As the World Turns
Encyclopedia
As the World Turns is an American
television soap opera
that aired on CBS
from April 2, 1956 to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips
created As the World Turns as a sister show
to her other soap opera Guiding Light
. Running for 54 years, ATWT holds the second-longest continuous run of any daytime network soap opera in American history, surpassed only by Guiding Light.
As the World Turns is notable for having been produced in New York City
for all of its time on television (its first 43 years in Manhattan
and in Brooklyn
from 2000 until 2010).
Set in the fictional town of Oakdale, Illinois
, the show debuted on April 2, 1956, at 1:30 pm EST
. Prior to that date, all serials had been fifteen minutes in length. As the World Turns and The Edge of Night
, which premiered on the same day at 4:30 pm EST, were the first two to be thirty minutes in length from their premiere. At first, viewers did not respond to the new half-hour serial, but ratings picked up in its second year, eventually reaching the top spot in the daytime Nielsen ratings
by fall 1958. In 1959, the show started a streak of weekly ratings wins that would not be interrupted for over twelve years. The show switched to color on August 21, 1967, and expanded from a half-hour in length to one hour starting on December 1, 1975 when The Edge of Night
moved to ABC
. In the year-to-date ratings, As the World Turns was the most-watched daytime drama from 1958 until 1978, with ten million viewers tuning in each day. At its height, core actors such as Helen Wagner
, Don MacLaughlin
, Don Hastings
, and Eileen Fulton
became nationally known.
The show passed its 10,000th episode on May 12, 1995, and celebrated its 50th anniversary on April 2, 2006. On September 18, 2009, As the World Turns became the last remaining Procter and Gamble produced soap opera on television after Guiding Light aired its final episode.
On December 8, 2009, CBS announced that it canceled As the World Turns because of low ratings. The show taped its final scenes on June 23, 2010, and with a sad dramatic storyline finale, its final episode aired on September 17, 2010. On October 18, 2010, CBS replaced As the World Turns with The Talk
.
As the World Turns was the creation of Irna Phillips
who, beginning in the 1930s, had been one of the foremost creators and writers of radio soap operas. As a writer, Phillips favored character development and psychological realism over melodrama
, and her previous creations (which included Guiding Light
) were especially notable for placing professionals – doctors, lawyers, and clergy people – at the center of their storylines. Phillips wrote: "As the world turns, we know the bleakness of winter, the promise of spring, the fullness of summer and the harvest of autumn—the cycle of life is complete."
And so it was with As the World Turns, with its slow-moving psychological character studies of families headed by legal and medical professionals. The personal and professional lives of doctors and lawyers would remain central to As the World Turns throughout its run, and would eventually become standard fare on all soap operas. Whereas the 15-minute radio soaps often focused on one central, heroic character (for example, Dr. Jim Brent in Phillips' Road of Life), the expanded 30-minute format of As the World Turns enabled Phillips to introduce a handful of professionals within the framework of a family saga.
One of Phillips' innovations was to introduce a sort of Greek chorus
to the stories. The primary purpose of characters such as Nancy Hughes
(Helen Wagner
) was to comment on the crises faced and decisions made by the town's more dynamic residents. This technique contributed to the popularity of the show and continues to be widely used in other soap operas.
Phillips' style favored gradual evolution over radical change. Slow, conversational, and emotionally intense, the show moved at the pace of life itself – and sometimes even more slowly than that. Each new addition to the cast was done in a gradual manner, and was usually a key contact to one of the members of the Hughes family. As such, the show got a reputation as being quite conservative (though the show did showcase the first gay
male character on American soap operas, in 1988). During the show's early decades, the content-related policies of its sponsor Procter & Gamble Productions may have contributed to the perception of conservatism. The soap-manufacturing giant typically balked at storylines in which adultery
and other immoral behavior would go unpunished, and as late as the 1980s characters from the primary families were still generally not allowed to go through with abortions.
The series was also CBS' first to expand to a 60-minute running time, doing so in 1975. By 1958, the program was the number one daytime drama in the United States. As the World Turns won the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Daytime Drama Series four times (in 1987, 1991, 2001, and 2003.)
The show changed opening title sequence
s from the original format six times: in 1981, 1993, 1999, 2002 (with a slight modification of the 2002 visuals redone in 2003), 2007, and 2009.
As a testament to the show's unwillingness to change in the early years, the show had the same theme song (an organ
-piano
tune for the opening theme, and an organ-piano-celesta
tune for the long closing theme, which transitioned into pre-recorded versions in December 1973, composed by Charles Paul), and opening visual (a globe
spinning in space). During the black and white years, the globe was in the distance and to the right of the camera. As the organ and piano played, the camera zoomed in until the globe was centered. The title card faded up and Dan McCullough announced. For the midbreaks and closing, the globe was on center. The visual was not markedly altered during the 1967 transitions.
Color brought some minor changes. The globe was now always on center. The title zoomed out from the middle of the globe. The organ version of the main theme was used over the color visual until early December 1973, when the theme became orchestrated. During the black-and-white years and color years prior to some point in 1973, Charles Paul played a celeste composition called "Simple Melody" over the midbreak plugs. At some point in early to mid 1973, organ music was dropped from the body of the show, and Charles Paul played an electric piano only as the background music. However, it was not until early December 1973 that the orchestrated opening and closing themes replaced the live organ versions. The color update of the black-and-white visual stayed until October 30, 1981. At the time, closing credits were only shown once a week, if that. At least through the late 1970s, during the credit crawl, the job title was shown in Lydian typeface, while the person's name was shown in Futura Heavy. (This style also was shared by "The Edge of Night" from 1967 until 1980). This changed once the credits were done on a character generator
beginning in 1978. Now, the credits were all done in Helvetica
(Guiding Light
would also switch its credits to this font in the same year). The letters remained white throughout the title sequence run, but were in all capitals.
The sponsor tags from the show's premiere until the opening sequence was changed in 1981 were hand drawn pictures of the product, or the name of the product, superimposed over the globe. On a 1965 closing sequence, the sponsor tag was an actual photo card of the product. This may have been the practice used on credit days. There is only one known surviving B&W episode with a credit crawl. On non-credit days, the superimposure was used. After the 1981 title change, the sponsor tags were actual photos of the products. This was the usual practice used on the P&G shows. This continues to this day. There have been occasions, where a sponsor was to be plugged, that it would not occur until after the title sequence. This was after the show's announcer was eliminated. A CBS announcer would plug the product.
On November 2, 1981, a new synthesized
theme song was first heard, with new computer-enhanced visuals. The globe had now been relegated to an O in the word WORLD, with three beams of light reflecting separate ways. The tune was modified in December 1984 and again in September 1988. The globe was on the center of the screen for the closing sequences. From about the late 80s until the end of traditional closing credits, credit crawls were run more frequently. The closing credits remained in Helvetica typeface, but were now in yellow. The entire credit setup would be in capitals until mid-1984, when production titles and actors' names in the cast list were changed to mostly lowercase. Between July and September 1991, the credit font was changed to an italicized variation of Palatino Italic font, which remained in yellow through the end of this title sequence's run.
On February 3, 1993, the theme song and opening visual was changed again. Barry DeVorzon, famous for composing the theme song of The Young and the Restless
, composed the theme song. This time the credits were done by computer specialist group Castle/Bryant/Johnsen
. In the visuals, the letters of the title slowly passed by, with the seasons illustrated in picture form inside the letters themselves. When the visual finally got to the O in WORLD, a spinning globe fell into its place and the whole title was zoomed out of focus, to be seen by the audience. In 1995, the closing credits ran over original scenes related to events in that day's episode (for example, if a character was seen in an episode, the credits might show them cleaning a room or playing a piano—things too "boring" to be in the episode itself.) By 1997, however, the credits simply rolled over scenes from that day's episode. The globe was used for closing credits from 1993 until they changed to beauty shots. For a brief period, the globe was used to promote the viewer feedback line. Then they would use the beauty shots for the credit crawl. A credit crawl was run almost daily, either short or full crawl. This was the last title sequence to use traditional closing credits. The CBS squeeze started while these visuals were in use. The credits looked like the ones used at the end of the 81–93 titles. The Palatino Italic typeface remained with the show's closing credits.
The show changed its music and opening again on November 1, 1999. For the first time, cast shots (both solo and group) were seen, accompanied by music. (ATWT had been one of the last soaps to incorporate cast shots into their openings.) The globe was now made up of clips throughout the show's history, not unlike a process first seen in the movie The Truman Show
. Internet fans complained that the sound effects in the theme song that accompanied these credits, which was written by David Nichtern and Kevin Bents, sounded too much like "toilet
flushing noises." The closing credits were never seen on the air on CBS, but they were seen in rebroadcasts on SoapCity.com. The visual returned to seeing a spinning globe (the computerized globe of clips from the opening) in space with the credits scrolling in gold italic Palatino Italic lettering, ending with the title in the 1993 title lettering setup; the format of the credits (including the title) would accompany the following title sequence's end credits.
A new sequence, featuring cast clips to a mellower music selection (written by Jamie Lawrence
and, again, David Nichtern), debuted on July 8, 2002. The backdrop to complement the actor clips was colored in gold, and was changed to sky blue in November 2003. The music from 2002 remained intact. Several shorter versions of this intro were used from time to time, rotating from day-to-day, featuring different members of the cast in each. In the latter years of the sequence, however, some cast members appeared in more than one sequence. Also, some cast headshots used film (these were most likely headshots carried over from the 1999 to 2002 sequence), while others used videotape, giving inconsistency in the film style for each headshot. There are two versions of closing credits. The globe fades off as the credits run. There is no closing title card, as the background fades up and the crawl runs. The closing logo is the 1993 version, now in white. In September 2006, a temporary intro was introduced to mark the "Ice Storm" theme of the next few shows.
A new opening sequence premiered on April 30, 2007. The new opening featured a dramatic, piano-based score, accompanied by shots of the main characters (usually paired up with their storyline counterparts — e.g. Jack and Carly, Lily and Holden, etc. — with two characters appearing per shot), and composite images of the characters' histories superimposed over their shots against a gold background. The logo that had been used since 1999 was retired and a new logo was instituted which kept the globe in place of the "O" in "WORLD", but the logo typeface was changed to Helvetica with the "AS THE" in the title aligned to the right instead of the center. A few months later, ATWT debuted another opening, including only the title forming over a black background playing over the previous scene's music, minus the cast montage. It was unknown whether or not it was to be used on days that needs more air time; however, with the departure of several characters featured in the opening credits — e.g. Will, Gwen, Dusty, and Craig — the short opening has become permanent. The closing credits, as seen on AOL Video, also start rolling at fade up. The typeface is changed, and the 1993 title card is used.
On June 22, 2009, the show debuted yet another new sequence, with a spinning globe and one full line of text entering from the right side of the screen to the middle in front of the globe. In the background is a faded version of the show title in larger letters. This new title sequence has a stark resemblance to the original title sequence from 1956 with a modern flair. Production ended on June 23, 2010 in their Brooklyn, New York studios, with the final episode airing on September 17 of that year.
McCullough also announced that the program was recorded, after the show was no longer performed live at some point in the spring of 1975. This announcement would continue even after P&G added copyrights to the final title card on June 2, 1980, where "This Program was Recorded" would appear on the last line of the copyright. It would be spoken for the final time on October 30, 1981. On credit days from June 2, 1980 until October 30, 1981, the title logo with copyright information appeared, then the credits rolled. A 1981 episode shows this practice.
McCullough did announce over "The World Turns On and On" title sequences for a short period of time, from its debut on November 2, 1981 until he retired in February 1982. The latest aforementioned changes to the opening, mid-bumper and closing announcements remained in place, but there was no longer a display of the next program's logo in the closing credits effective November 2, 1981. In his final months with the show, McCullough would say "Stay tuned for Search for Tomorrow, next on most of these CBS stations" as the first closing display of the ATWT title appeared over the visuals, before the credit carding or scroll. (Subsequently, the copyright notice would now not appear until the end of the credits, under the last display of the title.)
became executive producer. His announcements were much like Dan McCullough's.
began to decrease their sponsorship of the program for some days of the week, even though they themselves were the producers. So, on such days, Region would only announce the title of the program right before the first commercial break.) During the O.J. Simpson trial, the title sequence was shortened.Mid-program break: " This portion of As the World Turns has been brought to you today by (name and description of sponsor). We'll continue with Part II of As the World Turns in just a moment."
Lead-in to second half—either " And now Part II of As the World Turns!", or "And now we continue with Part II of As the World Turns!" (the second half from 1981 forward was, for the most part, not officially sponsored, or if it was, it was not a P&G product.)
Lead-in to next-to-last commercial break: eliminated possibly after the show expanded to one hour.
Closing credits--" Stay tuned for Search for Tomorrow
(February 1982 – March 26, 1982) Capitol
(March 29, 1982 to March 20, 1987), or Guiding Light
(March 23, 1987 to at least the end of the announcer era.) "next on most of these CBS stations.", or "Join us again tomorrow/This is Dan Region, inviting you to join us again Monday for As the World Turns."
Possibly after the show went into color, or at least by 1972, more than one sponsor was plugged at the opening, midbreak and closing.
) still had to announce the sponsor tags on days where the show was sponsored. Circa 2000, a female announcer would do the tags after the opening titles.
Even in the show's final years, the show still had an announcer (albeit unidentified), although his/her announcements are limited to sponsor tags (for shows that are sponsored). Cast members also made bumper announcements.
games, US Open tennis coverage, etc.) were announced over the final logo or during the credit crawl. This practice is shown on the many surviving episodes of the era. Dan McCullough may have also followed this practice.
