ShareThisThe longest-running drama in broadcast history is going to become history, and loyal fans -- some of whom began watching at their grandmother's knee -- are preparing to go into mourning.
CBS announced Wednesday that the soap opera "Guiding Light" will go off the air in September after a 72-year run. The show began as a 15-minute serial on NBC Radio in 1937 and made the jump to CBS TV in 1952.
The network said that like most daytime dramas, "Guiding Light" has suffered from declining ratings, and that it would be looking to fill that time slot with a lower-cost alternative.
Fans are not happy. Among the postings on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's online Forum page:
"Is this some kind of April Fool's joke? I can't believe they canceled Guiding Light. I have been watching this soap for 35 years, and I'm not some over-the-hill grannie, either. I'm 45."
And, "I have been watching Guiding Light since I was a baby with my grandma and it's always been a connection amongst my family. I'm 29 now and my grandma has been gone for 10 years, but I could always say we watched the show together. It is a sad, sad day."
But it was not surprising to those who follow the industry.
"The networks have ceded a lot of their daytime programming for syndication," said Brad Adgate, a ratings expert at Horizon Media in New York City. "This is just another example of that."
NBC dropped "Passions," he said, and now has only one hour of daytime drama.
"There's been a lot of audience erosion through the years and not even DVRs are helping all that much," Adgate said. "These shows deliver a higher median age that's not appealing for many advertisers."
He noted that the highest-rated daytime show is "Oprah," which is syndicated. In addition, he said, public tastes are always changing.
"Daytime TV was once filled with game shows. Now the only one left is 'The Price is Right.' "
The original "Guiding Light" story revolved around the Bauers of Springfield (no state was ever mentioned). Over the years, several other clans came to prominence, including the super-wealthy Spauldings, the working-class Coopers and the Texas-born Lewises.
The program was groundbreaking in its treatment of issues that were not often discussed in polite society. When Bert Bauer was diagnosed with uterine cancer, the show made thousands of women aware of the disease and sent them to their doctors for checkups. The writers also tackled AIDS, alcoholism, incest and domestic violence.
There were always enough outlandish story arcs to keep viewers interested. One of the more colorful characters, Reva Shayne Lewis Lewis Spaulding Lewis Cooper Lewis Lewis O'Neill (Kim Zimmer), married a father and both of his sons, drove her car off a pier, disappeared for years, returned as a ghost, then turned out to have been living with the Amish, and also on an island where she'd coupled with a prince and had a whole other family. In addition, she was cloned. Oh, and she traveled through time, too.
Then there was the ever-evil Roger Thorpe, played by the late Michael Zaslow, who was always trying to rape or kill someone or backstab in a business deal.
The show's casting directors had an eye for emerging talent. The teen-age Kevin Bacon had an ongoing role. Melina Kanakaredes showed up as a Greek stowaway and went on to roles in "CSI: NY" and "Providence." Other alumnae include Sherry Stringfield ("ER," "NYPD Blue"), Nia Long ("Soul Food," "The Best Man"), Allison Janney ("West Wing," "Juno"), Hayden Panettiere ("Heroes") and Calista Flockhart ("Brothers and Sisters").
The program was one of the first to regularly feature African-Americans as recurring characters, with roles played by Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Jones. Cicely Tyson and Ruby Dee.
The show updated its look in recent years, incorporating outside shots to make it more contemporary. It also brought back some veterans -- Maeve Kinkead as Vanessa Chamberlain and Grant Aleksander as Phillip Spaulding -- in an effort to woo back old fans. But when it comes to ratings, it seems that even old standbys are no match for the Oprahs and Dr. Phils.
(Sally Kalson can be reached at skalson(at)post-gazette.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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