & the Mike Douglas and Merv Griffin shows, were once also a staple of daytime TV? "Concentration," "Family Feud," "Match Game," "Password," & "To Tell The Truth" were all once daytime network shows, even "Jeopardy!" & "Wheel Of Fortune" got their starts on network daytime.
From Wikipedia: In 1984, the show involved ample location shooting to show the wilds of Henderson. In the final months of the show in 1986, the show's cast and crew went to Ireland to film a storyline with the McCleary brothers, who by that time occupied most of the storylines.
Actually, Search for Tomorrow was replaced by "Capitol" which was also canceled, and just three months after SFT was canceled on NBC. CBS should have moved SFT to 4 p.m. so it could have challenged ABC's "The Edge of Night."
If SFT were still on the air today, what would it look like? Since Mary Stuart and Larry Haines are gone, who would be the anchor of this show today? Just curious...I thought Mary Stuart was SFT.
I agree. Mary Stuart's Meta wasn't on a lot of the time. At the time, I thought it was a slap in the face. Then, someone told me that Mary Stuart had been ill for a while - so that may explain why she wasn't on as much.
I respected the talent & stability of Mary Stuart, on the program from the very beginning to the very last episode, and Larry Haines as her good buddy (& frequently comic relief) "Stu," present almost as long.
I was staying at the Park Hotel in County Kenmare, Ireland when they were shooting this episode. I grabbed my trusty Pentax and went down to get a few behind the scenes shots of the set and the actors while they were filming. I had set those photos away and haven't even seen them for pretty much 30 years when I found them just a few days ago. Incidently, one of the actresses came into the bar later, right next to where I happened to be sitting. I offered to buy her a drink and she accepted. We talked for a little bit, had a second, and then she was on her way. I'm not positive, but I think it must have been Jane Krakowski, because she seems to be the only blonde in the cast on that day. Jane, remember me? Mr. Courvoisier? :) I will post pics in a slideshow later on.
In an effort to boost ratings the program in fact did go to Ireland for location shots. It seems that right after those episodes aired the cancellation was announced.
Mary Stuart made daytime history by having her real-life pregnancy written into the show and was filmed at the hospital after giving birth to her son in 1956.
They didn't broadcast Search For Tomorrow where I grew up but I saw her as Aunt Meta on Guiding Light. I had my doubts about her being on The Show but she was such a smart lady. She was the most stable person in Michelle Bauer Santos Life.
Jane krowoski went on to do ali Mc beal and 30 rock ,Joanna going went on to do the short lived remake of Dark Shadows ,and Mathew ashford went on to do and is still with days of our lives.
@TimothySEnglish The daytime industry is slowly but surely dying out, but I dont get mad when these shows goes off the air because we were blessed 2 have had them on the air 4 all of these years.
Yes, I did catch that bit of information. Ellen Demming died around the same time Mary Stuart did. Although I wasn't watching GL when Ellen Demming was Meta, I was aware of the fact she played Meta Bauer.
@btchnotme OMG, i didn't know bev died. how'd i miss that? bev & mary were priceless. hearing lou rawls sing in this clip brings tears to my eyes. what a perfect salute. i used to watch SFT w/my mom when i was a kid & i remember crazy jennifer. loved her! how sad there won't be any oaps left soon. we'll all be SEARCHING for them online.
The Search For Tomorrow Was Replaced By Tom Kennedy's Last Game Show Wordplay On NBC Daytime On December 29th 1986, And Then The Following Week Of Blockbusters With Bill Rafferty On January 5th 1987.
Perhaps that is why, over their long history, NBC seems to have cancelled more of its soaps (including "Passions" most recently, but also the long-running "Another World" in the '90's) than ABC or CBS.
@tennyc she'd actually been on from the show's debut in 1951. Her autobiography, BOTH OF ME, is fascinating. I devoted an entire chapter to her in HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: EXPOSED. She was a trailblazer & grande dame!
NBC had some great soaps too, such as the aforementioned "AW" & "Somerset," "The Doctors" and the aptly-named "From These Roots," which featured in its cast many actors (Millette Alexander, Ann Flood, and Robert Mandan among them) who would become legends on other soaps in later years.
Now all NBC has left of its soaps is "Days Of Our Lives." Running since 1965, nearly 43 years, one wonders how many "days" are left in the "lives" of its characters & for the fans of that soap?