(Nancy Hughes
) opened As the World Turns on April 2, 1956. For a time, Wagner was tied with Mike Wallace
as the oldest personalities on television. Both were born in 1918 and previously ranked behind Days of our Lives
star Frances Reid
(born in 1914). Reid, who died on February 3, 2010, was also a former cast member on As the World Turns appearing as Grace Baker. With Wagner's death May 1, 2010, Wallace became the single oldest living television personality.
Wagner is acknowledged by the Guinness Book of Records for holding the world record for the longest amount of time appearing as the same character, playing the role of Nancy Hughes
since the show went on the air on April 2, 1956, though she has not played the role without interruption. Wagner was temporarily dropped from the series after the first six months due to conflicts with creator Irna Phillips. Wagner also left the series in 1981, when she felt that writers were not interested in the veteran players. She returned as a regular contract player in 1985 after Douglas Marland became headwriter. She was 37 years old when the show started. On the episode broadcast on Monday, August 30, 2010, it was revealed that Nancy had died in her sleep; the next day's episode dealt with Nancy's memorial service. Coincidentally, Nancy Hughes's memorial aired just two weeks before the series finale. The show's producers stated in interviews that they had to revise their plans for the final episode because of Wagner's death - they had hoped that Wagner would say the final lines of the last episode just as she had said the first words of the first episode (presumably "Good night, dear.").
. The same character (and actor) was then transferred to a new P&G soap, Another World
, shortly after its premiere in 1964. Another World was originally conceived by creator Irna Phillips
to be a spin-off series
of As the World Turns. Like several other characters from Another World, Mitchell Dru "crossed over" for one or more performances on the first Another World spin-off, Somerset
, which premiered in March 1970.
, (CBS's attempt to duplicate the success of rival network ABC's Peyton Place
), with Lisa leaving Oakdale and moving to Chicago, where she married wealthy John Eldridge, but had an affair with his brother Thomas. Though Our Private World only lasted a few months, and Fulton returned to As the World Turns in early 1966, after taking a few months off, remnants of Lisa's time on Our Private World were resurrected 26 years later, when it was revealed in 1992 that Lisa had had a son off-camera, hitherto unknown to viewers, before returning to As the World Turns in 1966. Her son Scott Eldridge tracked her down as an adult, and remained on As the World Turns for several years.
was canceled in June 1999, the characters of Cass and Lila Winthrop (Stephen Schnetzer
and Lisa Peluso
), and Jake
and Victoria McKinnon
(Tom Eplin
and Jensen Buchanan
) crossed over to As the World Turns briefly. Jake and Vicky intended to move to Oakdale, but Vicky was soon killed off in September 1999, then appeared as a ghost to Jake and Molly from November 2000 to February 2001. Cass only appeared on a recurring basis through 2003 (usually whenever anyone in Oakdale needed an attorney, other than resident lawyer Tom Hughes), and Jake (Tom Eplin
) remained as a regular on the series until his character was killed off in 2002. Cindy Brooke Harrison (Kim Rhodes
) also had minor appearances in 2000 and 2001. Vicky's mother and twin sister, Donna (Anna Stuart
) and Marley (Ellen Wheeler
, who at the time also directed episodes of "As the World Turns"), made recurring appearances from 2000 to 2002, and left the show when they gained custody of Jake and Vicky's twin daughters after Jake's death. There were also plans to have a now-teenage Steven Frame (Vicky's son with Jamie Frame) come to Oakdale and live with Jake, but the character was reconceived as teenage Bryant Montgomery, the son of ATWT couple Craig and Sierra.
Since 2005, a number of characters have crossed back and forth between As the World Turns and The Young and the Restless
:
(Christian LeBlanc
) traveled there to serve as the attorney for Jack Snyder
(Michael Park
) in a custody hearing involving his late wife Julia Larabee's son, JJ. (April 4 – 05, 2005).
The irony in his appearance in the above-mentioned episodes, is that twenty-years before, LeBlanc left the role of Kirk McColl, the youngest son of Lisa's fifth husband, Whit McColl (Played by Wagon Train star Robert Horton, who was killed-off shortly before Fulton's return to the show). So, to many long-time fans of both As The World Turns and The Young and the Restless, it was weird seeing LeBlanc as the character from the latter show. History was also made during LeBlanc's appearance on ATWT, since both shows are made by different production companies (Bell Productions for Y&R; Procter and Gamble for ATWT), although they are on the same network.
and son Tom to the house for Thanksgiving. Ten minutes into the program, Nancy and her father-in-law (whom she referred to as "Grandpa") were sitting on the couch discussing the situation:
Grandpa: "Did you ask him why he invited her?"
Nancy: "He said something about not wanting her to have Thanksgiving dinner alone, that he didn't think it was right."
At this precise point, a "CBS News
Bulletin" slide suddenly came up on the screen and Walter Cronkite
gave the first report of an unfolding national tragedy, which had taken place at the very minute of ATWT's opening:
CBS then returned to ATWT while the show was taking its first commercial break. A commercial for Nescafé
coffee, the first midbreak sponsor bumper (for Best Foods, who had sponsored the first half of the program through its Niagara and NuSoft brands) and a preview bumper for an episode of Route 66
which was to air that evening followed. Then CBS paused for identification of their local affiliate stations. The sponsor bumper for the second half of ATWT (for Carnation
) was immediately cut off for further information from Cronkite over the bulletin graphic (Both the cameras and the studio lights of the era required some time to "warm up" before they could be used).
At the end of this bulletin CBS rejoined ATWT, which was still in progress, as the cast, performing the episode live, was not yet aware of the rapidly developing situation. The scene at this point was in a restaurant with Bob Hughes and David Stewart; this would be the final scene before continuous coverage of the assassination. A commercial for Friskies
Puppy Food was featured in its entirety, then the next commercial (for Friskies Magic Sauce Cubes dog food) was cut off. The episode continued to be performed to its conclusion despite no one's being able to watch it. From then on, Cronkite relayed incoming reports as received over the bulletin card (confirmed from a viewing of the episode). At the top of the hour, with the bulletin slide still on screen, Cronkite announced a ten second pause for all CBS-TV affiliates to issue a station identification
and join the network. The CBS "eye" logo was briefly shown, followed by the bulletin slide until Cronkite appeared on camera.
As NBC and ABC
, the other two major U.S. TV networks, were not programming at the time (the 1:30–2:00 ET period belonging to their local affiliates), As The World Turns has the distinction of being the last regular U.S. network program broadcast for the next four days as the assassination of JFK
and the transition of power to President Lyndon B. Johnson
took center stage.
A VHS copy of a kinescope print of the entire episode, with commercials and without interruptions, is available for viewing at The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, CA.
's Another World
(1973–1974, 1977–1978) and Days of our Lives
(1973–1974). By the mid-1960s, it was so firmly entrenched that its strongest competition, Let's Make a Deal
, despite developing a devoted fan base in its own right and becoming one of daytime's most popular game shows, could not come close to matching it in the Nielsens
.
Its strength was such that ABC
ran hour-long drama reruns in the 1–2 p.m. (noon-1 Central) slot in the mid-1960s and NBC, after losing Deal to ABC in 1968, ran a total of eight shows, all short-lived (with the exception of Three on a Match
, which lasted three years), against ATWT and Deal from that point until 1975.
As that year began Another World was expanded to sixty minutes, with their first hour long episode airing on January 6, 1975. Although this did not directly affect ATWT, as the two shows were not in competition for anything other than the overall ratings win, CBS' afternoon lineup suffered some ratings damage as the popular soap put a dent in the ratings of both of CBS' popular afternoon game shows, The Price Is Right
and Match Game
. NBC, pleased by the success that the expansion of Another World has brought to the network, elected to do the same thing with Days of Our Lives beginning on April 21, 1975; this put Days and ATWT in direct competition for ratings. Incidentally, the expansions were occurring seven years after the last two fifteen minute serials, Search for Tomorrow
and Guiding Light
, expanded to thirty minutes.
CBS decided that they too needed to expand at least one of their daytime series. Since ATWT was still the front-runner in the ratings battle, it was chosen as one of the series; the other was The Price Is Right
, which at the time was part of CBS' afternoon schedule. ATWT and The Price Is Right were due to expand in September 1975, and the latter was moved back to the morning in order to facilitate that. While TPIR's expansion was initially only intended to be an experiment, ATWT's was to be permanent and required the cancellation of one of CBS' half-hour serials in order for that to happen. CBS found that series in The Edge of Night
, which at the time was the network's lowest rated program; although it was once a solid performer in the ratings, Edge had been moved at Procter & Gamble's insistence from its 3:30 p.m. timeslot to the 2:30 p.m. slot following Guiding Light in 1972 and as a result lost a large portion of its audience which was composed largely of teenagers, men, and young adults. In order for the expansion to take place, Edge would have to be canceled- the rest of CBS' soap opera lineup was performing well in the ratings and the network did not have a spare timeslot to put it in that would not risk preemption. CBS announced that it would not renew Edge when its contract was up, but the serial was saved when ABC offered to take it.
However, a problem arose that would have caused a major issue had CBS elected to go ahead with a September expansion of ATWT. The network had a contract with P&G to air Edge until December 1975 and the expansion would have resulted in an immediate cancellation. This meant that no new episodes of Edge would air for three months, and ABC was not interested in taking on the serial if that was to be the case. This required an arrangement to be made between the networks and production company- ATWT would delay its expansion while Edge would continue to air on CBS, and the series would move to ABC once the network was able to free a timeslot for it. In November 1975, ABC announced the cancellation of the game show You Don't Say!
, which had been airing in the network's 4 p.m. timeslot. The final episode was scheduled to air on November 28, 1975, after which Edge would be free to leave CBS and ATWT would be free to expand to sixty minutes.
The first hour-long episode of ATWT aired on 1 December 1975 (coincidentally, the same day that The Price Is Right marked its permanent expansion to an hour). With the expansion the serial was not only up against Let's Make a Deal, which by this point in time had been struggling in the ratings for some time, but also against The $10,000 Pyramid
, which at the time was the third-highest rated game show in daytime. In the first half hour, ATWT performed well enough against the fading Deal that it moved to Noon within four weeks and also beat its replacement, Rhyme and Reason
. The second half hour, however, saw ATWT not perform as well when taking on The $10,000 Pyramid, which had also performed well against Guiding Light in the 2 p.m. slot. Although the expansion was not a complete success, at the end of the season the serial was again at the top of the daytime Nielsens despite a 1.4 point drop from the year before.
Although the eventual hit game Family Feud
ran against ATWT from 12 July 1976 until 22 April 1977, it did not become a smash hit for ABC until its move to the mornings. It was only when ABC made its first move to a one-hour soap with All My Children
that trouble really began for ATWT (and also Days), since ABC kept that serial's starting time at 1/noon, meaning that fans of that serial who tuned to NBC or CBS would miss the last half of that day's storyline (or, contrariwise, would not, if they watched until the mid-program commercial break and then changed channels, pick up the ATWT or Days activities from the episode's beginning, since ABC strategically placed its break several minutes after the bottom of the hour). Further, AMC's emphasis on youth-oriented, sexier story lines provided a sharp contrast to the domestic, almost quaint tone of ATWT (and, to a lesser degree, the melodramatic, somewhat topical Days). Worse still, on January 16, 1978, ABC ballooned its decade-old One Life to Live
to the 2/1 starting time, compounding the other networks' headaches. These factors helped contribute to the fall of ATWT from the top spot in the ratings at the end of the 1978-79 season. After finishing the previous season tied with Another World for #1 in the Nielsens, ATWT fell to fourth behind AMC, General Hospital, and The Young and the Restless.
On 4 February 1980, CBS moved and expanded The Young and the Restless
to a full hour after the cancellation of the long running soap Love of Life
. Y&R moved from Noon/11am to 1pm/Noon (the former affiliate break timeslot) and ATWT was bumped up to 2pm/1pm and Guiding Light
to 3pm/2pm. CBS was not satisfied with this schedule against ABC and NBC and it lasted just a little over a year. On 8 June 1981, ATWT returned to its longtime 1:30/12:30pm start time with Search for Tomorrow
following at 2:30/1:30pm and Y&R leading off the soap lineup at either Noon/11am or 12:30/11:30am (depending on affiliate preference).
ATWT remained at 1:30/12:30pm until 20 March 1987, when CBS scrapped the five-year-old Capitol in favor of The Bold and the Beautiful
. Believing that B&B would do better running in tandem with Y&R (especially on Eastern Time Zone affiliates), CBS scheduled it at 1:30/12:30, and finally settled ATWT at 2/1, where it remained until it's final episode in September 2010. Although facing the full length of AW and OLTL once again, the Douglas Marland
era of 1985 from 1993 saw a resurgence in ratings, and by 1991 it was back in its once habitual top-four placing. ATWT would survive NBC's cancellation of its sister AW in 1999 in favor of Passions
, which itself was canceled in September 2007.
One example of the drastic change in daytime television can be found in the following:
1995 ratings
As the World Turns spent a record breaking 20 years on top of the Nielsen ratings for American daytime soap operas. They would retain this record until The Young and the Restless
broke it in 2008 when it remained #1 for 21 years and counting.
Years as #1 series
Record Low: 1,773,000 viewers on December 25, 2009. (Nielsen Media Research
)
1956-1957 season
1957-1958 season
1978-1979 season
1979-1980 season
1980-1981 season
1981-1982 season
1982-1983 season
1983-1984 season
1984-1985 season
1985-1986 season
1986-1987 season
1987-1988 season
1988-1989 season
1989-1990 season
1990-1991 season
1991-1992 season
1992-1993 season
1993-1994 season
1994-1995 season
1995-1996 season
1996-1997 season
1997-1998 season
1998-1999 season
1999-2000 season
2000-2001 season
2001-2002 season
2002-2003 season
2003-2004 season
2004-2005 season
2005-2006 season
2006-2007 season
2007-2008 season
2008-2009 season
2009-2010 season
South Africa In South Africa, As the World Turns started airing on June 1, 2010 on SABC 2 from 14:10 to 15:00 each weekday. Episodes are 4 years behind the USA.
