As the World Turns is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS from April 2, 1956 to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips created As the World Turns as a sister show to her other soap opera The Guiding Light. Running for 54 years, As the World Turns holds the second-longest continuous run of any daytime network soap opera in American history, surpassed only by Guiding Light. As the World Turns was produced in New York City for all of its time. Set in the fictional town of Oakdale, Illinois, the show debuted on April 2, 1956, at 1:30 pm EST.
First Love is an American soap opera which ran on NBC Daytime from July 5, 1954 to December 30, 1955. The series aired at 4:15 p.m. EST, between Golden Windows and Concerning Miss Marlowe. Although the show had a strong fan following, at the time NBC had little use for developing any of their daytime shows and canceled First Love after a year and a half. Many cast members such as Patricia Barry, Val Dufour and Rosemary Prinz went on to become long-running daytime stars.
Created by Adrian Samish and written by Manya Starr, the series centered around jet engineer Zach James and his difficult marriage to Laurie James. Due to being neglected as a child, Zach was obsessed with building a name for himself. Laurie tried to understand him but was unable to help him deal with his problems, as he went on trial for the murder of an aviatrix he may have been having an affair with.
The show became known chiefly for a major blooper early in its run. A Friday cliffhanger involved Zach seeing his friend Chris crash his plane. Za
The Secret Storm is a soap opera which ran on CBS from February 1, 1954 to February 8, 1974. The series was created by Roy Winsor, who also created the long-running soap operas Search for Tomorrow and Love of Life. Gloria Monty of General Hospital fame was a longtime director of the series. Like most CBS Soap Operas of the time such as The Guiding Light and As the World Turns The Secret Storm was filmed, and later taped, in New York at the CBS Broadcast Center on West 52 Street.
Valiant Lady is an American soap opera which ran daily on CBS radio and television from October 12, 1953 to August 16, 1957 at 12:00 PM. The show's title was taken from a 1930s radio soap opera about a young woman struggling through life but is otherwise very different. Like many early soap operas, the show was broadcast live from CBS studios in New York City.
The series was created by Adrian Spies; the head writer was Charles Elwyn.
Guiding Light is an American television soap opera that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running television drama in history, broadcast from 1952 until 2009, preceded by a 15-year broadcast on radio. Guiding Light stands as the third longest-running program in all of broadcast history; only the Norwegian children's radio program Lørdagsbarnetimen and the American country music radio program Grand Ole Opry have been on the air longer.
On April 1, 2009, it was announced that CBS canceled Guiding Light after a 72-year run due to low ratings. The show taped its final scenes for CBS on August 11, 2009, and its final episode on the network aired on September 18, 2009.
Love of Life is an American soap opera which aired on CBS from September 24, 1951, to February 1, 1980. It was created by Roy Winsor, whose previous creation Search for Tomorrow had premiered three weeks before Love of Life, and who would go on to create The Secret Storm two and a half years later.
Search for Tomorrow is an American soap opera that premiered on September 3, 1951, on CBS. The show was moved from CBS to NBC on March 29, 1982. It continued on NBC until the final episode aired on December 26, 1986, a run of thirty-five years. At the time of its final broadcast, it was the longest-running non-news program on television. This record would later be broken by Hallmark Hall of Fame, which premiered on Christmas Eve 1951 and still airs occasionally.
The show was created by Roy Winsor and was first written by Agnes Nixon for thirteen weeks and, later, by Irving Vendig.
Miss Susan is a daytime drama which aired on NBC from March 12 to December 28, 1951. The show, originating from Philadelphia and later retitled Martinsville, U.S.A., aired for fifteen minutes at 3:00 p.m. ET on weekdays. The main writer was William Kendall Clarke.
Hawkins Falls, Population 6200 is the first successful American television soap opera. Sponsored by Unilever's blue detergent, Surf, the program began as a one hour comedy-drama on June 17, 1950, and ran in prime time on the NBC network until October 12, 1950.
On April 2, 1951, the series was moved to a fifteen-minute daytime slot, where it was retitled Hawkins Falls: A Television Novel, and developed into a soap opera format. Hawkins Falls ran until July 1, 1955, making it NBC's longest running soap opera until The Doctors exceeded it in 1967.
The town of Hawkins Falls was patterned after the real-life town of Woodstock, Illinois.