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Last Friday marked the end of an era—a very long era—with the final episode of the world’s longest running soap opera and continuous story, Guiding Light. The CBS show closed after 72 years and 15,762 episodes, garnering 39 Daytime Emmys for the show itself and 30 more for the actors and actresses. Plus it launched the careers of the likes of Kevin Bacon, Calista Flockhart, Hayden Panettiere and James Earl Jones.
Guiding Light began shining in 1937, the brainchild of erstwhile Hollywood actress and successful radio actress Irna Phillips. Phillips was already an established name in the soap game, having virtually invented the genre of melodramas involving ensemble casts in increasingly bizarre circumstances. It was Phillips who pioneered the whole idea of an open-ended serialized format and the cliffhangers, and dictated that the more dramatic bits be punctuated by thudding organ music. (The descriptor, “soap opera,” came after major cleaning product and hygiene companies like Proctor & Gamble began sponsoring the tortured melodramas.)
Set in the fictional Midwestern town of Springfield, Guiding Light began as a 15-minute radio show on NBC, centering on a widowed small-town pastor and the trials and tribulations of his flock. The titular “guiding light” referred to the lamp the pastor would leave on in his window, a beacon of hope in troubled times. GL was one of the first soaps to boast “ripped from the headlines” plotlines—early on in her career, Phillips would write to the heads of charities like the Red Cross and Child Welfare, determine the major issues those groups were facing, and then fashion them into melodramatic story arcs. (GL would also help highlight the plight of another, oft overlooked group of people—those who have returned from the dead, typically after a fiery car crash, at just the right moment).
In 1941, sponsor Proctor & Gamble cancelled the show, prompting 75,000 letters of protest from angry fans; only 11 weeks later, the show was back. In 1952, CBS picked up the show for TV, dropped the pastor, and kept Phillips on as writer. (Read more about Phillips here.)
GL would weather the 1970s and ’80s storm of ill-fated soaps looking to enter what was then TV’s richest market, but today’s viewers seemed to have tired of daytime soaps. CBS pulled the plug on GL after the dying program’s viewers fell to 2.1 million, making it the least watched of all the network soaps. However, GL’s decline and eventual death is symptomatic of a general plummeting for the daytime network soaps, of which only seven now survive.
But let’s remember the good times, while we can. Here are a few memorable moments in daytime TV history:
First gay man on US daytime TV
As The World Turns, arguably one of the more conservative daytime soaps, became the first of them to introduce a gay man as a central character, with Hank Elliot in 1988. The same soap became the first to show two gay men kissing in 2007, when its characters Luke and Noah—two young, very attractive young men—finally kissed in August. But viewers were soon frustrated because the two, despite declaring their love for each other under the mistletoe at Christmas, didn’t kiss again until months later.
Even Liz Taylor a fan
Say the names Luke and Laura to anyone who was generally conscious in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and they’ll know instantly who you’re talking about. Luke Spencer and Laura Webber of General Hospital were the first and the best of the soap supercouples, so beloved that even Elizabeth Taylor was a fan. She even guest starred during their wedding episode.
Talking about AIDS in Africa
In 2006, one of the most popular soap operas in South African television decided to address one of the most important issues in South Africa—HIV/AIDS. Isidingo head writer Greig Coetzee decided to have one of his main characters, a beautiful woman who has already had a pretty crappy life, even by soap standards (she was kidnapped, in an abusive relationship, lost a baby), be diagnosed with HIV in an attempt to erase some of the stigma against the disease. In the US, in the 1980s, soap operas were some of the first shows to deal with characters suffering from HIV/AIDS, in the same way that they were some of the first shows to deal with issues such as split personality disorders, alien abductions, and exorcisms.
Can’t we all just get along? Not on a soap opera
In 1989, NBC’s Generations was billed as the first interracial soap opera, moving beyond the typical soap milieu of rich, white families into the world of black and white families. Unfortunately, the program lasted only 13 months before NBC pulled the plug, citing low viewer turn-out and poor ratings.
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Are you a fan of any soaps? Or do you remember any pivotal soap moments or story lines, like Luke and Laura’s wedding or Vicki’s split personality? Or know of other big stars who got their start in the soap opera world? Discuss!
Comments (11)
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My mom started me on CBS soaps when I was also watching \Sesame Street.\ I haven’t watched them for years but I do occasionally flip on \As The World Turns\ to see if anything’s changed (answer: not really).
Speaking of ATWT, many times I’ve had the following conversation:
Person: What’s your son’s name?
Me: Holden.
Person: One of my favorite characters!
Me: Mine too.
Person: Remember when he & Dusty were both chasing after Lily? Or when she came back married to Damien? Poor Holden.
posted by Stephanie on 9-22-2009 at 2:25 pm
Back in the 1990’s I was working in a small store. One day a car drove into the parkinglot. A man got out of the car and walked up to a trshcan. He threw a video-tape into the can and drove off. I, of course, retrieved said tape. My mind raced with the possibilities of the content.