The Netherlands has aired the show on RTL 4
since 1990 (9:00 am and 5:00 pm) and on RTL 8
since 2007 (10:30 pm). RTL4 airs the episodes from one year and seven months ago. ATWT is the most popular foreign soap in the Netherlands and has about 800.000 Dutch viewers each day, it's the second popular soap of all soaps in the whole country, after GTST. ATWT actor Todd Rotondi (ex-Bryant) had a cameo role on the Dutch soap Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden
(Good Times, Bad Times) and Elizabeth Hubbard
was a guest in the RTL talkshow Jensen!
and in Mooi! Weer de Leeuw
. In July 2009, Hubbard plays a guest role on GTST, she plays the role of sexuologe Sair Poindexter, the mother of main character Irene Huygens. GTST announced a return of Sair Poindexter in December.
In Canada As the World Turns aired on Global Television Network
and on NTV
in Newfoundland and Labrador
.
In Italy As the World Turns, under the title Così gira il mondo, started to air in 1986 on Canale 5
, in the afternoon after Guiding Light
time slot, with episodes three years behind the U.S. In 1987 it was moved to another channel, Rete 4
. The show was canceled in 1992. At that time, episodes were four years behind the U.S.
In Bulgaria
, the show was aired on Efir 2
from 1993 to 1995.
Diema Family
will continue with the episodes from 2004, starting on April 8, 2008.
In Jamaica
As The World Turns started airing on Television Jamaica Monday to Friday 1:00pm beginning in 2011.
In Serbia
, the show began airing on TV Avala
on August 10, 2009, to very little publicity. It currently airs weekdays at 8:00 am, as well as Saturdays at 5:15 pm. The reruns air occasionally (depending on the rest of the late-night programming) around 3:15 AM. The show was canceled on April 25, 2010, for unknown reasons.
In Albania
, the show will be seen on Vizion+, beginning with episodes from 2006.
In the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia
, the show will begin airing on December 15, 2009, Monday to Friday at 12:15 on Sitel
Belize's Great Belize Television
is the sole broadcaster of ATWT, at 2:00 pm Central Time on schedule with the U.S.
In New Zealand
As The World Turns was aired on TVNZ from 1962 to 1989.
In Australia
, As The World Turns was aired on Network Ten first at 1.30 pm, then moved to 5:00pm before ultimately being dropped entirely in 1987.
, the winner of which would go on to receive a 13-week acting contract on As the World Turns. The eventual winner of InTurn was Alex Charak
, an 18 year old "Student/Pizza Transportation Artist" from New York. Charak made his debut as the character Elwood Hoffman on September 26, 2006. A one-hour "best-of" show aired on CBS on November 24, 2006.
CBS launched InTurn 2 in the summer of 2007. For the new season, the age restrictions expanded to allow for middle-aged viewers to participate, and there were nine competitors instead of eight. The winner of the second season was Ryan Serhant, a recent graduate of Hamilton College. Serhant made his debut in the contract role on November 7, 2007. He plays Evan Walsh IV, son of Evan Walsh III. He is a young hotshot biochemist prodigy who comes home to Oakdale to try to convince Craig Montgomery to invest in the cutting edge biomedical tech field. He began taping on September 24, 2007, two days after the close of his off-Broadway play, Purple Hearts.
Inturn 3 began airing in April 2008 and featured 17 episodes.
It was also the longest running dramatic series created exclusively for television.
for "Outstanding Daily Drama" during the 21st GLAAD Media Awards
.
The firm intends to release a series of DVD collections and is exploring multiple distribution options, including broadcast and cable television, in markets both domestic and overseas.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
television soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
that aired on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
from April 2, 1956 to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips
Irna Phillips
Irna Phillips was an American actress and most notably writer who created and scripted many of the first American soap operas.Phillips created radio and TV soap operas including:...
created As the World Turns as a sister show
Sister show
Sister shows are two or more television shows which exist in the same fictional universe and which may have crossovers. They differ to a degree from spin-offs in that shows may air simultaneously, rather than being derived from, and replacing, another. The popularity of most shows is limited to a...
to her other soap opera Guiding Light
Guiding Light
Guiding Light is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running drama in television and radio history, running from 1937 until 2009...
. Running for 54 years, ATWT holds the second-longest continuous run of any daytime network soap opera in American history, surpassed only by Guiding Light.
As the World Turns is notable for having been produced in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
for all of its time on television (its first 43 years in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
and in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
from 2000 until 2010).
Set in the fictional town of Oakdale, Illinois
Oakdale (As the World Turns)
Oakdale is the setting of the television soap opera As the World Turns.-Location:For many years, the writers have been firm on placing the city in the state of Illinois. By all indications, the city is unrelated to the real Oakdale, Illinois. However, show creator Irna Phillips may have modeled her...
, the show debuted on April 2, 1956, at 1:30 pm EST
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
. Prior to that date, all serials had been fifteen minutes in length. As the World Turns and The Edge of Night
The Edge of Night
The Edge of Night is an American television mystery series/soap opera produced by Procter & Gamble. It debuted on CBS on April 2, 1956, and ran as a live broadcast on that network until November 28, 1975; the series then moved to ABC, where it aired from December 1, 1975, until December 28, 1984...
, which premiered on the same day at 4:30 pm EST, were the first two to be thirty minutes in length from their premiere. At first, viewers did not respond to the new half-hour serial, but ratings picked up in its second year, eventually reaching the top spot in the daytime Nielsen ratings
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
by fall 1958. In 1959, the show started a streak of weekly ratings wins that would not be interrupted for over twelve years. The show switched to color on August 21, 1967, and expanded from a half-hour in length to one hour starting on December 1, 1975 when The Edge of Night
The Edge of Night
The Edge of Night is an American television mystery series/soap opera produced by Procter & Gamble. It debuted on CBS on April 2, 1956, and ran as a live broadcast on that network until November 28, 1975; the series then moved to ABC, where it aired from December 1, 1975, until December 28, 1984...
moved to ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
. In the year-to-date ratings, As the World Turns was the most-watched daytime drama from 1958 until 1978, with ten million viewers tuning in each day. At its height, core actors such as Helen Wagner
Helen Wagner
Helen Wagner was an American actress. Born in Lubbock, Texas, she is best known for her long running role as Nancy Hughes McClosky on the soap opera As the World Turns. Wagner also played the role of Trudy Bauer during the initial TV years of Guiding Light in the early 1950s...
, Don MacLaughlin
Don MacLaughlin
Don MacLaughlin was an American soap opera actor.He was born on November 24, 1906, in Webster, Iowa, under the name William Donald McLaughlin....
, Don Hastings
Don Hastings
Donald Francis Hastings is a longtime American actor, singer, and writer best known for his 50-year role as Dr. Robert "Bob" Hughes" on the soap opera As the World Turns...
, and Eileen Fulton
Eileen Fulton
Eileen Fulton is an American actress.Fulton is known for her role as Lisa Grimaldi on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns, a role that she played almost continuously for 50 years from May 18, 1960 until the show's cancellation on September 17, 2010.-As the...
became nationally known.
The show passed its 10,000th episode on May 12, 1995, and celebrated its 50th anniversary on April 2, 2006. On September 18, 2009, As the World Turns became the last remaining Procter and Gamble produced soap opera on television after Guiding Light aired its final episode.
On December 8, 2009, CBS announced that it canceled As the World Turns because of low ratings. The show taped its final scenes on June 23, 2010, and with a sad dramatic storyline finale, its final episode aired on September 17, 2010. On October 18, 2010, CBS replaced As the World Turns with The Talk
The Talk (U.S. TV series)
The Talk is a talk show created by actress Sara Gilbert, who also serves as the executive producer. The show premiered on October 18, 2010, and airs on CBS as a part of CBS Daytime...
.
Premise
Irna Phillips
Irna Phillips was an American actress and most notably writer who created and scripted many of the first American soap operas.Phillips created radio and TV soap operas including:...
who, beginning in the 1930s, had been one of the foremost creators and writers of radio soap operas. As a writer, Phillips favored character development and psychological realism over melodrama
Melodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
, and her previous creations (which included Guiding Light
Guiding Light
Guiding Light is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running drama in television and radio history, running from 1937 until 2009...
) were especially notable for placing professionals – doctors, lawyers, and clergy people – at the center of their storylines. Phillips wrote: "As the world turns, we know the bleakness of winter, the promise of spring, the fullness of summer and the harvest of autumn—the cycle of life is complete."
And so it was with As the World Turns, with its slow-moving psychological character studies of families headed by legal and medical professionals. The personal and professional lives of doctors and lawyers would remain central to As the World Turns throughout its run, and would eventually become standard fare on all soap operas. Whereas the 15-minute radio soaps often focused on one central, heroic character (for example, Dr. Jim Brent in Phillips' Road of Life), the expanded 30-minute format of As the World Turns enabled Phillips to introduce a handful of professionals within the framework of a family saga.
One of Phillips' innovations was to introduce a sort of Greek chorus
Greek chorus
A Greek chorus is a homogenous, non-individualised group of performers in the plays of classical Greece, who comment with a collective voice on the dramatic action....
to the stories. The primary purpose of characters such as Nancy Hughes
Nancy Hughes
Nancy Hughes McClosky is a fictional character on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns. From the show's inception in 1956 until 2010, Nancy Hughes has served as the core family's matriarch...
(Helen Wagner
Helen Wagner
Helen Wagner was an American actress. Born in Lubbock, Texas, she is best known for her long running role as Nancy Hughes McClosky on the soap opera As the World Turns. Wagner also played the role of Trudy Bauer during the initial TV years of Guiding Light in the early 1950s...
) was to comment on the crises faced and decisions made by the town's more dynamic residents. This technique contributed to the popularity of the show and continues to be widely used in other soap operas.
Phillips' style favored gradual evolution over radical change. Slow, conversational, and emotionally intense, the show moved at the pace of life itself – and sometimes even more slowly than that. Each new addition to the cast was done in a gradual manner, and was usually a key contact to one of the members of the Hughes family. As such, the show got a reputation as being quite conservative (though the show did showcase the first gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
male character on American soap operas, in 1988). During the show's early decades, the content-related policies of its sponsor Procter & Gamble Productions may have contributed to the perception of conservatism. The soap-manufacturing giant typically balked at storylines in which adultery
Adultery
Adultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...
and other immoral behavior would go unpunished, and as late as the 1980s characters from the primary families were still generally not allowed to go through with abortions.
Notable history and accomplishments
As the World Turns premiered on April 2, 1956. It was the first television daytime drama with a 30-minute running time; all daytime dramas until then had had 15-minute running times.The series was also CBS' first to expand to a 60-minute running time, doing so in 1975. By 1958, the program was the number one daytime drama in the United States. As the World Turns won the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Daytime Drama Series four times (in 1987, 1991, 2001, and 2003.)
Title sequences
Title sequence
A Title Sequence is the method by which cinematic films or television programs present their title, key production and cast members, or both, utilizing conceptual visuals and sound...
s from the original format six times: in 1981, 1993, 1999, 2002 (with a slight modification of the 2002 visuals redone in 2003), 2007, and 2009.
As a testament to the show's unwillingness to change in the early years, the show had the same theme song (an organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
-piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
tune for the opening theme, and an organ-piano-celesta
Celesta
The celesta or celeste is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard. Its appearance is similar to that of an upright piano or of a large wooden music box . The keys are connected to hammers which strike a graduated set of metal plates suspended over wooden resonators...
tune for the long closing theme, which transitioned into pre-recorded versions in December 1973, composed by Charles Paul), and opening visual (a globe
Globe
A globe is a three-dimensional scale model of Earth or other spheroid celestial body such as a planet, star, or moon...
spinning in space). During the black and white years, the globe was in the distance and to the right of the camera. As the organ and piano played, the camera zoomed in until the globe was centered. The title card faded up and Dan McCullough announced. For the midbreaks and closing, the globe was on center. The visual was not markedly altered during the 1967 transitions.
Color brought some minor changes. The globe was now always on center. The title zoomed out from the middle of the globe. The organ version of the main theme was used over the color visual until early December 1973, when the theme became orchestrated. During the black-and-white years and color years prior to some point in 1973, Charles Paul played a celeste composition called "Simple Melody" over the midbreak plugs. At some point in early to mid 1973, organ music was dropped from the body of the show, and Charles Paul played an electric piano only as the background music. However, it was not until early December 1973 that the orchestrated opening and closing themes replaced the live organ versions. The color update of the black-and-white visual stayed until October 30, 1981. At the time, closing credits were only shown once a week, if that. At least through the late 1970s, during the credit crawl, the job title was shown in Lydian typeface, while the person's name was shown in Futura Heavy. (This style also was shared by "The Edge of Night" from 1967 until 1980). This changed once the credits were done on a character generator
Character generator
A character generator, often abbreviated as CG, is a device or software that produces static or animated text for keying into a video stream. Modern character generators are computer-based, and can generate graphics as well as text...
beginning in 1978. Now, the credits were all done in Helvetica
Helvetica
Helvetica is a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann.-Visual distinctive characteristics:Characteristics of this typeface are:lower case:square dot over the letter i....
(Guiding Light
Guiding Light
Guiding Light is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running drama in television and radio history, running from 1937 until 2009...
would also switch its credits to this font in the same year). The letters remained white throughout the title sequence run, but were in all capitals.
