“Guiding Light”

Once referred to as soap operas or soaps for short,the romantic melodramas are now known formally as daytime dramas. They got their name “soaps” because theshows were aimed at housewives and usually were sponsored by soap companies,such as Procter & Gamble. Theirunique characteristic is that they are endless and written with no end inmind. The casts are large and alwayschanging but the theme remains constant- disordered love life and events ofadultery, nymphomania, drug addiction, untimely pregnancies, racism,homosexuality, and insanity. Everyonehas heard the line “tune in tomorrow” and many think this was written forsoaps, making them addictive and endless.

“Guiding Light” is the longestrunning drama ever. It was created byIrna Phillips who had a tragic life and looked for comfort in the sermons ofDr. Preston Bradley. She later used hissermons as a basis for a theme for “The Guiding Light.” The show was centered around Reverend Dr.John Ruthledge and those who came to him for advice. There was a lamp in his study that was always on to signify hewas there for help and this came to be known as “The Guiding Light.” The location of the show began in ShelbyFlats, outside of LA, but currently remains in Springfield, a fictionalmidwestern city.

It originally debuted in 1937 onthe radio as “The Guiding Light” and later the “the” was dropped. It was a 15-minute religiously themedprogram played on NBC’s Red Network. Itwas directed toward domestic housewives, who could listen to the show whilethey were performing their daily routines. Although television began to take over radio in the 1940’s, broadcasterswere skeptical about introduction of soap operas. On June 30, 1952, CBS introduced “Guiding Light” to thetelevision, and it was the first radio soap opera to make the transition totelevision successfully. Though it wassuccessful on TV, it also received a great response in radio and thereforebroadcast on television and radio between 1952-1956. It was a 15-minute daily program that used an unseen voice-overannouncer to introduce and close each episode, organ music to provide thememusic, and each episode ended with an unsolved scene that would draw theaudience back the next day. After theshow moved to television, it lost the religious theme and became more secular,addressing events such as rape, mental illness, and AIDS.

The mid and late 1960’s wereperiods of experimentation with soaps because they were new in the business oftelevision. In the 1970’s, soaps becamemore stable and “Guiding Light” struggled with competitive adjustments such asfantasy vs. everyday life, social relevance vs. traditional narratives offamily and romance, sticking to one main plotline or stretching it acrossseveral plotlines at different stages, and attempting to attract youngerviewers while maintaining the more adult viewer’s interests. All of these strategies and pressures madesoap writers the highest paid writers in broadcasting at the time, which meantthe most highly paid writers were women. This was a huge advantage for women, giving them power and money. The 70’s were also a time of change in thelength of the show. Instead ofreplacing failing shows on CBS, the producers decided to expand “Guiding Light”to a full hour due to its success.

By the 1980’s about 50 millionpeople in the US followed one or more soap operas, including 2/3 of all womenwith access to television. Thisresponse and the focus of “Guiding Light” toward housewives changed with theend of the post-war “baby boom”, when women joined the paid workforce. Daytime television programming significantlybegan to shrink. This led to a new kindof mass marketing, soap opera magazines. “Soap Opera Digest” began in 1975 and had a circulation of 850,000copies by 1990. This enabled “GuidingLight” to attract a wide variety of people, including up to 15% of teenage boysand girls and adult men over fifty. Itwas reported in 1982 by the Nielsen ratings that 3 million college studentswatched soap operas.

Although “Guiding Light” hasundergone many changes in occupational patterns among women, the transformationof television technology, and the rise of competitive and less expensiveprograms, it has been heard or seen every weekday since January 1937, making itthe longest story ever told. Today itfocuses on the complex lives of the Bauer, Spaulding, Lewis, Marler, Cooper,and Santos families and the relationships they have with each other.

References:

Encyclopediaof Television. PN 1992.18 B7 1992

Facts:

*Only former radio soap still on TV today

*There have been about 15,600 episodes

*At least 744 actors have been on and off the show

*Wedding bells have rung for about 105 marriages

*Launched careers of Kevin Bacon, Sherry Stringfield, andJames Earl Jones

*Have won 48 Emmys

*Introduced first viewer-feedback line for daytime TV

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