Guiding Light- Daytime Soap Operas- News, polls, previews

"The wife of our executive producer, John Grossman, who owns the production company NYPS, is a big fan of GENERAL HOSPITAL, and her whole thing was, 'You have the ability, so let's do something to save the soaps,'" explains producer Matthew D'Amato of how it all began. "We started doing research, and we sat down with a few actors, producers and directors, and said, 'Is this is a good idea? Could this work? Should we pursue it?' And we looked it up online and didn't see anything like this, so we thought it would be important to get started."

And the main goal of the film, D'Amato explains, is to generate enough buzz about the possible end of soaps to possibly prevent it from happening. "Hopefully this will get enough attention to help the genre, because we don't want to see it fade away," he says, adding that it's tentatively scheduled for a June 2012 release date at film festivals and possibly on networks such as Showtime. "We do want to see it at festivals, and we do want to see it on networks [so] people who aren't soap fans can watch the film and kind of relate to it, hear the stories and maybe want to pick them up or maybe do something about the genre. We have contacts we can send it to in order to get it out there, so hopefully it will get bigger and bigger!"

WGA East honors Labine

The WGA East has also selected daytime TV writer Claire Labine as winner of the Ian McLellan Hunter Award.

Apatow and Labine will be feted Feb. 19 at the WGA's East Coast awards ceremony at the B.B. King Blues Club in Manhattan. Kristen Wiig will make the presentation to Apatow.

WGA East president Michael Winship said: "With this year's Sargent and Hunter Awards, we honor one of the most important aspects of membership in the guild: collegiality. Both Judd Apatow and Claire Labine not only have created notable and entertaining bodies of work; they have gone out of their way to encourage and mentor new young writers, offering constant and solid support to those just starting out in the business."

The late Sargent wrote for "Saturday Night Live" for more than 20 years and served as president of the WGA East for 14 years.

Apatow's writing credits include "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," "Knocked Up" and "Pineapple Express." He's produced "Step Brothers," "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and "Bridesmaids."

Labine created and wrote "Ryan's Hope" from 1975-89. She wrote for "General Hospital" from 1993-96 and was head writer for "One Life to Live" from 1996-98 and "Guiding Light" from 2000-01.

The WGA East also announced that Terence Winter, the team of Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini and Nancy Giles will present at the ceremony.

Soap Actor's Suicide Condo Board Member Accepts NO Responsibility

Board member Marilyn Fireman says she is sorry that Santino is dead, but says it has nothing to do with the building's no-pet policy. She tells the NY Post, "You just assumed that [his suicide] was a result of a board�s decision."

Fireman did concede Santino routinely complained about the building�s anti-dog policies.

Santino's sister tells the paper the family is holding off on funeral arrangements until the dead dog's ashes are brought home ... saying, "They'll be buried together."

Santino had his beloved and healthy pit-bull Rocco put to sleep on Tuesday, Santino's 47th birthday. A few hours later, he overdosed on pills.

Struggling Soap Actor Commits Suicide After Euthanizing Beloved Dog

According to the NY Post the building had a ban on pit-bulls, but Nick Santino's dog had been grandfathered in ... which didn't sit well will some of the neighbors. Some claimed the dog was loud and aggressive, but others said building management was just harassing Santino ... trying to force him to get rid of the dog.

Santino had Rocco put to sleep on Tuesday -- for some reason he felt that was his only option.

According to the paper, a tearful Santino went to the doorman and said, "Give these to the other dogs. Rocco is no more."

Later that day Santino left a suicide note that read, "Today I betrayed my best friend and put down my best friend ... Rocco trusted me and I failed him. He didn�t deserve this."

Santino -- who has appeared on "All My Children" (Officer Anton) and "The Guiding Light" (Father Soto) -- OD'd on pills early the next morning.

Guiding Light is Released on DVD!

It features 20 of the program's most memorable episodes, digitally remastered and without commercials. It has episodes featuring some of the greatest characters in the series, including Kim Zimmer, Robert Newman, Grant Aleksander, Lisa Brown, Beverlee McKinsey, Michael Zaslow and Joan Collins.

Visit the website, www.soapclassics.com to see clips of each episode and order this great set of 20 Classic Episodes from "Guiding Light".

Tilford Likes The SINGLE LADIES!

Tilford announced the news on his Facebook fan page. "Single Ladies get ready ... Terrell Tilford joins the upcoming second season of VH1's "Single Ladies". Currently in production, season two will debut sometime in late May 2012."

Guest Starring Role

It's A Boy!

"We welcomed in awe the birth of Flynn Zachariah Bogue on Friday the 13th," the proud pop tells Soaps In Depth. "7 lbs., 8 oz. of healthy yumminess. Mandy was a warrior goddess, delivering him after 8 hours of labor, with only 20 minutes of pushing. He is a handsome little boy and is now home with his older siblings, Zeb and Zoe, who are both thrilled and enamored with the new arrival. Even our yappy tea cup Yorkie terrier is often caught tucking him in with a blanket, and protectively sleeps very close to him. Mandy is mending well. And we feel blessed with the magnificence of this new life."

The Secret Circle Casts Cassie's Mysterious Father John Blackwell

Joe Lando (ex-Jake, One Life To Live/ex-Macauley, Guiding Light) has been tapped to portray Blackwell, whose original name in the L.J. Smith book series was Black John a former member of the Circle many centuries ago who was killed by his own coven after he began to dabble in dark magic.

In the CW series, Blackwell is described as a commanding, enigmatic and powerful witch with many enemies. He'll return to Chance Harbor in Episode 15 (titled "Return") claiming to be a changed man, and determined to protect Cassie (Britt Robertson) and her Circle.

Lando is best-known for playing Byron Sully in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and starring alongside A.J. Cook and Hayden Christensen in the short-lived series Higher Ground. His other TV credits include the Melrose Place reboot, NCIS and ABC Family's Wildfire.

Stars From The Past

HALLMARK HALL OF FAME: A Smile as Big as the Moon

Jessy Schram ("Hawthorne," "Once Upon A Time"), Cynthia Watros (ex-Annie, Guiding Light) Also Star.

John Corbett ("Sex and the City," the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie "November Christmas") stars in the inspiring story of a high school football coach and special-education teacher who worked to achieve an impossible dream -- to take a class of special-education students to NASA's Space Camp -- in the new Hallmark Hall of Fame film, "A Smile as Big as the Moon," premiering SUNDAY, JAN. 29 (9:00-11:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network. The movie is based on the memoir of the same title, written by teacher Mike Kersjes with Joe Layden.

Space Camp is a competitive education program at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. Even though it's designed for gifted science students, Mike, a special education teacher and football coach at a Michigan high school, decides participating in the science program would do wonders for the self-esteem of his students - especially Ben (Peter ten Brink), a boy with Down syndrome who dreams of becoming an astronaut.

Aided by fellow teacher Robynn McKinney (Jessy Schram), Mike faces incredible obstacles in trying to make his dream become reality. School administrators oppose the plan as being too expensive, and Space Camp officials (led by Dr. Deborah Barnhart, played by Cynthia Watros) are skeptical... They've never had special-ed kids apply before.

At long last, Mike and his students are given the green light. And then the real challenges begin, over nine months of rigorous teaching, learning, training and fund-raising. The kids are belittled and, in some cases, bullied by their fellow classmates, but Mike finds a way to keep them on track. He even convinces the school's football team, his other students, to help them prepare for the intense physical challenges of Space Camp. The class finally leaves for Huntsville, Alabama. Will kids with Down syndrome, Tourette's, learning disabilities and emotional problems be able to leave their baggage behind, coalesce into a team and compete with some of the brightest students from across the country?

In the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, many of the special-ed students were played by young actors who are, indeed, "special," with Down syndrome, autism and learning disabilities. The film was shot in Wilmington, NC and at NASA Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama.

THE CAST: John Corbett as Mike Kersjes, Jessy Schram as Robynn McKinney, Cynthia Watros as Dr. Deborah Barnhart, Logan Huffman as Scott Goudy, Keson Loder as Lewis, Breezy Eslin as Stephanie, Peter ten Brink as Ben, Abigale Corrigan as Lisa, David Lambert as Steve, Jimmy Bellinger as Mattie, Tyrin Niles as Jamal, Tanner Dow as Adam, E. Roger Mitchell as Tom Keller, Keith Flippen as Dennis, Moira Kelly as Darcy, Mike Pniewski as Big Dan, Cameron Deane Steward as Josh Morgan, Mcsen Lintz as Ryan Kersjes, Mathew Lintz as Shawn Kerjes and Louise Linton as Julie.

"A Smile as Big as the Moon" was directed by James Sadwith ("Elvis," "Life Is Wild"). The executive producers are Brent Shields ("Beyond the Blackboard," "The Lost Valentine") and Dan Paulson ("Saving Jessica Lynch," "Hallmark Hall of Fame's Pictures of Hollis Woods"). The script is by Tom Rickman ("Coal Miner's Daughter," "Hallmark Hall of Fame's Front of the Class"). Mike Kersjes served as technical advisor on the film.

NYC'S Soap Bubble Bursts

Hayden Panettiere's Mom Pulls Plug On Marriage

Lesley Panettiere cited irreconcilable differences in her divorce petition, filed in L.A. County Superior Court.

The couple made headlines in August, 2008, after Alan was charged for striking Lesley in the face. He pled no contest to misdemeanor battery and was placed on 24 months probation.

Here's what's interesting ... Lesley lists the date of separation as July 15, 2008, which is a month prior to the incident that led to his battery conviction.

The couple has only one minor child -- a 17-year-old son. Hayden is 22. Lesley wants joint custody.

Guest Starring Role

'One Tree Hill': Bethany Joy Galeotti assures us that 'Naley' is still going strong

We visited while cast member Austin Nichols was directing the 7th episode of the season, and our first day on set afforded us the chance to watch Bethany Joy Galeotti (ex-Michelle, Guiding Light) film emotional scenes with her returning pal Chad Michael Murray. Yes, Lucas and Haley's BFFdom has endured despite his absence (and the fact that he never returned any of her letters -- a fact that plagued Murray a bit when he read the script).

In the scenes we watched, Haley wasn't in the most stable frame of mind, but Joy assures us that it's not all doom and gloom for Haley this season. When we catch up with her in the premiere, she's enjoying her growing family and the new/old business she shares with Brooke (Sophia Bush). "This season Haley has decided to, as we saw at the end of Season 8, reopen Karen's Caf�. She renovated Clothes Over Bros after Brooke had her financial catastrophe, and so she and Brooke went into business together. Haley is diving into that.She's got a daughter, she's got a son, her husband is traveling, it's sort of a very glam, small-town entrepreneurial mom life for Haley."

However, unlike Season 8, this final season of "OTH" isn't all about the laughs. "Things very quickly start to unravel," Joy admits. At first, it's manageable -- another local caf� owner, played by "Dancing With The Stars" alum Chelsea Kane, gives Brooke and Haley some not-so-friendly competition, and hijinks ensue.

Then, real trouble comes a-knocking, as it always does in Tree Hill. And by "trouble" we mean Dan Scott (Paul Johansson), who returns to the series full-time this season after a few years with guest star billing. "Haley's trying to deal with having Dan around and deciding whether she's going to let this person back in her life and into her family's life. And Nathan is away, and that's taking a huge toll on their relationship. It's a lot about Haley finding out what her limits are," says Joy.

Let's get to what you all really want to hear about: Naley, Naley, Naley! As part of his agreement for Season 9, James Lafferty requested that his episode commitment be reduced to make room for some other projects, so Nathan spends a portion of the season away from Tree Hill as he struggles to (almost single-handedly) manage his and Clay's agency. In the season premiere, we learn that he's been traveling a lot, and producer Steve Goldfried tells us he returns "around the second episode."

If you're getting vicarious separation anxiety, never fear, Naley fans. Joy assures us that this season is not about giving Haley an opportunity to make a life for herself without Nathan. In fact, most of Haley's story revolves around Nathan when things take a terrifying and unexpected turn. (Cue ominous music. Or just listen to his super-chilling voice-over in this promo.)

"I don't think this is about Haley's journey as an independent woman," Joy says. "That's who she's become, is her family. When you're in a marriage or in a relationship where that person is bound to you, that's life-changing. You're never the same. I don't feel that this is a time for her to be finding out who she is without him. I think it's more, 'Who am I in the absence of someone who belongs next to me, all the time? How do I continue to keep him a part of my life, even though we're not seeing each other face-to-face all the time?'"

We've been promised (and specifically asked to reassure the fans!) that Nathan and Haley do share a lot of scenes together -- they were shot out of order from other parts of episodes to ensure that they squeeze as much Naley time in as possible during James' limited time on set.

After nine years on the show, Joy tells us that she's gotten used to the come-and-go of various cast members, so James' absence wasn't as hard on her as Nathan's was on Haley. "It is kind of weird [that he's away]! I mean, James and I never really talked much. I love him to death, but we weren't two people that clicked and were like best friends," she says. "We have a mutual respect for each other and I would love to work with him again, but I don't feel the absence of a friend like I did with Chad when Chad left, or with Hilarie [Burton]. That's very different."

Of course, that's not to say he wasn't missed. "The presence of what James brings to the set and his professionalism... his own flavor that he brings, what he brings to the scenes and all that. I miss seeing his face around. He's a good guy," she says. "Of course he's missed."

As most fans are aware, the actors weren't contracted to return to "One Tree Hill" for Season 9, so each actor made their decisions on an individual basis. For Joy, the decision to return was really about getting to say an official, epic goodbye to the series that spanned so much of her life. "It was a really tough decision, but I have a few friendships here that I wasn't ready to walk away from yet. Season 8 ended with like a booze-on-stage-8 kind of party. I was kind of like 'This can't be how we say goodbye. At least let's come back for 13 more episodes.'"

Making the decision even tougher was Joy's pride and joy, her daughter Maria, who was born last February. Joy tells us that juggling motherhood and acting has been a precarious balancing act.

"I wouldn't let anybody tell you differently. It is not an easy task being a working mom. I am extremely blessed that my schedule is not nine to five every day. I have three days or three weeks off at a time, but then I do come in and work 14 hour days sometimes. It's definitely hard, but I'm grateful that I have the time off that I do. I'm grateful that I can still nurse and be there when she wakes up and most of the time when she goes to sleep."

Fun fact: Joy loves to change up her hair each season, and Haley's Season 9 'do was specifically designed to be as close as possible to Joy's natural look so that she could spend less time in the hair & makeup chair and more time with baby Maria.

On camera, there are three new babies on the show -- meaning that there are often six babies on set -- which hasn't exactly made things easier on Joy. "Somebody shoot me now," she jokes. "They're all adorable, but I'm like, 'I've got my own, thanks.' It makes me start lactating. The baby starts crying and I'm like, 'Where's my baby?!'"

We've got more from our chat with Joy to share with you soon, including her hopes for Haley's ending and her own post-OTH plans. In the meantime, we'll leave you with Joy's description of Season 9:

"Near death experiences. Jealousy. Psychotic breakdowns. Post-traumatic stress. Comedy. Action. Drama, drama, drama. And romance. You've got to throw romance in there somewhere."

You know, in case you weren't already on the edge of your seat. January 11, 8 p.m. EST on The CW. Be there.

Kim Zimmer To Headline Play at Connecticut Rep

In addition to her television work, Zimmer also appeared in such feature films as "Body Heat" and on stage regionally and off-Broadway in "Four Dogs and a Bone," "Blood Brothers," "Gypsy," "Dirty Blonde," Shirley Valentine" and most recently in Nora and Delia Ephron�s off-Broadway play "Love, Loss and What I Wore." Her memoir "I'm Just Sayin g" was published in August.

The play will run Feb. 23 to March 4 ay the Nafe Katter Theatre on the UConn campus in Storrs.

The play is described as "The Odyssey" re-imagined: a magical place where the blind see, the sick love and drag queens become goddesses. As the final stages of his disease bend his vivid imagination, Elliot becomes the legendary hero Odysseus determined to bring his crew-his fellow patients on the AIDS ward home despite all the obstacles the gods throw in his way. The drama charts one man's heroic quest for Kleos - Glory, to live a life worthy of being remembered. Critic Martin Denton calls this a 'majestic play� poetic, surreal and wonderfully humorous.' "

Jeff Branson Out At Y&R

'The Notebook' musical headed to Broadway

Galeotti has been working on the show with her writing partner Ron Aniello for years, and the pair even staged a reading in Wilmington, North Carolina in 2009. But they got a vote of confidence from Nicholas Sparks himself, who said on "The Early Show" Dec. 14 that a musical version of his book would hit the Great White Way at some point in the future.

The bad news: We don't think Ryan Gosling is involved in any way. He's too busy being nominated for Golden Globes and being the unofficial Sexiest Man of the Year.

The good news: It's "The Notebook." You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll want to fall hopelessly in love. Gosling or no, if you're a lady, you're genetically predisposed to love the crap outta this.

'One Tree Hill': Bethany Joy Galeotti finding post-series life 'such a change'

The cast has scattered as the Wednesday, Jan. 11, premiere of the CW drama series' ninth and final season nears. It promises new dilemmas for Haley James Scott (Galeotti) and her husband Nathan (James Lafferty), thanks in no small part to his ever-scheming father Dan (Paul Johansson).

"I was less emotional than I thought I'd be on the last day," Galeotti tells Zap2it, "but I think it came out in other ways. I'd be at home doing my laundry and not be able to find something, and I'd burst into tears. It's hard to see photos from the set and think, 'I'm never going to be in a room with all the same people again.'