The sponsor tags from the show's premiere until the opening sequence was changed in 1981 were hand drawn pictures of the product, or the name of the product, superimposed over the globe. On a 1965 closing sequence, the sponsor tag was an actual photo card of the product. This may have been the practice used on credit days. There is only one known surviving B&W episode with a credit crawl. On non-credit days, the superimposure was used. After the 1981 title change, the sponsor tags were actual photos of the products. This was the usual practice used on the P&G shows. This continues to this day. There have been occasions, where a sponsor was to be plugged, that it would not occur until after the title sequence. This was after the show's announcer was eliminated. A CBS announcer would plug the product.
On November 2, 1981, a new synthesized
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
theme song was first heard, with new computer-enhanced visuals. The globe had now been relegated to an O in the word WORLD, with three beams of light reflecting separate ways. The tune was modified in December 1984 and again in September 1988. The globe was on the center of the screen for the closing sequences. From about the late 80s until the end of traditional closing credits, credit crawls were run more frequently. The closing credits remained in Helvetica typeface, but were now in yellow. The entire credit setup would be in capitals until mid-1984, when production titles and actors' names in the cast list were changed to mostly lowercase. Between July and September 1991, the credit font was changed to an italicized variation of Palatino Italic font, which remained in yellow through the end of this title sequence's run.
On February 3, 1993, the theme song and opening visual was changed again. Barry DeVorzon, famous for composing the theme song of The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
, composed the theme song. This time the credits were done by computer specialist group Castle/Bryant/Johnsen
Castle Bryant Johnsen
Castle Bryant Johnsen is a television computer artistry group, working specifically in the field of title sequences. The group, consisting of James Castle, Bruce Bryant and Carol Johnsen, has created some of the more memorable opening titles for television series, including As the World Turns ,...
. In the visuals, the letters of the title slowly passed by, with the seasons illustrated in picture form inside the letters themselves. When the visual finally got to the O in WORLD, a spinning globe fell into its place and the whole title was zoomed out of focus, to be seen by the audience. In 1995, the closing credits ran over original scenes related to events in that day's episode (for example, if a character was seen in an episode, the credits might show them cleaning a room or playing a piano—things too "boring" to be in the episode itself.) By 1997, however, the credits simply rolled over scenes from that day's episode. The globe was used for closing credits from 1993 until they changed to beauty shots. For a brief period, the globe was used to promote the viewer feedback line. Then they would use the beauty shots for the credit crawl. A credit crawl was run almost daily, either short or full crawl. This was the last title sequence to use traditional closing credits. The CBS squeeze started while these visuals were in use. The credits looked like the ones used at the end of the 81–93 titles. The Palatino Italic typeface remained with the show's closing credits.
The show changed its music and opening again on November 1, 1999. For the first time, cast shots (both solo and group) were seen, accompanied by music. (ATWT had been one of the last soaps to incorporate cast shots into their openings.) The globe was now made up of clips throughout the show's history, not unlike a process first seen in the movie The Truman Show
The Truman Show
The Truman Show is a 1998 American satirical comedy-drama film directed by Peter Weir and written by Andrew Niccol. The cast includes Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, as well as Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Ed Harris and Natascha McElhone...
. Internet fans complained that the sound effects in the theme song that accompanied these credits, which was written by David Nichtern and Kevin Bents, sounded too much like "toilet
Toilet
A toilet is a sanitation fixture used primarily for the disposal of human excrement, often found in a small room referred to as a toilet/bathroom/lavatory...
flushing noises." The closing credits were never seen on the air on CBS, but they were seen in rebroadcasts on SoapCity.com. The visual returned to seeing a spinning globe (the computerized globe of clips from the opening) in space with the credits scrolling in gold italic Palatino Italic lettering, ending with the title in the 1993 title lettering setup; the format of the credits (including the title) would accompany the following title sequence's end credits.
A new sequence, featuring cast clips to a mellower music selection (written by Jamie Lawrence
Jamie Lawrence
Jamie Lawrence is an English-born Jamaican professional footballer and former manager of Southern League side Ashford Town...
and, again, David Nichtern), debuted on July 8, 2002. The backdrop to complement the actor clips was colored in gold, and was changed to sky blue in November 2003. The music from 2002 remained intact. Several shorter versions of this intro were used from time to time, rotating from day-to-day, featuring different members of the cast in each. In the latter years of the sequence, however, some cast members appeared in more than one sequence. Also, some cast headshots used film (these were most likely headshots carried over from the 1999 to 2002 sequence), while others used videotape, giving inconsistency in the film style for each headshot. There are two versions of closing credits. The globe fades off as the credits run. There is no closing title card, as the background fades up and the crawl runs. The closing logo is the 1993 version, now in white. In September 2006, a temporary intro was introduced to mark the "Ice Storm" theme of the next few shows.
A new opening sequence premiered on April 30, 2007. The new opening featured a dramatic, piano-based score, accompanied by shots of the main characters (usually paired up with their storyline counterparts — e.g. Jack and Carly, Lily and Holden, etc. — with two characters appearing per shot), and composite images of the characters' histories superimposed over their shots against a gold background. The logo that had been used since 1999 was retired and a new logo was instituted which kept the globe in place of the "O" in "WORLD", but the logo typeface was changed to Helvetica with the "AS THE" in the title aligned to the right instead of the center. A few months later, ATWT debuted another opening, including only the title forming over a black background playing over the previous scene's music, minus the cast montage. It was unknown whether or not it was to be used on days that needs more air time; however, with the departure of several characters featured in the opening credits — e.g. Will, Gwen, Dusty, and Craig — the short opening has become permanent. The closing credits, as seen on AOL Video, also start rolling at fade up. The typeface is changed, and the 1993 title card is used.
On June 22, 2009, the show debuted yet another new sequence, with a spinning globe and one full line of text entering from the right side of the screen to the middle in front of the globe. In the background is a faded version of the show title in larger letters. This new title sequence has a stark resemblance to the original title sequence from 1956 with a modern flair. Production ended on June 23, 2010 in their Brooklyn, New York studios, with the final episode airing on September 17 of that year.
Dan McCullough (1956–1982)
From its premiere on April 2, 1956, the show's announcer was Dan McCullough. His voice-overs were utilized as follows:- Opening titles--(B&W) "And now, for the next 30 minutes, As the World Turns, brought to you today by... (sponsor)." During the B&W and possibly early color era, there was usually one sponsor plugged, and on many occasions while the show was still performed live McCullough often included "presented live". For some time after the 1975 expansion, the opening spiel was: "And now, for the next full hour, As the World Turns," then whatever sponsor plugs needed to be read that day (at this time, there were usually two sponsors for the first half of ATWT). By 1978, McCullough's opening spiel was simplified to: "As the World Turns. This portion brought to you today by..."
- Mid-program break--"The first part of this program has been brought to you today by..." (A surviving 1972 episode used this practice); "This portion of As the World Turns has been brought to you today by..." (Hour long expansion until 1981), followed by "We'll continue with As the World Turns following station identification" (inception until at least the mid-1970s); "We'll continue with Part II of As the World Turns in just a moment" (mid-1970s until end of the announcer era.)
- Lead-in to second half--"And now the second half of As the World Turns..., followed by "...brought to you today by..." on days where the second half is officially sponsored. All surviving black and white episodes show evidence that both halves were sponsored. Many times, the midbreak sponsor was not a P&G product.
- Lead-in to next-to-last commercial break--"We'll return to As the World Turns in just a moment." This practice was eventually eliminated, although no exact date for that change has been established.
- Closing titles—Black and white, organ color era to possibly the 60 minute expansion: "As the World Turns" has been brought to you today by (sponsors). A plug for fashion providers was done. On credit days, it was done while the crawl rolled. After the hour expansion until the announcer was eliminated, Dan McCullough or Dan Region would say: "This portion of As the World Turns has been brought to you today by..." (on days where the second half is officially sponsored; on days that are not, there would be either no announcement at all or McCullough would invite viewers to "stay tuned" to the next program "on most of these CBS stations"). In many cases, the next program's logo was shown, especially if it was a P&G soap. Until June 1981, Guiding Lights logo was shown as it followed on the CBS schedule. For the last four months of the color globe visuals package, Search for TomorrowSearch for TomorrowSearch for Tomorrow is an American soap opera which premiered on September 3, 1951 on CBS. The show was moved from CBS to NBC on March 29, 1982. It continued on NBC until the final episode aired on December 26, 1986, a run of thirty-five years. At the time of its final broadcast it was the...
was mentioned instead along with its logo, as at that time Search had moved into the 2:30 pm time slot immediately following ATWT.
McCullough also announced that the program was recorded, after the show was no longer performed live at some point in the spring of 1975. This announcement would continue even after P&G added copyrights to the final title card on June 2, 1980, where "This Program was Recorded" would appear on the last line of the copyright. It would be spoken for the final time on October 30, 1981. On credit days from June 2, 1980 until October 30, 1981, the title logo with copyright information appeared, then the credits rolled. A 1981 episode shows this practice.
McCullough did announce over "The World Turns On and On" title sequences for a short period of time, from its debut on November 2, 1981 until he retired in February 1982. The latest aforementioned changes to the opening, mid-bumper and closing announcements remained in place, but there was no longer a display of the next program's logo in the closing credits effective November 2, 1981. In his final months with the show, McCullough would say "Stay tuned for Search for Tomorrow, next on most of these CBS stations" as the first closing display of the ATWT title appeared over the visuals, before the credit carding or scroll. (Subsequently, the copyright notice would now not appear until the end of the credits, under the last display of the title.)
Dan Region (1982–1998)
In February 1982, after almost 26 years with ATWT, McCullough was replaced by a much younger announcer, Dan Region. This is after Mary-Ellis BunimMary-Ellis Bunim
Mary-Ellis Bunim was an American television producer and co-creator of MTV's The Real World and Road Rules.-Biography:A native of Massachusetts, Bunim began her career in daytime dramas...
became executive producer. His announcements were much like Dan McCullough's.
- Opening titles--"As the World Turns.
Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble is a Fortune 500 American multinational corporation headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio and manufactures a wide range of consumer goods....
began to decrease their sponsorship of the program for some days of the week, even though they themselves were the producers. So, on such days, Region would only announce the title of the program right before the first commercial break.) During the O.J. Simpson trial, the title sequence was shortened.
Search for Tomorrow
Search for Tomorrow is an American soap opera which premiered on September 3, 1951 on CBS. The show was moved from CBS to NBC on March 29, 1982. It continued on NBC until the final episode aired on December 26, 1986, a run of thirty-five years. At the time of its final broadcast it was the...
(February 1982 – March 26, 1982) Capitol
Capitol (TV series)
Capitol is an American soap opera which aired on CBS from March 29, 1982 to March 20, 1987 for 1,270 episodes. As its name suggests, the storyline usually revolved around the political intrigues of people whose lives intertwined in Washington D.C....
(March 29, 1982 to March 20, 1987), or Guiding Light
Guiding Light
Guiding Light is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running drama in television and radio history, running from 1937 until 2009...
(March 23, 1987 to at least the end of the announcer era.) "next on most of these CBS stations.", or "Join us again tomorrow/This is Dan Region, inviting you to join us again Monday for As the World Turns."
Possibly after the show went into color, or at least by 1972, more than one sponsor was plugged at the opening, midbreak and closing.
Announcers beyond 1998
After the titles were changed again in 1999, for the first time in the series history (for the most part, and for the period prior to at least 2007), ATWT had no official announcer or show announcements, although Martin Bookspan (who had by this time taken over as announcer of Guiding LightGuiding Light
Guiding Light is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running drama in television and radio history, running from 1937 until 2009...
) still had to announce the sponsor tags on days where the show was sponsored. Circa 2000, a female announcer would do the tags after the opening titles.
Even in the show's final years, the show still had an announcer (albeit unidentified), although his/her announcements are limited to sponsor tags (for shows that are sponsored). Cast members also made bumper announcements.
Menswear promotional consideration
Also of note, Barneys of New York frequently provided menswear. Dan McCullough (later, Dan Region) would almost daily plug Barney's during the closing, in addition to other providers. During the Dan Region era, preemptions due to special programming (holidays, early-round NCAA TournamentNCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
The NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship is a single-elimination tournament held each spring in the United States, featuring 68 college basketball teams, to determine the national championship in the top tier of college basketball...
games, US Open tennis coverage, etc.) were announced over the final logo or during the credit crawl. This practice is shown on the many surviving episodes of the era. Dan McCullough may have also followed this practice.
Helen Wagner
With the immortal words "Good morning, dear," actress Helen WagnerHelen Wagner
Helen Wagner was an American actress. Born in Lubbock, Texas, she is best known for her long running role as Nancy Hughes McClosky on the soap opera As the World Turns. Wagner also played the role of Trudy Bauer during the initial TV years of Guiding Light in the early 1950s...
(Nancy Hughes
Nancy Hughes
Nancy Hughes McClosky is a fictional character on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns. From the show's inception in 1956 until 2010, Nancy Hughes has served as the core family's matriarch...
) opened As the World Turns on April 2, 1956. For a time, Wagner was tied with Mike Wallace
Mike Wallace (journalist)
Myron Leon "Mike" Wallace is an American journalist, former game show host, actor and media personality. During his 60+ year career, he has interviewed a wide range of prominent newsmakers....
as the oldest personalities on television. Both were born in 1918 and previously ranked behind Days of our Lives
Days of our Lives
Days of our Lives is a long running daytime soap opera broadcast on the NBC television network. It is one of the longest-running scripted television programs in the world, airing nearly every weekday in the United States since November 8, 1965. It has since been syndicated to many countries around...
star Frances Reid
Frances Reid
Frances Reid was an American dramatic actress. Although she starred in many productions, she is best known for her portrayal of Alice Horton on the NBC daytime soap opera Days of our Lives from its debut in November 1965 until her death on February 3, 2010.-Biography:Born in Wichita Falls, Texas,...
(born in 1914). Reid, who died on February 3, 2010, was also a former cast member on As the World Turns appearing as Grace Baker. With Wagner's death May 1, 2010, Wallace became the single oldest living television personality.
