Guiding Light

The Guiding Light (known as Guiding Light since 1975) is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as being the longest soap opera ever told, as well as the longest running drama in broadcast history (its 15,000th televised episode is slated to air in the autumn of 2005). The program began as an NBC radio serial on January 25, 1937 before moving to CBS on June 30, 1952, as a televised serial.

History

The series was created by Irna Phillips, who based it on personal experiences in her life. After giving birth to a still-born baby at age 19, she found spiritual comfort listening to sermons by a preacher of a church centered on the brotherhood of man. It was these sermons that formed the nucleus of the creation of The Guiding Light.

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The radio show's original storyline centered around a preacher named Rev. John Ruthledge, and all the people of a fictional suburb in Chicago called Five Points. The townspeople's lives had revolved around him. The show's title comes from a lamp in his study that family and residents could see as a sign for them to find help when needed. Storylines in this era touched on topics rarely discussed up to that point - character Rose Kransky had radio's first out-of-wedlock baby.

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During the radio years, succeeding preachers would carry on the work Rev. Ruthledge had started (and thus they became keepers of "the guiding light"). In turn, the show's setting moved to another fictional suburb, Selby Flats (supposedly in the Los Angeles area).

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In 1952, "The Guiding Light" began airing on CBS television, where it has aired ever since. With the slow transition to television, the main characters had become a mid-town family called the Bauers. For the first few years of its television run, the show was produced (in separate sessions) via both radio and television, but eventually the show became exclusively a television production.

Related Topics:
1952 - CBS

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