"I'm sure I'll go back to Wilmington," adds Galeotti, who also made her debut as a director during the show's run. "I'm sure I'll work with some of those guys again, but that particular combination doesn't exist anymore, and it's hard to think about that. After you spend nine years of your life seeing the same faces every day, it's such a change."

While she's settling into being more of a full-time wife and mother back home in Battle Ground, Wash. -- where she and husband Michael also own and operate a restaurant -- Galeotti intends to keep fulfilling the musical yen "One Tree Hill" helped satisfy by sending Haley on a concert tour.

With longtime friend Amber Sweeney, she still performs in the duo Everly, and she's looking forward to a July concert in Los Angeles where she expects to reunite with "One Tree Hill" co-stars Shawntel Van Santen and Daphne Zuniga. Galeotti adds that Jana Kramer, who also got to merge her acting and her music on the show, also may sing at the event.

"We've got another performance coming up for Nicholas Sparks' celebrity golf weekend in April in New Bern [N.C.]," Galeotti reports. "I think we're going to be more of a boutique type of band, not pursuing things full-steam-ahead, not going on tour and being rock stars. We both have our own things we want to keep on the front burner, but this is something we can do to still be able to enjoy doing music."

Had her life not taken the course it did, Galeotti may well have tried out for FOX's "American Idol," NBC's "The Voice" or another televised music competition. "I think they're fun,'" she reflects, "Usually if I watch 'American Idol,' I'll pick it up after the audition process. I feel like so much of it is the gimmick of watching a train wreck, and I think it breeds negativity and gossip. I don't like that.

"I think 'The Voice' is a great show," Galeotti notes. "I really enjoy that, and I also like 'The Sing-Off,' though I haven't seen too much of it. I would definitely encourage any young artist toward those, since everything's different now. You kind of have to take the opportunities that come to you, so I would say, why not?"

'Teen Wolf' Season 2: 'Dawson's Creek' star John Wesley Shipp gets mad

Of course, we know Shipp best from his role as Mitch, Dawson's ill-fated father, on "Dawson's Creek," but he's also got a following for his superhero role as "The Flash," in the early '90s.

"Expanding my pantheon of Dads with WILDLY various parenting techniques-- from 'Have fun! Play Safe!' to beating my son unconscious," he wrote on his Facebook on Friday, Dec. 2. "I am happy to announce a new Dad: this time around for a couple of episodes of 'Teen Wolf.' Shooting commences December 6."

(Just because it's awesome, we'd also like to share with you that the status update got a friendly comment from Mary-Margaret Humes, who played Dawson's mom! "Big smile :) Love you my immortal husband...XO," she wrote. Best. Thing. Ever.)

Interview: It's A Gypsy Life For Newman!

In his latest project, Newman is starring opposite Broadway star Tovah Feldshuh in Gypsy at the Bristol Riverside Theatre in Bristol, PA. "Gypsy is a musical that's been around forever. Tovah is the leading character, Mama Rose. She's the ultimate stage mother. She drives her two daughters' careers to the point where they end up walking away from her," explains Newman, who plays Herbie. "He signs on as the girls' agent/manager, and he's also pursuing Rose and looking to settle down with her, marry and have a family."

Although Gypsy takes place during the dying 1920s vaudeville circuit, the daytime veteran says that he sees many parallels between the musical and the current state of the soap world. "It's set at a time when vaudeville is beginning to disappear. Mama Rose and her daughters have had success with this act they do, but the medium itself is going away because the "talkies" are coming out and there are too many other things competing with this idea of live comedy," he notes. "That's kind of what's going on with the soap world. Part of what's hurting the soap world is that there's just too many other things out there."

During the heyday of soap operas, Newman points out, there were only three major television channels. "People were very limited in what they could watch. Now, soap operas have to compete, not only with 400 other channels, but with the Internet and people watching stuff on their iPhones. So in a similar way in Gypsy, they're continuing to try to keep things moving for themselves, this small troupe of people in this business that's fading away because other things are coming in and taking their place. That's what's going on with daytime. It's struggling to hold its own in a time when everything around it has changed so dramatically that it doesn't seem to have a place anymore."

Gypsy is set to run until January 15, and Newman is hoping to continue to line up more theater roles afterwards. "For me, life after GL has been pretty good," he states. "I've done a lot in the past two years, and I have colleagues who have not. I continue to be thankful."

Gypsy opens Tuesday, December 6. For tickets and more information, visit www.BRTStage.org. For more from our interview with Newman, check out the CBS issues of Soaps In Depth, on sale now!

Pelphrey Heads To Broadway!

Set in London in December 1968, Rainbow stars Tracie Bennett as Garland, who is about to make yet another comeback with a 5-week run at a West End theater. While Garland hopes that the shows will help her hold on to her star power, she struggles with strained personal relationships and a drug addiction that will ultimately lead to a fatal overdose six months later. Bennett received an Olivier Award nomination -- London's version of the Tony Awards -- for her run in the musical drama earlier this year.

While Pelphrey has been a part of many New York City plays in the past, this will mark his Broadway debut. End Of The Rainbow will have a pre-Broadway run at The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis from January 28 through March 11, and previews will begin at the Belasco Theater in Manhattan on March 19. For more information, visit EndoftheRainbowBroadway.com.

Former 'Guiding Light' star dies in St. Louis

Deerfield, whose original name was Hirschfeld, died Friday of undetermined causes at her home in University City, her sister-in-law, Adrienne Hirschfeld, said today. Deerfield was 61; an autopsy is being performed.

Deerfield was the youngest of three children born to Madelienne Moscowitz and antiques dealer Richard Hirschfeld. She graduated from Ladue High School in 1967, and went to study acting in New York before joining the cast of the long-running soap. She was a regular on the show from 1970 to 1978.

Hirschfeld said that when Deerfield got to New York, it was suggested that she change her last name. She said that Hirschfeld when translated from German to English is Deerfield, which is how Lynn's new last name was chosen.

In 1975, Deerfield married Bill Beutel, the late ABC anchor. They divorced and Deerfield later appeared on some Hollywood TV shows before returning to St. Louis in the mid-1980s.

Survivors include three brothers, Mark (Adrienne) Hirschfeld of Ladue; Michael Hirschfeld of University City; and David Carter of University City; and a sister, Joan (Lyman) Johnson of Glendale. She had six nieces and nephews. Services are pending.

B&B's Adrienne Frantz Weds GL Alum

Glee Casts Guiding Light Actress to Play Mama Trouty Mouth

Gleeks will meet Mary Evans in the Dec. 6 episode and the role may recur. The actress, who has also appeared on NCIS: Los Angeles, will be paired with Smallville's John Schneider as Sam's dad.

It was said that Sam and his family moved away from Lima, Ohio in the season premiere because his dad got a job in another town. Overstreet, however, has since inked a deal to return to Glee in a recurring capacity.

Hutzler "Rings" In The New Year

Might the duo cross paths with the series star Sarah Michelle Gellar (Kendall, ALL MY CHILDREN), who is winning acclaim as both Siobhan and her estranged twin, Bridget? Tune in to The CW on Tuesday, January 10, at 8 p.m. EST, to find out! In the meantime, check out Season 2 of the Web soap THE BAY -- premiering this week at www.thebaytheseries.com -- where Hutzler returns as Press Secretary Kenneth Allen.

Matt Bomer's 'Magic Mike' thong fail

"The first time I tried it, I put it on wrong and my junk didn�t fit in it," he told MTV News. "I had to call a wardrobe person in [and say], 'Something is wrong with my thong, you guys. I think we are gonna have to figure this out.� And they're like, 'Yeah your legs are in the wrong holes.�"

But Bomer says the highly embarrassing nature of the wardrobe, and learning how to cleanly rip off tear-away pants, bonded him to co-stars Channing Tatum, Joe Manganiello and Alex Pettyfer.

"It was criminal man, we had a blast. There�s a new band of brothers in town," Bomer said. "There's something about having to throw a thong on in front of other people that just instantly forms an ensemble. We had a great time. I really think there hasn�t really been a movie like this before, and we did it all on a G-string budget ... I'm excited to see what people think.�

Hutchison Gets Another LIFE!

"Brace yourselves, I have some wonderful news to share with all of you. I am returning to One Life to Live as Gabrielle," Hutchison shares. "I have two shooting dates. Keep in mind, these are not air dates, but shooting dates. The first shoot date is Tuesday, October 25th; the second shoot date is Tuesday November 15th."

Bo found his fianc�e dead in the bathroom at the hands of The Music Box killer when Hutchison left the soap in January 2004. "I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what they have in store for Gabrielle," shares the actress. "She is dead but with daytime, who knows? I swear I would tell ALL of you if I knew what was going to happen. I have no script as of yet."

Considering Gabrielle's ties to Tina, the soon-to-return Marcie and Michael, and Bo, there are plenty of storyline options for the British beauty!

Is There a Future for the Soap Opera?

In July, the fledgling production company Prospect Park announced that it had reached agreement with ABC to license the series and turn them into Web programs. The move raised a number of thus far mostly unanswered questions: Which cast members would stay and which would leave? Would the series air for free or employ a subscription model? Would unions such as the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Writers Guild of America let their members work for the scaled-down salaries that Web series would likely require? But the biggest question is one that no one will know the answer to for some time: Is there a future for soap operas online? That may depend on how the Prospect Park deal works out.

Brad Adgate is not optimistic. Adgate is director of research for the ad-buying company Horizon Media. When "One Life to Live" leaves ABC, the number of soaps on network television will have dropped from eight at the beginning of 2009 to half that number three years later�a sorry state that Adgate blames on steady declines in viewership across the genre and a general aging of the soap audience.

"You put those two pieces together and that just spelled the cancellation one by one of all these longtime soap operas," Adgate said, adding that he is skeptical of an online renaissance for the genre. He explained that the format is poorly suited to viewing on computers and mobile devices: "You may want to watch an HBO special for an hour on your iPad, but are you going to do that day in and day out? Are you going to do that for a soap opera?" He also said that older audience members are unlikely to follow a show's move online: "The core soap-opera viewer is probably not going to make that transition." The genre "may just be kind of phased out as the years go by."

For actors, soaps have been important employers on both coasts for decades, not only having launched stars' careers but having provided steady work to thousands of performers. The slow death of the form would leave a gaping hole in the entertainment industry.

But C. Lee Harrington, a professor of sociology at Miami University and co-editor of the book "The Survival of Soap Opera: Transformations for a New Media Era," disagrees with that prognosis. While Harrington was dismayed by ABC's decision to ax "All My Children" and "One Life to Live," she sees hope in the Prospect Park deal. (A company representative declined an interview request for this article.)

"It does seem to be potential salvation," she said. "It does represent a new possibility for daily serial narratives that didn't exist before."

Harrington dismissed concerns about older viewers being Web-shy, claiming that the peak age for soap audience members hovers near 55 and that studies have shown that "more and more adults in their 40s and 50s are feeling comfortable online." She said the biggest hurdle that Prospect Park will face will be making certain the product feels familiar to longtime viewers. That means retaining cast members.

"I think they're still trying to figure out which actors might transition, and that is huge," Harrington said. "If you're talking about the fictional community of Pine Valley"�the town in which "All My Children" is set�"retaining the viewers' understanding of what Pine Valley is�a community of people, and people that they've known for decades�is key."

AFTRA is currently in talks with Prospect Park over an agreement that would allow union members, including cast members of the network shows, to join the Web incarnations. But, as Harrington noted, the Web series are still not likely to provide the same employment opportunities as their predecessors. A Web version of "All My Children" or "One Life to Live," she said, will inevitably rely on "smaller casts, less-well-paid casts, and trying to figure out a different way of economizing."

Crystal Chappell knows all about economizing. The Emmy winner was a member of the cast of "Guiding Light" when CBS canceled that show�then the longest-running program on television�in 2009. She is far from pie-eyed when it comes to the future on network television of the genre in which she has worked for most of her career.

"It's always about the numbers," she said. "You could just see that the audience was no longer there." She cited the expansion of the cable TV option, the economic recession, and declining ad dollars as reasons for soaps being canceled and replaced by less-expensive talk and reality programs.

But instead of waiting for the future of the soap opera to arrive, Chappell went to work helping to build it. She is currently wrapping up the third season of "Venice," a Web series she co-created two years ago and has populated primarily with actors she worked with in network daytime. She was awarded a special Daytime Emmy in 2010 for her efforts.

Chappell's series runs on a subscription model. "Like people paying their cable bill, they basically pay to watch some of their favorite actors and a story that they like, hopefully, on the Internet," she explained. She is still working to find major sponsorship but said her audience has grown; she compared her viewership numbers to what one would find for an "expanded cable" program.

"As far as Prospect Park is concerned, I'm intrigued by it," she said. "There's still a lot of resistance to this. But the younger generation, that's the demo that you want to attract. They know how to use computers. Personally, from the perspective of an actor and a soap fan and a producer of an Internet show, I think it's exciting. I want to see what they're going to do. Hopefully, it will be successful."

John Driscoll 'Young & Restless' Hunk -- I DIDN'T Impregnate My Fan!!!

Soap opera stud John Driscoll has filed for a restraining order against a 27-year-old female fan ... who allegedly concocted terrible lies about the actor that nearly destroyed his relationship with his fianc�e ... and jeopardized his career.

According to court docs, obtained by TMZ, Driscoll claims the fan began telling people she had multiple sexual encounters with John ... and he even fathered her child. The "rumors" allegedly spiraled out of control -- so John resorted to drastic measures.

John claims, "To silence these rumors, to gain credit back from both colleagues and family, I willingly took and paid for the lab testing on a paternity test which knowingly came back negative with a 0% match."

According to the docs, John believes the woman "clearly is not rational" -- and fears she will harm either himself or his fiancee. John wants a judge to keep her at least 500 yards away at all times PLUS he wants her to pay him back for the $119 paternity test.

John was due in court on Sept. 13 -- but he missed his hearing .. so the judge tossed his petition.

Soap Opera 451

�Soap Opera 451: A Time Capsule of Daytime Drama�s Greatest Moments� includes interviews with: �All My Children�s� Eden Riegel on her character Bianca coming out as a lesbian to her mother, Erica Kane; �Another World�s� Linda Dano on her character Felicia's alcohol intervention; �Dark Shadow�s� Kathryn Leigh Scott on Barnabas bringing Josette back from the dead; �One Life to Live�s� headwriter Michael Malone on Marty's gang rape; �General Hospital�s� headwriter Thom Racina on scripting Luke and Laura's wedding; �Generations� creator Sally Sussman Morina on the show�s groundbreaking racial housing discrimination story; and dozens of other stars, writers, insiders and stories from �The Young and the Restless,� �As The World Turns,� �Days of Our Lives,� �Guiding Light�, �Passions,� �Texas,��The Bold and the Beautiful,� �The Doctors� and many more.

�Soap Opera 451: A Time Capsule of Daytime Drama�s Greatest Moments� may be experienced via a tablet, iPad, cell-phone, lap-top or desk-top computer. All of the text may be read on the Kindle or Nook devices.

Order Kim Zimmer's New Tell-All

Y&R's Driscoll Is Engaged!

Yet when Nelson, who works for an air lease company, needed to go to Paris for an air show, the actor realized that he couldn't ask for a better location. "She was going to be there for four days, where she had to work one day," he says. "We decided to turn this into a mini-vacation. She had no idea, but I thought, 'Oh, my gosh, this is the perfect time to do it."

While Driscoll admits that Nelson was sort of hoping he might be inspired by the City of Love to do just that, he kept her off her guard by not asking her to marry him the moment he landed. Instead, he contacted a friend who was a photographer to do a photo shoot with them around Paris the next day. "She doesn't like being in front of people or cameras, so I'm like, this is perfect because she won't even be thinking about it."

Still, Driscoll had to deal with his own case of nerves when the weather turned drizzly and his photographer friend's camera suddenly stopped working. But when the trio took a boat ride, everything turned around in Driscoll's favor. "All of a sudden the clouds part, the sun comes out, and Philippe's camera miraculously starts working again!" Driscoll says that he took that as a sign. "I get the ring box... and go up behind Beth, and whisper to her, 'Are you happy?' She says yes. I ask her if she could put one last thing on for me -- I'd been asking her to put things on all day because of the photo shoot -- and she said yes. Then she turns around and I have the ring box in my hand. I drop down on my knee and say, 'Beth, will you marry me?' She said, 'Absolutely yes!'"

In a funny twist, about 25 high school girls from Georgia, along with their chaperones, had boarded the boat. "Everybody is clapping, cheering and congratulating us," he recalls. "It was absolutely fantastic. The whole weekend was that way. We went to this bridge -- it's called a lock bridge. There's a chain link fence on the side of it, and you take a lock and write your name, the date and literally lock it on the side of the bridge. We wrote J&B in a giant heart and put the date -- June 20, 2011 -- and we locked our love on the bridge in Paris. It was incredible. Magical!"

Afternoon Delight, Indeed

GL Alum Heading To Broadway

Mayhew Rocks Out!

Mayhem has been rockin' the Los Angeles club scene and recently had a video release party for new single, "Look Inside." Additionally, the performer is excited to announce that the song will be released on iTunes on Tuesday, June 15! "This corresponds with the date that my music will be featured on Oxygen Network's new Paris Hilton show, THE WORLD ACCORDING TO PARIS!" she reveals.

For more on the Mayhew's post-daytime career (including details about her new movie!), look for her Keeping Track feature in an upcoming issue of Soaps In Depth.

