a beautiful outdoor ceremony. Judson Laire, as Dr. Will Donnelly, steps out of character and addresses the audience, "There go Betsy and Joe, off to a new life. I think this is probably the happiest moment for the Donnellys and the Chernaks, the Garrisons, and the Elliotts, and the Taylors. But, it's a very sad moment for those of us actors who played those characters. I think by now most of you must know that Love Is a Many Splendored Thing is going off the air with this episode. On behalf of my fellow actors, I would like to tell you how much we enjoyed the privilege of coming into your home for these five and half years. It's not going to be easy for us; it's hard to say goodbye. But, maybe we'll live on in your memories. It now becomes my sad duty to say goodbye to you on behalf of the entire company: the cast, the crew, the production staff, the writers and the directors...all of us. Goodbye, and God bless you." Broadcast history Love Is a Many Splendored Thing owed its existence to CBS daytime head Fred Silverman, who openly favored serials over game shows. Its predecessor at 2:00 p.m. Eastern time was the original run of Password, which had run aground against NBC's serial Days of Our Lives and ABC's The Newlywed Game. However, Love Is a Many Splendored Thing struggled against its competition and could not maintain the viewers from its lead-in, the top-rated serial As the World Turns. On September 11, 1972, CBS moved Love Is a Many Splendored Thing to 3:00 p.m. ET. Procter & Gamble, which produced four of the network's serials, wanted its shows aired consecutively. CBS moved Guiding Light, which had been airing at 2:30 p.m. ET since its expansion to 30 minutes in 1968, into Love Is a Many Splendored Thing's former 2:00pm timeslot and moved The Edge of Night from its longtime 3:30 p.m. ET slot to 2:30 p.m. to complete the request; the schedules of As the World Turns, which aired at 1:30 p.m., and Search for Tomorrow, which aired at 12:30 p.m., were unaffected and the network did not program the 30 minutes between those shows. Shortly before the time change, the show's subject matter was changed from a love story to political intrigue and blackmail. Despite having maintained fairly strong ratings throughout its run,