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
Vine Street (TV series) California. Audiences were already accustomed to continuing story serials from the radio, but this was the first attempt on television. The term "soap opera" came about since many soap and cleaning product companies started trying to reach the many housewives who were home to listen these programs which normally aired in the afternoons. The "Oxford English Dictionary"s citation for the phrase dates its first appearance in print to 1938. Vine Street (TV series) Vine Street, considered the first American television soap opera, was first broadcast on 15 April 1938 by W6XAO in Los Angeles, as a daily 15-minute serial, and