Chappell Named Ambassador!

Chappell -- who played one half of GL's wildly popular same-sex supercouple Otalia during the end of the soap's run -- recently visited the HMI-run Harvey Milk High School in New York City. Through both her own efforts and those of her devoted fans, the institute has received hundreds of donations and in-kind gifts from individuals, and even Starbuck's coffee! The Emmy winner joins fellow Ambassadors including Tim Gunn, Heather Matarazzo, Mary-Louise Parker, Robert Verdi and B.D. Wong in raising awareness about HMI and their goal that no young person feel ashamed of who they are, and that each one of them deserves a safe, supportive space to grow and thrive. For more information on the Hetrick-Martin Institute, visit www.hmi.org.

Mindy's Twitter Tales of Life in Springfield

GL Star Returns To Broadway!

Stewart has previously appeared on Broadway as Perchik in Fiddler On The Roof and as Christian in Cyrano: The Musical. The People In The Picture will make its world debut at Studio 54 in New York City. Previews begin Friday, April 1, and the show officially opens on April 28, with a limited run through June 19. For ticket information, click here.

Procter & Gamble moves from soap operas to tweets

Procter & Gamble Co., whose sponsorship and production of daytime TV dramas helped coin the term "soap operas," has pulled the plug after 77 years. Instead, the maker of Tide detergent, Ivory soap and Olay skincare is following its customers online with a big push on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

"The digital media has pretty much exploded," marketing chief Marc Pritchard said in an interview. "It's become very integrated with how we operate, it's become part of the way we do marketing."

The last P&G-produced soap opera, "As The World Turns," went off the air in September. The show was the leading daytime soap for decades, but had lost some two-thirds of its audience at the end.

Over the years, P&G produced 20 soap operas for radio and TV. But ratings for daytime dramas have been sinking for years, as women, their target audience, increasingly moved into the workplace, switched to talk and reality shows, and spent more time using online media and social networking sites.

P&G, the world's biggest advertiser, still buys individual commercials on daytime dramas. But the dollar amount has shrunk. P&G won't say by how much.

Dori Molitor, whose WomanWise LLC agency specializes in marketing brands to women, says big companies are realizing that social media is an efficient way to connect with customers.

"Social media has become mass media, and for women especially," she said. "I think for all marketers, these one-way, 30-second (TV) spots are very expensive, and are less effective for the way that women make decisions."

Marketing experts say the biggest companies were generally slow to adapt to the rapid rise of social networks, but that beverage rivals Coca-Cola Co. and Pepsico Inc., and P&G and fellow consumer products makers Unilever PLC and Johnson & Johnson are among those quickly making up for lost time.

In recent months, P&G began selling Pampers diapers on Facebook, offering an iPhone application for Always feminine products that allows women to track menstrual cycles and ask experts questions, and using social media to turn a campaign for the venerable Old Spice brand into a pop-culture icon.

The "Smell like a Man, Man" commercials starring hunky former football player Isaiah Mustafa became a YouTube sensation, drawing tens of millions of views and spawning parodies such as one with Sesame Street's Grover, and generated another round of attention with Twitter questions that Mustafa answered in videos � such as on ABC's Good Morning America when he suggested that President Barack Obama could improve standing with female voters by wearing only a towel and beginning speeches with "Hello, Ladies!"

The echo effect gives P&G a bigger bang for its nearly 9 billion bucks a year spent on advertising.

"It is such an effective advertising campaign that we are getting impressions that we did not pay for," CEO Bob McDonald told investors recently, recounting that he saw an editorial cartoon showing Obama on horseback, a takeoff on Mustafa's "I'm on a horse" Old Spice catch-phrase.

For a company known for measuring just about everything, P&G touts big numbers from Old Spice tracking:

� Number of impressions (people who saw, read, or heard about commercials): 1.8 billion.

� Number of YouTube views for Old Spice and related videos: 140 million and counting.

P&G also said Old Spice sales are growing at double digits, taking more of the market for body washes and deodorant.

Just 20 months ago, P&G hosted "digital night" at its Cincinnati headquarters by inviting Google, Facebook, Twitter and other online experts to help test ways online and digital media could be used in marketing. By the Vancouver Winter Olympics last February, P&G was coordinating TV commercials with Facebook messages and tracking instant reactions to new commercials on Twitter.

P&G, which sponsored Team USA, unveiled sentimental "Thank you, Mom!" commercials at the Olympics that it estimates added $100 million in sales. The campaign has included Facebook essay contests and e-Cards for mothers.

"It's kind of the oldest form of marketing � word of mouth � with the newest form of technology," Pritchard said.

Straight Girls Guide to Gay Bars

You Tube

WORLD WIDE DISTRIBUTION

Metan will be the exclusive representative in China for 130 episodes of each series, both produced by TeleNext Media for Procter & Gamble Productions. MIPCOM marks the first time the shows will be available for China.

Metan�s president, CEO and founding partner, Larry Namer, said, �GL and World Turns, two of the most successful TV programs ever produced in the U.S., have captured the hearts of North American audiences for decades. We�re delighted to be the first to introduce these award-winning programs to audiences in China. We feel strongly that the series� compelling storylines, relatable characters and program quality will have great appeal to audiences in China.�

Power�s VP of Asia and the Middle East, George Sakkalli, commented, �China's vast television and new media market has great potential. Metan's unique approach and commitment will ensure that Power's content reaches many millions of Chinese viewers. I am delighted that Power has been able to introduce these much loved soaps to China.�

Brian T. Cahill, the senior VP, managing director for TeleNext Media, added, �For a combined 123 years, GL and World Turns have been the gold standard of contemporary serial entertainment. We proudly support the partnership between Power and Metan that will make this perennially engaging entertainment available to the Chinese audience for the first time.�

Kiss Taped

Chappell On GL's Final Episode

Mindy Sue Got Married!

Guiding Light Goodbye: Final Thoughts

Dying of the Light

The series finale of Guiding Light, after 15,000 episodes, opted to grant the long-suffering citizens of the fictional town of Springfield happy endings. After a little suspense, leading character Reva Shayne tearfully agreed to marry beau Josh Lewis for the fourth time. Two other marriages took place. Two of the show's teens drove off to university. "It's just too many goodbyes," says one character.

For fans around the world, last Friday's end of The Guiding Light was the end of an era. The question on most devotees' minds now is whether it also signals the end of an entire genre.

The soap opera that became the longest running drama in TV history debuted as an NBC radio show in 1937, and then as a CBS TV program in 1952. Back then, companies like Procter & Gamble invented the genre to sell the soaps that sponsored the shows.

The soap opera rose to a ratings peak in the 1960s and 1970s, buoyed by automobile advertising and a large, stay-at-home daytime audience. The soaps invented what television scholars have called "immersive story worlds" � long-running narratives that aren't expected to end, ever.

Until now, that is. The soap may have had its day. Dwindling advertising dollars, and the aging of soaps' core viewership out of the coveted 18-49 advertising demographic have been blamed for the genre's decline.

So with Guiding Light finally over, what measures are the remaining seven daytime soaps taking to make sure they remain on the air? On Feb. 16, 2009, All My Children featured a same-sex wedding, the first soap to do so. It's not clear that such attempts to keep plots relevant will work in the long run.

"There are so many entertainment options, lifestyle options competing with soap operas now," says C. Lee Harrington, professor of sociology at Miami University. She is co-editing a forthcoming book, The Survival of Soap Opera, which will discuss how soaps' producers can save the medium.

"Soaps are routines, and if you break those for many months, it can be hard to get back into it," explains Nancy Baym, author of Tune In, Log On: Soaps, Fandom, and Online Community. After coverage of O.J. Simpson's murder knocked some soaps off the air for months, "it spiralled. Once the viewers were gone and not as many of them came back, the producers got interested in younger, sexier storylines to bring in younger viewers."

Devotees to Guiding Light have been voicing their anger and sadness about the show's end online. "I can barely keep it together," wrote one fan on the Guiding Light's fan forum at SoapCentral.com.

Seventy-two years and 20,000 episodes later, however, some producers and fans were admitting the show had gone stale. The show's declining ratings � just 2.1 million viewers per episode this year, down from 3 million five years ago � had led producers to dramatically change production values to save money. Many fans voiced adislike of the show's experimentation with shaky handheld digital cameras and less grandiose sets.

Others didn't take well to attempts on the show's part to introduce storylines aimed at a younger demographic, particularly a recent plot about cloning. Yet although the show's demographics are aging, the book's authors also point out that they are incredibly active online � something soaps' producers could be doing more to engage.

"Fans are using YouTube to do personal archiving" of the show, says Harrington. "They'll repackage the whole history of a couple, for example. They haven't offered interactive opportunities to viewers the way other shows have done."

Some believe that this online activity means reports of the soaps' demise are exaggerated. The three major networks all broadcast some TV content on their own websites, and "the industry has not found a way to monetize those viewers," argues Sam Ford, a co-editor of The Survival of Soap Opera. "There's no metric of engagement." Ford, a research affiliate of M.I.T.'s Convergence Culture Consortium and a longtime soap opera fan, has compared soaps to long-running programming like pro wrestling

No matter how many storylines are wrapped up, however, longtime fans have logged on to online discussion forums to list countless loose threads Guiding Light left hanging � and will now go unresolved for good.

"I have been with you for the whole 72 years," one fan posted in all-caps on the comments thread of a CBS news story on Guiding Light's cancellation. "Your show and your town are like so many nice, beautiful and happy places I have been ... Please take care and you all will be in my heart forever. Your faithful viewer an old sad women (sic)."

Lights officially out for iconic CBS soap opera

The show went out on a high note, with many of the characters gathering for a picnic in a park on a bright sunny day. The show's most famous on-again-off-again couple, Reva (Kim Zimmer) and Josh (Robert Newman), met at the light house, reaffirmed their love for each other and drove off together in Josh's pick-up truck.

CBS in April decided to pull the plug on the program because of its high cost of production and flagging ratings. This past year, the show mustered an average 2.1 million viewers an episode -- a far cry from the more than 5 million viewers it attracted a decade ago. CBS plans to replace the soap opera on Oct. 5 with a remake of "Let's Make a Deal," hosted by Wayne Brady.

"Guiding Light" was created in the depths of the Depression, in 1937, as a 15-minute radio program aimed at selling soap and other products to housewives -- thus earning it the moniker of "soap opera." In 1952, the show moved to television, where it has been a mainstay ever since. It is owned by packaged products giant Procter & Gamble, the maker of Ivory, Tide, Mr. Clean and Crest toothpaste. Legions of the show's fans protested the cancellation, saying they had a special place in their hearts for the program about the families of the fictional Midwestern town of Springfield. Some begged CBS to reconsider its decision. But the network said that neither it nor P&G could make the finances work, and they joined those who mourned the death of the history-making serial. Beyond entertaining millions of viewers with the love lives of the characters, the show explored themes that were once taboo for television: rape, abortion, adultery and AIDS.It was produced in New York and provided jobs for thousands of people over the years.

"This ground-breaking program has provided steady employment, wages and benefits for thousands of AFTRA performers and other union members working in the entertainment and media industries," the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists said in a statement today.When CBS made its decision, the show's executive producer, Ellen Wheeler, was philosophical."This show has been here since before World War II," Wheeler said in early April. "It has gone through wars and tragedies and triumphs -- man walking on the moon, and the dawn of the computer age. This show chronicled all these changes in society. It has been our mirror on society for generations, and when you lose something that is part of the fabric of society you lose something precious."

World's longest running soap ends

Guiding Light first appeared on NBC radio before moving to television in the 1950s, but viewing figures had declined in recent years.

It featured many actors who went on to be major stars, including Kevin Bacon, Calista Flockhart and James Earl Jones.

All the characters were gathered together in a park for a picnic before the show's long-running on-off couple, Josh and Reva, finally declared their undying love and drove off in a pick-up truck.

The actors playing the characters, Kim Zimmer and Robert Newman, had both been in the show for more than 25 years.

Guiding Light began life as a 15-minute daily drama on NBC radio in 1937 before moving to television in 1952.

It initially focused on Rev John Ruthledge and the community in a fictional suburb of Chicago called Five Points, but the recent show revolved around the lives and loves of three families in the fictional mid-western town of Springfield.

The show won dozens of awards in its seven-decade span and ran up more 15,700 episodes, each ending in a cliffhanger.

CBS said it had broken new ground with its coverage of social issues such as cancer, alcoholism and teenage pregnancy.

"No show in daytime or prime time, or anytime, has touched so many millions of viewers across so many years as Guiding Light," said CBS Senior Vice President Barbara Bloom.

But the BBC's Los Angeles correspondent Peter Bowes said that in the increasingly competitive world of daytime TV, Guiding Light had struggled to win an audience.

Interviews

Tina Sloan Says Goodbye to Guiding Light

Veteran cast member Tina Sloan sympathizes with viewers she expects to be devastated by the show's airing of its final episode Friday. But she thinks fans will share her thrill about how the show told its final stories.

"I think the fans are going to be ecstatic," Sloan tells TVGuide.com. Sloan uses the same word to describe her feelings about the marriage of her character, Lillian Raines, who somehow remained single for nearly all of her 26 years on the show.

"She fell in love with Buzz (Justin Deas) two years ago and started having fun," Sloan says. "It was a different note for her; she's always been the caregiver, the generous nurse, the loving mother and grandmother. When she met Buzz, he just made her laugh, and there was a different note in her personality. And she embraced it, and I think they celebrated that in the wedding.

"These marriages were just lovely," she continues. "We're all having these happily-ever-after, Cinderella endings, which is a real treat for everybody, including the actors. We're all going off happy to be happy, and I would hate to go off not happy."

Head writer Jill Lorie Hurst says the writing staff's major goal was to wrap up the show's immense history in a way that gave closure, but not too much. "We knew right away that we couldn't � and shouldn't � wrap everything up too tightly. We didn't want to tie it with a bow and not leave any room for the audience to wonder. But [the audience] was our top priority. We wanted them to be as satisfied as possible. We had some reunions, some new couples � we tried to have a little something for everyone."

Hurst said it was also "extraordinarily important" to honor the history of the show within the present storylines. Sloan's character, for example, visited the grave of her friend Maureen (Ellen Parker) in one of the final episodes. Maureen died in a car accident after learning her husband had an affair with Lillian.

"We tried to touch on history as often as was appropriate without hitting our audience over the head with it," Hurst says. "We can just mention a place or a time or a character name, and as long as they know that we remember where these people come from, they know we're all aware of how the past affects how we move forward."

Sloan says the final episodes also paid tribute to the previous generations of actors on the show. "[Maureen] was a very important character on the show, and a lot of the old fans loved her. So it was a way to give her back at the end. I think the writers tried to give everyone their old favorites, for a glimpse at least."

One of the toughest parts of ending the show is saying goodbye to some characters for good, including Alan Spaulding (Ron Raines). He died, perhaps as a result of giving his bone marrow to his son, Phillip (Grant Aleksander).

"Alan died, and that's a really sad thing, but he died making a sacrifice, which is a beautiful thing," Sloan says. "He had hurt a lot of people in his heyday, so in a sense, if anyone had to die, it sort of had to be him. There had to be a sacrifice of some kind."

"That was hard," Hurst adds, noting that Alan's death was on their must-do list before the show wrapped up. "We talked a lot about everyone's love stories, and what issue or relationship a lot of these characters had to resolve," Hurst says. "Phillip and Alan, in our minds, was a big story, and ... that was one of the first things we talked about. It was very important to us to find some redemption for Alan and to get that relationship to a good place."

Hurst says the happiness that Lillian finds is a nice balance to Alan's death. "It was very important to me that Lillian get to be a bride," she says. "She never had that fairy tale moment that a lot of women get to have, with all the hope of starting a new life. But it's never too late, so we really felt she deserved it."

Sloan says Guiding Light's cancellation reflects the turbulent daytime television industry.

"We are the emotional consciousness of our country, and I think we also stand for generational family values," Sloan says. "And the fact that those family values are being taken off the air worries me for our country. Our show has so much history, and I think it's something you treasure. I don't think it's something you throw over for a game show." (CBS announced in August that a new version of Let's Make a Deal will fill Guiding Light's timeslot.)

Hurst, however, remains optimistic about daytime's future. "I think there'll be changes � maybe we'll go back to half-hour soaps or maybe cable will branch out and take on daytime storytelling," she says. "Then there's the Internet. There are so many places to tell stories, and I believe we will continue to tell them. I believe the audience counts on us, the daytime community, to do that. We're going through a rocky period, but I really believe that we'll survive. It will be different, but there will be storytelling."

It's those stories and the characters in them that Hurst hope fans take with them once the show is gone. "I hope we brought the audience some joy and some comfort more than anything else," Hurst says. "I hope they'll remember Tom Pelphrey's laugh, Buzz and Lillian, the Cooper family poker games. I hope they will carry some sort of comfort with them. I grew up as a viewer, and I understand what that means to tune in during the day and have company. Sometimes you just need the company of people you like and care about during the day."

Sloan says she's just happy to be a part of Guiding Light's place in history. "It is soap opera," she says. "It's the first, the longest, and nobody will ever outlive it.

"We believe in love," Sloan says. "We're going to have bad, naughty things going on, but that's the spice of life. Of course we're going to have all these things � we're a soap opera. But we also, underneath it all, had this core value system that was quite extraordinary. I know it's a soap opera, but we were extraordinary."

'Guiding Light' goes out in style; storied soap opera ends, appropriately, on a light note

Producers had said the finale would give viewers a sense of transition, and it did.

