Actor Jameson Parker was cast on-the-spot by OLTL executive producer Doris Quinlan for the role of Brad following an encounter in a New York City elevator.

[5][6][7][8] Brad (Parker) is introduced onscreen as a promising twentysomething tennis player in June 1976,[9] but a knee injury soon cuts his pro-athlete dreams short.

Brad (Fletcher onward) becomes distraught over learning his sister Sam (Julia Montgomery) suffered a serious accident, and Jenny puts their annulment on hold to console him.

[17] Ironically, with stress of Brad's constant womanizing exacerbated by finding out he raped her sister, Jenny blacks out, goes into premature labor, and unknowingly miscarries their child, Mary Vernon.

Brad soon opens and runs the eponymous Vernon Inn hotel for several years, marrying Connie O'Neill (Terry Donahue) and leaving Llanview in September 1986.

[26] The onscreen October 1979 rape storyline of ex-hooker Karen (Light) by brother-in-law Brad (Fletcher) was highly controversial, garnering acclaim and criticism for OLTL and ABC Daytime for the frank nature of the story arc and moral implications of the sexual assault of a former prostitute.