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
Soap opera was cancelled after a steady decline in ratings following the departures of many of its original characters. The most successful soap opera in Italy is the evening series "Un posto al sole" ("A Place Under the Sun"), which had aired on Rai 3 since 1996 (whose format is based on the Australian soap opera "Neighbours"). Several other Italian soaps have been produced such as "Ricominciare" ("Starting Over"), "Cuori rubati" ("Stolen Hearts"), "Vivere" ("Living"), "Sottocasa" ("Downstairs"), "Agrodolce" ("Bittersweet") and "Centovetrine" ("Hundred Shop Windows"). The most popular Italian prime-time drama series, "Incantesimo" ("Enchantment"), which ran from 1998 to 2008, became a daytime