There were on-again, off-again relationships rekindled, closure in some, and new beginnings for others.

In the end, though, the love story between Reva Shayne (Kim Zimmer) and Josh Lewis (Robert Newman) was a common thread that held the episode together.

Early on, Lewis told Shayne he loved her, and wanted to marry her - but not then. He wanted to wait a year later.

Just past the midpoint of the hour-long show, the story was fast forwarded a year.

"You knew I was going to show up - what you didn't know is what I'm going to say," Shayne said when they met again at the foot of a lighthouse, with her son, Colin, in tow.

She said the year away helped her find the old Reva, the character she's played since 1983.

In a true daytime moment, before the Josh and Reva storyline finished, the show cut to an extended montage of scenes showing other cast members tying up their stories to a musical backdrop.

Then, Reva, Josh and Colin (played by Nicholas Curzio) got into an old green Ford pickup.

They smiled and drove off, leaving the lighthouse (shot at New Jersey's Gateway National Park) on the screen, and the words "The End."

TV shows come and go in prime time all the time. However, in the daytime genre, the shows have a closer connection to the viewers, which makes endings like this harder.

In the case of "Guiding Light," that end hits roughly 1.2 million people. Not a large bunch by any measure, but a dedicated crowd.

Co-writer Jill Lorie Hurst told the Daily News earlier that the writers and producers were "really proud we were able to leave the characters in a good place - a good place the audience and the characters deserve."

As finales go, there wasn't any big bang, or gripping dramatic moment people will talk about for years to come.

Instead, "Guiding Light" went out on a light note. No catastrophes, just a bunch of scenes - a quickie wedding or two, a day in the park, and a shot near a lighthouse - all designed to bring people together for a final glimpse at the characters, and then send the viewers away forever satisfied that, at the very least, Josh and Reva were back in each others arms.

Lights out for 'Guiding Light'

The last episode took an upbeat, life-affirming tone, complete with a scene that gathered many of the characters at a picnic in the park on a beautiful day.

And the closing moments sealed the future of the show's signature on-and-off-again supercouple: Reva (Kim Zimmer, who created the role in 1983) and Josh (Robert Newman, who started on the show in 1981).

They rendezvoused, according to plan, at the local lighthouse and declared their undying love. Then these soul mates climbed into Josh's pickup truck.

And they drove away, as the words "The End" flashed on the screen before a final fade-out.

"Guiding Light" began on radio in 1937, then moved to TV in 1952. In recent decades it was set in the midwestern town of Springfield, where it focused on the Spaulding, Lewis and Cooper clans.

Along with veteran cast members, the show also played host to many actors who left to find larger stardom elsewhere. These include Kevin Bacon, JoBeth Williams, James Earl Jones, Allison Janney, Brittany Snow, Hayden Panettiere and Melina Kanakaredes.

CBS issued word that the soap opera would be axed last April, and production of the show, which was taped in Manhattan and in nearby Peapack, New Jersey, wrapped in August.

"Guiding Light" now becomes the latest victim of the ratings collapse afflicting the entire soap-opera world. With an average 2.1 million viewers, it was the least-watched of all the network soaps, which after today (and some 15,700 past weekdays for "Light") will total only seven.

On Oct. 5, CBS will fill the slot "Guiding Light" is vacating with a new edition of the game show "Let's Make a Deal."

In this publicity image released by CBS, Kim Zimmer and Robert Newman from the daytime series "Guiding Light," are shown. The venerable weekday soap opera is airing its farewell hour, Friday, Sept. 18, 2009, after 72 years on the air. The words "The End" appear on the screen before its final fadeout.

Guiding Light Fades to Black

'Guiding Light' ends 72-year run amidst melancholy feelings from cast and crew

"There were a lot of different emotions going on for all of us," Chamberlin told the Daily News. "I think those emotions sort of surprised us at times."

Those emotions are sure to run high Friday, when at 10 a.m. CBS airs the final episode of "Guiding Light" after a 72-year run that spans radio and TV.

"I would feel fine, and then, when I shot my last scene, I just broke down and cried so hard," says Chamberlin, who plays Elizabeth (Beth) Ann Raines Spaulding. "It was like the death of a friend for me at that moment. As much as I was prepared, I was surprised at the death."

Even though it has suffered audience declines like all daytime programs - and changes in story lines and casts along the way - "Guiding Light" means something to its 1.2 million daily viewers.

"Anytime we lose one of our shows, it's really a tragedy and it sobers everyone," said co-head writer Jill Lorie Hurst. "I remember when 'Port Charles' and even 'Passions' went off the air, we were all very sad."

There's talk of other daytime dramas going away, and CBS executives admit they're keeping an eye on "As the World Turns." The medium has changed, and audiences have fractured.

Still, Hurst believes there's a future in the format as long as producers adapt. "Guiding Light" tried changing over a year ago, when the show began shooting with hand-held cameras and went outdoors.

"I don't know the audience has time to invest in hour-long shows," she said. "The existing shows could go to a half-hour. I think the storytelling will exist, but I think we're going through a change."

Once the producers got word that the show was going to end, the plan was to tell stories that didn't wrap up the characters' stories, but rather suggested a transition.

"We didn't want to leave it open to speculation," she said. "We were a little more conventional. We didn't want to have a car crash or a bus crash, or anything like that. We wanted you to have an idea of where people were going."

The final days of shooting last month brought the cast together, said Chamberlin. She had her last scene with Grant Aleksander, who plays Phillip Spaulding, and got there earlier than usual. During the final days, the cast members were invited to watch others go through their last scenes, too.

"[Aleksander] remarked I was very quiet," Chamberlin said of the filming in mid-August. "And I said, I have to be quiet, I'm afraid once I start crying, I won't stop. I need to do my work. I had to go off in a corner, by myself."

"When we finished the writing, we were kind of numb and exhausted," said Hurst, who was there for the final filming days.

She also doesn't think there will be another show to span so many generations because the business has changed so much.

"It was a unique show about relationships that reflected the times as it was being shown," Chamberlin said. "This is a unique show in its relationships, not just in longevity, but with the fans and its characters."

60 Minutes

GL cancelled three times!

Interviews

1937-2009: Saying Goodbye to Guiding Light

"Guiding Light" is just finishing its 72nd year, and sadly, for its fans, Friday's broadcast will be its last.

Since Franklin Roosevelt's second term as president, Guiding Light has served up an endless menu of torrid love affairs, heartbreak, infidelities by the score, double crosses, kidnaps, suicides, sin, sex and salvation - in all, 20,000 of episodes of life on the precipice.

What pushed Guiding Light over the edge is that old grim reaper of all television shows, low ratings.

It's a bittersweet time, these last days, as hardcore fans and the show's entire staff turned up for the taping of the final scenes.

Guiding Light has always been a loving reflection of America's morals, manners and marital mayhem, where actress Tina Sloan and many others have worked together for over a quarter century.

Asked if they were surprised when the show was canceled, Sloan told correspondent Morley Safer, "The pink slips stunned us, all of us. Even though we were on life support and we knew we were on life support we just couldn't imagine anyone would pull the plug on their watch on a show that's been so historic."

It started on radio in 1937, and made the transition to television in 1952. And through the years and into a new century, Guiding Light chronicled family life in the mythical town of Springfield. Everybody, it seemed, had a dark secret.

It was a place where even the good guys often had a lurid past. Take the character of Josh Lewis, played by actor Robert Newman.

For the better part of a quarter century, Newman and Kim Zimmer have played Springfield's star-crossed lovers Josh and Reva, marrying and divorcing each other three times. And that's just for starters.

"And she married my father and my brother. Are we really going to have this conversation now?" Newman joked.

Asked how many marriages she's had, Zimmer told Safer, "I believe I just had my ninth."

She once survived driving off a bridge in a fit of post-partum depression; he once had her cloned. On the soaps, the weird and the wonderful are routine and everyone has his or her very own miracle.

"I did a menopause story. And then four years later I was pregnant on the show," Zimmer recalled.

Also, her character was presumed dead three times, and even died once. "I flat-lined on a Friday. Woke up on a Monday. And walked out of the hospital on a Tuesday, yes," Zimmer explained.

In the surreal world of the soaps, missing characters presumed dead routinely turn up again.

And the medical help is somewhat dicey. Peter Simon and Michael O'Leary play the Bauers, father and son doctors.

"I started May first of 1983. Started the show on a Friday, I was an orderly, changing bedpans. Monday I was doing brain surgery with my father," O'Leary said.

"You are renowned as a doctor who keeps losing these patients, yes?" Safer asked.

"Regardless of whether it was a strep throat or whatever it is. It doesn't matter, if they die, they die fast," O'Leary explained.

The very longevity of the show blurs the line between fiction and reality. To many fans, some of the crises may hit very close to home.

"Because they've watched, oftentimes, our birth, our marriage�and then our deaths," actress Beth Chamberlin said.

We got a crash course on the Byzantine history of Guiding Light from veteran actors Ron Raines, 15 years on the show; Beth Chamberlin, 20 years; Tina Sloan, 26 years; and Grant Aleksander, a 27-year soap veteran.

"There are these great stretches that the audience will grant you. You're allowed to send a child off at the age of 12 and bring them six months later fully grown�," Aleksander said.

"They will accept those things. They won't accept if you take a character and write it in a way that is completely inconsistent with what they have come to accept," Aleksander explained.

Tina Sloan's character, for instance, is the saint of Springfield who has survived breast cancer and countless other crises. And she slipped up just once.

"One time, in the entire history of my 26 years here, I slept with someone who was married to my best friend. And she died as a result of this because she was so upset she drove off a snowy cliff. And people have still not forgiven me. And this was 20 years ago," Sloan explained.

There are no minor crises in these families. "Something dramatic always happens at a big dinner," Raines explained. "Family sitting down. At a wedding. At a funeral."

Indeed, funeral scenes are commonplace on Guiding Light, with all the characters who've met mysterious deaths or been written out of the plot or simply succumbed to Dr. Bauer's ministrations.

For the actors, though, taping one memorial hit home: a requiem, in a way, for the program itself.

"I'm 54 years old. I will never have a job like this again, ever in my life. Nothing this steady and this stable and this wonderful," Zimmer said.

The backstage story of Guiding Light is a rich one. On the show's 70th anniversary, the actors recreated the radio version from the 1930s.

The original focus was inspirational, featuring a minister whose Guiding Light attracted the down and out, the lonely and the troubled.

They got their name - "soaps" or "washboard weepers" - by delivering the soapmaker's dream, a captive audience: women across America, stuck at home with the laundry and the kids.

But times have been changing. "They've been going one by one. I worked on a show called 'The Doctors' once. Does anybody remember that?" says former network executive and television historian Tim Brooks.

Brooks says the soaps hit their peak in the 1970s, when the networks were running 16 of them; the passing of Guiding Light leaves just seven.

"It's that the world has changed," Brooks said. "The world has turned, so to speak."

Aside from women leaving home for the workplace, soaps are facing more competition from talk shows and reality TV. Also, despite the casting of many younger actors, the number of younger viewers willing to sit for an hour a day is dwindling.

"The audience has gotten older," Brooks explained. "And as the soap operas have attracted more and more 50-plus, 60-plus audience, they've become less attractive to the soap manufacturers."

Seeing the handwriting on the wall, Guiding Light's executive producer Ellen Wheeler did everything she could to postpone the inevitable.

She's a whirlwind on the set, where time is money, hustling cast and crew from scene to scene.

"It's great to work at that speed," Wheeler told Safer. "If it was really good, we don't have time to pat ourselves on the back. But if it was really bad, we don't have to think about it either, because we gotta move on to the next one."

She cut costs by using smaller crews and smaller sets. For instance, she turned a basement storage room at CBS into Springfield's mini-mart.

Though writer Jill Lorie Hurst and producer Wheeler knew the end was coming, accepting it was another matter.

"We have to say goodbye to the characters. And we have to say goodbye to the town, the whole town. We have to say goodbye to each other. Our working relationships are over," Wheeler added.

That means not just the actors, but the production staff responsible for sorting out the thousands of details involved in doing an hour show Monday through Friday, soldiering on through the last few episodes.

"It's sad. It is sad," said actor Frank Dicopoulos. "The thing I'm gonna miss the most are the people. This is a family. This is my family away from my family."

As Dicopoulos notes, it's a tight-knit group, on-screen and off. He has played the same character - a Springfield cop - for 22 years.

The thousands of actors who have passed through Springfield over the years include Calista Flockhart, Angela Bassett, Hayden Panettiere, Jimmy Smits,Taye Diggs, Allison Janney, and Kevin Bacon, a teen with a drinking problem.

"Amazing. To be at the end of that amazing group of people is quite an honor," Ellen Wheeler said. "It puts a lot of fear in your heart. You want to be true to all the things they created. And all the love and hope that they gave to generations of people."

Asked what last show is going to be like for the cast and crew, Beth Chamberlin told Safer, "I think it won't sink in for maybe a month later that we're actually not going back. We're not just light on story right now, there is no story to be told."

And so they taped the final TV episode, number 15,762. Add to that roughly 4,000 radio shows, and you get, over the course of the program's life and death - 20,000 snapshots of Springfield.

"You go out there and do what actors do," Dicopoulos said. "They audition, a role has come up. And, you know, that's the nature of the beast."

Fans bid farewell to beloved 'Guiding Light'

That's when Feekes sits down to watch "Guiding Light," a soap opera the 64-year-old Sioux Falls woman has been watching nearly all of her life. "My mom watched it, and I just carried on watching it," she says. "My family knows not to ask me to do anything until after it's over."

For an hour a day, five days a week, Feekes immerses herself into the world of the Spauldings, the Bauers and the Coopers.

"They're all my favorites. Well, not Alan Spaulding. But nobody likes him," she says. "He's a wealthy scoundrel who tries to make his children and grandchildren out to be like him and that's not good."

But Feekes and other "Guiding Light" fans only have another week before the citizens of the fictitious town of Springfield ride off into the proverbial television sunset. After 72 years, first on radio, and then on network television, "Guiding Light" ends its run Friday.

While soaps like "Guiding Light" are routinely dismissed in popular culture, stereotyped as programs with preposterous storylines and pitiful acting, the stories told on daytime television also present some entertaining, occasionally inventive work that doesn't always get the attention it deserves, says Roger Newcomb, editor of welovesoaps.net.

But for the fans, it's all about the characters and the relatable human emotions they convey to their television audience day after day.

"The stories are really about people communicating, sharing their feelings," Newcomb says. "Soaps are never going to be able to tell an action adventure story as well as the prime-time shows or at the movies - they don't have the budgets. But what they can do better than anybody else is tell a story."

That's what's kept Kelly Waldner watching over the years. She started watching "Guiding Light" when she was 10.

"I know a lot of people think that soap operas are stupid and a waste of time, but a lot of the plots are so realistic," the 31-year-old Harrisburg woman says. "Just like Reva having cancer and fighting for the life of her and her baby. I cried through that whole ordeal just because I have been there myself. I had to make a decision years ago as to whether or not I would receive cancer treatment or carry a baby."

The occasional over-the-top plots are also a way to tell some pretty groundbreaking stories, Newcomb says. "Soap operas told AIDS stories before anyone else. They told breast cancer stories before anyone else," he says. "They brought social issues into people's lives."

It is, however, more than the storytelling and the drama that keeps soap fans tuned in. It's also the characters. The actors, many of whom have been playing the same part for decades, are like family.

"Because they're on every day - five days a week - people really feel they know the characters," Newcomb says. "You get to see them in a more in-depth way than you do in prime time or on a movie. And there's a sense of comfort with these recognizable faces, people you've watched all your life."

But it's not just the families on screen that make soaps like "Guiding Light" so special. It's the families at home that gather together to watch them.

"I remember my mother listening to it on the radio," says Marlys Nellermoe of Pierre. "That was something that was not done lightly. It was a battery powered radio, and you didn't waste the radio - you saved it for the news and the weather. But by gosh, she listened to 'Guiding Light.' "

Marylou Nagel started watching "Guiding Light" because of the women in her family, too. "My grandmother watched it. My mother watched it. My sisters watch it. It's a family affair," the 33-year-old Humboldt woman says.

All that, however, haven't been enough to draw in the viewers. As dedicated as soap operas fans are, ratings have been steadily declining over the years.

"The audience has eroded so much," Newcomb says. "Part of that is a natural erosion - there's a million options on TV for people these days. But the audience for soaps has eroded so much, there's not much room for air and multiple shows are currently under threat of cancellation."

It's particularly hard to get new viewers. Not as many people are home watching TV during the day - they're working, Newcomb says. "In some ways, watching with mom or grandma, as so many fans my age had done, has gone away."

It's also hard to appeal to everyone. "Think about it - with a show that's been on for 70 years like 'Guiding Light,' you have some fans that have been watching since the beginning, some who have been watching for 20 years and some who just started last year," Newcomb says. "How do you please everyone? I think it's hard."

Not to mention that watching a daily show is a huge time commitment. "It's like watching five prime-time shows," Newcomb says. "I don't know how many younger people are willing to invest that much time these days."

It's not always easy keep up with the storyline, Nagel admits. "I try to watch every day, but it's hard. Life happens." If she misses a day, or runs out of time to watch what she's recorded on her DVR, Nagel will catch up by reading a plot synopsis online.

For Nellermoe, however, the hour she spends watching "Guiding Light" every day is pure bliss.