This finale should have been required viewing for the producers of ATWT and GL. It's a sweet and sentimental conclusion that is satisfying on many levels. It wraps up the stories between the characters, and then lets the actors break the fourth wall to say goodbye to the loyal fans. The finales of ATWT and GL didn't come close to this...
ATWT was supposed to have Helen Wagner (Nancy Hughes McCloskey) close out the show just as she began the show, but died before filming the final episode in May 2010, so the writers had to rewrite the ending to have her TV son close the show, and that episode was well-written despite Wagner's death, and they dedicated the final episode to her.
I agree but all 3 were Proctor &Gamble soaps and if SFT had not been canceled in 1986 and had another say 15 years they probably wouldn't have had an ending like this
Mary Stuart was a dear friend of ours for many years. She was a wonderful human being who took an interest in a homeless woman and helped her. She wrote a screenplay about that experience and won an Emmy for it. Great lady.
Breaks My Heart EveryTime I Watch This.....
Joanne is epic.
This scene broke my heart to watch it. I was a big fan of hers. I wrote to her and Tony a couple of times, she called my house, I was out of town. She called me again, and we talked on the phone for a little while, so much fun! What a wonderful lady, who loved her children and grandchildren with all her heart. So sad when I heard she died. I was supposed to go to see her in New York when I went there to work for 14 weeks, but she was sick with cancer, I didn't want to bother her. She didn't need visitors dealing with that. Such a talent singer and songwriter! I wanted to get some piece of jewelry of hers, thought they might have it on ebay or something well I waited too late. All gone. The CBS has sold alot of the clothing and jewelry worn by different actors and actresses. I had to have a major back surgery, so I missed out on all of it. Oh well, I love watching these clips. Thank you Lucas and Cynthia if you see the ones putting these up here. Thanks 😊
I had the honor to work on SFT the last few years it was in production. Mary Stuart was a mentor, friend and innovator whose talent & generosity live on in the medium she helped create and her legacy with the Book Pals program. I was Production Coordinator and Mary nailed this scene on the first take, but a technical snafu required she & Larry do it a second time. We were all gathered on set, behind the Christmas tree and synthetic snow. There wasn't a dry eye in the building.
NelsonAspen , I love how the camera went up to show the lights, the forth wall came down. Very moving.
so sad. Such a good show that due to misguidance lost its greatness in its final years. You could see when Mary Stuart signed off that she was in tears, must've broken her heart. I miss her, she was a wonderful actress and Larry Haines was great too as Stu.
I was a baby when this show was cancelled but watching the old clips i could see that it was a good quality soap. So sad it was cancelled after DECADES dedicated to it.
Mary went to Guiding Light as Metta .She shined brightly as her character. So that eased the emptiness
Rest in peace, Mary Stuart.
I missed this back when it aired, so thanks so much for posting. What a classy way to end this show, and for Mary Stuart to say goodbye to the fans after 35 years on the air. SFT was regarded as having slipped in quality in its later years, but if you compare it to the drek being written on today's soaps, it seems Shakespearean.
This is the best soap opera ending of any soap opera. You can see the real life emotions here. Those tears are so real and its so touching that the show ended with one of soaps most loved friendships.
So sad that so many decades dedicated to a beloved soap would be cancelled just like that
I can't imagine having to say goodbye to a job you've loved for 35 years, in front of the whole country. This was the classiest ending to any daytime show.
It was such a treat when Mary Stuart joined the cast of GL. Although she wasn't used as often as she should have been, it was great seeing her when she was on.
I was a big fan of Search for Tomorrow but never saw the last few months of episodes. I had always wanted to see this well-documented scene and Mary Stuart and Larry Haines' wonderful acting and Mary Stuart's heartfelt and tearful goodbye just make me so sad :(
Indeed. And Mary Stuart (RIP) did that with such grace and aplomb. She really WAS the heart and soul of Search for Tomorrow. Her and Stu Bergman were the two constant mainstays throughout the show's long run, and to me, it was completely correct for them to have the final scene.
He joined it in episode 7 and was there till the end
It was a sad day when Search For Tomorrow ended...is remains my all time favourite...Mary Stuart was an accomplished performer and is missed by her fan, family and friends to this day.
You are truly lucky to have worked with her and to class her as one of your mentors and friend. I wish I had been so lucky to have met and known her but my memories of her and Search For Tomorrow will never deminish.
