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"As the World Turns" originally aired on CBS on April 2, 1956. The network announced on December 8, 2009, that this American television soap opera would be cancelled because of low ratings. The show taped its final scenes on June 23, 2010, and with a sad dramatic storyline finale, its final episode aired on this past Friday, September 17, 2010.
Set in the fictional town of Oakdale, IL, "As The World Turns" debuted on the above date at 1:30pm EST. Prior to then, all daytime serials or "soap operas", as they were more commonly called, were only fifteen minutes in length. "As the World Turns" and "The Edge of Night", which premiered on the same day at 4:30pm EST, were the first two to become thirty minutes in length from their premiere.
At first, viewers did not respond to the new half-hour serial, but ratings picked up in its second year, eventually reaching the top spot in the daytime Nielsen ratings by fall 1958. In 1959, the show started a streak of weekly ratings wins that would not be interrupted for over twelve years. In the year-to-date ratings, "As the World Turns" was the most-watched daytime drama from 1958 until 1978, with ten million viewers tuning in each day. At its height, core actors such as Helen Wagner, Don MacLaughlin, Don Hastings, and Eileen Fulton became nationally known. Irna Phillips created As the World Turns as a sister show to her other soap opera, "Guiding Light".
"As The World Turns" was presented in color on August 21, 1967 and expanded from a half-hour in length to one hour starting on December 1, 1975, when "The Edge of Night" moved to ABC. The show passed its 10,000th episode on May 12, 1995 and celebrated its 50th anniversary on April 2, 2006. It was the last remaining Procter & Gamble-produced soap opera on television after "Guiding Light" aired its final episode on September 18, 2009 on CBS. Running for 54 seasons, it was the second-longest continuous run of any daytime network soap opera in American history, surpassed only by "Guiding Light".
On October 18, 2010, CBS will replace "As the World Turns" with a new hour-long talk show called "The Talk", which resembles ABC's "The View". On the Monday of the show's final week, CBS pushed the time slot for the daily show in order to air the U.S. Open Tennis match. Fans and critics called this "disrespectful" to the 54-year-old soap opera.
As the World Turns is notable for having been produced in New York City for all of its time on television, with its first 43 years being in Manhattan and then, in Brooklyn from 2000 until 2010.
R.I.P ATWT!
Set in the fictional town of Oakdale, IL, "As The World Turns" debuted on the above date at 1:30pm EST. Prior to then, all daytime serials or "soap operas", as they were more commonly called, were only fifteen minutes in length. "As the World Turns" and "The Edge of Night", which premiered on the same day at 4:30pm EST, were the first two to become thirty minutes in length from their premiere.
At first, viewers did not respond to the new half-hour serial, but ratings picked up in its second year, eventually reaching the top spot in the daytime Nielsen ratings by fall 1958. In 1959, the show started a streak of weekly ratings wins that would not be interrupted for over twelve years. In the year-to-date ratings, "As the World Turns" was the most-watched daytime drama from 1958 until 1978, with ten million viewers tuning in each day. At its height, core actors such as Helen Wagner, Don MacLaughlin, Don Hastings, and Eileen Fulton became nationally known. Irna Phillips created As the World Turns as a sister show to her other soap opera, "Guiding Light".
"As The World Turns" was presented in color on August 21, 1967 and expanded from a half-hour in length to one hour starting on December 1, 1975, when "The Edge of Night" moved to ABC. The show passed its 10,000th episode on May 12, 1995 and celebrated its 50th anniversary on April 2, 2006. It was the last remaining Procter & Gamble-produced soap opera on television after "Guiding Light" aired its final episode on September 18, 2009 on CBS. Running for 54 seasons, it was the second-longest continuous run of any daytime network soap opera in American history, surpassed only by "Guiding Light".
On October 18, 2010, CBS will replace "As the World Turns" with a new hour-long talk show called "The Talk", which resembles ABC's "The View". On the Monday of the show's final week, CBS pushed the time slot for the daily show in order to air the U.S. Open Tennis match. Fans and critics called this "disrespectful" to the 54-year-old soap opera.
As the World Turns is notable for having been produced in New York City for all of its time on television, with its first 43 years being in Manhattan and then, in Brooklyn from 2000 until 2010.
R.I.P ATWT!
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2 comments:
I have watched this show since I was a child. In elementary school we came home each day for lunch. We had 45 minutes to get home, eat, and get back to the school yard for 15 minutes of yard play then back to class until dismissal at 3 p.m. Each day when we walked in the door, we had some kind of soup, sandwich, and milk. We ate quietly because the soaps were on. We'd get an apple, plum or grapes and head back to school. (We saved the oranges for taking our daily dose of Castor oil at night.) I felt like I knew these people. They looked like the school principal and secretaries. The store owners on 60th Street looked just like the Bauer family. I decided as a kid that I wanted "their" life. The ice in their glasses sounded different from the ice we had and I wanted that. My folks said education was the way, so I followed that path. Little did I know that they were selling the American dream and I was buying!! Boy I miss the antics of that crazy Reba Shane!
@ Arlene:
You know, because this show started a couple of years before I was born (1958), I actually never watched it... but, my mom did for many years. Between this show, Search For Tomorrow, Edge Of Night, and Guiding Light, the only one I actually watched for about 10years was Search for Tomorrow. I'm afraid that I was more drawn to the crop of soaps that came after those... General Hospital, All My Children, Young & The Restless, and One Life To Live. As an adult, I finally gave up trying to keep up w/ all the storylines because it was just too hard to do when you had to work all the time. Whenever I tried to play "catch up" on vacation days, there were so many new faces, I didn't know "up from down" as to what was going on-LOL! By the time VCRs came into the picture, which would allow you to tape them while you were away, I had already gotten over my soap opera "addictions". Nonetheless, when I heard that this show was going off the air, I realized that it was an American tradition w/ many people, so I had to do a blog post bidding it a final farewell. I especially felt bad for my mom because we were talking about it on the phone over the weekend and she is now at that phase of life when she feels truly "blessed" to have lived this long, but w/ a sense of sadness about all the "losses" she has seen along the way...
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