"Before we had a VCR, I could only tune in on work holidays. So the day that I got a VCR to record it was really a luxury for me," she says. "Now it's my treat. I sit down with a cup of coffee, fast forward through the commercials and watch 'Guiding Light.' "

Waldner knows the feeling well. "I will miss just sitting and having my hour of quiet during the day."

But more than that, Waldner is going to miss the characters. "I grew up with this show. It's like letting go of a childhood friend."

Still, as "Guiding Light" wraps up its final storylines this week, some fans continue to hold on to the hope that the show will find a new home, either on a cable network or on the Internet.

"I hear online that someone is still trying to figure it out," Nagel says. "So there's a possibility. We're all praying for a miracle."

Because, as soap opera fans know all too well, if a popular character can return from the dead, anything can happen.

Irna Phillips, The Mother of Daytime Drama

At the time of her death in 1973, Irna Phillips was responsible for the creation of not only broadcasting's two longest-running shows, "Guiding Light" and "As The World Turns," but an additional dozen iconic radio and television dramas including "Another World" and "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing," as well as, quite simply, the entire soap opera genre itself.

A Jewish schoolteacher from Dayton, Ohio, she was a script-writer for a daytime radio talk show before creating and starring in the Chicago-based "Painted Dreams," the first daytime serial specifically targeting women listeners. By 1932, "Painted Dreams" had become so successful that Phillips urged the local station, WGN, to sell the show to a national network. When they refused, Phillips took them to court claiming the show as her own property.

While the lawsuit was being settled (rights were eventually granted to CBS), Phillips went on to create several other soaps, including "Today�s Children," "Woman in White," "The Brighter Day" and "The Road to Happiness."

By the time she created "The Guiding Light" in 1937, Phillips was writing two million words a year, dictating all the scripts in their entirety for up to eight hours a day.

Originally an inspiration tract, "The Guiding Light" followed the travails of Reverend Dr. John Ruthledge and his often-troubled flock. Phillips reportedly based Five Points, the town it was originally set in, on her own childhood neighborhood. She wrote, "In the region lived Italian, German, Irish, Jewish and Swedish families. It is often popular today for the younger generation to dismiss as myth the melting pot story of American history. Those of us who grew up in the early years of this century, when cities were populated largely by first and second generation Americans, know the reality of the melting pot�. It certainly was real."

Though she never married, Phillips adopted two children, a son and a daughter, when she was in her forties. And though publicly she appeared to be a somewhat lonely figure, her unpublished memoir revealed that she actually had many love affairs, mostly with doctors and lawyers - not so coincidentally, the same professions that her shows glorified on screen.

Of marriage, Phillips is quoted as saying, "Why would I want to get married? If I want to pick a fight, I can always (fight about the shows)!"

And fight she did. Not just with her shows' sponsors, but with the actors, as well.

Phillips demanded that her actors stay in character at all times and was furious when her "As The World Turns" ing�nue, Rosemary Prinz, took a role as a streetwalker in a theatrical production. Phillips� constant browbeating and haranguing of Prinz drove the young actress to a nervous breakdown and quitting the show. In 1971, after actress Jane House did a nude scene in the Broadway play, Lenny, Phillips tried to kill off her character and drove House to quit, as well.

By 1973, Procter & Gamble could no longer put up with Phillips' tyranny and fired her from "As The World Turns." She died on Dec. 22 of the same year.

One of her prot�g�es, Agnes Nixon, creator of "All My Children," didn't learn that Phillips had died until she called to wish her a Merry Christmas.

Actor loses guiding light

Strange because, for the first time in more than 20 years, Dicopoulos was not preparing for work.

Since 1987, the Firestone High alum has played Frank Cooper, a role created for him, on the CBS soap Guiding Light. But the network has decided that Friday's telecast will be the soap's last. Production has been completed. A new version of the game show Let's Make a Deal will succeed it in October.

''It's very difficult, very sad,'' said Dicopoulos, who grew up as Frank Dickos before changing his name from its Americanized version to the Greek original. He got the bad news when executive producer Ellen Wheeler called on April Fool's Day.

''It made no sense to me whatsoever,'' he said. ''I'm kinda frustrated and kinda angry and kinda upset.''

The show was still drawing about 2 million viewers a day, he said. And its 72-year history on radio and, since 1952, on television made Guiding Light the longest-running broadcast series ever.

''We have four and five generations of watchers,'' Dicopoulos said. ''Can you imagine � to be seen in all those homes for all those decades?''

One of those long-ago viewers was Akron's Areti Temo, a Greek immigrant who learned English from listening to Guiding Light on the radio and later watching it on TV.

Mrs. Temo's granddaughter, Melina Kanakaredes, went on to become an actress � and, as Eleni Andros Cooper, part of the Guiding Light ensemble Please see 'Light', from 1991 to 1995, as well as Dicopoulos's wife on the show. Dicopoulos still refers to the years working with Kanakaredes as one of the high points in his Guiding Light tenure. ''I miss that connection,'' he said. ''When it works, it really, really works.''

Told of Dicopoulos' comments, Kanakaredes said, ''That's so sweet. . . . It was my first [acting] job out of college. I had done some commercials, but I was still new. . . . My grandmother was so excited.''

Kanakaredes, now starring on CSI: NY, would use the show as a shout-out to Akron-area friends of Mrs. Temo. (The widow of Temo's Candy founder Christ Temo, she died in 2004.) A list of customers for Eleni's catering business would often include local folks' names, Kanakaredes said.

While Kanakaredes and Dicopoulos did not know each other well before Guiding Light � there's about a 10-year age difference � she still marvels that they ended up working together.

''The odds of two people from the same town ending up, not only on the same show, but as love interests � it's so weird, so random,'' she said.

But if you talk to people from Guiding Light for long, the sense of community and family is evident. Besides working with Kanakaredes, Dicopoulos's favorite moments include times he acted with his real wife, Teja Anderson, and their daughter, Olivia.

Anderson appeared on the show in several roles, but the one that stands out for Frank is ''when she came on as a blind date for me. We had an absolute complete blast and got in a kind of food fight, and she did a great, great job.''

Then there's Olivia, who played Maureen Reardon on the show. ''It was an absolute thrill to work with my daughter,'' he said. ''It's, like, the old man's going off and the new blood's coming on.''

So you can see why the likely end of Guiding Light stings so much, not only for fans, but for actors like Dicopoulos. It's not only business. It's painfully personal.

''When you see some of the crap that's airing . . . this is definitely a medium and a vehicle that is needed,'' he said. ''How many reality shows and game shows can you possibly have? They're going to wear themselves out. . . . You need a blend, you need a mixture.''

Dicopoulos continues to believe that Procter & Gamble, which owns the program, has a ''very realistic'' chance of finding it a new home, although it might include some format changes. He believes daytime soaps, though an endangered TV form, still belong: that soaps provide a way of seeing others working out their differences, as well as providing viewers with difficult lives of their own some relief by seeing others suffer. ''You know, misery loves company,'' he said.

Guiding Light has endured decades of adjustments, a less-than-prime-time budget � which was then cut � and a possibly lethal time-slot change.

Although WOIO (Channel 19) carries Guiding Light at 3 p.m. weekdays, CBS offers it for 10 a.m. � when many potential viewers are not at home, he said. ''Guiding Light could have survived if we had been in a 3 o'clock time slot.''

Still, he said, ''we were able to pull off a miracle for years.'' Although Wheeler has made some controversial changes (such as using hand-held cameras) since joining GL in 2008, Dicopoulos considers those part of the miracle.

''I'm just so proud of the show,'' he said. ''Ellen Wheeler did a phenomenal job reinventing the show, even with budget cuts. She bought us an extra year and a half. . . . The saddest thing is, we were all excited about some of the story lines that were planned. . . . We had arrived where we wanted to be.''

Only, as far as CBS is concerned, the next step won't be seen. And as hopeful as Dicopoulos remains, he knows that you can't eat hope. Asked what he would be doing if the show is in fact done, Dicopoulos cracked, ''Retail.'' Then, he said more seriously that he had shot a pilot (he couldn't say for what) and was meeting with an agent about jobs, including some possibilities in prime time.

Some familiar faces have graced 'Guiding Light'

In 1966, Cecily Tyson became the first female African-American contract player in daytime TV.

Also in 1966, the man who would lend his molasses pipes and embody Darth Vader, James Earl Jones, became the voice of reason on "Guiding Light" as Dr. Jim Frazier.

Billy Dee Williams stepped in to play Dr. Jim Frazier in 1966 when Jones left the role.

It's a whole new round of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon when you recall that from 1980-1981 the actor portrayed Tim, a teenage alcoholic.

Calista Flockhart has done businesswoman ("Ally McBeal") and needy, yet responsible sibling ("Brothers & Sisters"). But in 1989, she played Elise, a baby sitter who accidentally misplaces one of her charges.

After making waves on "Dynasty," Joan Collins played Baroness Alexandra Spaulding on "Guiding Light" in 2002.

'Guiding Light' Says Goodbye -- Will More Soaps Follow?

After 72 years -- beginning on radio -- the soap opera that Guinness World Records christened the longest-running drama in TV/radio history will leave its melodramatic plot lines (Teen drinking! Cancer! AIDS! Cloning?) in the CBS vaults, another victim of the shrinking ratings that are decimating the soaps industry.

This year, "Guiding Light" averaged 2.1 million viewers, continuing its steady decline from even five years ago, when it attracted about 3 million.

Replacing the soap on Oct. 5 is a revamped "Let's Make a Deal," the game show popularized by Monty Hall in the 1960s and '70s, with Wayne Brady as the new host.

Whether or not "Deal" attracts "Guiding Light" mourners is irrelevant because games shows are infinitely cheaper to produce than daily dramas -- and that in itself is a victory for CBS and Procter & Gamble, which owns the show.

"Guiding Light," like its chest-clutching, mock-fainting peers, certainly has a devoted flock.

But soap operas are a fizzling concept in a world where viewers can catch the latest HBO series on demand, flip among 200 cable channels or go online to watch an episode of "30 Rock" on their laptops.

Even "As the World Turns," the second-oldest soap, is on shaky ground, according to CBS President Nina Tassler.

All of daytime is a challenged time segment in the broadcast day, she told critics at this summer's annual Television Critics Association gathering.

Given the range of competition, it isn't so surprising that interest in Josh and Reva, the Bauers, the Spauldings, the Lewises and the Coopers waned to the point where it was no longer financially sensible to maintain production of "Guiding Light."

"It's fractionalization, but by and large, it's a generational thing," said Peter Maroney, general manager of WTVR, the local CBS affiliate that airs "Guiding Light" weekdays at 3 p.m. "It's not your grandmother's TV anymore. A lot of soap-like serialization drama has shifted to prime time and other [parts of the broadcast day] as well, along with reality shows. I can see the appeal of soaps to a certain demographic, but there are so many places now to get that same sort of thing."

Years ago, before Twitter was a verb and the Internet existed primarily as a platform to shuttle e-mail, soap operas were appointment TV.

College students who now spend between-class time zipping off text messages and updating their Facebook pages had another goal: to sit on the couch and follow the daily stories of people they didn't know, but with whom they had formed an inexplicable bond.

But now, with so many distractions and options, younger generations have no desire to develop these ersatz relationships.

"If you think about people who started listening to soaps on the radio, that's all they had," said Dr. Thomas Donohue, a mass communications professor at Virginia Commonwealth University who specializes in TV studies.

"There wasn't any competition for character identification. There's so much competition on so many other media outlets now that people don't get hooked as easily."

Even though ratings for "Guiding Light" and its sudsy brethren have diminished, for a couple of million people a day, that hour of escapism isn't something that can be easily replaced by Brady offering a deal behind Door No. 1.

Nearly 150 people from Richmond to Florida to Canada responded to a Richmond Times-Dispatch query seeking fans of the show. And with the exception of a disgruntled viewer who no longer likes Reva's clothes and the more progressive plot lines (the lesbian single moms, Olivia and Natalia, made many traditional viewers uncomfortable), all expressed the kind of remorse usually reserved for family funerals.

"My love affair with 'Guiding Light' began at birth. You see, we were born in the same year, nine months apart and my mother would rock me to sleep as she tuned in her favorite 15-minute soap," said Sandra Cheatham Nelson of Richmond. "As the clock moved forward, I had come full circle, for I sat in the same rocker cradling my own daughter while glued to the love life of Reva and Josh. . . . I am saddened by the demise of my dear soap. It will be like a death in the family. I suppose I will just have to sit in the same rocker, close my eyes and let the imagination years of radio take over once more in memories of what was and is no more."

Rhonda Harper, a Fortune 500 executive in Atlanta, e-mailed to say, "The show has been my mind candy. I shift into low gear and lose myself in another world. But more than that, it's been a stabilizing force. My world changes, people and places come and go, but the show was always there."

Indeed, psychologists and sociologists opine that an attraction to soaps is twofold: The fictional settings allow viewers to live vicariously through the characters and sometimes identify with real-life issues, while the plotlines offer an unabashed diversion from everyday life.

"It's cathartic for a lot of women [the main demographic of soap watchers] to look at the characters and say, 'See, I'm not the only one. My life has some real bumps as well,'" Donohue said. "Then there is the idea that people having affairs with each other's in-laws certainly is escapism given the forbidden fruit of that kind of illicit relationship. I'd never sleep with my brother-in-law, the woman said, but I like watching somebody who will."

That feeling is confirmed by third-generation "Guiding Light" fan Christina Saba of Glen Allen, who stopped watching the show several years ago when plot lines were altered to appeal to younger generations, and contained some dashes of mundane realism.

"They cut back on any story lines involving anyone over 30, it seemed to me, and were focused on twentysomethings and teenagers," Saba said in an e-mail. "[Then] they started filming outside, changed the introduction to the show and started including interviews of the actors. Do soap watchers really want reality?"

Most soap fans, it seems, are not only attracted to the ongoing drama but also addicted to the daily cliffhanger, a compelling tease to ensure viewers will return to learn the resolution.

Dr. Carole Lieberman, a media psychiatrist and former Emmy-winning psychiatric script consultant for "The Young and The Restless" and "The Bold and The Beautiful," said it becomes routine to tune in to see "if the secret will be revealed, if the mistress is pregnant, if the son will sabotage the family business, if two star-crossed lovers will finally fall into each other's arms.

"Losing a soap opera, after being a faithful fan for years, is very traumatic because to viewers these are not just 'characters,' they are 'real people.' So it's like losing one's best friends and losing the 'drama' that's otherwise lacking in their own lives."

The crumbling of the once-dynamic soap industry has been gradual, and the large numbers of women who returned to the work force during the past couple of decades certainly instigated the erosion of the genre's core viewership.

But, more specifically, some experts pinpoint the O.J. Simpson trial in 1994-95 as the beginning of the end for the genre -- partially because of the real-life drama the trial generated, but also because of simple TV logistics.

Interest in the Simpson case was so overwhelming, most networks pre-empted the soaps in favor of nonstop trial coverage.

"Everyone tuned in daily to watch O.J., and when -- many months later -- his trial was over and the soaps returned, many viewers did not, because they realized they could live very well without them," said Deborah Wilker, a veteran entertainment journalist and contributing editor at Moving Pictures magazine. "Like FM radio and other moribund forms of media, traditional soaps have been dead for years."

That's the heartbreaking reality that faced the "Guiding Light" cast the second week of August, when the show's final scenes in the fictional town of Springfield were filmed in Peapack-Gladstone, N.J.

The early symbol of the show -- and the inspiration for its title -- the Friendship Lamp that sat in the church window of the Rev. Dr. John Rutledge, acting as a beacon for family and friends who needed to find him for help, will always epitomize fans' devotion to something that lasted seven decades.

Even nonsoap-opera fans must recognize the rarity of "Guiding Light," if only for its astounding longevity.

It may be premature to pull out the bugle to sound taps for all daytime dramas, but an evolving media landscape dictates that the status quo is rapidly changing.

"Remember the premise from which soaps came: in the middle of the last century, they evolved from radio to become a midday distraction for stay-at-home wives," Wilker said. "Now there are so many other ways that housewives and college students can fritter away their daytimes -- the least of which are 20 games shows like 'The Price is Right,' harmless talk shows like Ellen [DeGeneres] and Rachael Ray and the many courtroom/judge shows. All are worthy diversions. Soaps -- with their faux worlds and helmet-haired heroes, soaps are simply having a harder time than ever getting people to buy in."

Greatest moments of 'Guiding Light'

Mama will level with you: �GL� was the soap on when she got home from school, and it�s been sporadic viewing ever since.

�Guiding Light� was never the hippest show � even in the �50s it seemed like your grandma�s soap compared to faster, edgier fare like �As The World Turns� � but at its best it could seem more real and vivid than the lives of its audience. At its worst, it was pulpy and derivative, but that was generally when �GL� tried to imitate its competitors.

As fans prepare to say goodbye to this TV icon, let�s look back at some of the highlights (and lowlights) of the longest-running continuing saga in recorded history.

* Meta Kills Ted: Before the parents of people who vote for the next �American Idol� were conceived, �GL� invited its audience to decide the fate of Meta Bauer, who was on trial for killing her husband to retaliate for his role in her son�s death. Unsurprisingly, she was acquitted.

* Roger Rapes Holly: �GL� was the first soap to tackle the subject of marital rape when troubled executive Roger took out his frustrations on his wife, kicking off the show�s most complex love/hate story. The late Michael Zaslow and Maureen Garrett were superb.

