Home > Guiding Light

The Guiding Light (or simply Guiding Light as it's known today) is the longest-running American television soap opera. The program began as an NBC radio serial on January 25, 1937 before moving to CBS on June 30, 1952, as a televised serial.

The series was created by Irna Phillips, who based it on personal experiences in her life. After giving birth to a still-born baby at age 19, she found spiritual comfort listening to sermons by a preacher of a church centered on the brotherhood of man. It was these sermons that formed the nucleus of the creation of The Guiding Light.

The radio show's original storyline centered around a preacher named Rev. John Ruthledge, and all the people of a fictional suburb in Chicago called Five Points. The townspeople's lives had revolved around him. The show's title comes from a lamp in his study that family and residents could see as a sign for them to find help when needed.

During the radio years, succeeding preachers would carry on the work Rev. Ruthledge had started (and thus they became keepers of "the guiding light"). In turn, the show's setting moved to another fictional suburb, Selby Flats (supposedly in the Los Angeles area).

In 1952, "The Guiding Light" began airing on CBS television where it has been ever since. With the slow transition to television, the main characters had become a mid-town family called the Bauers. For the first few years of its television run, the show was produced (in separate sessions) via both radio and television, but eventually the show would become exclusively a television production.

The television family was headed by wise patriarch Theo "Papa" Bauer, who had three children, Bill, Meta, and Trudy. Bill's headstrong wife Bert (played by Charita Bauer) and her conflicts with the Bauer clan set the stage for much of the drama in the television show's first decade. In the 1960s and 1970s, the focus of the show slowly moved to Bill and Bert's children, Mike, Ed, and Hillary. Their lives and loves provided high drama for many years.

While Papa Bauer ended up being the bearer of the Guiding Light, the religious tones of the light and even religion in general were almost completely lost by the time the show moved to television.

In 1977, the "the" in the show's title was officially dropped (in an attempt to modernize the show's image), and thus has become known as simply Guiding Light.

By the early 1990s, the Bauers, Spauldings, Reardons, and Lewises had been established as core families in the fictional midwestern city of Springfield. To this, the Coopers were added. Buzz Cooper ( Justin Deas ) had abandoned his two children, Harley ( Beth Ehlers) and Frank ( Frank Dicopoulous ) after his experiences in the Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War was a war fought between 1957 and 1975 on the ground in South Vietnam and bordering areas of Cambodia and Laos See Secret War) and in bombing runs ( Rolling Thunder) over North Vietnam. See also the timeline of the Vietnam War. Fighting on.

The realism of the early 90s was in stark contrast to the mid-1980s, when self-described "Slut of Springfield," Reva Shayne (played by Kim ZimmerKim Zimmer (born February 2, 1955 in Grand Rapids, Michigan) is an American actress. Zimmer is probably best known for her role as Reva Shayne Lewis on the television soap opera Guiding Light from 1983 to 1990 and, currently, since 1995. Her character has) was Guiding Light's central character and storylines tended to be more campy. Infact, the show was so successful that executive producerExecutive producer is a role in the entertainment industry that is difficult to define clearly. Executive producers vary in involvement, responsibility, and power. Executive producers are commonly the main investor, the financier of the project. This part Jill Farren PhelpsJill Farren Phelps has been the executive producer of many American television soap operas, such as Santa Barbara Guiding Light Another World One Life to Live and currently General Hospital''. She got her start as a music director on General Hospital and didn't approach Zimmer to return even though she was available.

Phelps herself is a controversial figure among Guiding Light fans. Actress Beverlee McKinseyBeverlee McKinsey (born August 9, 1940) is an American actress. She started her soap opera career playing Julie Richards on Love is a Many Splendored Thing in 1970. She is most noted for her roles as Iris Cory on Another World ( 1972- 1980) and its spinof played Alexandra on Guiding Light during the Phelps years, and executed an option in her contract to leave the show without giving the show notice. It is widely believed that Phelps didn't read McKinsey's contract and thus allowed the show to lose the legendary actress. Another move considered a blunder by fans was the death of Maureen Bauer, played by Ellen ParkerEllen Parker (born September 30, 1949) is an American actress, best known for her role as Maureen Reardon Bauer on Guiding Light which she played from 1986 to 1993. She first became known in television circles by playing Ethel Kennedy in the miniseries Ke.

Also, in a hotly debated storyline, Reva, who was believed to be dead a second time (the first time, she drove off a bridge, only to be resurrected later as said Amish woman, Rebecca), was cloned at grieving husband Josh's request. When Reva was found alive, the lonely clone (who, ironically, was named DollyThe sheep named Dolly ( July 5, 1996 February 14, 2003) was the first mammal to have been successfully cloned from an adult cell. She was created at the Roslin Institute in Scotland and lived there until her death nearly seven years later. Scientists did, like the sheepThis article is about the animal; for other meanings of Sheep see Sheep (disambiguation). A sheep is any of several woolly ruminant quadrupeds, but most commonly the Domestic Sheep Ovis aries , which probably descends from the wild urial of south-central) committed suicide by drinking too much aging serum. As she lay on her death bed (actually a couch), Josh fumbled with a cure that would have reversed the effects of the aging serum. Unfortunately, he dropped it behind the couch and it was too late to save Dolly.