Wagner is acknowledged by the Guinness Book of Records for holding the world record for the longest amount of time appearing as the same character, playing the role of Nancy Hughes
Nancy Hughes
Nancy Hughes McClosky is a fictional character on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns. From the show's inception in 1956 until 2010, Nancy Hughes has served as the core family's matriarch...
since the show went on the air on April 2, 1956, though she has not played the role without interruption. Wagner was temporarily dropped from the series after the first six months due to conflicts with creator Irna Phillips. Wagner also left the series in 1981, when she felt that writers were not interested in the veteran players. She returned as a regular contract player in 1985 after Douglas Marland became headwriter. She was 37 years old when the show started. On the episode broadcast on Monday, August 30, 2010, it was revealed that Nancy had died in her sleep; the next day's episode dealt with Nancy's memorial service. Coincidentally, Nancy Hughes's memorial aired just two weeks before the series finale. The show's producers stated in interviews that they had to revise their plans for the final episode because of Wagner's death - they had hoped that Wagner would say the final lines of the last episode just as she had said the first words of the first episode (presumably "Good night, dear.").
Cast and characters
Crossovers
There have been several crossovers between As the World Turns and other soaps:- 1962
- The character Mitchell Dru (Geoffrey Lumb) was brought to Oakdale after the cancellation of the P&G soap
The Brighter Day
The Brighter Day is an American daytime soap opera which aired on CBS from January 4, 1954 to September 28, 1962. Originally created for NBC radio by Irna Phillips in 1948, the radio and television versions ran simultaneously from 1954-1956...
. The same character (and actor) was then transferred to a new P&G soap, Another World
Another World (TV series)
Another World is an American television soap opera that ran on NBC from May 4, 1964 to June 25, 1999. It ran for a total of 35 years. It was created by Irna Phillips along with William J...
, shortly after its premiere in 1964. Another World was originally conceived by creator Irna Phillips
Irna Phillips
Irna Phillips was an American actress and most notably writer who created and scripted many of the first American soap operas.Phillips created radio and TV soap operas including:...
to be a spin-off series
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
of As the World Turns. Like several other characters from Another World, Mitchell Dru "crossed over" for one or more performances on the first Another World spin-off, Somerset
Somerset (TV series)
Somerset is an American television soap opera which ran on NBC from March 30, 1970 until December 31, 1976. The show was a spinoff of another NBC serial, Another World.-Overview :...
, which premiered in March 1970.
- 1965
- The character Lisa Miller HughesLisa GrimaldiLisa Grimaldi is a fictional character on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns. The daughter of Henry and Alma Miller, Lisa grew up in Rockford, Illinois, USA before moving to Oakdale...
(Eileen FultonEileen FultonEileen Fulton is an American actress.Fulton is known for her role as Lisa Grimaldi on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns, a role that she played almost continuously for 50 years from May 18, 1960 until the show's cancellation on September 17, 2010.-As the...
) was used as the basis to create a primetime spinoff soap
- The character Lisa Miller Hughes
Our Private World
Our Private World is an American serial. It was the first prime-time spin-off from a daytime soap . Created by Irna Phillips and William J. Bell, it premiered on May 5, 1965 and aired Wednesdays and Fridays over the summer; the multiple-episode-per-week format was inspired by ABC's hit show Peyton...
, (CBS's attempt to duplicate the success of rival network ABC's Peyton Place
Peyton Place (TV series)
Peyton Place is an American prime-time soap opera which aired on ABC in half-hour episodes from September 15, 1964 to June 2, 1969.Based upon the 1956 novel of the same name by Grace Metalious, the series was preceded by a 1957 film adaptation. A total of 514 episodes were broadcast, in...
), with Lisa leaving Oakdale and moving to Chicago, where she married wealthy John Eldridge, but had an affair with his brother Thomas. Though Our Private World only lasted a few months, and Fulton returned to As the World Turns in early 1966, after taking a few months off, remnants of Lisa's time on Our Private World were resurrected 26 years later, when it was revealed in 1992 that Lisa had had a son off-camera, hitherto unknown to viewers, before returning to As the World Turns in 1966. Her son Scott Eldridge tracked her down as an adult, and remained on As the World Turns for several years.
- 1999–2003
- Shortly after
Another World (TV series)
Another World is an American television soap opera that ran on NBC from May 4, 1964 to June 25, 1999. It ran for a total of 35 years. It was created by Irna Phillips along with William J...
was canceled in June 1999, the characters of Cass and Lila Winthrop (Stephen Schnetzer
Stephen Schnetzer
Stephen Schnetzer is an American actor.After playing the role of Julie Olson Williams' brother, Steven Olson on the California-based serial Days of our Lives, he joined the cast of ABC soap opera One Life to Live as fitness expert Marcello Salta. He later played attorney Cass Winthrop on Another...
and Lisa Peluso
Lisa Peluso
Lisa Peluso is an American soap opera actress.-Biography:Peluso was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Mary Peluso. Her first big break came at the age of nine, when she starred in the Broadway production of Gypsy with Angela Lansbury...
), and Jake
Jake McKinnon
Jake Thomas McKinnon was a fictional character on NBC's now-cancelled daytime drama Another World, and on the CBS daytime drama As the World Turns. He was portrayed by Tom Eplin.-Tom Eplin's History as Jake McKinnon:...
and Victoria McKinnon
Vicky Hudson
Victoria "Vicky" Hudson Frame Harrison McKinnon was a fictional character on the NBC daytime soap opera Another World after AW was cancelled the character crossed over to the CBS daytime soap opera As the World Turns in 1999...
(Tom Eplin
Tom Eplin
Tom Eplin is an American actor known for his long run as the character of Jake McKinnon on two soap operas for a combined total of nearly two decades: on Another World and on As the World Turns .Eplin was married to his Another World costar Ellen Wheeler from 1985 to 1988...
and Jensen Buchanan
Jensen Buchanan
Jensen Buchanan is an American actress, best known for portraying Sarah Gordon Buchanan #1 on One Life to Live....
) crossed over to As the World Turns briefly. Jake and Vicky intended to move to Oakdale, but Vicky was soon killed off in September 1999, then appeared as a ghost to Jake and Molly from November 2000 to February 2001. Cass only appeared on a recurring basis through 2003 (usually whenever anyone in Oakdale needed an attorney, other than resident lawyer Tom Hughes), and Jake (Tom Eplin
Tom Eplin
Tom Eplin is an American actor known for his long run as the character of Jake McKinnon on two soap operas for a combined total of nearly two decades: on Another World and on As the World Turns .Eplin was married to his Another World costar Ellen Wheeler from 1985 to 1988...
) remained as a regular on the series until his character was killed off in 2002. Cindy Brooke Harrison (Kim Rhodes
Kim Rhodes
Kimberly "Kim" Rhodes is an American actress, who portrayed the role of "Cindy Harrison" on two different soap opera series, Another World and As the World Turns, as well as Carey Martin in the Disney Channel sitcom The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and The Suite Life on Deck, where she played the...
) also had minor appearances in 2000 and 2001. Vicky's mother and twin sister, Donna (Anna Stuart
Anna Stuart
Anna Stuart is an American actress. Stuart has been primarily featured in roles in daytime soap operas.- Career :...
) and Marley (Ellen Wheeler
Ellen Wheeler
Ellen Wheeler is an American actress, director and producer. She has appeared in several soap operas, including Another World and All My Children. In 1986, she won the Daytime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Ingenue in a Drama Series" for her work as twins Marley and Vicky Love Hudson on Another World...
, who at the time also directed episodes of "As the World Turns"), made recurring appearances from 2000 to 2002, and left the show when they gained custody of Jake and Vicky's twin daughters after Jake's death. There were also plans to have a now-teenage Steven Frame (Vicky's son with Jamie Frame) come to Oakdale and live with Jake, but the character was reconceived as teenage Bryant Montgomery, the son of ATWT couple Craig and Sierra.
Since 2005, a number of characters have crossed back and forth between As the World Turns and The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
:
- 2005
Michael Baldwin
Michael Baldwin is a fictional character on the CBS television soap opera The Young and the Restless, portrayed by Christian LeBlanc originally from late December 1991 until June 1993 and then he returned on April 25, 1997. The character has also crossed over briefly to As the World Turns on April...
(Christian LeBlanc
Christian LeBlanc
Christian Jules LeBlanc is an American actor.LeBlanc currently plays Michael Baldwin on The Young and the Restless. He first played the role from 1991 to 1993, and then resumed the role in 1997. He was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for the role six times, and won for Outstanding Lead Actor...
) traveled there to serve as the attorney for Jack Snyder
Jack Snyder
Jack Snyder is a character on the American soap opera As the World Turns. He has been portrayed by actor Michael Park since April 1, 1997.-Character history:...
(Michael Park
Michael Park (actor)
Michael Park is an American actor, best known for his role of Jack Snyder on As the World Turns . Park won back to back Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2010 and 2011.-Career:...
) in a custody hearing involving his late wife Julia Larabee's son, JJ. (April 4 – 05, 2005).
The irony in his appearance in the above-mentioned episodes, is that twenty-years before, LeBlanc left the role of Kirk McColl, the youngest son of Lisa's fifth husband, Whit McColl (Played by Wagon Train star Robert Horton, who was killed-off shortly before Fulton's return to the show). So, to many long-time fans of both As The World Turns and The Young and the Restless, it was weird seeing LeBlanc as the character from the latter show. History was also made during LeBlanc's appearance on ATWT, since both shows are made by different production companies (Bell Productions for Y&R; Procter and Gamble for ATWT), although they are on the same network.
- 2007
- The Young and the Restless: Amber MooreAmber MooreAmbrosia "Amber" Moore is a fictional character on the CBS soap operas The Bold and the Beautiful and The Young and the Restless played by actress Adrienne Frantz who debuted on July 18, 1997 on The Bold and the Beautiful where she stayed until April 14, 2005...
(Adrienne FrantzAdrienne FrantzAdrienne Danielle Frantz is an American actress and singer-songwriter. She is known for her role as Amber Moore in The Bold and the Beautiful and The Young and the Restless .-Career:First breaking into the soap opera genre in 1997 as Tiffany Thorne on Sunset Beach, Frantz left the show...
) called on her friend Alison StewartAlison Stewart (ATWT)Alison Stewart is a fictional character on the daytime soap opera As the World Turns. She has been portrayed by Marnie Schulenburg since March 23, 2007, and she made a guest appearance on The Young and the Restless on February 22, 2007. Alison also appeared in a 2007 web-only miniseries called L.A...
(Marnie SchulenburgMarnie SchulenburgMarnie Schulenburg is an American actress. She is known for her role as Alison Stewart on As the World Turns .-Private life:...
) to help trick Cane AshbyCane AshbyEthan "Cane" Ashby is a fictional character in the American soap opera The Young and the Restless. Daniel Goddard has portrayed the character since his January 12, 2007 debut...
(Daniel Goddard) into marriage. After Amber drugged Cane, Alison dressed-up as him for the wedding service. (February 22, 2007) - The Young and the Restless: Emily StewartEmily StewartEmily Stewart Ryan is a fictional character on the daytime soap opera As the World Turns. She has been portrayed by Kelley Menighan Hensley since July 1992. Kelley Menighan Hensley took over the role of Emily Stewart in July 1992...
(Kelley Menighan HensleyKelley Menighan HensleyKelley Menighan Hensley is an American actress best known for her role as Emily on As the World Turns.-Career:...
) traveled from Oakdale, Illinois to Genoa City, Wisconsin, in search of information on her sister, Alison StewartAlison Stewart (ATWT)Alison Stewart is a fictional character on the daytime soap opera As the World Turns. She has been portrayed by Marnie Schulenburg since March 23, 2007, and she made a guest appearance on The Young and the Restless on February 22, 2007. Alison also appeared in a 2007 web-only miniseries called L.A...
(Marnie SchulenburgMarnie SchulenburgMarnie Schulenburg is an American actress. She is known for her role as Alison Stewart on As the World Turns .-Private life:...
). Emily met with Amber MooreAmber MooreAmbrosia "Amber" Moore is a fictional character on the CBS soap operas The Bold and the Beautiful and The Young and the Restless played by actress Adrienne Frantz who debuted on July 18, 1997 on The Bold and the Beautiful where she stayed until April 14, 2005...
(Adrienne FrantzAdrienne FrantzAdrienne Danielle Frantz is an American actress and singer-songwriter. She is known for her role as Amber Moore in The Bold and the Beautiful and The Young and the Restless .-Career:First breaking into the soap opera genre in 1997 as Tiffany Thorne on Sunset Beach, Frantz left the show...
) at Crimson Lights Coffeehouse, but Amber denied knowing Alison's whereabouts. After Emily was gone, Amber placed a call to Alison as a heads-up. (March 27, 2007)
- The Young and the Restless: Amber Moore
President Kennedy's assassination
On November 22, 1963, the live CBS broadcast of As The World Turns began as always at 1:30 EST. In this episode, Bob Hughes informs his mother Nancy that he has invited his ex-wife LisaLisa Grimaldi
Lisa Grimaldi is a fictional character on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns. The daughter of Henry and Alma Miller, Lisa grew up in Rockford, Illinois, USA before moving to Oakdale...
and son Tom to the house for Thanksgiving. Ten minutes into the program, Nancy and her father-in-law (whom she referred to as "Grandpa") were sitting on the couch discussing the situation:
Grandpa: "Did you ask him why he invited her?"
Nancy: "He said something about not wanting her to have Thanksgiving dinner alone, that he didn't think it was right."
Grandpa: "That's real nice of the boy."
Nancy: "And I thought about it, and I gave it a great deal of thought, Grandpa---"
At this precise point, a "CBS News
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...