* Reva Jumps in the Fountain: Every daytime soap sought to catch the �Dallas� gusher in the early �80s, and �GL� was no exception when they introduced Oklahoma oil family the Lewises and the paramour of three of the men, sultry Reva Shayne, played to the everloving hilt by Kim Zimmer. Anticipating the advent of YouTube, Reva made a big scene in front of true love Josh Lewis (Robert Newman), declaring herself the �slut of Springfield.�

* Bert Comforts Josh: Like nearly all soap characters before and after him, Josh Lewis suffered a bout of paralysis that would eventually pass. But before it did, the depressed hero had a heart-to-heart with the show�s matriarch, Bert, who in real life was herself wheelchair-bound following a leg amputation. The moving scene was a classic example of what �GL� did best: heartfelt, multi-generational storytelling.

* Maureen Dies: Following the death of Charita Bauer, who played Bert, the mantle of soap mom went to Bert�s daughter-in-law Maureen, who subsequently was deemed boring by a focus group and met her end in a car accident. This decision altered the dynamic of the show, and many argue it never recovered.

* Born Again: �GL� used the occasion of its 70th anniversary to offer a mini-history of the show�s early days with current cast members playing their predecessors. It was perhaps the most earnest tribute to its past that a daytime soap has aired.

* Otalia: The stripped-down, digitally shot �GL� of the last couple of years failed to engage viewers until it introduced the lesbian love story of Olivia and Natalia, both older single moms who slowly discovered they were falling for each other. The tale has sparked the interest of a legion of new and lapsed fans, leading all of us to wonder whether the pair will finally kiss by the final episode.

Interviews

After 72 Years, Springfield Gets a Stop Sign

MOTIONS are an actor�s currency, but on this day in early August, Robert Newman was coming up empty. He sat slumped in a chair in his nearly vacant dressing room at the CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th Street in Manhattan. Cartons with his name scrawled on them were stacked in the corridor. His colleagues, some of whom he had worked with for decades, were all packing up as well. �I shot my last scene in the studio an hour ago,� he said, then paused and studied his hands, clasped in his lap. �I don�t know how I feel.�

For most of the last 28 years Mr. Newman has been known to millions of �Guiding Light� viewers as Josh Lewis, half of one of the soap opera�s most popular couples. But on Sept. 18 he will be out of his longtime gig, along with more than 150 other cast and crew members. Their jobs may be more glamorous than most, but ultimately they are not much different from millions of other workers who have recently watched their employers go bust. �What it really comes down to is the people I�ve worked with. We�ve shared so much for so long,� Mr. Newman said, �and we�re all going in different directions.�

�Guiding Light,� broadcasting�s longest-running scripted program, will go dark after 72 years, 15,762 televised episodes and what will undoubtedly be a tearful end. (The final scenes are a closely held secret.) Although ratings have been sliding for years, fans were still shocked when CBS announced in April that it was canceling the show. Angry callers threatened to boycott CBS and Procter & Gamble, which owns �Guiding Light,� despite P.&G.�s claim at the time that it would try to find another home for the show. That reprieve never materialized.

The truly shocking fact is not that �Guiding Light� was canceled, but that it survived for so long. In the 1960s and �70s, generally considered the heyday of television soaps, the daytime schedule was dominated by as many as 19 daytime dramas. Through much of this period �Guiding Light� was among the Top 5 in ratings, Nielsen reported. The audience was overwhelmingly female. Grandmothers, mothers and daughters often watched together.

But by the end of the �80s many of those women were in the work force, dramatically cutting the size of that audience. Once dominant shows began to fail. �The Edge of Night� shut down in 1984, followed by �Ryan�s Hope� in 1989, �Santa Barbara� in 1993 and �Another World� in 1999.

The rise of reality TV since the early 1990s has lured away much of the next generation of potential fans, who now get their fix of melodrama from a wide range of cable channels. There they can follow the travails of characters like Jon and Kate, or Lauren and Heidi. Slowly, �Guiding Light� slid to the bottom of the ratings.

In the last decade viewers have kept up with soaps in increasingly diverse ways, sometimes by episodes recorded on DVR, sometimes through episodes streamed online. But that new technology didn�t help �Guiding Light,� at least not enough. In the past five years its audience declined to less than half that of �The Young and the Restless,� the top-rated daytime soap.

�Guiding Light� made its debut on NBC radio on Jan. 25, 1937, and moved to television on June 30, 1952. That means that at least five generations of listeners and viewers have followed the many marriages, divorces, affairs, murder trials, bizarre dream sequences and thousands of other creative plot twists that constitute the multidecade family histories of the Bauer, Spaulding, Chamberlain, Reardon, Cooper and Lewis families of Springfield, U.S.A. Fans have remained loyal through 12 presidents, one world war and even a dubious cloning story line.

But that devotion wasn�t enough. In recent years the executive producer, Ellen Wheeler, tried to resuscitate �Guiding Light� by experimenting with freehand cameras to break with the conventional soap-opera look. Ratings continued to decline, but Ms. Wheeler, an Emmy-winning former soap actress herself who came to �Guiding Light� in 2004, said she believes that without those changes the show might have died even sooner.

�We didn�t change the stories that we told or the relationships between the characters, all the good parts of what is soap opera that we brought with us,� she said. �We just tried to look at how we could make those stories even closer for the audience.� Reaction was mixed, but Ms. Wheeler said fans communicated to her that they liked the changes.

Stories are the heart of soaps; they create an emotional connection to the characters and their struggles, and that keeps fans coming back for more. Longtime viewers who welcome the shows into their homes every day often say they feel they know these people, sometimes even more intimately than they do the members of their own families.

And �Guiding Light� was able to sustain that bond longer than anyone else. It was created by Irna Phillips, who pretty much invented the soap genre during the Depression and also created �As the World Turns� and �Days of Our Lives,� both still being broadcast. Her decision to create central characters who were often professionals � doctors, lawyers, ministers � became a convention that most soaps have followed, with emotional scenes often taking place in hospitals and courtrooms.

�Guiding Light� brandished a socially conscious streak from the start; its name comes from the reading lamp in the window of the show�s original main character, the Rev. Dr. John Ruthledge, who preached racial tolerance and spoke out against war and the injustice of poverty. In the early days the show began with a poem that represented his philosophy:

Later �Guiding Light� was one of the first soaps to feature African-American actors in regular roles. In the mid-1960s James Earl Jones and Billy Dee Williams had turns portraying Dr. Jim Frazier, while Cicely Tyson and Ruby Dee had runs as that character�s wife, Martha. Jill Lorie Hurst, one of four current head writers, ticks off some other firsts: stories about characters struggling with cancer, marital rape and teenage alcoholism (one of Kevin Bacon�s first professional roles).

Some ideas were inspired by the actors. Early in her time at the show, Ms. Hurst said, she worked on a story about cochlear implants featuring a hearing-impaired actress who had gone through that surgery. �I loved working with her, being able to absorb the actor�s real story and then translating that into the character,� she said.

A more unconventional episode took place two years after Hurricane Katrina, when the cast trooped down to Biloxi, Miss., to highlight the plight of residents whose homes still hadn�t been rebuilt. Cast members like Kim Zimmer, a fan favorite who plays Reva Shayne (three times married to and divorced from Josh Lewis), climbed ladders, hammers in hand, to volunteer before taping an episode marking the show�s 70th anniversary. It�s an event that many cast members, including Mr. Newman, recall with pride.

But the show didn�t always hew so close to reality. Some plots were funny, others ridiculous � lost loves, time travel.

During a celebration of the show last month at the Paley Center for Media in Manhattan, the actor Michael O�Leary (Dr. Rick Bauer) recalled his least favorite moment on the show, when he was supposed to give another character, Phillip Spaulding, a stuffed lamb as Phillip left town. The script called for Mr. O�Leary to throw the lamb against the wall so that the stuffing would come out of it. But that was not meant to be: the lamb remained intact, bouncing around on rubber feet, creating hilarity on the set.

Then there are the many incarnations of Ms. Zimmer�s Reva, probably the most beloved character on the show (whose multiple marriages and divorces, sometimes to the same man, make her name Reva Shayne Lewis Lewis Spaulding Lewis Winslow Cooper Lewis Lewis O�Neill). In a 1984 episode she jumped into a fountain and declared herself baptized as the Slut of Springfield, a scene that is considered one of the show�s classics. At points in the show her character was Amish, a clone, the princess of an island nation, a time traveler, a psychic and a talk-show host.

Many fans say Reva�s strenuous though improbable journey inspired them to be better people. At the Paley Center event one woman in the audience said that watching Reva mourn the loss of her husband Jeffrey gave her the courage to move forward when she lost her own spouse. At a reception afterward fans crowded around Ms. Zimmer, begging her to pose for photographs with them. One gave her a Tiffany necklace and helped put it on.

Watching the throng around Ms. Zimmer, Toya Booth, a 33-year-old associate minister at Grace Baptist Church in Mount Vernon, N.Y., recalled how she used to rush home from school in Louisville, Ky., to watch the last 10 or 15 minutes of the show with her mother and two grandmothers. �I loved the story of Reva and Josh,� Ms. Booth said. �She could do everything I couldn�t do. I just loved her passion.�

Eight years ago Ms. Booth moved to New York. While she was homesick, she said, watching �Guiding Light,� made her feel close to her family.

The last day in the New York studio was as nostalgic as the Paley Center gathering of fans. There was a constant taking of and posing for photos; family members videotaped husbands and wives as they worked; final scripts were being passed around and signed; cast and crew members angled for props they might take home. Raul Reyes, who worked as an extra since 1983, clutched the shirt he wore as an orderly at Cedars Hospital. �I�ve always played orderlies,� he said. �Anyone who has died in this hospital in the last quarter-century, I have wheeled them away.�

Ms. Wheeler, the executive producer, said the cast and crew were equally emotional at the last shoot in Peapack, N.J., a few days later, when their names were read aloud along with the number of years they had been on the job. �Hundreds of years of people�s lives were represented there on that day,� she said.

But even as she mourned the show�s demise, Ms. Wheeler said: �Serial storytelling has gone on since people sat around the campfire. Sharing all those characters in common binds us together� � even if it�s only for an hour, five days a week.

An institution ends when 'Guiding Light' turns off

Here stood a life-size dollhouse whose rooms (the Spaulding study; the Company restaurant; the Beacon hotel) fit together, snug as a Rubik's Cube, providing multiple locations and ease of production.

Except that, by a Friday in early August, half of Stage 42 was a void. Roughly half of the set had already been dismantled. This was the last day shooting here at West 57th Street. Then two final days on location in New Jersey. Then lights out for "Guiding Light."

You don't have to be a fan of the show, or of the soap opera genre it pioneered, to feel a sense of gravity at the demise of "Guiding Light."

"It's been reflecting American life back at America since before World War II," said "Guiding Light" executive producer Ellen Wheeler.

"We are the history of so many people," added veteran leading lady Tina Sloan. "They watched it for so long."

But Friday, Sept. 18 (check local listings for time), they will watch its final hour, after 72 years and more than 15,700 weekdays on television and radio. It's a run, an institution, that has never been matched and never will.

"I was just packing up my dressing room," said a wistful Robert Newman, who began on the show 28 years ago, and, with only a couple of sabbaticals, has played colorful, oft-wed Josh Lewis ever since.

As he spoke, a corridor outside the dressing rooms was jammed with racks of clothes and other costumes being put up for sale to the "Guiding Light" troupe.

"I took my nurse's uniform," said Tina Sloan, who began her run as nurturing Lillian Raines in 1983.

She made a joke about wearing the uniform at home and waiting for emergencies to handle, like she did at Cedars Hospital as Lillian.

"I'm mourning her," Sloan said, turning serious. "They're putting 'Let's Make a Deal' in our place. All I can say is: BIG deal!"

Yes, a revival of the what's-behind-the-curtain game show, this time hosted by Wayne Brady, will inherit the slot left by "Guiding Light" beginning Oct. 5. (Repeats of "The Price Is Right" will air in the interim.)

It's the latest chapter in the doomsday scenario that has plagued soaps for decades and has now claimed "Guiding Light."

Used to be, at any given time there were a dozen-odd daytime dramas on the schedule. Soon there will be only seven. The oldest now becomes CBS' "As the World Turns," which began in 1956 (and, like "Light," is owned by Procter & Gamble, whose line of household cleaning products inspired the "soap opera" term).

"Light" was created by soap matriarch Irna Phillips (who also masterminded "As the World Turns" and "Days of Our Lives," now NBC's lone daytime drama). It debuted on NBC radio in 1937 as a 15-minute serial, then came to CBS television on June 30, 1952. (Yet another Phillips creation, "The Brighter Day," began on radio in 1948, then began its eight-year TV run in 1954.)

In 1968, "Guiding Light" expanded to 30 minutes and, in 1977, it became a full hour.

Those were the glory days of "Light" and daytime drama overall. Huge, faithful audiences flocked to their TVs at the appointed time each day, knowing each installment of their chosen soaps was a now-or-never proposition - thus not to be missed.

The genre was a cash cow. Time magazine in a 1976 cover story noted that the networks relied on profits from daytime to bail out their costly, deficit-financed prime-time shows.

If the power of the soap has been its knack for reflecting changes in the culture, it painfully exhibited a range of cultural changes with its own steady loss of viewer support.

More women had jobs out of the home, away from TV sets, during daytime hours. Meanwhile, other TV genres were stealing soaps' thunder as rival showcases for racy behavior and emerging social issues. How was even the scrappiest soap supposed to outpace the anything-goes world of daytime talk, reality shows or premium-cable dramas?

In the 1991-92 season, top-ranked soap "The Young and the Restless" was drawing 10.3 million viewers, with "Guiding Light" seen by 6.5 million.

By the 2006-2007 season, "Y&R" was still No. 1 - but with roughly half as many viewers. "GL," in the cellar, had 2.75 million viewers.

But "Light" wasn't going down without a fight, and a couple of years ago, it launched a do-or-die effort to save itself.

"We were given the directive to save money and be innovative," Wheeler said. "We held onto the characters and the story and the history and the relationships. But we tried to change the style. It was time to deliver the stories in a more intimate way."

By then, the narrative had gone through decades of evolution, leaving far behind the Chicago suburb of Five Points (where "Light" was first set) and its protagonist, the Rev. John Ruthledge, who placed a lamp in his window to welcome parishioners.

Now it takes place in the bucolic midwestern town of Springfield, and revolves around the sprawling, commingling Spaulding, Lewis and Cooper clans.

Their world was abruptly transformed in February 2008. Production changes for the show included ditching pedestal studio cameras and three-walled interior sets.

Hand-held video and realistic four-walled, ceilinged sets were suddenly the rule. And the whole production company began spending part of every week - a two-hour bus ride from West 57th Street - in leafy Peapack, N.J., which was cast in the role of the program's Springfield hometown.

The show looked better than ever - more cinematic and contemporary. Still, its ratings continued to slide (this season, "Guiding Light" has logged an average viewership of less than 2.1 million).

"It's sad," Newman said, "but not entirely unexpected. I'm worried about the other shows right now. The economics of trying to produce 250 episodes a year, with 25 contract players full-time - it's a difficult thing."

But Newman's cast mate Frank Dicopolous said he was caught off-guard by the bad news.

"I think the show had reinvented itself and we were on fire," he said. "I think it was working again."

Dicopolous, a regular on the show continuously since 1987, plays family man and law-enforcement officer Frank Cooper.

He started with a three-year contract, but said he loved the work and the stability, even as he reeled off a few "Light" departees: Kevin Bacon, JoBeth Williams, James Earl Jones, Allison Janney, Brittany Snow, Hayden Panettiere and Melina Kanakaredes (whose character, he noted, had been married to Frank Cooper).

"When will I have a full blown-out reaction? I can't answer that." But as he spoke of the "Guiding Light" company, he said, "It's such a cohesive group, and we're all realizing that we pretty much will never have this again." His eyes moistened.

A few days after that, production wrapped forever. Speaking by phone from her receptionist's desk (her own office already vacated) executive producer Wheeler described the challenge of bringing in this saga for a landing.

"We wanted to be sure we tied up both the characters' current stories and their history," she said. "And yet we wanted to leave them in a place where they weren't finished. We want to let the fans know that, while they may not be able to tune in, the lives of these people in Springfield will continue."

But how much longer can the soap opera genre that "Light" championed evade extinction?

"What we call soap operas is actually serial storytelling," Wheeler said, "and it existed way before the term 'soap opera.' Serial storytelling will go on. And since I consider that to be what soap operas are, I don't think they'll ever die."

Paley Center Tribute

Dean the Dog

Only Love Video

Kettlebell pro Beth Chamberlin

Buy Only Love

Jonathan's Story

Stars of Guiding Light will promote the publication of Guiding Light: Jonathan's Story at two live appearances at shopping malls where they will autograph copies of the novel.

Thank You Guiding Light

Recaps: The Last Weeks

August 31, 2009

Olivia was out for a jog and saw Matt, who was snacking on some Pringles. He was bummed about Vanessa's wedding plans. Liv tried to comfort him. Then she got a call from Natalia, who was still upset over Rafe enlisting in the army. She invited Liv along for a shopping spree later that day. Liv was hesitant, but agreed to go. Meanwhile, Vanessa and Billy decided to visit their family and friends to tell them the news about their engagement. Later, Josh also tried to console Matt. They made plans to go to the bar later and lament Matt's loss.

