Happy Anniversary To Guiding Light — Relive Some of Its Classic Moments!
Please join us in celebrating the anniversary of Guiding Light’s very first television episode, which aired 73 years ago. Created by Irna Phillips and Emmons Carlson, the soap began as an NBC radio serial in 1937. It transferred to CBS Radio in 1947, and later made its television debut on CBS on June 30, 1952. During its combined 72 years on radio and television, GL became the longest-running scripted program in broadcast history.
Memory Lane
Back in the ’30s, the soap was titled The Guiding Light (it did not drop the “the” until 1975) and centered around Reverend John Ruthledge and the lives of the people in his community. When GL began airing on television in 1952, it still continued to be broadcast over the radio until June 1956. It expanded from 15 to 30 minutes in 1968, and eventually to a full hour-long program in 1977.
The Bauer family was first introduced to the soap in 1948 and became the new focus of GL when it moved to television in 1952. Over the years, fans continued tuning in to see the drama involving the Bauers and later the Norrises, the Marlers, the Spauldings, the Coopers, the Lewises, and the Reardons, among other notable families.
Some notable stars who got their start on GL include Billy Dee Williams (ex-Jim), James Earl Jones (who also played Jim), Cicely Tyson (ex-Martha), Ruby Dee (who also played Martha), Kevin Bacon (ex-Tim), Calista Flockhart (ex-Elise), Nia Long (ex-Kat), Allison Janney (ex-Ginger), Hayden Panettiere (ex-Lizzie), Taye Diggs (ex-Sugar Hill), Bethany Joy Lenz (ex-Michelle), Brittany Snow (Susan) and Tom Pelphrey (ex-Jonathan).
Longtime fans will never forget storylines like the Four Musketeers (Grant Aleksander’s Phillip Spaulding, Michael O’Leary’s Rick Bauer, Judi Evans’s Beth Raines, and Krista Tesreau’s Mindy Lewis), Reva Shayne (Kim Zimmer) baptizing herself the “Slut of Springfield” in a fountain, the shocking death of Ellen Parker’s beloved Maureen Reardon, the tempestuous relationship between Holly Lindsey (Maureen Garrett) and Roger Thorpe (Michael Zaslow), the royal romance between Cassie Layne (Laura Wright, now Carly on General Hospital) and Prince Richard Winslow (Bradley Cole), and much more.
Sadly, the light was extinguished forever when CBS aired the final episode of GL on September 18, 2009, but the long-running soap will live on in the hearts of its fans forever. Join us for a walk down memory lane as we take a trip back to Springfield for a look back at some classic moments.
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