Today is the 75th anniversary of Guiding Light. To exist as a constant presence in American popular culture for three-fourths of a century is an amazing and unduplicated accomplishment. Although currently no new episodes are in production, the DVD release shows how much a part of our culture and family Guiding Light holds. I doubt any other show will duplicate its record ever. And who knows what may happen in the future? We’re talking about a show that already was actually cancelled and came back more than once, but even if nothing new is ever produced, people are certainly still watching I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners and it isn’t like they’re turning out new episodes. Just on the strength of existing episodes, once made more widely available to the public, the show can continue to grow and be passed on to the next generation. As fan of Doctor Who, Star Trek and Dallas, shows that went completely dormant for decades only to come back stronger than ever and a fan of Due South that got a third season although it took a multi-national deal to do it, if the right deal falls into place…who knows? In the meantime we keep interest in the show alive, introduce the next generation, and demonstrate there IS a market for soap operas (even if it lives in dark corners Nielsen doesn’t dane to go).
So celebrate this anniversary, accept the marvelous gift of a DVD sampler set which thanks to SoapClassics happened years before I expected and keep up the drum beat. Enjoy this video montage of cast photos I made for the now defunct (YouTube shut down the feature for everyone) Guiding Light YouTube Discussion Board.
UPDATE: We Love Soaps reports the anniversary.
http://www.welovesoaps.net/2012/01/historyjanuary25.html
Tags: GL, Guiding Light, Soap Classics, Soap Opera Future