At Cross Creek, Reva put away more photos of Jeffrey. "Your brother is right," she told Colin. "We do have to get back out in the world because that's what your daddy would want." She grabbed Colin and got in her car but couldn't bring herself to leave. Meanwhile, Josh saw Olivia, who admitted she wants to be Nat's friend but she's still in love with her and it's tough. Josh was sympathetic and pointed out that he feels the same about Reva. "Sometimes the line get blurry," he nodded. Liv told him about her plans to go shopping with Nat. "Now I have an image of you and Natalia in a dressing room together," he smiled.

Billy and Vanessa showed up at Company to share their happy news and pick up cake to bring to their friends/family when they tell them about the wedding plans. Later, Buzz tried to rush Daisy and James, who were helping him bake cakes for Vanessa and Billy's wedding. They teased Buzz about dating Lillian. "What are your intentions with my grandmother?" James grinned. Natalia arrived and was pleased to inform Buzz that she's going shopping with a "friend."

Bill and Lizzie decided to take a day off from working on the house. Lizzie suggested they visit Reva and explained that she's worried about La Shayne. Later, Reva was surprised to see them arrive Cross Creek. She assured them that she's feeling better and appreciates them stopping by to check in on her. After they departed, Lizzie noted, "Something's not right."

At Lewis, Billy and Vanessa shared their good news with Josh, who feigned surprise. Later, Bill and Lizzie told Josh they're worried about Reva. Meanwhile, Billy and Vanessa came to Cross Creek to tell Reva about their engagement. She reluctantly invited them inside to share some cake. Reva was stunned but thrilled for the couple. They invited her to the nups and were happy that she agreed to come. Later, Reva tried to work herself up to leave the house with Colin. "It's now or never!" she said and got into her car. She saw Josh at the market and told him that she's making progress. Josh declined to join her and the rest of the Lewis clan for a celebratory toast to Billy and Vanessa.

At the Quickmart, Lillian ran into Olivia and pointed out that everyone should be happy. Later, Liv went home and panicked about spending the day with Nat and stressed about what to wear to go shopping. So, she called Matt and invited him out. She told Nat she has to cancel their shopping date and admitted that it's too difficult for her to just hang out with Nat as a friend. Later, Liv met Matt at Towers for dinner. They were happy to cheer each other up. Nat interrupted and demanded that she have a chat with Liv, who said she needs to move on and begged Nat to give her that chance. Nat, however, refused to give up and said she'll fight until she wins Liv back � even if it takes a long time. "I'm a patient woman!" she said and left. Meanwhile, Matt retreated to Lewis, where he told Josh what happened. Josh confirmed Matt's suspicion that there's something going on between the two women. Matt was floored. "And I've been trying to flirt with those two for months!" he chuckled.

Lillian and Buzz flirted at Company and they decided to go out on a date. Lill was surprised when she saw he'd set up a nice table for the two of them and suggested dancing afterward. Bill joked to Lizzie that they need to have their first fight as newlyweds, adding that he wants makeup sex. Daisy and James showed up with a cake just as Billy and Vanessa arrived to tell Lizzie and Bill about their wedding plans. Bill offered to plan his parents' wedding; Lizzie told him it was a bad idea and pointed out how they messed up their own big day. Reva showed up.

September 1, 2009

At the mansion, Alan told Alexandra about how much he enjoys spending time with James. She teased him about playing Frisbee. Alan explained that James understands him more than anyone else in the family. Meanwhile, at Company, Phillip informed Ed and Lillian that he's finally ready to tell his family the truth about his condition. Later, Phil asked Alex about James's whereabouts and brought up the lack of time he has. Then he asked Alex to play a game of pinochle.

Reva assured Billy she's doing fine. He asked her to be a bridesmaid at the wedding. She feared he was just doing it to cheer her up, but he assured Reva that she's an important part of their life and they want her there. Later, Billy invited Alan to his wedding but Alan wasn't interested in attending. "Oh, you old sourpuss!" Billy grinned.

At the Beacon, Vanessa summoned Lizzie and Reva to discuss what they should wear at the wedding. They opened a bottle of bubbly and joked about getting tulle dresses with big floppy hats and dying some pumps. Vanessa wasn't amused and said she doesn't need any more surprises, adding that she is marrying Billy, after all. Meanwhile, the men gathered to play horseshoes. Bill joked that his dad needs some booze and strippers for his bachelor party. Billy was happy just hanging out with the guys in the backyard.

Lillian told Alan that Phil is planning to gather the family later to tell everyone he's dying and begged Alan to be supportive. Phil lost his cool at Beth after she told him that he needs to back off from pressuring James to spend time with him and reminded him that he left his family and that it's not all about him. "Yes, Beth it is," he said and stormed off. Later, Lillian had a heart-to-heart with James, who said the only thing his father ever taught him was how to disappear. Meanwhile, Phil tangled with Alan when the elder Spaulding accused Phil of not making an effort to spend time with him. "If I'm not mistaken, you told me to go off and die!" Phil yelled, amazed that Alan didn't realize all the efforts he'd made to mend their fractured relationship.

Billy and Vanessa had dinner with their wedding party at Towers. Lizzie and Josh both gave a toast and then Reva said seeing Billy and Vanessa happy makes her happy and she's glad to be a part of their big day. Billy told Vanessa that he blew it with her the first few times but he's glad that she's giving him yet another chance and can't wait to grow old with her in Springfield. Reva was overwhelmed and excused herself; Josh followed. Later, Reva told Josh he's right and she needs to pull herself together. After she hung up, she looked at a photo of Jeffrey.

Phil tried one last time to get James to hang out with him, suggesting sports or video games. James refused and walked out. "Not okay!" Phil angrily said and ran after him, then collapsed on the lawn. Meanwhile, Ed told Lill that the bone marrow transplant is far too risky for both Phil and the donor so he can't suggest it to Phillip an option.

September 2, 2009

Daisy ran into Beth at the Quick mart. She pointed out that the teen has been spending a lot of time with James lately and he approves. Daisy left to meet James. They flirted and made out. At Company, Josh told Buzz that things are looking good for the Lewis clan. Frank was bitter about the stability of the Coopers. Josh surmised it's just the storm before the calm for them. Later, Frank and Rick bonded over their online dating adventures. Frank told Rick he probably hasn't had any luck because he lied about his age. Frank admitted he's just looking for fun to distract him from all the craziness with his family.

Phil met up with Beth in the park. She was concerned about James. Phil told her to be quiet and calmly informed her that he's sick and only has a few weeks to live. She was understandably floored and began to sob. Phil held her, told her that he loves her and explained that he didn't want her to be sad.

Mallet arrived at the agency and received his assignment in Germany. Meanwhile, Shayne told Marina that there's an opening at family court today and they can get joint custody of Henry. They decided it's best to tell their families the truth about Henry's paternity before heading to court. Later, Josh approached and they broke the news. He was shocked and thrilled. They went to Cross Creek and told Reva as well. She was excited and wondered what it all means. Shayne assured them that Marina is still Henry's mom, no matter what. Later, Marina summoned the Coopers to the courthouse and told them as well. They were floored. Shayne explained that Dinah learned the truth while in Bosnia. He promised to be a good dad to Henry and not take him from Marina. Frank checked to make sure Marina was holding up okay. She was emotional and pointed out how lucky Henry is to have such a loving family, and two daddies. Later, Frank called Mallet and apologized for his behavior before he left town, adding that Marina just told everyone the truth and he understands why he left town now.

Lillian broke down in tears as she revealed to Buzz that Phil is dying. He consoled her and promised that she's not alone in dealing with this. Back at Cedars, Rick, Alan and Alex arrived at Phil's behest. They were confused. Ed ushered them all into a room. Lizzie and Bill frantically showed up, as did James. When everyone was there, Phil shared the heartbreaking news. James was upset that Phil didn't tell them before and stormed out. Alex tearfully tried to comfort Alan who quickly excused himself from the room. Beth tried to persuade Phil to stay at the hospital, but he said he'd rather just be with his family. Meanwhile, James angrily went into Ed's office and trashed it. He saw Phil's file, opened it up and was shocked by what he saw. He confronted Ed about why he's keeping his secret cure from Phillip.

Jonathan and Jeffrey met up. Jon gave an update, adding that there's still no sign of Edmund and that Reva is "whack." When Jon asked Jeffrey about why he hasn't found Eddie, Jeffrey cracked, "Well, there was a CSI marathon and I got hooked." Then they found a letter from Eddie threatening to kill all the children of Springfield if Jeffrey doesn't continue to play dead and stay away from Reva. Later, Jonathan called Jeffrey to hurry up the Eddie situation. Jeffrey was in his car and saw that Edmund was following him. They began a high-speed chase. Meanwhile, at Cross Creek, Josh held Colin. They marveled about Henry being their grandson, then went to the courthouse to watch Shayne and Marina get joint custody of Henry. Everyone cheered when the judged announced it's a done deal.

September 3, 2009

Natalia asked Olivia to accompany her to her first sonogram. Liv declined, saying it would be too weird. Meanwhile, Cyrus was frantic to finish Coop's book after he found out the bank was trying to foreclose on Company. Ashlee and Blake said there is one more chapter to write to meet the publisher's deadline. They worked together to complete the project in time. Natalia showed up and was surprised to see the depressed Cooper clan lounging around lamenting the impending loss of their family business. She asked Frank to come to her appointment; he agreed.

Frank had a mini meltdown about the state of his family's affairs in front of an uninterested Olivia. Later, at Cedars, Alan ran into Nat and told her about Phil, adding that she should know because Rafe is a Spaulding. She broke the news to Alan that Rafe enlisted in the Army. "What a brave young man he is!" Alan proudly said. Lillian reminded Alan about his cardio test. Alan wanted to skip out on it. Meanwhile, Phil met with Olivia in the park and told her that he's dying. She was overwhelmed and began to cry. Emma ran up to greet her father and they took a walk. Liv tearfully watched as Phil told his little daughter the news. After, Emma wanted to bake cookies at Nat's place to help make her daddy feel better. Olivia took Emma to Natalia's but didn't come in herself.

At the Beacon, Doris arrived to see Blake, Ash and Cyrus frantically writing the final chapter. She was surprised and said that Ash should think about writing a book about her someday. "I can't, Mom, I don't know anything about you," Ash responded. With two minutes to spare, they finished the book. Cyrus hacked into the publisher's computer to submit it on time. Blake called to have the book advance delivered today so they could give it to Buzz and save Company. It was a success.

Ed looked over Phil's records for a possible match and was stunned to see there's a match in the family. Meanwhile, Rick told James he is a match. Phil interrupted them, blasted Rick for testing James without his permission and refused again to let James risk his life to save him. James left while Rick and Phil fought. Rick pointed out to Phil that James needed to prove to Phil that he's brave and wants to be a good son but Phil ruined it before he had the chance. Phil realized he was in the wrong (and acting just like Alan). Daisy was happy to share her good news with James, who had to tell her that his wasn't so joyous.

Blake, Ash and Cyrus happily informed the Coopers that they finished the manuscript; they created a corporation in the family's name and the money would arrive shortly. Buzz was floored. "Coop and Jenna saved the day!" Marina laughed. On the other side of town, Doris lamented to Olivia about not telling her daughter the truth about her sexuality and said she thinks now's the time to take the risk.

Back at Cedars, Ed informed Alan that he's a match and pointed out that it's amazing, especially considering he's not Phil's biological father. Alan was stunned.

September 8, 2009

Shayne was amused by Marina's zeal for the party and assured her that it wasn't weird to be having a party for his bio kid at Marina and Mallet's house. Marina went to retrieve something from the drawer and spotted a painful reminder of her husband's absence: Mallet's badge. Meanwhile, Mallet was receiving his new assignment outside Austria. Mallet phoned the house to check on Marina and say happy birthday to Henry. Marina passed the phone to Henry before he was even done talking. Josh arrived and asked Shayne what he should give as a second gift. Taking note of the baseball-themed decorations, Shayne suggested a mitt, since it's never too soon to start. Shayne looked at Henry with his grandpa and confessed to feeling complete for the first time in a long time.

After revealing himself as a potential donor match, Alan insisted to Phillip that he wants to save his son's life, but Phillip argued that it's not about what Alan wants. Meanwhile, Lillian expressed her concern for James to Daisy and indirectly asked her to check on her ex-boyfriend. Phil popped into Bill and Lizzie's and urged his daughter to go to the party. Lillian caught up with Alan in the park, and commended him for offering to be Phillip's marrow donor. Daisy delivered sandwiches to Bill and Lizzie, and ran into Phillip outside as he was staining a board. "I'm sorry you're dying," Daisy offered, revealing that James is upset, no matter how he appears.

Buzz explained to Cyrus that as a Cooper, he must attend the kiddie birthday party. As Josh and Reva were loading the car with gifts, some of the helium balloons for the party escaped. Alan caught sight of them on his walkabout. Bill and Lizzie noticed how strange he was acting and asked if he needed help but he insisted he has to keep walking. Alan headed to the cemetery and poured his heart out to Phillip's grave, unaware that Phil was leaning against the other side of it. He lamented their strained father/son relationship and admitted to feeling that once Phil became a stronger person, Alan was threatened that Phil would somehow take power away from his father. He begged Phillip's grave to let him take the risk and be the father and the man that he always wanted to be. Phillip suddenly revealed himself and assured Alan that he has nothing to prove. After Alan practically begged, Phillip agreed to let Alan undergo the risky procedure and Alan gratefully hugged his son.

Frank arrived early to the bash and complimented Shayne on stepping up and being a dad to Henry, despite the difficult circumstances, noting his own situation with Natalia's baby and Olivia. On her way into the party, Lillian revealed to Josh and Reva the news about Alan's condition. They all somberly walked up to the house, where a clown was entertaining the partygoers. Marina admitted that she didn't know things could be this good, and Shayne said he wishes for nothing more in life. After the party, Lillian tearfully confessed to Buzz that she wishes Phillip would live.

In Germany, Mallet stumbled upon a fair-haired beauty laboring over a steaming car and was pleasantly surprised to come face-to-face with Dinah. He explained that he's on an agency assignment and is no longer with Marina. Mallet credited Dinah's actions with putting everyone where they're supposed to be, like baby Henry. When Mallet announced that he includes himself in that category, Dinah smiled. Mallet helped Dinah with her radiator and asked where she was headed. Her path was undefined, she explained. After he said good-bye and walked away, Mallet suddenly turned around and called out her name.

September 9, 2009

Josh was confused when a little girl entered his office at Lewis. Then Jonathan arrived, saying that the child is his granddaughter. Josh was stunned. Later, Jon asked Josh if he thinks it's safe for him and Sarah to live in Springfield now. Josh said Alan has relaxed a bit and that everyone in town will make sure Sarah is safe. Later, Reva was at home in Cross Creek and trying to act normal. Josh arrived and surprised her with Jon and Sarah. She was thrilled to be reunited with her granddaughter.

The Spauldings rushed to Cedars where Rick informed them that they found a donor for Phillip and he's being prepped for surgery. Alexandra told them that Alan volunteered to save his son. Meanwhile, Phil told Alan he can still back out if he wants and thanked him; Alan promised that it's what he wants to do and told Phil that he loves him. Before they were wheeled into surgery, the rest of the family came in to say good-bye. Lizzie called Alan a hero. James entered and Alan admitted to him that he's scared he'll die. James urged him to be strong. Next, Alex came by and shared a sweet moment with her brother. Phil summoned Bill and asked him to take care of his family if he and Alan don't survive the surgery. Later, Phillip told Beth that he loves her and apologized for all the mistakes he's made through the years. "If I get through this, I hope we can find our way back to each other," he added. Beth was overwhelmed. After, Beth told Lillian she's angry at her for not telling her before that Phil was sick. Lill apologized and said that lying to Beth is the hardest thing she's ever done but she had to abide by Phil's wishes. James admitted to Lizzie that he's miffed that Phil wouldn't let him be the donor, instead.

An armed Jeffrey tailed Edmund near a warehouse. He took aim and shot his gun but missed. Eddie taunted him. "I'm not stalking you, I'm hunting you and I plan to kill you," Jeffrey said. Edmund asked about Reva and wondered if Jeffrey had told her about their arrangement. Edmund said he's manipulating everyone in Springfield as they speak. Later, Jon covered when Jeffrey called, claiming it's Aubry (from Jonathan's Story!). Jeffrey explained that he's close to Eddie; Jon urged him to hurry up.

Olivia ran into Alex at the Quickmart and was stunned to hear about the surgery. Later, Josh informed Liv that he's a new grandpa and explained that Shayne is Henry's biological pop. They began talking about Nat. Josh urged Liv to get back together with her. Later, Frank also helped Nat with the baby names. Liv arrived and was excited to help. Nat was thrilled when Liv agreed to move back into the farmhouse. Frank felt like a third wheel. Then he informed the women that the Chief of Police just quit and he's going to go for the job.

Back at Cross Creek, Josh, Jon and Reva bonded with Colin, Henry and Sarah. Jon was stunned to learn that Henry is Shayne's. Jon said he's happy to be back in town. Meanwhile, the Spaulding clan anxiously awaited news about the operation.

September 10, 2009

Daisy was thrown for a loop when she saw Rafe and Ashlee bonding over the fact that their mothers are lesbians. Ash explained that she just found out about Doris and is a little upset that she didn't reveal it sooner. Ash agreed she should go talk to her mom and clear things up.

Olivia and Nat told Emma that they're moving back in with Nat. The girl was thrilled. Then Liv told her that she and Nat are going to be together because they love each other. "She's already like my mommy!" Emma said and wondered if the baby will be her little sister. The women were happy that Emma took the news so well. Later, Rafe and Frank offered to help Liv move.