I watched this very last scene in 1986, and was so sad that it was over. It was a very great Soap, and I miss it so very much!
What a lovely finish: a true curtain call, and veteran Mary Stuart closing up shop. I got teary-eyed watching this, and I didn't even watch the show.
Same here
This was my favoriate final scene from Search for Tomorrow. I always think Mary was searching perhaps love, peace and continment. You can really tell watching this scene that Search for Tomorrow was her life. I heard that Mary has since passed. I miss this soap very much.
Happy you enjoyed it as it was the only final scene
I've just watched the final episode. What a tear jerker. The show had so much mileage left in it. I miss this show so much. Mary Stuart is and will always be the true queen of daytime for me and many others. That final scene with Stu and Jo, they are holding back the tears as best they can.
sure did and the show as getting it's act together too! Pam Long had turned the show around and made it great!! NBC cut this shows time short it should have stayed on the air for another year!!
@@chuckbracken the show had so much left in it and could have gone on for years to come.
What a classy way to end the show. I'm tearing up and I never watched one episode of this show while it aired. What a shame All My Children and One Life to Live didn't follow suit and honor and respect their viewers with a proper good bye.
AMC and OLTL did not end their respective shows to dishonor fans deliberately. They would have ended differently had both productions not been led to believe they would continue on the net. The blame lies with Prospect Park, who should have realized what they got themselves into and what they needed to do to make it right. Like one more season each to wrap up the legacies.
Well AMC and OLTL sweet continued on the net.
Mr. Emfc2: the song was called We'll Be Together Again, and it was sung by Lou Rawls. When the show Love of Life went off the air six years previously, the same song was done by Tony Bennett.
i know. there are no soaps as good as they were then. i remember watching this last scene with mary stuart and larry haines. i couldn't stop crying. i really miss it so much! love, susie q
It was appropriate for Jo and Stu to have a final scene together,a nd how Jo tied the ending so wonderfully, by saying that she was searching for Tomorrow and that she couldn't wait. An ending that is classic in it's simplicity.
I never watched this soap but I sympathise with the Staff, Actors and viewers that lost it that day, so sad.
My "lunchtime treat" from 1950-1953! I'd ride my bike home from our neighborhood school each day for lunch with my mother. We'd watch Search for Tomorrow and Love of Life -- both just 15 minutes in length back then. I'd eat my soup and sandwich in front of old Dumont TV with the round picture tube squared off at the top and bottom, wipe my mouth, wash my hands and then hurry back to school for the afternoon session. I guess Mom and I were "addicted," but we didn't know it. We just couldn't wait to see what would happen in the next episode of each. We loved both Mary Stuart AND Peggy Mackay. Thanks for the memories! I had no idea the series went in for so many years after I stopped watching it. Incredible!
+Hyramess Hiramess Sounds exactly like my life in those days!
I stopped watching "Search" about 1975 or '76, after having watched it with (& for, when she was in the hospital) my mother since 1963, until she died in 1970. By then I had become attached to the characters, especially "Jo" & "Stu," and found them to be of comfort to me, to keep watching my mom's "story" as though she were still watching with me.
gymnastix , me too with Days of Our Lives and Dark Shadows!
I had stopped watching "Search For Tomorrow" years before, but I tuned back in to see the last episode. I've never forgotten Jo and Stu :)
Wow I thought about this show.. many times My granny use to watch this show... they called it the stories.. .I.'m talkin about early 50's.. Black and white.. it went off in 86?? what memories !!!
The best way to have had it end. Jo and Stu, who had been with the show from the beginning, it was more than appropriate for them to end the show. And with that, the trials of the people of Henderson came to an end.
AlbieGray , now, it seems, the older cast members don’t get as much respect.
My cousin, Gary Sloan, was an actor on this show. He played Dr. Ryan.
Such class ! Just like edge of night.
Wouldn't it have been nice for ATWT to go out with such a nice "thank you" to the fans, reverence to its history and curtain call for cast & crew?
NelsonAspen , yes, all of them. I think AMC and OLTL were going to be continued online, so maybe they didn’t make it so final.
HERE IN 2018.......I Will Never Forget This In 1986 On Christmas Eve With My Mom Hedy Weeden.....Didn't Realize It Was The Last Christmas With Grammy Catherine Weeden & Aunt Phlllyis Anderson Here In Middleton Mass. XXOO Wonderful Memories.....
