With ratings as high then as the top primetime shows receive today, stars were superstars and the genre lived in a galaxy all its own.
And although one show has been off the air for 34 years, soap fans remember a time when to follow the search meant to take a trip to the fictional town of Henderson each weekday afternoon.
At the time of its cancellation on December 26, 1986, Search for Tomorrow was the longest-running TV daytime drama and its end signaled a change in the genre that really probably started two years earlier when The Edge of Night ended its 28-year-run on the airwaves.
In the ensuing two-plus decades such legendary soaps as Another World, Guiding Light, As the World Turns, All My Children and One Life to Live also came to an end, products of a changing landscape in TV, where so many available channels and the work and lifestyle habits of soap viewers resulted in lower ratings and, therefore, a loss in revenue for these once profitable daytime dramas.
However, before the mid-80s, soaps reigned supreme and right in the middle of the action on Search was Marcia McCabe, who played the long-suffering heroine, Sunny McClure Adamson, a role she created in September of 1978. She continued in the role until the lights went out on the last tomorrow.
She would go on to play other roles in various soaps over the decade following Search's demise, but it's safe to say that Sunny was her signature role and the one she holds closest to her heart.
Having done extra work on several New York-based soaps prior to snagging the role of the intrepid TV and print reporter on Search, McCabe's entry into Henderson history began following a day as an extra on SFT, when she went to see if the show had any extra work for the next week and then-executive producer Mary-Ellis Bunim, whom raised the numbers and modernized the venerable CBS soap in her eight years as EP, mentioned to McCabe that she should audition for the role of the college student who was soon to graduate and be the focal point of many of the show's most memorable storylines in the next several years.
"It was really funny because I had running under five role on the Guiding Light as a production assistant in a TV studio," McCabe said, noting that she wasn't sure she should forgo her already-scheduled job for an audition.
And her loyalty to her work almost cost the actress her role of Sunny as she was slated to work on GL on the day of a Search audition, but was encouraged to audition by a Light production assistant on the show who said, "Go for the part."
The rest is history, as McCabe nabbed the role and began her first contract soap part.
In addition to her soap extra work, McCabe had been learning the art of television on an early New York cable show called Q on View.
"They would pay me $25 dollars to go to restaurants or stores with no script interviewing people...It was fly off the seat of your pants," she said using as an example one show where she followed a person into a Steinway store and then chronicled their purchase of a piano
The spontaneity required for Q on View would definitely come in handy years later when Search, which had long since gone to taping each day's episode, would air a special live episode in August of 1983.
But, more on that later.
Once Sunny was firmly entrenched into the fabric of Henderson, the character received her first love interest in the form of Doug Stevenson's Lee Sentell character. And it's a storyline and era she fondly remembers as being one of her favorite overall times on the show.
"From a happy standpoint my favorite storyline was with Lee Sentell," she said. "We were both young and he was such a joy to work with. He was so much fun and easy to be with. As young, newly-minted soap actors, we were having the time of our lives." The Corringtons (John and Joyce who wrote the show at the time and created both characters) did a great job."
For totally different reasons, the character of Sunny's acquaintance rape by a co-worker in February of 1984 was also a acting highlight and challenge for the by-then seasoned thespian.
Told with limited commercials, the entire episode dealt with the rape and the beginning of its aftermath and would later win Headwriter Gary Tomlin a Writer's Guild of America Award for best written soap. And, an aside here, but as a fan and friend of McCabe's for over 40 years now, it should be noted that storyline should have definitely netted the actress a Daytime Emmy nomination and win, a sentiment universally shared by fans of the show and the genre.
In between the romance with Lee, the acquaintance rape and the end of the show, Sunny would have numerous love interests, though never married, a rarity in daytime drama, although it's something that McCabe thinks made the character relatable to the audience.
"There was a certain relatability the fans had to Sunny," McCabe said, "She had a good heart and was bad at love. She had a lot of interesting facets to her character, There was a real warmth to her, she was a good girl, but tough.
