Guiding Light: Comes to an end

Principessa

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GUIDING LIGHT to Broadcast its Final Episode on Friday, Sept. 18

CBS's daytime drama GUIDING LIGHT will broadcast its final episode on Friday, Sept. 18, 2009. At the time of its final broadcast, the series will have spanned 72 years and more than 15,700 episodes on television and radio. Created by Irna Phillips, the show debuted on NBC radio on January 25, 1937 as the 15-minute radio serial "The Guiding Light." It made the switch to 15-minute episodes on CBS Television on June 30, 1952, although it continued to air concurrently on radio with the actors playing parts on both shows until 1956, when the radio show ended. In 1967, the series first started being broadcast in color, and a year later, the show expanded from 15 minutes to 30 minutes. In November 1977, the show expanded to a full hour. The series is credited by The Guinness Book of World Records as "The Longest-Running Television Drama."

No show in daytime or prime time, or anytime, has touched so many millions of viewers across so many years as GUIDING LIGHT," said Barbara Bloom, Senior Vice President, Daytime Programs, CBS. "We thank the cast, crew and producers - past and present - who delivered this entertainment institution, the beloved characters and the time-honored stories to our audience every day for seven decades. It's been a privilege to work with such an extraordinarily talented group of people." The radio show's original storyline centered on a minister named Rev. John Ruthledge, and all the people of a fictional suburb in Chicago called Five Points. Today's show takes place in the fictional town of Springfield, and revolves around the Spaulding, Lewis and Cooper families. Throughout its historic tenure on the Network, GUIDING LIGHT has been the recipient of 69 Daytime Emmy Awards, including three for Outstanding Daytime Drama Series. The show has broken ground with stories such as cancer, teen pregnancy, sexual harassment, alcoholism, abuse, AIDS and post-partum depression and, in 2008, premiered a brand-new daytime production model, featuring permanent sets inside its New York City studio and approximately 20% of the production shot in exterior scenes in the town of Peapack, N.J. In addition, directing and editing were changed to be done digitally and almost simultaneously, giving the sets a more realistic feeling and eliminating the need for production suites.

I can't believe it! I used to watch this as a toddler with my grandmom. This is truly the end of an era. :frown1:

I was hoping this was an April Fools'Day joke but apparently it's true. :cry:
 

B_VinylBoy

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I was forced to make sure our VCR was set to record all the CBS soaps for my mom before I went to school. And there was hell to pay if she didn't get her tape!

"Guiding Light" was always the last one on the tape. Before that, "The Young & The Restless", "The Bold & The Beautiful" and "As The World Turns". God forbid if I left Nickelodeon or MTV on the cable box. She'd come home to a bunch of music videos, or worse, "You Can't Do That On Television" and "Dangermouse". LOL!! (Love ya, mom!) :biggrin:

R.I.P. Guiding Light...
 

BiItalianBro

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Even though I am not a 'soap queen' myself, it is sad news and the end of an era. My brother works for another network and said their daytime soap programming has been sucking air for a while now...with ratings (and ad revenue) declining steadily for about twenty years. CBS is the first to blink in his opinion, and many more old line daytime shows will follow.
 

Deno

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sad, I liked that show when I last saw it like 25 years ago. I might watch Days if anything at all. Will is such a cutie.
 

jason_els

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I couldn't care less beyond saying it's sad to see such a long-running program go down.

OTOH, I hope this means less pablum on the boob tube.

I'm not holding my breath.
 

HellsKitchenmanNYC

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I mean it's not like it's The Edge of Night that had talented actors!:grumble:

Alot of good actors came out of soaps....Ray Liotta, Kathleen Turner, Beth Berridge, Some soaps are better than others. Maybe the network should get a stimulus package from Obama the Mesiah.
Actors are getting fired left and right on the soaps from what I hear, even some of the most veteran actors.....Diedre Hall.