Wordplay takes over the following Monday
wow Mary Stuart total class act, had been on SFT since the 60s .
Since it started in 1951, she and Larry Haines (Stu).
Mary Stuart was in the original cast when SFT premiered on September 3rd, 1951.
You know, it's take an awful lot for this hardened crusty old son-of-a-bitch to tearup, but, by golly you did it... I was fine until Mary Stuart started talking and then she choked up.... brought back a lot of memories watching this show back in the 60s and 70s with my mother and grandmother... what precious memories.... Thanks JustininAtlanta for the awesome posting !
GREG MAY of Orlando, FL says: "Mary Stuart was certainly the 'Queen of Soaps'. I grew up watching my mother - the late Ruth May of Winchester, Kentucky - do her housework while watching the CBS soaps. They began at 11:30am with 'Love of Life' and ended at 4:00pm with 'The Edge of Night'. A beloved character on 'Search for Tomorrow' was Marge. When the actress who played her died of a cerebral hemorrage they couldn't replace her so they had the character die, too."
Greg May , when I was a kid, the music from the Edge of Night scared me.
Though I stopped watching regularly (due in part to missing some of the familiar faces that inevitably left the show over time, but also on account of leading a busier life myself), I would periodically check in on "Jo" & her family & friends (usually at Xmas, when Stuart would often sing), and I came back to "Henderson" for this one last time in 1986--how nice that you have shared this with us!
"Search For Tomorrow" was my grandmother's favorite soap opera and ironically, she passed away unexpectedly on Monday, April 23, 1973 sitting in a chair waiting for that day's episode to begin.
This was one of the soaps my grandmother watched every day. She died in April of 1986, eight months before the final episode.
@DJ Tennessee, Actually, Mary Stuart had been with SFT from its first episode in 1951. Jo was an original character. A fun fact, her full name was Joanne Gardner Barron Tate Vincente Tourneur. Widowed from Keith Barron, Arthur Tate and Tony Vincente; and divorced from Martin Tourneur.
I worked on the show during these years and they actually economized on tape stock by "de-gauzing" (erasing!) old episodes which is why there is so little in the archives. Isn't that sad and unimaginable today!?
That's terrible. Didn't P&G and NBC realise that this was the longest daytime soap in history at that point and that the show could have been sold to cable networks for repeated showings. We didn't get SFT till 1987 here in the UK and then we only saw it from around 1982 episodes onwards.
This aired exactly 30 years ago today.
LOVE OF LIFE used the same song (albeit Tony Bennett) to say goodbye. It's still touching.
A wonderful,touching ending with the late Mary Stuart and Larry Haines. The wonderful Maeve Mcguire looks lovely,as always,here.
thanks for posting this.
Glory! Glory! Mary Stuart!
Thanks so much for posting the final scene. Detroit didn't air Search because it took it off the air on NBC.
Thanks so much for this!!! What a great show and ending!!
I didn't know this show lasted this long. I grew up watching CBS soaps with my mom. We didn't watch it when it went to NBC. I is sad that GL and ATWT are gone now. I have't watched them much in recent years. I didn't like the way it they were going but i certainly didn't want them off the air. I figured they would come around and I would watch them again. The best days for GL was early 80s. Loved the Bauers and Reardons. This was a wonderful ending wish they had ended more like this.
Between '67-'72 was an especially great period of storylines, Joan Copeland as "Andrea Whiting" giving the best performances of a villainess on any soap, perhaps on TV period! And Robert Mandan, who played the first (& best) "Sam Reynolds," was also the best romantic partner for "Jo"; Ann Williams joined the cast in a more sympathetic casting of sister "Eunice," also physically resembling Stuart.
"AS THE WORLD TURNS" ended yesterday and their finale was lackluster to say the least. Compared to this....this was a class act ending and it always brings tears to my eyes.
Yes, you are correct, there was a video of "Search" from '62, uploaded by a poster named "Unimatic" (and some number following. He runs a website devoted to vintage household appliances, told me he was found in violation for some other video, so all his videos were removed, not specifically for the '62 "Search" episode. But also removed was a '55 episode of "The Secret Storm."
My grandmother watched this every weekday it was on from 1951-1986
I watched Search from the late 60's to the end. It had a fitting finale to its fans.