Bulletin" slide suddenly came up on the screen and Walter Cronkite
Walter Cronkite
Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. was an American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years . During the heyday of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll...
gave the first report of an unfolding national tragedy, which had taken place at the very minute of ATWT's opening:
CBS then returned to ATWT while the show was taking its first commercial break. A commercial for Nescafé
Nescafé
Nescafé is a brand of instant coffee made by Nestlé. It comes in the form of many different products. The name is a portmanteau of the words "Nestlé" and "café". Nestlé's flagship powdered coffee product was introduced in Switzerland on April 1, 1938 after being developed for seven or eight years...
coffee, the first midbreak sponsor bumper (for Best Foods, who had sponsored the first half of the program through its Niagara and NuSoft brands) and a preview bumper for an episode of Route 66
Route 66 (TV series)
Route 66 is an American TV series in which two young men traveled across America. The show ran weekly on CBS from 1960 to 1964. It starred Martin Milner as Tod Stiles and, for two and a half seasons, George Maharis as Buz Murdock. Maharis was ill for much of the third season, during which time Tod...
which was to air that evening followed. Then CBS paused for identification of their local affiliate stations. The sponsor bumper for the second half of ATWT (for Carnation
Carnation
Dianthus caryophyllus is a species of Dianthus. It is probably native to the Mediterranean region but its exact range is unknown due to extensive cultivation for the last 2,000 years. It is the wild ancestor of the garden carnation.It is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 80 cm tall...
) was immediately cut off for further information from Cronkite over the bulletin graphic (Both the cameras and the studio lights of the era required some time to "warm up" before they could be used).
At the end of this bulletin CBS rejoined ATWT, which was still in progress, as the cast, performing the episode live, was not yet aware of the rapidly developing situation. The scene at this point was in a restaurant with Bob Hughes and David Stewart; this would be the final scene before continuous coverage of the assassination. A commercial for Friskies
Friskies
Friskies is a brand of cat food. It is owned by Nestlé Purina PetCare Company, a subsidiary of Nestlé. This brand is offered as a canned soft/wet food, as well as dry food . Flavors include poultry, beef and seafood.-History:...
Puppy Food was featured in its entirety, then the next commercial (for Friskies Magic Sauce Cubes dog food) was cut off. The episode continued to be performed to its conclusion despite no one's being able to watch it. From then on, Cronkite relayed incoming reports as received over the bulletin card (confirmed from a viewing of the episode). At the top of the hour, with the bulletin slide still on screen, Cronkite announced a ten second pause for all CBS-TV affiliates to issue a station identification
Station identification
Station identification is the practice of radio or television stations or networks identifying themselves on air, typically by means of a call sign or brand name...
and join the network. The CBS "eye" logo was briefly shown, followed by the bulletin slide until Cronkite appeared on camera.
As NBC and ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, the other two major U.S. TV networks, were not programming at the time (the 1:30–2:00 ET period belonging to their local affiliates), As The World Turns has the distinction of being the last regular U.S. network program broadcast for the next four days as the assassination of JFK
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas...
and the transition of power to President Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
took center stage.
A VHS copy of a kinescope print of the entire episode, with commercials and without interruptions, is available for viewing at The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, CA.
Broadcast history
As The World Turns enjoyed a virtually uninterrupted reign as the highest-rated soap from 1958 to 1978, tying for first place with NBC DaytimeNBC Daytime
NBC Daytime is the schedule for the NBC television network's daytime television programming which consists of morning news program Today and soap opera Days of our Lives...
's Another World
Another World (TV series)
Another World is an American television soap opera that ran on NBC from May 4, 1964 to June 25, 1999. It ran for a total of 35 years. It was created by Irna Phillips along with William J...
(1973–1974, 1977–1978) and Days of our Lives
Days of our Lives
Days of our Lives is a long running daytime soap opera broadcast on the NBC television network. It is one of the longest-running scripted television programs in the world, airing nearly every weekday in the United States since November 8, 1965. It has since been syndicated to many countries around...
(1973–1974). By the mid-1960s, it was so firmly entrenched that its strongest competition, Let's Make a Deal
Let's Make a Deal
Let's Make a Deal is a television game show which originated in the United States and has since been produced in many countries throughout the world. The show is based around deals offered to members of the audience by the host. The traders usually have to weigh the possibility of an offer being...
, despite developing a devoted fan base in its own right and becoming one of daytime's most popular game shows, could not come close to matching it in the Nielsens
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
.
Its strength was such that ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
ran hour-long drama reruns in the 1–2 p.m. (noon-1 Central) slot in the mid-1960s and NBC, after losing Deal to ABC in 1968, ran a total of eight shows, all short-lived (with the exception of Three on a Match
Three on a Match (game show)
Three on a Match was an American television game show created by Bob Stewart that ran on NBC from August 2, 1971 to June 28, 1974 on its daytime schedule...
, which lasted three years), against ATWT and Deal from that point until 1975.
As that year began Another World was expanded to sixty minutes, with their first hour long episode airing on January 6, 1975. Although this did not directly affect ATWT, as the two shows were not in competition for anything other than the overall ratings win, CBS' afternoon lineup suffered some ratings damage as the popular soap put a dent in the ratings of both of CBS' popular afternoon game shows, The Price Is Right
The Price Is Right (U.S. game show)
The Price Is Right is an American game show which was created by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman. Contestants compete to identify the pricing of merchandise to win cash and prizes. The show is well-known for its signature line of "Come on down!" when the announcer directs newly selected contestants to...
and Match Game
Match Game
Match Game is an American television game show in which contestants attempted to match celebrities' answers to fill-in-the-blank questions...
. NBC, pleased by the success that the expansion of Another World has brought to the network, elected to do the same thing with Days of Our Lives beginning on April 21, 1975; this put Days and ATWT in direct competition for ratings. Incidentally, the expansions were occurring seven years after the last two fifteen minute serials, Search for Tomorrow
Search for Tomorrow
Search for Tomorrow is an American soap opera which premiered on September 3, 1951 on CBS. The show was moved from CBS to NBC on March 29, 1982. It continued on NBC until the final episode aired on December 26, 1986, a run of thirty-five years. At the time of its final broadcast it was the...
and Guiding Light
Guiding Light
Guiding Light is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running drama in television and radio history, running from 1937 until 2009...
, expanded to thirty minutes.
CBS decided that they too needed to expand at least one of their daytime series. Since ATWT was still the front-runner in the ratings battle, it was chosen as one of the series; the other was The Price Is Right
The Price Is Right (U.S. game show)
The Price Is Right is an American game show which was created by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman. Contestants compete to identify the pricing of merchandise to win cash and prizes. The show is well-known for its signature line of "Come on down!" when the announcer directs newly selected contestants to...
, which at the time was part of CBS' afternoon schedule. ATWT and The Price Is Right were due to expand in September 1975, and the latter was moved back to the morning in order to facilitate that. While TPIR's expansion was initially only intended to be an experiment, ATWT's was to be permanent and required the cancellation of one of CBS' half-hour serials in order for that to happen. CBS found that series in The Edge of Night
The Edge of Night
The Edge of Night is an American television mystery series/soap opera produced by Procter & Gamble. It debuted on CBS on April 2, 1956, and ran as a live broadcast on that network until November 28, 1975; the series then moved to ABC, where it aired from December 1, 1975, until December 28, 1984...
, which at the time was the network's lowest rated program; although it was once a solid performer in the ratings, Edge had been moved at Procter & Gamble's insistence from its 3:30 p.m. timeslot to the 2:30 p.m. slot following Guiding Light in 1972 and as a result lost a large portion of its audience which was composed largely of teenagers, men, and young adults. In order for the expansion to take place, Edge would have to be canceled- the rest of CBS' soap opera lineup was performing well in the ratings and the network did not have a spare timeslot to put it in that would not risk preemption. CBS announced that it would not renew Edge when its contract was up, but the serial was saved when ABC offered to take it.
However, a problem arose that would have caused a major issue had CBS elected to go ahead with a September expansion of ATWT. The network had a contract with P&G to air Edge until December 1975 and the expansion would have resulted in an immediate cancellation. This meant that no new episodes of Edge would air for three months, and ABC was not interested in taking on the serial if that was to be the case. This required an arrangement to be made between the networks and production company- ATWT would delay its expansion while Edge would continue to air on CBS, and the series would move to ABC once the network was able to free a timeslot for it. In November 1975, ABC announced the cancellation of the game show You Don't Say!
You Don't Say!
You Don't Say! is an American television game show that had three separate runs on television. The first version aired on NBC daytime from April 1, 1963 to September 26, 1969 with revivals on ABC in 1975 and in syndication from 1978-1979...
, which had been airing in the network's 4 p.m. timeslot. The final episode was scheduled to air on November 28, 1975, after which Edge would be free to leave CBS and ATWT would be free to expand to sixty minutes.
The first hour-long episode of ATWT aired on 1 December 1975 (coincidentally, the same day that The Price Is Right marked its permanent expansion to an hour). With the expansion the serial was not only up against Let's Make a Deal, which by this point in time had been struggling in the ratings for some time, but also against The $10,000 Pyramid
Pyramid (game show)
Pyramid is an American television game show which has aired several versions. The original series, The $10,000 Pyramid, debuted March 26, 1973 and spawned seven subsequent Pyramid series...
, which at the time was the third-highest rated game show in daytime. In the first half hour, ATWT performed well enough against the fading Deal that it moved to Noon within four weeks and also beat its replacement, Rhyme and Reason
Rhyme and Reason
Rhyme and Reason is an American television game show that aired on ABC from July 7, 1975 through July 9, 1976. Bob Eubanks hosted the show, with Johnny Jacobs serving as announcer.-Gameplay:...
. The second half hour, however, saw ATWT not perform as well when taking on The $10,000 Pyramid, which had also performed well against Guiding Light in the 2 p.m. slot. Although the expansion was not a complete success, at the end of the season the serial was again at the top of the daytime Nielsens despite a 1.4 point drop from the year before.
Although the eventual hit game Family Feud
Family Feud
Family Feud is an American television game show created by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman. Two families compete against each other in a contest to name the most popular responses to a survey question posed to 100 people...
ran against ATWT from 12 July 1976 until 22 April 1977, it did not become a smash hit for ABC until its move to the mornings. It was only when ABC made its first move to a one-hour soap with All My Children
All My Children
All My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia. The show features Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime's most...
that trouble really began for ATWT (and also Days), since ABC kept that serial's starting time at 1/noon, meaning that fans of that serial who tuned to NBC or CBS would miss the last half of that day's storyline (or, contrariwise, would not, if they watched until the mid-program commercial break and then changed channels, pick up the ATWT or Days activities from the episode's beginning, since ABC strategically placed its break several minutes after the bottom of the hour). Further, AMC's emphasis on youth-oriented, sexier story lines provided a sharp contrast to the domestic, almost quaint tone of ATWT (and, to a lesser degree, the melodramatic, somewhat topical Days). Worse still, on January 16, 1978, ABC ballooned its decade-old One Life to Live
One Life to Live
One Life to Live is an American soap opera which debuted on July 15, 1968 and has been broadcast on the ABC television network. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature racially and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social...
to the 2/1 starting time, compounding the other networks' headaches. These factors helped contribute to the fall of ATWT from the top spot in the ratings at the end of the 1978-79 season. After finishing the previous season tied with Another World for #1 in the Nielsens, ATWT fell to fourth behind AMC, General Hospital, and The Young and the Restless.
On 4 February 1980, CBS moved and expanded The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
to a full hour after the cancellation of the long running soap Love of Life
Love of Life
Love of Life is an American soap opera which aired on CBS Daytime from September 24, 1951 to February 1, 1980. It was created by Roy Winsor, whose previous creation Search for Tomorrow had premiered three weeks before Love of Life, and who would go on to create The Secret Storm two and a half years...
. Y&R moved from Noon/11am to 1pm/Noon (the former affiliate break timeslot) and ATWT was bumped up to 2pm/1pm and Guiding Light
Guiding Light
Guiding Light is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running drama in television and radio history, running from 1937 until 2009...
to 3pm/2pm. CBS was not satisfied with this schedule against ABC and NBC and it lasted just a little over a year. On 8 June 1981, ATWT returned to its longtime 1:30/12:30pm start time with Search for Tomorrow
Search for Tomorrow
Search for Tomorrow is an American soap opera which premiered on September 3, 1951 on CBS. The show was moved from CBS to NBC on March 29, 1982. It continued on NBC until the final episode aired on December 26, 1986, a run of thirty-five years. At the time of its final broadcast it was the...
following at 2:30/1:30pm and Y&R leading off the soap lineup at either Noon/11am or 12:30/11:30am (depending on affiliate preference).
ATWT remained at 1:30/12:30pm until 20 March 1987, when CBS scrapped the five-year-old Capitol in favor of The Bold and the Beautiful
The Bold and the Beautiful
The Bold and the Beautiful is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS Daytime. It premiered on March 23, 1987....
. Believing that B&B would do better running in tandem with Y&R (especially on Eastern Time Zone affiliates), CBS scheduled it at 1:30/12:30, and finally settled ATWT at 2/1, where it remained until it's final episode in September 2010. Although facing the full length of AW and OLTL once again, the Douglas Marland
Douglas Marland
Douglas Marland was an American actor and writer of soap operas.-Career:He began his soap opera career as an actor, appearing on the Irna Phillips series The Brighter Day and As the World Turns. He also did odd jobs on the side as a director for small theatre groups...
era of 1985 from 1993 saw a resurgence in ratings, and by 1991 it was back in its once habitual top-four placing. ATWT would survive NBC's cancellation of its sister AW in 1999 in favor of Passions
Passions
Passions is an American television soap opera which aired on NBC from July 5, 1999 to September 7, 2007 and on The 101 Network from September 17, 2007 to August 7, 2008....
