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 opera met with negative reviews, but eventually proved critics wrong with nearly 13 million viewers tuning in each week. Even though the format proved successful, it was not until 1992 before "Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten" became the first German daily soap opera. Early ratings were bad as were the reviews, but the RTL network was willing to give its first soap opera a chance; ratings would improve, climbing to 7 million viewers by 2002. Not long after "Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten", Das Erste introduced "Marienhof", which aired twice a week. After successfully creating the first German daily soap, production company