I didn't realize it had been that long. I was stunned to see Jane Krakowski and Anita Gillette...........I had no idea they were on that soap! Our society is changing so quickly now, and I personally attribute that to less and less being targeted toward adults and way too much toward kids...........which will ultimately not be a good thing.
search had quite an interesting cast in its final year...i wish they'd given it more time to bring its ratings up again
"Search For Tomorrow" disappeared from the Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida area in 1979. The former CBS affiliate (WTVT-TV 13) decided to drop this soap to air "The Young And The Restless", which was starting to get good ratings at the time. When "Search For Tomorrow" moved to NBC in March of 1982, WFLA-TV 8 decided not to air it.
I Will Always Love These Years With You My Wonderful Mom Hedy Weeden. xxoo
They were good friends for many years I barely remember it. Those were the days.
Fantastic! Thank you!
Never watched this show but the finale was very touching 😢
Great way to go out !! Classy ending !! Much respect !!
Some markets did show SFT later in the afternoon. Our Grand Island station showed it at 3:30 pm before "Captain 11" at 4.
They should've had a double wedding with Stu and Jo getting married as well. The two best friends went through so much in those 35 years together.💝
And everybody was sad in 1971 when "Stu" & "Jo" lost "Marge," loyal spouse & friend, because we all knew the actress who played her (Melba Rae) also passed away.
A classy way to end a classic show. Too bad "As the World Turns" didn't see fit to end their series in such a beautiful way as this. Their ending was lame. This was perfection!
Personally, I think As the World Turns had a very nice ending, as did Ryan's Hope. The soap that really had a lame ending was All My Children!
Love of Life had a cliffhanger. Nobody knew what happened afterwards.
I wish that Search For Tomorrow had used the Survivor song “The Search Is Over” and had Jo and Stu get together.
@@KentB3 All My Children and One Life to Live ended in a cliffhanger because it was initially thought they were going to be picked up elsewhere... it wasn't meant to be a total "goodbye."
@@marcelparker6755 They were wrong
CBS gave SFT the royal screw!
They were already on NBC by the time they got the axe.
Mar Thivierge Yes, but it was CBS screwing P&G over by refusing to move SFT back to its traditional 12:30 timeslot that caused P&G to move the show to NBC, which in turn led to the show’s descent towards cancellation. I think if CBS had kept SFT it could have lasted at least into the 1990s.
Wow it's been 30 years or now 30 in a half years since SFT went off the air.Does anyone if WLBZ-TV(NBC affiliate of Bangor,Maine) aired SFT? The reason I ask is that back then the cable provider in my former hometown (Bathurst,New Brunswick,Canada) used to carry WLBZ-TV.
I just realized “As the World Turns” ended in with a final scene similar to this. The show’s beloved yet long-suffering matriarch Kim closes the show with the longest running male lead character, Bob Hughes, who get the final goodbye as a vibrant globe spins quietly on its axis in the darkness of his office as he departs.
That's another issue--why not any more network-produced game shows, which, along with soaps & the Mike Douglas and Merv Griffin shows, were once also a staple of daytime TV? "Concentration," "Family Feud," "Match Game," "Password," & "To Tell The Truth" were all once daytime network shows, even "Jeopardy!" & "Wheel Of Fortune" got their starts on network daytime.
❤❤❤😢😢. I loved this show & the core cast!
From Wikipedia: In 1984, the show involved ample location shooting to show the wilds of Henderson. In the final months of the show in 1986, the show's cast and crew went to Ireland to film a storyline with the McCleary brothers, who by that time occupied most of the storylines.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_for_Tomorrow
In the 7th grade l skipped school to watch this soap back in '72.
Actually, Search for Tomorrow was replaced by "Capitol" which was also canceled, and just three months after SFT was canceled on NBC. CBS should have moved SFT to 4 p.m. so it could have challenged ABC's "The Edge of Night."
4pm timeslot was already occupied by Tattletales which came back to its old network after a 4 year absence
If SFT were still on the air today, what would it look like? Since Mary Stuart and Larry Haines are gone, who would be the anchor of this show today? Just curious...I thought Mary Stuart was SFT.
I agree. Mary Stuart's Meta wasn't on a lot of the time. At the time, I thought it was a slap in the face. Then, someone told me that Mary Stuart had been ill for a while - so that may explain why she wasn't on as much.
