35-YEAR RUN ENDS FRIDAY : THE FINAL CHRISTMAS FOR ‘TOMORROW’

In the final story line for “Search for Tomorrow,” lead character Joanne Tourneur dreams of Christmas future.

“She goes about finding tomorrow,” said Mary Stuart, the actress who has played Jo since the soap opera premiered 35 years ago.

The last episode of “Search for Tomorrow” airs Friday, the day after Christmas. The show made its debut Sept. 3, 1951, making it the longest-running daytime drama on television. NBC announced the cancellation last month and will replace the soap opera with a new game show, “World Play.”

Joel Mason has been the show’s makeup artist for 25 years. “I cried at first. But I’ve gotten over that,” he said. “We had big stars on the show at one time. It was like one big family. And now our family’s gone.”

The final day of shooting was Dec. 15. A week earlier, the cameras filmed characters Jo and Stu as they hung ornaments on a Christmas tree while “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” played on the audio system.

Later, in Stuart’s dressing room, she and co-star Larry Haines tried gamely to talk about the end of their career-long roles without giving in to emotion.

Haines joined the show two months after Stuart.

“This is very hard for Larry and me, all of this,” Stuart said. “The tears are right here now, all the time--not just because we’re being canceled, but because the emotion of all the Christmases is sort of right there. You know, happy tears are just as emotional as sad ones.”

“Well, listen, 35 years is a big chunk of your life,” Haines said.

“I was just thinking this morning,” Stuart said. “That’s what made me cry, thinking of the Christmas with Joel Higgins. Well, let me tell you, those were wonderful! We played guitars together and sang harmony.”

Higgins, who more recently played the father on the sitcom “Silver Spoons,” is one of many actors who got their start on “Search for Tomorrow,” then went on to film or television stardom. Among the others are Susan Sarandon, Morgan Fairchild, Robby Benson, Don Knotts, Jill Clayburgh, Lee Grant, Kevin Kline, Michael Nouri, Trish van Devere, Sandy Duncan, Barbara Babcock, Kevin Bacon, George Maharis, Wayne Rogers, Hal Linden and Robert Mandan.

“Search for Tomorrow” was a top-rated soap opera for its first 25 years on CBS. But its ratings eventually declined, and CBS canceled it in 1982. NBC picked it up, but the ratings continued to sink.

“When we switched networks, a lot of people were not aware that we were going from CBS to NBC. They thought we were off the air,” Haines said.

Stuart said that there were numerous executive producers and that “every one brought in their own cast of characters, their own writers. We were a totally different show every six months.”

Haines credited the longtime appeal of the show, however, to “basically believable characters that people kind of took to.”

“But we became a big adventure, glamour series--and we’re history,” said Stuart.

“That’s what ruined it,” Haines agreed. “Soap opera is a story. It should be a continuing story, rather than disoriented, meaningless adventures.”

“Then they have to keep topping themselves,” Stuart complained. “They get one adventure, then the next one has to be more horrendous. It gets ridiculous. Why, I’ve been kidnapped three times in two years! I mean, for an average lady, that’s kind of a lot.”

Haines, a stage actor, said he had been approached by two other soap operas but doesn’t know if he wants to keep getting up at 4:30 in the morning.

Stuart has written a play and plans to go to California to “meet some folks.” She said she wasn’t sure how she’d adjust when the show actually ended.

“My family is bracing for it more than I am,” she said. “I think they’re expecting me to totally dissolve. Well, everybody thought I was going to dissolve here when they told me it was canceled. And I went right back to work and shot four scenes, then went home and went to a party.”