Guiding Light Guiding Light Guiding Light (known as The Guiding Light before 1975) is an American television soap opera. It is listed in "Guinness World Records" as the longest-running drama in television in American history, broadcast on CBS for 57 years from June 30, 1952, until September 18, 2009, overlapping a 19-year broadcast on radio from 1937 to 1956. With its run of 72 years of radio and television, "Guiding Light" is the longest running soap opera before "General Hospital" and the fifth-longest running program in all of broadcast history; only the American country music radio program "Grand Ole Opry" (first broadcast
Soap opera story was completely resolved by the end of the episode, and there were no end-of-episode cliffhangers. After the first couple of seasons, all three shows changed their story format to that of a pure soap opera, with interwoven ongoing narratives that ran over several episodes. "Dynasty" featured this format throughout its run. The soap opera's distinctive open plot structure and complex continuity was increasingly incorporated into American primetime television programs of the period. The first significant drama series to do this was "Hill Street Blues". This series, produced by Steven Bochco, featured many elements borrowed from soap operas, such as