Timeline of daytime soaps

By the Burg Staff
Published: July 27, 2006

By the time World War II began, there were 64 soaps airing on the radio.

1937: “Guiding Light,” the longest running soap, debuts on the radio.

1946: “Faraway Hill” is the first soap to air on television. The serial ran for three months on the Dupont Television Network and was about a widowed New Yorker who moves to a small town to be closer to her relatives.

1948: The 10 highest-rated daytime programs are all soaps, and of the top 30 daytime shows, all but five are soaps.

1952: “Guiding Light” first airs on television in daily, 15-minute episodes. Since it first aired, the show has taken place in three different locales: the fictional towns of Selby Flats and Five Points, and the current locale of Springfield, USA.

1956: “As the World Turns” becomes the first half-hour serial. Behind “Guiding Light,” it’s the second longest-running soap. Over the years, the soap starred Marisa Tomei, Meg Ryan, Julianne Moore and Jason Biggs before they became movie stars. “ATWT” also changed the way soaps were done - it expanded the number of characters, slowed the pace with which a story was told and used multiple cameras.

1960: The last network radio soap opera goes off the air.

1963: “General Hospital” hits the airwaves at ABC. It became one of the first soaps to earn ratings on par with those of CBS daytime serials, which dominated the landscape. (Before they were stars: Demi Moore, Rick Springfield, John Stamos and Ricky Martin.)

1964: “Another World” debuts on CBS. During its first year, one of the characters has an illegal abortion - the first time a daytime soap opera had dealt with the topic.

1965: “Days of Our Lives” begins airing on NBC.

1966: ABC starts airing episodes of “Dark Shadows,” a daytime soap about a 200-year-old vampire. It was canceled after five years.

1968: Now a legend in the soap world, Agnes Nixon creates “One Life to Live” for ABC. Nixon became known for tackling complex social issues in her shows, such as when a “OLTL” character became a drug addict and was sent to a real-life treatment center in New York, where the character interacted with actual patients. (Before they were stars: “Superman Returns’” Brandon Routh, Ryan Phillippe and Tommy Lee Jones.)

1970: Another Agnes Nixon show, “All My Children,” begins its run on ABC and stars a young Susan Lucci, who is still with the show today. The show became the first soap to write the Vietnam War into one of its plots. (Before they were stars: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Lauren Holly, Kelly Ripa and Josh Duhamel.)

1973: “The Young and the Restless” debuts on CBS. Since 1988, it has consistently been one of the highest-rated soap operas. (Before they were stars: David Hassellhoff, Tom Selleck and Eva Longoria.)