Ash went to go see Doris, who was getting emotional looking at Ash's childhood photos. Ash said she's angry that Doris didn't tell her the truth sooner but isn't upset at her for being gay. They agreed to start getting to know each other better. They then went over to help Daisy and the rest of the crew move Liv into the farmhouse. Nat was elated for so much assistance and offered to cook everyone dinner. They all decided on a family softball game first. Josh arrived and was recruited for the game as well. "You made us a family," Liv told Nat.

At the Quickmart, Olivia was surprised to see Jon. He explained he's staying in town; Liv said she's moving in with her girlfriend. Later, Jon asked Reva to come with him to see Lizzie. When they pulled up to the house, Lizzie was shocked when she saw Jon and Sarah. Jon introduced Lizzie to her daughter (again) and they were happily reunited. She went off to show Sarah the barn while Jon told Bill that he's hoping they can all come up with a plan to share Sarah. They shook hands. "That's what we'll do, then!" Bill smiled.

Buzz helped Billy write his wedding vows. They marveled at how Alan stepped up to do the right thing for Phillip. Meanwhile, Rick informed the Spaulding clan that the surgery went well but they're still closely monitoring Phil and Alan's recoveries. Alex came to check on Alan. "Surprise! I'm still alive!" he laughed. Alex was relieved. Alan thanked her for looking out for him. Meanwhile, Lizzie went to see Phil. She tearfully told him that she knew he would make it through. Then Beth entered. Phil said he was afraid he'd never get to look in her eyes again. James brought his iPhone to Alan and showed him some important apps, like how to check the stock market rates. Alan said he needs to get well so they can play Frisbee again.

Lillian came to tell Buzz and Billy about Alan and Phil's recovery. "We're all just so lucky!" she said. Billy agreed. Later, Phil and Alan were wheeled into the same room. Phil thanked his father. James went to tell Daisy that her family is fine and everyone is recovering well.

September 14, 2009

At Company, James told Daisy he'd like to take her to the wedding. Meanwhile, Blake chatted on online with her dating site pal (Frank) who was inspired to ask her to attend the wedding with him. She declined, explaining that she already has plans. Frank was bummed. Phillip, Natalia, Olivia and Beth got dressed and gathered at the mansion to depart for the ceremony. Nat was understanding when Rafe said he won't be going to the nups with her and Liv as a family. Beth was surprised when James said he has a date for the wedding; Phil added, "So do I!" and grabbed Beth's hand.

At Cedars, Ed advised Alan to take it easy. Alexandra was relieved. Alan said saving Phil's life was the biggest gift he could give and added that Phil also helped save him. Later, Jon showed up to check in on Alan just as Nat and Liv arrived. He watched, unnoticed, as Alan happily greeted Emma, who thanked him for saving her daddy's life. Liv was stunned when Alan didn't react to hearing that she and Nat are together and told Emma she has two great mommies. "Emma seems to be happy and that's all that really matters," he said. After they left, Alan told Alex that he's not going to run away from happiness anymore and realizes that it can all be taken away.

James went to the Coopers to pick up Daisy, much to Frank's chagrin. Meanwhile, Bridget and Nola arrived and happily greeted everyone. They lovingly looked at Company. Bridget explained Peter is at orientation at Springfield University. Meanwhile, at the Beacon, Mindy showed up for the wedding and greeted Vanessa. Lizzie presented a surprised Vanessa with a garter for her big day and joked that they were going to force her to wear it. At the lake, the Lewis men (including Dylan!) went fishing together to catch their breakfast, per wedding day tradition. Reva showed up and teased them about smelling like fish.

The Lewis men pulled up to the country club in an old truck and greeted Vanessa who also arrived with her bridal party in a limo. Billy and Vanessa kissed. Billy and Mindy shared a sweet moment. Ashlee was stunned to be introduced to Doris's girlfriend. Ash pointed out that her mom seems happy. Lizzie fretted to Bill that she worries Jon will take Sarah away from her again. He promised not to let that happen. Remy and Christina joked about getting divorced just so they can get hitched again. Nola greeted Vanessa and they shared a laugh about wearing the same dress. She gave Vanessa a stone from one of Quint's digs. Dylan and Bridget hugged, saying it was great to see each other. Buzz approached Lillian, told her that she's beautiful and got down on one knee and proposed. Everyone else watched from above. Lillian was delighted and said yes. Billy and Vanessa suggested they have a double wedding. "Two for the price of one, let's do it!" Buzz laughed. Josh told Reva that Nat and Liv are together. Reva was stunned. "Since Olivia couldn't have you, she went for the net best thing!" she told him.

Back at Cedars, Jon confronted Alan and threatened him, saying he still doesn't trust him. Spaulding explained that things have changed since Jon left town and that he's a different man now. "I hope so," Jon said and left.

Lillian excused herself and visited Maureen Bauer's grave. She apologized to her departed friend and admitted she's been too afraid to visit. "I made a mistake and you paid with your life for it." Lill said her guilt has kept her from moving forward with her life and now she wants to start over with Buzz. Later, the ceremonies began. Bill walked Vanessa down the aisle and lamented Dinah's absence. Lillian was also ushered down to Buzz. "You have made me the happiest man in the whole wide world today," Billy whispered to Vanessa. Father Ray started the ceremony and the couples said their touching vows. They exchanged rings and pronounced husbands and wives.

September 15, 2009

Little Maureen went to check on her dad, Matt who was sort of bummed about the day. Nola and Bridget approached and tried to cheer him up, too. They all decided to share a family dance. Josh congratulated Billy and marveled at how he married the love of his life. Josh revealed that he's thinking about leaving town for a while because it's his job to fix things and make people happy so there's really nothing left for him to do in Springfield anymore. He said good-bye to his brother. "I'll miss you," Billy smiled. Meanwhile, Vanessa greeted her old pals Cecilia and Justin (a special guest appearance by Y&R's Jeanne Cooper and Christian J. LeBlanc) and thanked them for coming to the wedding.

Beth found Phillip, who noted how happy and lucky he is. They shared a sweet moment and declared their love for each other. Meanwhile, Rafe told Alan he's shipping out for the Army later today. Spaulding said he's proud of his grandson and they hugged. Then Billy addressed the crowd, told everyone how Alan stepped up to save Phillip's life and called him a hero. They toasted to Alan.

Josh was surprised to see Olivia and Natalia approach holding hands. He pointed out how great it is to see them happy together. He then thanked Liv for being his friend and said that he's skipping town soon. After, Josh went to find Shayne who was happily checking up on Henry. Shayne said he's still not ready to be a baseball coach (the gig Josh tried to set him up with) and added that he's having fun getting to know Henry. Josh then said he's going to get the Lewis office back and running in Venezuela and he needs to do it, "For me," he added. Shayne found Marina and they laughed over the fact that both of them had called Henry's babysitter for an update. Shayne admitted he's very happy right now and they decided to leave to check on their son.

Cyrus found Mel on the balcony. They chatted about what she did for Lizzie and Sarah and then Cyrus pulled her into a passionate kiss. Daisy and James decided to split. They shared a picnic away from the group. James acknowledged that Alan is a pretty great guy and the star of the day.

On the dock, Phil saw Alan and they bonded over Lizzie's happiness. Then Phil thanked Alan for giving him a second chance. "I only did what any parent who loves their child would do," Alan said and urged Phil not to overanalyze. They linked arms and walked away together, smiling. Phil approached Beth on the beach. He struggled to tell her something and assured her that he'll be great if she lets him be with her for the rest of their lives. He apologized for making her life complicated in the past but said he wants things to be different now. "I'm in love with you. Marry me and I'll spend the rest of my life making you happy." Beth was overwhelmed and said yes. They kissed. Phil was excited to share the news with the family but said he wants to find Alan first.

Back at the party, Josh danced with Reva who assured him yet again that she's going to be okay. He told her that he's moving to Venezuela; she was surprised but supportive. "If that's what you need, go for it," she said and fought tears. Later, Josh and Frank said their humorous best man speeches. Frank got emotional as he brought up Coop.

Alan greeted Buzz and they congratulated each other for their amazing feats. Alan thanked his pal for his support and said he truly values their friendship and what they've gone through through the years. "You being happy for me right now means more than you'll ever know," he added. "Hey, you did it!" Buzz smiled and went back inside to dance; Alan decided to sit alone for a while. Phil found his dad sitting on a bench alone and started talking to him from behind. Phil gave a touching monologue about happiness and just wanting to live his life and spend it with Beth. "It took you saving me to learn that. I'll never be able to repay you," he added and wondered why Alan was so quiet. He touched Alan who was eerily still and realized that his father is dead. He grabbed Alan's face and broke down in tears.

September 16, 2009

At Company, the Coopers (along with Blake, Natalia and Olivia) were in the middle of throwing Rafe a farewell party over pizza. Someone called and asked for Liv, who told everyone that Alan died. They were stunned and Rafe worried about leaving town before the funeral; Buzz encouraged him to go anyway. Blake consoled Frank, who suddenly realized life is short. Rafe continued to say his good-byes and shared a sweet moment with Emma. They bonded over their grandfather's death. Buzz told Rafe he's proud of him and Alan would be, too.

At Cross Creek, Jonathan answered the phone and Bill told him to come pick up Sarah and broke the news about Alan. Jon informed Reva, who was floored by the news."It's just too much," she said "I can't lose any more." She removed the photographs of Jeffrey around the house.

Jon came to get Sarah and asked Bill about Lizzie, who was still in shock. She and Jon shared a hug and Lizzie asked him to watch Sarah while they step out. Later, Beth got emotional as she explained to Phil how complicated her relationship with Alan was and that she really can't imagine a world without him. A tearful James approached Phillip and gave him a big hug.

Josh, Reva and Billy decided to rally around Bill and Lizzie during their time of need. Meanwhile, at the mansion, the Spauldings gathered to discuss Alan's arrangements. Alex explained that she talked to her brother before the operation and he said he wanted to be cremated and didn't want a big funeral. Rick came to inform them that it was indeed a heart attack and gave his condolences to the family, then departed.

Rafe said good-bye to everyone at the bus station. He told Daisy he'll always love her. Natalia was overcome with emotion; Liv consoled her. Rafe asked Liv to take care of his mom for him. He saluted farewell and hopped on the bus to basic training. After, Daisy did her best to be there for James, who didn't feel like talking about what had happened.

A tearful Lillian greeted Buzz and Company and they said they're so glad to have each other in their lives. Alex went to view Alan's body at Cedars and finally broke down. Meanwhile, in the garden at the mansion, Phil got emotional. "You did it. You saved me, Dad. You saved all of us," he said.

September 17, 2009

Daisy got a call saying she can have a spot in Berkley College's fall class, but she asked to mull it over. Buzz encouraged her to go, using the money from Coop's book, but she wanted to talk to James first. James also urged her to go, promising to visit her. Remy got word via his insurance company that he's not married to Christina � because he didn't file a marriage license. When he told her, she insisted they remarry right away � because she's pregnant. Meanwhile, Cyrus brought Mel cookies for her birthday. And then kissed her. And then they made love. Danny, Michelle, Robert and Hope arrived at Rick's in a truck, and announced they are moving back. Rick went to Company for food, where he found Frank online, asking his friend to coffee. His online pal, Blake, suggested meeting in the park. When Rick returned home, Ed was gone. He went to visit Holly, and told her he's going on an open-ended work tour. With her. "Life is very short," he reminded her. "How long do I have to pack?" she laughed.

Reva asked Jonathan to live at Cross Creek with her, but he declined. At Lewis, Josh told Billy that Alan's death made him realize life is short, and he wants Billy to help him kidnap Reva so he can marry her. "She's my life," Josh insisted. Billy balked, so Josh drove off alone. He found Reva having a picnic with Jon, Shayne, Marina, Sarah and Henry. Reva told Josh she's trying to pull her life back together. Jonathan secretly took a phone call from Jeffrey, who reported he's tracked down Edmund. Jeffrey took up a position on a rooftop, and drew a bead on Edmund on the next roof over. But Jeff was jumped by a thug. Jeffrey dropped his gun and they fought, until Jeff choked him out. Edmund laughed and taunted Jeffrey, who insisted he would kill Edmund and then go home. Josh returned to Lewis and told Billy that Reva isn't ready yet. "I still have to find some sort of life for myself," Josh mused. Meanwhile, Reva took a call from her sister Cassie, and told Jon she found a place for him and Sarah to live: the house Cassie had bought for Jon and Tammy, which has been sitting empty. Jon got weepy that Cassie wants him to live there. He asked Tammy if it's okay, then told Reva, "I'm movin' in!" They embraced, and cried. Josh visited Shayne, Marina and Henry to say his goodbyes. Josh embraced his son and said he's proud. Josh returned to Lewis and told Billy he's bound for Tulsa.

September 18, 2009

At Company, the Coopers helped Natalia pick out a baby name. Olivia reminded Frank they have to meet with the nursery designer. Frank said he can't stay long because he has a hot date later. Marina and Buzz teased him. Daisy announced that a spot opened up at Berkeley and she's taking it, so she'll be leaving for California in a couple hours. Meanwhile, Ashlee was floored when Doris said she pulled a few strings to get her into the writing program at Berkeley so she and Daisy can go to school together.

Christina freaked out about not being married and told Remy she needs to be hitched before they have their baby. Remy assured her it will be okay. They went to see Mel, who was celebrating her birthday by hitting the sheets with Cyrus. They all rushed to the municipal building and Doris quickly wed Remy and Christina before leaving to say good-bye to Ash and Daisy.

At the Spauldings, Lizzie was apprehensive about Alexandra going off to travel around the world with Fletcher. Bill assured her that Fletch is a stand up guy. Alex was especially happy to have Fletch back in her life. Phil greeted him. Fletcher gave his condolences about Alan. Bill carried Alex's bags to Fletcher's car and they both mentioned missing Ben. Alex said her good-byes and assured them she'll be back for the wedding. Meanwhile, Reva told Jonathan she loves being surrounded by her grandkids. Josh called and told her to meet him at Cross Creek.

At the park, Liv and Nat shared a tender moment, saying how happy they are. Olivia said she feels bad for Frank being a third wheel. She suggested they do something important to show him how important he is to the them and the baby. Nat agreed and they walked off to find Frank and tell him about their plan.

Mindy announced to Billy that she's moving back home. Josh told Reva he's moving to Tulsa now to help open a new wing of the HB hospital because he wants to be with her and knows she's not ready. She was emotional. He admitted that he wanted to kidnap her and marry her, then he declared his love. Reva tearfully and said she's still not ready. So, Josh told her that he'll be at the light house waiting for her in a year and hopes that she'll be ready to be with him then. They shared a bittersweet good-bye and Josh drove away. Billy arrived and asked Reva what she'll do in a year. "I don't know," she said.

Outside Company, everyone gathered to see Daisy and Ashlee drive off to California. They gave their hugs and said farewell. James told Daisy he loves her and they kissed. After, both Blake and Frank rushed off in their separate ways, telling Buzz they have dates.

At the mansion, Phillip told Beth that things feel weird now without Alan. She gave him a journal and encouraged him to start writing again. They kissed and then Rick called to tell them to come to the park. Meanwhile, Frank and Blake were surprised to see each other on the bridge at the park and quickly (finally!) realized they've been chatting online and are a dating match. They walked hand in hand through the park and saw Liv and Nat, who revealed that they're naming the baby Francesca after Frank. Buzz took the Cooper clan to spy on Frank on his date and they were all stunned to see him with Blake. Phil and Beth arrived and were surprised to learn that Mindy is moving back to Springfield. Jon showed up with Sarah; Lizzie told Bill she wants to have babies with him. Marina told Shayne she signed him up for an assistant baseball coach position. Remy and Christina happily informed Mel and Cyrus that they're having a baby.

Everyone was happy and gathered for Shayne's baseball game. Jon showed up with Sarah, and Billy offered him a job; he accepted. Bill and Lizzie arrived. She's pregnant! Remy and Christina came by with their new baby in tow. Blake, holding baby Francesca, kissed Frank. Nat and Olivia went to the bus station to pick up Rafe. Meanwhile, in Europe, Dinah and Mallet watched a wedding. He picked her up and carried her out of the church. James went to visit Ashlee and Daisy. Phil, Beth, Danny and Michelle gave a champagne toast to Rick and Mindy, who were gearing up for their own wedding day.

Josh showed at the light house. Reva and little Colin arrived. Reva told Josh that he was right and she needed time to find herself again, which she did. Josh said he found himself, too, and he still wants to be with the woman he's loved his entire life. "I want you, Reva." Reva declared her love and said she's in. They kissed. Josh said they're going on an adventure together and leave Springfield. They grabbed Reva's things and hopped in HB's truck together. "You ready?" Josh asked. "Always," Reva smiled and they drove away.

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Lights out for 'Guiding Light'

Guiding Light Fades to Black

'Guiding Light' ends 72-year run amidst melancholy feelings from cast and crew

60 Minutes

GL cancelled three times!

Interviews

1937-2009: Saying Goodbye to Guiding Light

Fans bid farewell to beloved 'Guiding Light'

Irna Phillips, The Mother of Daytime Drama

Actor loses guiding light

Some familiar faces have graced 'Guiding Light'

'Guiding Light' Says Goodbye -- Will More Soaps Follow?

Greatest moments of 'Guiding Light'

Interviews

After 72 Years, Springfield Gets a Stop Sign

An institution ends when 'Guiding Light' turns off

Paley Center Tribute

Dean the Dog

Only Love Video

Kettlebell pro Beth Chamberlin