Imagine my dissapointment when it turned out to be soap operas. My imagination supplied the story surrounding the tape. A man’s revenge against wife-girlfriend-daughter. “You know your soap video-tape?” said man. “It’s gone forever.”
posted by Monte the Duck on 9-22-2009 at 2:51 pm
My girlfriend in college (now my wife) loved to watch Passions and wanted me to watch with her. I made an attempt but after 2 and 1/2 episodes couldn’t take it any more. That show, if it is still on, is way too far out there. A doll that comes to life, witches, and a couple that can have ceremonies to show theire commitment but can’t ever seem to have a wedding? …. I hate myself a little for even knowing that much about the show.
posted by James on 9-22-2009 at 3:38 pm
I started watching General Hospital when I was 5. I went to afternoon kindgergarten and it came on before the bus came, so I would watch that, and then sometimes part of Pete & Gladys. That was when Jessie Brewer and Dr. Hardy were YOUNG! Later I started watching All My Children about the time that Erica Kane got married the first time. I watched that for many years, but am not very out of the loop on all those. Working for a living has a way of cutting into my daytime TV.
In re: GH, I could never get past why Laura would marry the man who raped her.
posted by Hyacinth on 9-22-2009 at 4:13 pm
Hyacinth — you know, I never got that, either. I thought about mentioning it in the post, but then I thought maybe just not open that can of worms. Because that is a big can of worms… I got into General Hospital for a little while during grad school — I had a roommate who taped it everyday, and of course, grad school was the ideal time to embark on a ruinous addiction to soap operas. Luckily, my love affair with the show only lasted as long as I lived with my lovely roommate, so just about a year.
posted by Linda on 9-22-2009 at 5:38 pm
I think the “why did Laura marry Luke despite Luke being her rapist” thing has been explained but I can’t remember where I saw it and am too lazy to Google it. I loved General Hospital – it came on at 3PM and luckily for me, the bus dropped me off after school so I would walk in around 2:59. I’d watch it now, maybe, but I already embody a number of suburban cliches and would rather not add another one at the moment.
posted by Rachel on 9-22-2009 at 10:55 pm
Awww….as a soap fan, it’s nice to see a mention as the media industry mostly continues to ignore us as if we’re irrelevant, and the way the soap industry often treats us, sometimes it seems that way.
My grandmother introduced me to CBS soaps when I was …well, too young to be watching them. How I loved Danny and Cricket on Y&R. And then I started watching Days with my sister and GH with a friend during highschool.
I still watch those three, or at least keep up if I’m too busy to watch.
Oh, and Laura married Luke because she loved him and forgave him. The soap also re-spun the rape as a seduction. Luke and Laura had a pre-existing flirtatious/enthusiastic relationship prior to the rape. It wasn’t like they met that way. There was context. She forgave him. He was in love with her.
It’s a soap thing. ;)
posted by Leigh on 9-23-2009 at 12:08 am
Stephanie- Oh my God! Your son’s name is Holden! That’s the best thing i have heard all day!
posted by Hugo on 9-23-2009 at 1:59 am
During the mid-90s, I filled vending machines at a department store every Wednesday, and in the break room a TV was always on ABC. I was there at random times between 3-4pm, and that’s when GH is on.
I would walk in, inventory the machines and collect the money, go out to my truck and fill a few boxes with products and grab a few cases of soda before coming back in and filling the machines. My back was to the TV the whole time, but I could hear it as the volume was always pretty high.
From being in the room for a total of about 1/2 an hour of a 1 hour show once per week, meaning I only overheard about 10% of the show’s story arcs, I actually knew everything that was going on–really poor writing if that’s all anyone needs to see…could be why audiences are leaving the daily ritual of watching (I know, more people are working during the day, but look at audience SHARE and that’s plummiting as well).
posted by Wayne on 9-23-2009 at 9:10 am
Oh! SO many great memories of watching “The Young and the Restless” with my abuelita as a child (her “stories”, as she called them). I can never hear that theme music without thinking about her…
posted by Tina on 9-23-2009 at 11:04 am
“Guiding Light” was also one of the first soaps to highlight important topics such as uterine cancer (in the ’60s, when such things weren’t openly discussed), marital rape, and postpartum depression. In the early 1980’s, GL managed the near impossible by beating (albeit briefly) “General Hospital” in the ratings. Strongly written stories and characters continued into the ’90s, but things really took a downturn with the erosion of daytime ratings, and now shows desperately chase after mythical “new” viewers, all the while actually sending away the longtime viewers who have stood by the soaps for decades.
The much touted new production model that came into being 18 months ago didn’t entirely kill the show; what really sealed its fate was badly-written stories with the citizens of Springfield behaving out of character, and adding characters that no one liked at the expense of characters viewers had loved for many years. And trying to add “realistic” scenes of characters doing laundry and paying bills? Boring, and why would anyone care when the actual stories were so bad?
The golden age of “Guiding Light” will remain as a shining example of well-written and -acted stories.
posted by Rob on 9-23-2009 at 6:14 pm