, which itself was canceled in September 2007.
Ratings
ATWT Ratings: 1956–2010One example of the drastic change in daytime television can be found in the following:
- Daytime history: Highest rated week (November 16–20, 1981)
- (Household ratings- Nielsen Media Research)
Rank/Serial Household Rating (Time Slot) Network 1. General Hospital General HospitalGeneral Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....
16.0 (3-4pm) ABC 2. All My Children All My ChildrenAll My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia. The show features Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime's most...
10.2 (1-2pm) ABC 3. One Life to Live One Life to LiveOne Life to Live is an American soap opera which debuted on July 15, 1968 and has been broadcast on the ABC television network. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature racially and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social...
10.2 (2-3pm) ABC 4. Guiding Light Guiding LightGuiding Light is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running drama in television and radio history, running from 1937 until 2009...
7.5 (3-4pm) CBS 5. The Young and the Restless The Young and the RestlessThe Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
7.0 (12:30–1:30pm) CBS
1995 ratings
| Rank/Serial | Millions Of Viewers |
|---|---|
| 1. The Young and the Restless The Young and the Restless The Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin... |
7.2 |
| 2. All My Children All My Children All My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia. The show features Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime's most... |
5.891 |
| 3. General Hospital General Hospital General Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns.... |
5.343 |
| 4. The Bold and the Beautiful The Bold and the Beautiful The Bold and the Beautiful is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS Daytime. It premiered on March 23, 1987.... |
5.247 |
| 5. One Life to Live One Life to Live One Life to Live is an American soap opera which debuted on July 15, 1968 and has been broadcast on the ABC television network. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature racially and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social... |
5.152 |
As the World Turns spent a record breaking 20 years on top of the Nielsen ratings for American daytime soap operas. They would retain this record until The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
broke it in 2008 when it remained #1 for 21 years and counting.
Years as #1 series
| Year(s) | Household Rating | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1958–1959 | 9.8 | ||
| 1959–1960 | 9.9 | ||
| 1960–1961 | 10.4 | ||
| 1961–1962 | 11.9 | ||
| 1962–1963 | 13.7 | ||
| 1963–1964 | 15.4 | ||
| 1964–1965 | 14.5 | ||
| 1965–1966 | 13.9 | ||
| 1966–1967 | 12.7 | ||
| 1967–1968 | 13.6 | ||
| 1968–1969 | 13.8 | ||
| 1969–1970 | 13.6 | ||
| 1970–1971 | 12.4 | ||
| 1971–1972 | 11.1 | ||
| 1972–1973 | 10.6 | ||
| 1973–1974 | 9.7 (Tied with Days of our Lives Days of our Lives Days of our Lives is a long running daytime soap opera broadcast on the NBC television network. It is one of the longest-running scripted television programs in the world, airing nearly every weekday in the United States since November 8, 1965. It has since been syndicated to many countries around... and Another World Another World (TV series) Another World is an American television soap opera that ran on NBC from May 4, 1964 to June 25, 1999. It ran for a total of 35 years. It was created by Irna Phillips along with William J... ) |
||
| 1974–1975 | 10.8 | ||
| 1975–1976 | 9.4 | ||
| 1976–1977 | >- | 1977–1978 | 8.6 (Tied with Another World Another World (TV series) Another World is an American television soap opera that ran on NBC from May 4, 1964 to June 25, 1999. It ran for a total of 35 years. It was created by Irna Phillips along with William J... ) |
Record Low: 1,773,000 viewers on December 25, 2009. (Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre films and newspapers...
)
1956-1957 season
- 1. The Guiding LightGuiding LightGuiding Light is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running drama in television and radio history, running from 1937 until 2009...
11.4 - 7. As the World Turns 8.4 (Debut)
1957-1958 season
- 1. The Guiding LightGuiding LightGuiding Light is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running drama in television and radio history, running from 1937 until 2009...
10.1 - 6. As the World Turns 8.4
1978-1979 season
- 1. All My ChildrenAll My ChildrenAll My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia. The show features Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime's most...
9.0 - 4. As the World Turns 8.2
1979-1980 season
- 1. General HospitalGeneral HospitalGeneral Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....
9.9 - 6. As the World Turns 7.9
1980-1981 season
- 1. General HospitalGeneral HospitalGeneral Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....
11.4 - 5. As the World Turns 7.9
1981-1982 season
- 1. General HospitalGeneral HospitalGeneral Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....
11.2 - 5. As the World Turns 7.4 (Tied with The Young and the RestlessThe Young and the RestlessThe Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
)
1982-1983 season
- 1. General HospitalGeneral HospitalGeneral Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....
9.8 - 5. As the World Turns 7.6
1983-1984 season
- 1. General HospitalGeneral HospitalGeneral Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....
10.0 - 6. As the World Turns 7.9
1984-1985 season
- 1. General HospitalGeneral HospitalGeneral Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....
9.1 - 6. As the World Turns 7.1 (Tied with Days of our LivesDays of our LivesDays of our Lives is a long running daytime soap opera broadcast on the NBC television network. It is one of the longest-running scripted television programs in the world, airing nearly every weekday in the United States since November 8, 1965. It has since been syndicated to many countries around...
)
1985-1986 season
- 1. General HospitalGeneral HospitalGeneral Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....
9.2 - 7. As the World Turns 6.7
1986-1987 season
- 1. General HospitalGeneral HospitalGeneral Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....
8.3 - 4. As the World Turns 7.0 (Tied with All My ChildrenAll My ChildrenAll My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia. The show features Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime's most...
and Days of our LivesDays of our LivesDays of our Lives is a long running daytime soap opera broadcast on the NBC television network. It is one of the longest-running scripted television programs in the world, airing nearly every weekday in the United States since November 8, 1965. It has since been syndicated to many countries around...
)
1987-1988 season
- 1. The Young and the RestlessThe Young and the RestlessThe Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
8.1 (Tied with General HospitalGeneral HospitalGeneral Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....
) - 6. As the World Turns 6.6
1988-1989 season
- 1. The Young and the RestlessThe Young and the RestlessThe Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
8.1 - 6. As the World Turns 6.4
1989-1990 season
- 1. The Young and the RestlessThe Young and the RestlessThe Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
8.0 - 5. As the World Turns 5.8
1990-1991 season
- 1. The Young and the RestlessThe Young and the RestlessThe Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
8.1 - 4. As the World Turns 5.9
1991-1992 season
- 1. The Young and the RestlessThe Young and the RestlessThe Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
8.2 - 3. As the World Turns 5.8 (Tied with General HospitalGeneral HospitalGeneral Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....
)
1992-1993 season
- 1. The Young and the RestlessThe Young and the RestlessThe Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
8.4 - 4. As the World Turns 5.7
1993-1994 season
- 1. The Young and the RestlessThe Young and the RestlessThe Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
8.6 - 5. As the World Turns 5.8
1994-1995 season
- 1. The Young and the RestlessThe Young and the RestlessThe Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
7.5 - 7. As the World Turns 5.1
1995-1996 season
- 1. The Young and the RestlessThe Young and the RestlessThe Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
7.7 - 7. As the World Turns 4.4
1996-1997 season
- 1. The Young and the RestlessThe Young and the RestlessThe Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
7.1 - 6. As the World Turns 4.4
1997-1998 season
- 1. The Young and the RestlessThe Young and the RestlessThe Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
7.0 - 6. As the World Turns 4.1
1998-1999 season
- 1. The Young and the RestlessThe Young and the RestlessThe Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
6.9 - 6. As the World Turns 3.8
1999-2000 season
- 1. The Young and the RestlessThe Young and the RestlessThe Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
6.8 - 6. As the World Turns 3.8
2000-2001 season
- 1. The Young and the RestlessThe Young and the RestlessThe Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
5.8 - 6. As the World Turns 3.3
2001-2002 season
- 1. The Young and the RestlessThe Young and the RestlessThe Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
5.0 - 5. As the World Turns 3.5
2002-2003 season
- 1. The Young and the RestlessThe Young and the RestlessThe Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
4.7 - 7. As the World Turns 2.9
2003-2004 season
- 1. The Young and the RestlessThe Young and the RestlessThe Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
4.4 - 6. As the World Turns 2.9 (Tied with One Life to LiveOne Life to LiveOne Life to Live is an American soap opera which debuted on July 15, 1968 and has been broadcast on the ABC television network. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature racially and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social...
)
2004-2005 season
- 1. The Young and the RestlessThe Young and the RestlessThe Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
4.2 - 7. As the World Turns 2.6
2005-2006 season
- 1. The Young and the RestlessThe Young and the RestlessThe Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
4.2 - 5. As the World Turns 2.7
2006-2007 season
- 1. The Young and the RestlessThe Young and the RestlessThe Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
4.2 - 7. As the World Turns 2.1
2007-2008 season
- 1. The Young and the RestlessThe Young and the RestlessThe Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
4.0 - 3. As the World Turns 2.4
2008-2009 season
- 1. The Young and the RestlessThe Young and the RestlessThe Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
3.7 - 7. As the World Turns 1.9
2009-2010 season
- 1. The Young and the RestlessThe Young and the RestlessThe Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
3.7 - 7. As the World Turns 1.8
Schedule
CBS:- April 2, 1956 – November 28, 1975: 1:30–2:00 PM (12:30–1:00 PM, CT/PT)
- December 1, 1975 – February 1, 1980: 1:30–2:30 PM (12:30–1:30 PM, CT/PT)
- February 4, 1980 – June 5, 1981: 2:00–3:00 PM (1:00–2:00 PM, CT/PT)
- June 8, 1981 – March 20, 1987: 1:30–2:30 PM (12:30–1:30 PM, CT/PT)
- March 23, 1987 – September 17, 2010: 2:00–3:00 PM (1:00–2:00 PM, CT/PT)
Executive producers
| Duration | Name |
|---|---|
| 1956–1965 | Ted Corday Ted Corday Theodore "Ted" Corday was a producer, director and creator of many American serials.Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Corday graduated from the University of Alberta and studied law before moving to the United States in 1934... |
| 1965–1971 | Mary Harris |
| 1971–1973 | Fred Bartholomew Freddie Bartholomew Frederick Cecil Bartholomew , known for his acting work as Freddie Bartholomew, was an English-American child actor. One of the most famous child actors of all time, he became very popular in 1930s Hollywood films... |
| 1973–1978 | Joe Willmore |
| 1978–1980 | Joe Rothenberger |
| 1980 – fall 1981 | Fred Bartholomew Freddie Bartholomew Frederick Cecil Bartholomew , known for his acting work as Freddie Bartholomew, was an English-American child actor. One of the most famous child actors of all time, he became very popular in 1930s Hollywood films... |
| Fall 1981 – October 1984 | Mary-Ellis Bunim Mary-Ellis Bunim Mary-Ellis Bunim was an American television producer and co-creator of MTV's The Real World and Road Rules.-Biography:A native of Massachusetts, Bunim began her career in daytime dramas... |
| October 1984 – October 1988 | Robert Calhoun |
| October 1988 – May 1995 | Laurence Caso Laurence Caso -Career:He is most notable for being the Executive Producer of CBS Daytime's As the World Turns from 1988-1995. During the 1988 Writer's Guild of America strike, he became the show's Head Writer.... |
| May 1995 – November 8, 1996 | John Valente |
| November 11, 1996 – June 4, 1999 | Felicia Minei Behr Felicia Minei Behr Felicia Minei Behr is an American TV producer and network executive who has worked on three daytime serials. She was fired from All My Children in 1996 when ratings for the show began to decline.-Career: Executive Producer:... |
| June 7, 1999 – June 23, 2010 | Christopher Goutman Christopher Goutman Christopher Goutman is an American soap opera producer, writer, actor, and director. He has played minor roles on Search for Tomorrow, Texas and The Edge of Night. After leaving acting, he began to direct on All My Children, As the World Turns, Guiding Light, and Another World... |
Head writers
| Duration | Name |
|---|---|
| 1956–1965 | Irna Phillips Irna Phillips Irna Phillips was an American actress and most notably writer who created and scripted many of the first American soap operas.Phillips created radio and TV soap operas including:... |
| 1965–1966 | Irna Phillips and William J. Bell William J. Bell William J. Bell was the creator and executive producer of the soap operas The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful.-Personal life:... |
| 1966–1970 | Katherine Babecki |
| 1970 | Joe Kane Joe Kane Joe Kane is an American author of two books and is also a journalist who writes for numerous publications such as The New Yorker, National Geographic, and Esquire... and Ralph Ellis |
| 1970 | Winnifred Wolfe |
| 1970 | Katherine L. Phillips |
| 1971 | Winnifred Wolfe and Warren Swanson |
| 1971 | Warren Swanson, Elizabeth Tillman, and John Boruff |
| 1971–1973 | David Lesan and Irna Phillips Irna Phillips Irna Phillips was an American actress and most notably writer who created and scripted many of the first American soap operas.Phillips created radio and TV soap operas including:... |
| 1973–1978 | Robert Soderberg and Edith Sommer |
| 1979 | Ralph Ellis and Eugenie Hunt |
