Guiding Light is an American radio and television soap opera. It is listed in Guinness World Records as the third longest-running drama in television in American history. Guiding Light aired on CBS for 57 years between June 30, 1952, and September 18, 2009, overlapping a 19-year broadcast on radio between January 25, 1937, and June 29, 1956. With 72 years of radio and television runs, Guiding Light is the longest running soap opera, ahead of General Hospital, and is the fifth-longest running program in all of broadcast history; only the American country music radio program Grand Ole Opry, the BBC religious program The Daily Service (1928), the CBS religious program Music and the Spoken Word (1929), and the Norwegian children's radio program Lørdagsbarnetimen (1924–2010) have been on the air longer.
As the World Turns is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS for 54 years from April 2, 1956, to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips created As the World Turns as a sister show to her other soap opera Guiding Light. With 13,763 hours of cumulative narrative, As the World Turns has the longest total running time of any television show. In terms of continuous run of production, As the World Turns at 54 years holds the fourth-longest run of any daytime network soap opera on American television, surpassed only by General Hospital, Guiding Light, and Days of Our Lives. As the World Turns was produced for its first 43 years in Manhattan and in Brooklyn from 2000 until 2010.
Ellen Jayne Wheeler is an American actress, director and producer. Her work, both on screen and in production, has been primarily in American daytime drama.
Millee Taggart is an American actress, writer, and producer. She is best known for her role as Janet Bergman Collins on Search for Tomorrow. She portrayed the character from 1971 to 1982. Her other acting roles on soaps include Gerry McGrath Pollock #3 on The Edge of Night and Millie Parks on One Life to Live.
Richard Culliton is an American television writer known for his work on soap operas. He has won four Writers Guild of America Awards, including one as a head writer, and three Daytime Emmy Awards. He is an alumnus of Northwestern University. His wife, Carolyn Culliton, is also a veteran writer for soap operas.
Hogan Sheffer was an American screenwriter.
Jean Passanante is an American television screenwriter, best known for her work in daytime soap operas. Passanante got her start as an actress doing bit parts in the 1980s, including John Sayles's Return of the Secaucus 7 and Lianna. She later became a soap opera writer.
Lorraine Broderick is an American television soap opera writer. She got her start on All My Children as a protégée of the show's creator, Agnes Nixon. She went on to serve four different stints as its Head Writer, ultimately earning her four Daytime Emmy awards in that capacity. Broderick's work on the show has often been met with critical acclaim, citing her as its finest head writer outside of Nixon. She was the last head writer of All My Children's 40-year broadcast run on ABC, penning the show through its network finale on September 23, 2011.
David Kreizman is an American writer known for his work on television soap operas. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia. He was signed as a head writer at World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) from March 21, 2013, to August 15, 2014. He is the founder of Gen Z Media. His debut book "The Year They Fell" was published in 2019.
Scott McKinsey is an American television soap opera director.
Carolyn Culliton is an American daytime radio and television writer. Born in Indiana, she graduated from Northwestern University. Her husband is fellow daytime serial writer Richard Culliton.
Lisa Seidman is an American television writer who has primarily written for soap operas. She is a graduate of Franklin & Marshall College. Seidman has written episodes for several prime time television drama series, which include CBS-TV's Dallas, for which she wrote thirteen episodes, Falcon Crest and Knots Landing, for which she wrote 7 each, Murder, She Wrote, Cagney & Lacey, and Scarecrow and Mrs. King.
Donna Swajeski is an American writer known for her work on television soap operas. She has been a head writer, a co-head writer and a breakdown writer on award-winning daytime dramas for NBC Daytime, ABC Daytime and CBS Daytime. Before beginning her writing career on daytime dramas, she was Director of the East Coast Daytime Programs for NBC.
Gary Tomlin is an American soap opera actor, writer, producer and director.
David A. Levinson is an American television and soap opera writer, originally from Falmouth, Massachusetts. He is a 1997 graduate of Emerson College in Boston.
Stephen Demorest is an American soap opera writer. He is married to Nancy Curlee.
Lisa Connor is an American soap opera writer, producer, and director. She is a writer on the ABC Daytime and The Online Network serial drama All My Children.
Janet Iacobuzio is an American television soap opera writer.
Peter Brash is an American television soap opera writer, screen writer, and musical theatre librettist. His career in soap opera spanned more than 25 years, and included many of the major network serials.
Nancy Williams Watt is an American writer known for her work on television soap operas. She was born in Brooklyn, New York on June 9, 1948, to Associated Press editor Edward Williams and newswoman Sheila O'Brien Williams Barnes.
