Serial (radio and television) usually ran from Monday through Friday at exactly the same time every day. A show called The Smith Family which ran only one night a week on WENR in Chicago during the early 1930s was credited as the "great-granddaddy of the soap operas" by radio historian Francis Chase, Jr. One of the other shows that helped pioneer the daytime soap opera/serial was "The Guiding Light", which debuted on NBC radio in 1937, and then switched to CBS Television in 1952. "The Guiding Light" final episode aired on September 18, 2009, having a total of 15,762 episodes air on CBS. Some
No Soap, Radio (TV series) in these "hotel rooms" with no seeming connection to the main plot. No Soap, Radio (TV series) No Soap, Radio is an American sitcom and sketch comedy that aired on ABC on Thursdays from April 15 until May 13, 1982. Five episodes were broadcast, although a further eight were made. The five episodes also appeared on the BBC, where the deletion of commercial breaks gave the show an even more rapid-fire look. The title is taken from a 1950s prank where "no soap radio" is given as a non-sequitur punchline to a joke. Overall, the plots of "No Soap, Radio"