From Variety's 50 Years of CBS tribute 1988. Soaps received short shrift with this article not evening mentioning ATWT, a ratings powerhouse in the 60's which brought in huge profits. And who can forget the contributions of Agnes Dickson!
Sudsers bubble up touchy topics by Natasha Sizlo
With a spicy formula of corporate takeovers, cloning, teen suicide and a whole lot of sex, CBS’ daytime sudsers continue to triumph as the network approaches its 500th straight week atop the daytime Nielsen ratings. According to network execs, the daytime drama lineup has established both a production and a content standard for serial dramas across the networks and continues to draw millions of viewers both domestically and across the globe. “It’s important for us to reflect the realities and the tensions that women experience today,” says Paul Rauch, executive producer of “Guiding Light.” “I think you can tell a much more exciting story about women today than you ever could before. Women are more exciting today han they have been.”
“Guiding Light,” the longestrunning program in broadcast history, celebrated its 61st anniversary Jan. 25. Rauch explains, “It’s consistent with the best of what daytime is and where it’s come from.” “Guiding Light,” first broadcast on the radio on NBC’s Red Network, debuted on Jan. 25, 1937. The program was a 15-minute drama created and written by Irna Phillips. Phillips broadcast one or two stories with half-adozen characters, five days a week, every week of the year. In its long history, “Guiding Light” has surpassed other daytime dramas in exploring socially relevant topics. In 1961 “Guiding Light” tackled the seldom discussed issue of uterine cancer. While the character recovered from the cancer, she went through a lot of difficulty at the time because she was reluctant to get a Pap smear. This story encouraged women to be alert
Since then, CBS daytime has approached such issues as breast cancer (with the first mammogram done on camera, Dec. 17, 1991), blindness, rape, teen suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse, postpartum depression and AIDS. “Guiding Light” made its passage to television when it premiered on CBS June 30, 1952. It is the only radio drama to make the transition to TV that’s still on the air today. Nowadays, the writers of “Guiding Light” have at least a dozen stories harmonizing at once, with roughly 35 characters, five times a week, 260 shows a year.
Rauch explains the evolution of the serial drama: “Irna believed in the importance of families. She passed her legacy on to writers Bill Bell and Agnes Dickson, and those two writers went on to be great stalwarts of the daytime business.” “What we did in the ’50s no longer applies in the ’90s. We were limited with production, sets and stories that were almost totally tied up in family issues. We have much more latitude now,” says William J. Bell, who became co-creator, senior head writer and senior executive producer of “The Young & the Restless.” “Y&R” just celebrated its 25th anniversary and has spent 485 consecutive weeks as the most watched daytime program. When “Y&R” premiered on CBS on March 26, 1973, it revo¬ lutionized the daytime genre with its emphasis on the younger generation. William Bell’s 25-year tenure as the head writer of “ Y & R” is the longest in the history of daytime TV. “From the onset it was highly received. It was a show that was very different,” Bell says. “We dealt mostly with younger people and the sensuality and the sexuality that was prevalent in the early ’70s. What it did was reflect what was going on in the world at the time. It wasn’t there for shock value. ... It was a serial that caught on like no other before or since
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Paul Raven ·
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