April 1, 2009: A Day That Will Live In Soap Opera Infamy!

It’s hard to believe but it’s been a decade since Guiding Light received some news that soap opera fans will never forget. The headlines affected the show’s fate forever!

On April 1, 2009, CBS announced that GL, which premiered on radio on January 25, 1937 was being canceled. The last episode aired on September 18, 2009. It remains the longest-running scripted series in the history of American broadcasting.

The serial was created by soap legend Irna Phillips, who ushered the show into the television age in 1952. In 1968, GL became a half-hour program. And in 1977, the serial moved to the 60-minute format. The list of head writers the show had over the decades reads like a Who’s Who of Daytime Drama!

In addition to Phillips, other scribes for the show included the late William J. Bell, the late Agnes Nixon, the late Douglas Marland, Bridget and Jerome Dobson, Pamela K. Long, and Claire Labine.

Jill Lorie Hurst was the head writer when GL exited the airwaves. She celebrated the show by bringing back numerous beloved characters to the program in its final months.

In addition to seeing Phillip (Grant Aleksander, who had returned as a regular earlier in the year), the characters of Holly (Maureen Garrett), Nola (Lisa Brown), Fletcher (Jay Hammer), Dylan (Morgan Englund), and Mindy (Krista Tesreau) all made visits to Springfield, much to the delight of GL fans everywhere.

The primary family on the show over the decades was the Bauer clan. Matriarch Bert Bauer (played by Charita Bauer, the same surnames were a coincidence), passed away in 1985. A year later, her death was written into the show.

The series is remembered fondly for …continue reading on the next page —>

Continue reading on the next page…

The series is remembered fondly for its many memorable, larger-than-life characters, including Reva Shayne Lewis (Kim Zimmer), Alan Spaulding (the late Chris Bernau; Ron Raines), Roger Thorpe (the late Michael Zaslow), Alexandra Spaulding (Beverlee McKinsey), Robert Newman (Joshua Lewis), Jordan Clarke (Billy Lewis), India von Halkein (Mary Kay Adams), Maeve Kinkead (Vanessa), Jerry verDorn (Ross), and many more that is too numerous to mention!

GL won the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series three times and Outstanding Drama Series Writing Team six times.

While fans had hoped that the news of GL’s cancellation, which was announced on April 1st — aka April Fool’s Day — was a horrible joke, the news was, sadly, all too real.

While GL may be gone, it’s remembered fondly in the hearts and minds of the show’s many fans.