"When you build a character over time you have a relationship with the character and the audience has a relationship with the character, too," she added.
McCabe attributes those character traits to the longevity of her role, especially since the rest of her character's family members had one by one been written out of the show by mid 1982.
"I would have been the obvious choice to go," she said in reference to the numerous cast purges the show faced during its last five years on the air, but attributes the above-mentioned traits of her character and the loyalty of the fans to her remaining on the show.
And McCabe was enjoying her role just as much as the fans loved her performance and never thought of leaving every time her contract came up for renewal.
"I was just very content, I loved my character and loved the work," she said, adding, "I really didn't want to go to LA. I loved the people I worked with. It felt very homey there. I felt very comfortable."
In fact the only time during her tenure on Search that McCabe didn't particularly enjoy was a storyline twist that saw her character basically come unhinged when she discovered her once boyfriend and best friend were having an affair and the writers tuned Sunny into sort of a jealous shrew.
"The only time I I went into the producers office and raised my hand about Sunny was when she went after Liza trying to stab her with a pair of scissors and then they had her try to commit suicide," McCabe said, noting how totally out of character it was for Adamson to do such things and that it was basically a story that highlighted drama rather than character.
Dramatic plot points like that are actually things the actress thinks led to the demise of the soap that debuted on CBS in 1951 and staved off cancellation once before in 1982 when NBC picked it up and continued it for almost five more years.
"People like the characters and a lot of what took the show away from its center was not driven by character, but was driven by drama."
The departure of Rod Arrants as leading Search hero, Travis Sentell, in May of 1984 didn't help matters much, as the show was left trying to couple the character's wife, Liza, played by the wildly popular Sherry Mathis, with a variety of other leading men until, she too, left the series in July of 1985.
"They were so desperate to find another power couple at the expense of the characters," McCabe said in reference to pairing Mathis with at least three other men before she left the show.
"They were looking to recreate the magic she had with Travis," she added, noting that it was easy to experiment with the character because "Sherry just had chemistry with everyone."
The hiring of six executive producers in between December 1981 and the show's last air date did not help matters anyway for the then-low-rated soap.
"Too many cooks spoiled the soup," she said, "I felt the biggest problem of the last four years was that each person who came in thought that they had to reinvent the wheel."
To that end and to garner higher numbers and publicity, executive producer at the time, Joanna Lee, claimed the show had lost a videotape of an episode and there was no time to do anything but broadcast the show live, a stunt that actually did raise the numbers but came with a whole different set of challenges for the actors and crew.
"It (provided us) with a nervous excitement because there was the feeling that anything could go wrong," she said. "Your adrenaline is definitely going."
Ultimately since McCabe said so many of the cast - including herself - were theater trained actors, the live show brought an an excitement to them and all were up to the challenge.
About five months after the live show, with ratings rising for the first time since the show made the move to NBC, Lee left as executive producer and in its final two years the show hired four additional show runners, which led to the aforementioned changes that ultimately doomed the show.
Sunny did get a happy ending as the show ended, as her character discovered she was pregnant and got engaged to Bela Garody, played by Lee Godart.
It should be noted that at the time of Search's demise, McCabe was the third most-tenured performer on the show, behind only Mary Stuart who was with the show for its entire run, and Larry Haines, who joined it shortly after its debut.
While the show ended its run, it did not signal the end of McCabe's foray into daytime drama, as she would appear on four additional soaps in the next 24 years.
In Part Two of my feature on Marcia McCabe,she discusses her stints on One Life to Live, All My Children, Another World and As the World Turns and also discusses how the genre changed over the years. She will also remember some of the co-stars she worked the most closely with during her daytime career.
Also, for those who enjoyed Search, look for and join the Search for Tomorrow Memories Facebook group, where there are great posts, old photos and even some video of the show. My friend, Chad Dancer, put together this page to reminisce and remember the soap and does a great job with it.
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