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
Screening of soap operas in Australia After running for several months on W, the show was moved to FOX8, before being pulled altogether in December 2005. Fans in Australia lobbied hard to get it back. "General Hospital" returned to Australian television on 5 July 2010, again on W, at 12:50 pm and on its time shift channel W2 at 2:50 pm, with episodes ten weeks behind after the US. W dropped the show on 17 June 2011. "General Hospital" has had Australian-born actors George Lazenby, Rick Springfield, Tristan Rogers, and Thaao Penghlis as cast members. "Generations" is an American soap opera that had a short run