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Today, Friday September 18, 2009, marks the end of an era. The 72 year old soap opera, Guiding Light has gone off the air forever. There’s a lump in our throats as we try to accept that Monday won’t bring another episode of the oldest running drama.

Soaps.com’s Matthew Purvis has been writing the recaps and news articles for Guiding Light since Mon Aug 4th 2006 and doing a fine job of it. He wanted to give the show a sendoff that is deserving of the show that we have all laughed and cried along with for as long as we can remember. Each day, of this week preceding the cancellation, Matt has posted an article – with video clips - from each decade of the show, from the first radio date, January 25, 1937 to the finale, Friday September 18, 2009.

Matt first wrote Guiding Light From The Beginning, to start the tribute off.

Matt writes, "In light of the end drawing near, here's a little glance back at the beginning. Guiding Light first aired on radio on January 25, 1937 and ran until June 29, 1956. It made the leap to TV in 1952. The kernel of the series came to writer Irna Phillips from her own experiences growing up in Illinois. After giving birth to a stillborn child, she found solace in the radio broadcasts of church services and sought to create a new kind of space for drama and spirituality on the air." Read the article and view the video clips from the first episodes, in this article, Guiding Light From The Beginning.

Moving on, he wrote Guiding Light From The Beginning: The 1950s, which is when the show moved from radio to TV.

Matt posted, "In the 1950's, Guiding Light moved to TV while still remaining on the radio. For the first half of the decade, actors would shoot for TV in the morning before recording for radio in the afternoon. In 1952, the first episodes aired on CBS and ran only fifteen minutes. Control of the series was passed from Phillips to Agnes Dixon. Over the course of the decade, many of the show's staple families would become firmly established. This was particularly the case for the Bauer family, which has stayed with the series to this day." Read more of Guiding Light From The Beginning: The 1950s

Guiding Light From The Beginning: The 1960s is the third in the tribute.

Matt wrote, "With Agnes Nixon at the helm for the first half of the decade, Guiding Light in the 1960s became more explicitly socially conscious, allowing even more room for topical issues while integrated advertisements became less explicit. The second half of the decade saw former actors from the show taking over as writers and the brief return of Irna Phillips." Read the rest of the article and view the clips on Guiding Light From The Beginning: The 1960s

Guiding Light From The Beginning: The 1970s is the fourth in the tribute series.

Matt informs, "The 1970s saw some major changes for Guiding Light, and for soaps in general. The demands of advertisers made it necessary to focus more on younger characters and competition with the many new soaps springing up forced them to be sexier and more shocking than before. That didn't mean that the series lost its heart. The Bauers continued to provide a balance and Bert returned to focus for a few years. To keep up with demand, the show expanded to a full one hour format in 1977 and changed its name, officially dropping the "The" and becoming simply "Guiding Light" in 1975." Read the rest of the article and view the clips on Guiding Light From The Beginning: The 1970s

The fifth edition shows us Guiding Light From The Beginning: The 1980s.

Matt writes, "In the 1980s, Guiding Light underwent more major changes, though, strategically, the shifts were largely the same. The Dobsons left as head writers and Douglas Marland was brought in. The focus jumped again to introducing the younger characters on the show, displacing many of the more established ones, and creating more complex plots. Marland introduced the Chamberlain and the Lewis families among others." Read the rest of the article and walk down memory lane by viewing the clips on Guiding Light From The Beginning: The 1980s


Our sixth article: Guiding Light From The Beginning: The 1990s.

Matt writes, "The 1990s opened with Reva killing herself and Guiding Light swiftly changed style. The first half of the decade marked a return to more realistic and slightly more subdued storytelling, going out of its way to avoid the tendencies which marked the years of Pamela Long and Reva." Read the rest of the article and reminisce by viewing the clips on Guiding Light From The Beginning: The 1990s

Guiding Light From The Beginning: The 2000s – The End, is the last in the tribute.

Matt writes, "With the turn of the century, Guiding Light split away from centering itself in Springfield and substantially changed the focus of the entire series. Springfield was invaded by the Santos crime family and a baroque tale of battles for the throne and international intrigue dominated life on the distant island of San Cristobel." Read the rest of the article and enjoy the clips on Guiding Light From The Beginning: The 2000s.

For those of you who are curious about how things work, behind the scenes, feel free to view this Behind The Scenes Video of Guiding Light’s Final Episode

Please enjoy our tribute to the Guiding Light. Soaps.com would like to give special thanks to the fans who have been loyal to the show and to Soaps.com. We'd also like to give thanks to Matt Purvis for his dedication to bringing the fans everything there is to know about the show.

For more clips and articles about the show, past to present, read Matt’s in-depth daily recaps, continue to post in our message boards, which we will keep open indefinitely and let us know what you loved the most about Guiding Light.

Please feel free to watch the entire final episode of Guiding Light on our sister site, Soap Opera Fan.


- Christine Fix