Five Things That Happened On January 25 In Soap History

In 1937, The Guiding Light, created by Irna Phillips, premiered on radio. (It dropped The from the title in 1977, over 30 decades after its transition to television.) At the time of its debut, episodes were 15 minutes in length. Originally, the show was set in the fictional town of Five Points and was inspirational in tone, with Rev. John Ruthledge as one of its central characters. GL's setting changed to Selby Flats, then finally to Springfield.

In 1982, Ellen Dolan (pictured at her character's 1983 wedding to Peter Simon's Ed Bauer) made her Guiding Light debut as Maureen Reardon. After Dolan left the show in 1986, the role of Maureen was recast with Ellen Parker, while Dolan went on to assume the role of Margo Hughes on As the World Turns from 1989-93 and from 1994-2010.

In 1996, Lauren Koslow made her Days of Our Lives debut as Kate Roberts. The role had previously been played by Deborah Adair from 1993-95, and Koslow had previously appeared on two different soaps (Young and Restless, where she played Lindsey Wells, and Bold and Beautiful, where she played Margo Lynley). In 2015, Koslow looked back on the casting process in an interview with Soap Opera Digest, reporting, "I screen-tested a number of times. I screen-tested with Louise Sorel [Vivian] and Ivan G'Vera [Ivan]. At the time, it seemed like everybody was testing for that role. After the test, the word came back to me that certainly Kate was fierce, but they were a little concerned about whether she had a softer side. So when I tested the second time, it was with John Aniston [Victor]. They wanted to see a more vulnerable Kate, so I thought, ‘Okay, I can do that.’ It was a very loving scene between Victor and Kate.”

In 1997, Florencia Lozano made her One Life to Live debut in the role of Téa Delgado, an ambitious attorney who was initially summoned to Llanview by Carlotta Vega, who hoped Téa could help exonerate her son, Antonio Vega, who stood accused of the murder of Carlo Hesser. Lozano's pairing with Roger Howarth's Todd (and later, Trevor St. John's version of Todd, who was ultimately revealed to be a brainwashed Victor Lord, Jr.) was a fan favorite. Lozano exited OLTL in 2000, visited in 2002, then returned from 2008-12, when the show went off the air. She then reprised the role of Téa on General Hospital and on the short-lived 2013 online OLTL reboot.

In 2008, Darnell Williams (pictured with Cornelius Smith, Jr. as Frankie Hubbard) returned to All My Children as Jesse Hubbard, who had been presumed dead since 1988 and had even appeared on the show as a ghost in 1994, 2001 and 2002. Williams's first AMC run, which lasted from 1981-88, had earned him a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in 1983 and the Outstanding Lead Actor trophy in 1985, and solidified his standing as one of the first Black leading men in daytime.