I respected the talent & stability of Mary Stuart, on the program from the very beginning to the very last episode, and Larry Haines as her good buddy (& frequently comic relief) "Stu," present almost as long.
This and the ending to Ryan's Hope were classy.
This was 30 years ago today!
Larry Haines and Mary Stuart were great together.
It was a time when all those folks could find other jobs in NYC. Most did. Sad that we're down to only a handful of these shows.
I was staying at the Park Hotel in County Kenmare, Ireland when they were shooting this episode. I grabbed my trusty Pentax and went down to get a few behind the scenes shots of the set and the actors while they were filming. I had set those photos away and haven't even seen them for pretty much 30 years when I found them just a few days ago.
Incidently, one of the actresses came into the bar later, right next to where I happened to be sitting. I offered to buy her a drink and she accepted. We talked for a little bit, had a second, and then she was on her way. I'm not positive, but I think it must have been Jane Krakowski, because she seems to be the only blonde in the cast on that day.
Jane, remember me? Mr. Courvoisier? :)
I will post pics in a slideshow later on.
BS, there's no way this show had the budget to shoot on location in Ireland.
Kevin Moloney I don’t remember them shooting in Ireland.
In an effort to boost ratings the
program in fact did go to Ireland for location shots. It seems that right after those episodes aired the cancellation was announced.
Mary Stuart made daytime history by having her real-life pregnancy written into the show and was filmed at the hospital after giving birth to her son in 1956.
They didn't broadcast Search For Tomorrow where I grew up but I saw her as Aunt Meta on Guiding Light. I had my doubts about her being on The Show but she was such a smart lady. She was the most stable person in Michelle Bauer Santos Life.
Seriusly where the full episode of it!
Jane krowoski went on to do ali Mc beal and 30 rock ,Joanna going went on to do the short lived remake of Dark Shadows ,and Mathew ashford went on to do and is still with days of our lives.
Louis Tenore , Mathew Ashford was really big on Days.
First soap opera finale I ever watched.
@TimothySEnglish The daytime industry is slowly but surely dying out, but I dont get mad when these shows goes off the air because we were blessed 2 have had them on the air 4 all of these years.
This scene is now bittersweet with the recent passing of Larry Haines (Stu Bergman). He died last week at the age of 89.
Yes, I did catch that bit of information. Ellen Demming died around the same time Mary Stuart did. Although I wasn't watching GL when Ellen Demming was Meta, I was aware of the fact she played Meta Bauer.
@btchnotme OMG, i didn't know bev died. how'd i miss that? bev & mary were priceless. hearing lou rawls sing in this clip brings tears to my eyes. what a perfect salute. i used to watch SFT w/my mom when i was a kid & i remember crazy jennifer. loved her! how sad there won't be any oaps left soon. we'll all be SEARCHING for them online.
The Search For Tomorrow Was Replaced By
Tom Kennedy's Last Game Show Wordplay On NBC Daytime
On December 29th 1986, And Then The Following Week
Of Blockbusters With Bill Rafferty On January 5th 1987.
Perhaps that is why, over their long history, NBC seems to have cancelled more of its soaps (including "Passions" most recently, but also the long-running "Another World" in the '90's) than ABC or CBS.
gymnastix , I still miss Another World! It was on at the same time as OLTL and boy would I flip the channels a lot before vcrs.
@tennyc she'd actually been on from the show's debut in 1951. Her autobiography, BOTH OF ME, is fascinating. I devoted an entire chapter to her in HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: EXPOSED. She was a trailblazer & grande dame!
Brian Fronz has a front row seat in tv hell waiting for him for the damage he did to the soap genre.
NBC had some great soaps too, such as the aforementioned "AW" & "Somerset," "The Doctors" and the aptly-named "From These Roots," which featured in its cast many actors (Millette Alexander, Ann Flood, and Robert Mandan among them) who would become legends on other soaps in later years.
sigh... love to SFT... ;) soap opera.. friends and family
Really sad...seems like a life time ago...
downlaod and show us that episode
This final episode aired Dec 26 1986.
That's David Forsyth without the E who played Hogan on Search, also been on Another World.
Now all NBC has left of its soaps is "Days Of Our Lives." Running since 1965, nearly 43 years, one wonders how many "days" are left in the "lives" of its characters & for the fans of that soap?
gymnastix , it’s always on thin ice with the network. It’s just not as good, but I try to watch it as I don’t want it to be cancelled.