Soap opera soap opera "Guiding Light" (originally titled "The Guiding Light" until 1975) started as a radio drama in January 1937 and subsequently transferred to television in June 1952. With the exception of several years in the late 1940s, during which creator Irna Phillips was involved in a dispute with Procter & Gamble, "Guiding Light" was heard or seen nearly every weekday from 1937 until 2009, making it the longest story ever told in a broadcast medium. Originally serials were broadcast as fifteen-minute installments each weekday in daytime slots. In 1956, "As the World Turns" and "The Edge of Night", both produced
Soap Opera Digest and Ritterman earned a handful of Daytime Emmy Award nominations, with Dick Clark Productions, for co executive producing the "Soap Opera Digest" Awards. "Soap Opera Digest" coined the term and popularized the use of "soap speak," in which show names are abbreviated as acronyms to save space. These abbreviations have come into more extensive use outside the magazine with the advent of internet chat rooms and message boards. For example, current soap operas and their acronyms include "General Hospital" ("GH"), "The Bold and the Beautiful" ("B&B"), and "The Young and the Restless" ("Y&R"). "Days of Our Lives" is referred to