Culture

Guiding Light, 72-Year-Old Soap Opera, Cancelled by CBS

by Jarrett Martineau | April 1, 2009 at 04:01 pm

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Guiding Light, the long-running bastion of daytime soap opera melodrama, is finally coming to an end.

CBS announced the cancellation of the series on Wednesday and stated that Guiding Light will head off the air in September, after an astonishing 72 year run on radio and television.

Over the course of its almost 16,000 episodes, the show became a career-boosting performance platform for some of Hollywood's most biggest stars including: Hayden Panettiere, James Earl Jones, Calista Flockhart, Kevin Bacon, and Christopher Walken.

The final episode of the show will air Sept. 18, 2009 on CBS.

The soap opera, which has 69 Daytime Emmy Awards to its credit, served as early experience for many current stars today, including
Created by Irna Phillips, the show was a 15-minute radio serial that first aired on NBC Radio on Jan. 25, 1937. In June 1952, the show doubled its medium when CBS television began showing the series simultaneously with the radio program. It expanded to 30 minutes when the show gained color in 1967. The soap aired its first hour-long episode in November 1977.

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Barry Artiste

at 22:01 on April 1st, 2009

Holy Crap, 72 years it has been running? The Babes on the show must be absolutely Barf Worthy, with the Cougars cruising for 60 year old young studs at the nursing home.