| Late 1979 | Douglas Marland Douglas Marland Douglas Marland was an American actor and writer of soap operas.-Career:He began his soap opera career as an actor, appearing on the Irna Phillips series The Brighter Day and As the World Turns. He also did odd jobs on the side as a director for small theatre groups... (13 weeks, before moving to Guiding Light Guiding Light Guiding Light is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running drama in television and radio history, running from 1937 until 2009... ) |
| Late 1979–1981 | Bridget and Jerome Dobson Bridget and Jerome Dobson Bridget and Jerome Dobson were writers for American soap operas best known as creators of the NBC soap opera Santa Barbara .Bridget Dobson is the daughter of General Hospital creators Frank and Doris Hursley. Bridget and Jerome married in 1961... |
| 1981 | Paul Roberts Paul Roberts Paul Roberts is an English singer who was the lead singer of The Stranglers between 1990 and 2006.-The Stranglers:... |
| 1981 | Tom King Tom King (writer) Tom King is an American television writer and story board artist best known for his work on the animated children's shows The Ren and Stimpy Show, SpongeBob SquarePants, Camp Lazlo, Chowder and The Fairly OddParents... |
| 1981 | K.C. Collier |
| 1981 | Jean Rouverol Jean Rouverol Jean Rouverol is an American author, actress and screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios in the 1950s.-Biography:... , Chuck & Patti Dizenzo, David Cherill, and Tom King Tom King (writer) Tom King is an American television writer and story board artist best known for his work on the animated children's shows The Ren and Stimpy Show, SpongeBob SquarePants, Camp Lazlo, Chowder and The Fairly OddParents... |
| 1982–1983 | Bridget and Jerome Dobson Bridget and Jerome Dobson Bridget and Jerome Dobson were writers for American soap operas best known as creators of the NBC soap opera Santa Barbara .Bridget Dobson is the daughter of General Hospital creators Frank and Doris Hursley. Bridget and Jerome married in 1961... |
| 1983 | Caroline Franz Caroline Franz -Career:After graduating with a Masters' degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1976, Ms. Franz began her daytime career as a writer for 'All My Children'... and John Saffron |
| Mid 1983–1984 | John Saffron |
| 1984 – November 1984 | Tom King Tom King (writer) Tom King is an American television writer and story board artist best known for his work on the animated children's shows The Ren and Stimpy Show, SpongeBob SquarePants, Camp Lazlo, Chowder and The Fairly OddParents... and Millee Taggart Millee Taggart Millee Taggart is an American actress, best known for her long-running role as Janet Bergman Collins on Search for Tomorrow. She portrayed the character from 1971 to 1982... |
| November 1984 – April 1985 | Cynthia Benjamin and Susan Bedsow Horgan |
| April 1985 – November 1985 | Susan Bedsow Horgan |
| November 1985 – April 1993 | Douglas Marland Douglas Marland Douglas Marland was an American actor and writer of soap operas.-Career:He began his soap opera career as an actor, appearing on the Irna Phillips series The Brighter Day and As the World Turns. He also did odd jobs on the side as a director for small theatre groups... (died) (Robert Calhoun during 1988 WGA strike) |
| April 1993 – January 1995 | Juliet Law Packer Juliet Law Packer Juliet Law Packer is an American television writer. She graduated from Princeton University - 1974 and received a master's degree in film and television from Northwestern University - 1977... and Richard Backus Richard Backus Richard Backus is an American actor and television writer. He has been nominated for four Daytime Emmy Awards for writing and one for acting.- Biography :... |
| January 1995 | Juliet Law Packer Juliet Law Packer Juliet Law Packer is an American television writer. She graduated from Princeton University - 1974 and received a master's degree in film and television from Northwestern University - 1977... , Garin Wolf Garin Wolf -WGA Strike:During the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, Wolf chose Financial Core Status with the Writers Guild of America, stepping in for robert Guza Jr... , and Richard Culliton Richard Culliton Richard Culliton is an American television writer known for his work on soap operas. He has won four Writers Guild of America Awards, including one as a Head Writer, and two Daytime Emmy Awards. He is an alumnus of Northwestern University... |
| January 1995 – January 1996 | Richard Culliton Richard Culliton Richard Culliton is an American television writer known for his work on soap operas. He has won four Writers Guild of America Awards, including one as a Head Writer, and two Daytime Emmy Awards. He is an alumnus of Northwestern University... (Fired) |
| February 1996 – late 1996 | Stephen Black Stephen Black Stephen Black is an Australian former professional basketball player who last played for the Cairns Taipans of the NBL. He is the son of Alan Black... and Henry Stern Henry Stern Henry J. Stern ; was a member of the New York City Council from 1974 to 1983 and appointed as the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation from 1983 to 1990 and again from 1994 to 2000.-Early life:... (Fired) |
| Late 1996 – May 1997 | Stephen Demorest Stephen Demorest -Positions held:All My Children*Associate Head Writer: April 8, 2005 - January 14, 2008Another World*Associate Head Writer: March 1999 - June 25, 1999As the World Turns*Associate Head Writer... , Mel Brez Mel Brez -Positions held:The Doctors* Head Writer: 1978 Another World* Script Writer: 1974, 1995As the World Turns* Co-Head Writer: 1997* Associate Head Writer: 1997, 1998Days of our Lives* Associate Head Writer: 1993 - 1994... , and Addie Walsh Addie Walsh -Positions held:All My Children*Associate Head Writer: April 2000 - April 2002; July 2003 - January 14, 2008 ; March 19, 2008 – PresentAs the World Turns*Co-Head Writer: 1997*Associate Head Writer: 1995 - 1999... |
| May 1997 – fall 1997 | Jessica Klein |
| Fall 1997 | Stephen Demorest Stephen Demorest -Positions held:All My Children*Associate Head Writer: April 8, 2005 - January 14, 2008Another World*Associate Head Writer: March 1999 - June 25, 1999As the World Turns*Associate Head Writer... , Mel Brez Mel Brez -Positions held:The Doctors* Head Writer: 1978 Another World* Script Writer: 1974, 1995As the World Turns* Co-Head Writer: 1997* Associate Head Writer: 1997, 1998Days of our Lives* Associate Head Writer: 1993 - 1994... , and Addie Walsh Addie Walsh -Positions held:All My Children*Associate Head Writer: April 2000 - April 2002; July 2003 - January 14, 2008 ; March 19, 2008 – PresentAs the World Turns*Co-Head Writer: 1997*Associate Head Writer: 1995 - 1999... |
| December 1997 | Addie Walsh Addie Walsh -Positions held:All My Children*Associate Head Writer: April 2000 - April 2002; July 2003 - January 14, 2008 ; March 19, 2008 – PresentAs the World Turns*Co-Head Writer: 1997*Associate Head Writer: 1995 - 1999... |
| January 1998 – June 1999 | Lorraine Broderick Lorraine Broderick Lorraine Broderick is an American television soap opera writer who got her start on All My Children as a protégée of the show's creator, Agnes Nixon.-Bio:... , Hal Corley Hal Corley -Career:Two of Hal's plays, "An Ounce of Prevention" and "Finding Donis Anne," have been widely performed... , and Addie Walsh Addie Walsh -Positions held:All My Children*Associate Head Writer: April 2000 - April 2002; July 2003 - January 14, 2008 ; March 19, 2008 – PresentAs the World Turns*Co-Head Writer: 1997*Associate Head Writer: 1995 - 1999... (co-headwriters) |
| June 1999 – June 12, 2000 | Leah Laiman Leah Laiman Leah Laiman is an American soap opera writer and romance novelist.- Background :This Emmy Award winning writer got her start on daytime television during the early 1980s when General Hospital's Head Writer, Pat Falken Smith, quit the show with the entire writing team... and Carolyn Culliton Carolyn Culliton Carolyn Culliton is an American daytime serial writer and an alumnus of Northwestern University. Her husband is acclaimed daytime serial writer Richard Culliton... (co-headwriter) |
| June 13, 2000 – July 2001 | Hogan Sheffer Hogan Sheffer Hogan Sheffer is an American Daytime Emmy-winning screenwriter. During the WGA strike, he chose financial core status with the WGA and continued working.-Personal life:... , Carolyn Culliton Carolyn Culliton Carolyn Culliton is an American daytime serial writer and an alumnus of Northwestern University. Her husband is acclaimed daytime serial writer Richard Culliton... , Hal Corley Hal Corley -Career:Two of Hal's plays, "An Ounce of Prevention" and "Finding Donis Anne," have been widely performed... , and Stephen Demorest Stephen Demorest -Positions held:All My Children*Associate Head Writer: April 8, 2005 - January 14, 2008Another World*Associate Head Writer: March 1999 - June 25, 1999As the World Turns*Associate Head Writer... (co-headwriters) |
| July 16, 2001 – September 2002 | Hogan Sheffer Hogan Sheffer Hogan Sheffer is an American Daytime Emmy-winning screenwriter. During the WGA strike, he chose financial core status with the WGA and continued working.-Personal life:... , Jean Passanante Jean Passanante Jean Passanante is an American television screenwriter best known for her work in daytime soap operas.Passanante got her start as an actress doing bit parts in the 1980s, including John Sayles's Return of the Secaucus 7. In 1985 she married writer Jack Shannon... , and Carolyn Culliton Carolyn Culliton Carolyn Culliton is an American daytime serial writer and an alumnus of Northwestern University. Her husband is acclaimed daytime serial writer Richard Culliton... |
| September 2002 – May 2005 | Hogan Sheffer Hogan Sheffer Hogan Sheffer is an American Daytime Emmy-winning screenwriter. During the WGA strike, he chose financial core status with the WGA and continued working.-Personal life:... and Jean Passanante Jean Passanante Jean Passanante is an American television screenwriter best known for her work in daytime soap operas.Passanante got her start as an actress doing bit parts in the 1980s, including John Sayles's Return of the Secaucus 7. In 1985 she married writer Jack Shannon... |
| May 2005 – October 2007 | Jean Passanante Jean Passanante Jean Passanante is an American television screenwriter best known for her work in daytime soap operas.Passanante got her start as an actress doing bit parts in the 1980s, including John Sayles's Return of the Secaucus 7. In 1985 she married writer Jack Shannon... , Leah Laiman Leah Laiman Leah Laiman is an American soap opera writer and romance novelist.- Background :This Emmy Award winning writer got her start on daytime television during the early 1980s when General Hospital's Head Writer, Pat Falken Smith, quit the show with the entire writing team... , and Christopher Whitesell Christopher Whitesell Christopher Whitesell is an American television soap opera writer. He has served as either co-head writer, associate head writer, or a breakdown writer on the shows he's worked on.-Positions held:Another World... |
| October 2007 – January 24, 2008 | Jean Passanante Jean Passanante Jean Passanante is an American television screenwriter best known for her work in daytime soap operas.Passanante got her start as an actress doing bit parts in the 1980s, including John Sayles's Return of the Secaucus 7. In 1985 she married writer Jack Shannon... and Leah Laiman Leah Laiman Leah Laiman is an American soap opera writer and romance novelist.- Background :This Emmy Award winning writer got her start on daytime television during the early 1980s when General Hospital's Head Writer, Pat Falken Smith, quit the show with the entire writing team... |
| January 25, 2008 – April 17, 2008 | Christopher Goutman Christopher Goutman Christopher Goutman is an American soap opera producer, writer, actor, and director. He has played minor roles on Search for Tomorrow, Texas and The Edge of Night. After leaving acting, he began to direct on All My Children, As the World Turns, Guiding Light, and Another World... (2007 WGA strike) |
| April 18, 2008 – January 2010 | Jean Passanante Jean Passanante Jean Passanante is an American television screenwriter best known for her work in daytime soap operas.Passanante got her start as an actress doing bit parts in the 1980s, including John Sayles's Return of the Secaucus 7. In 1985 she married writer Jack Shannon... and Leah Laiman Leah Laiman Leah Laiman is an American soap opera writer and romance novelist.- Background :This Emmy Award winning writer got her start on daytime television during the early 1980s when General Hospital's Head Writer, Pat Falken Smith, quit the show with the entire writing team... |
| January 2010 – March 12, 2010 | Jean Passanante Jean Passanante Jean Passanante is an American television screenwriter best known for her work in daytime soap operas.Passanante got her start as an actress doing bit parts in the 1980s, including John Sayles's Return of the Secaucus 7. In 1985 she married writer Jack Shannon... and David Kreizman David Kreizman David Kreizman is an American soap opera writer. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia.Kreizman was a part of the writing team for the long running CBS Daytime soap opera Guiding Light since the late 1990s. In 2004, he was promoted to the position of Head Writer by newly appointed... |
| March 15, 2010 - September 17, 2010 | Jean Passanante Jean Passanante Jean Passanante is an American television screenwriter best known for her work in daytime soap operas.Passanante got her start as an actress doing bit parts in the 1980s, including John Sayles's Return of the Secaucus 7. In 1985 she married writer Jack Shannon... and Lloyd Gold Lloyd Gold Lloyd 'Lucky' Gold is an American screen writer and playwright.Gold’s plays have been produced at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, the Seattle Repertory Theatre, the McCarter Theater and others. He wrote numerous film scripts for Miramax and was script doctor on Marvin's Room and Shakespeare in Love... |
Crew at cancellation
- Writing Team: Jean PassananteJean PassananteJean Passanante is an American television screenwriter best known for her work in daytime soap operas.Passanante got her start as an actress doing bit parts in the 1980s, including John Sayles's Return of the Secaucus 7. In 1985 she married writer Jack Shannon...
, Lloyd GoldLloyd GoldLloyd 'Lucky' Gold is an American screen writer and playwright.Gold’s plays have been produced at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, the Seattle Repertory Theatre, the McCarter Theater and others. He wrote numerous film scripts for Miramax and was script doctor on Marvin's Room and Shakespeare in Love...
, Leah LaimanLeah LaimanLeah Laiman is an American soap opera writer and romance novelist.- Background :This Emmy Award winning writer got her start on daytime television during the early 1980s when General Hospital's Head Writer, Pat Falken Smith, quit the show with the entire writing team...
, Cheryl Davis, Susan Dansby, David A. LevinsonDavid A. LevinsonDavid A. Levinson is an American soap opera writer, originally from Falmouth, MA. He is a 1997 graduate of Emerson College in Boston. -Career:All My Children *Script Writer: March 2003 - January 14, 2004...
, Gordon RayfieldGordon Rayfield-Career:*All My Children**Head writer: ; **Breakdown writer: June 2002 - December 2002*Another World**Breakdown writer: 1998 - 1999*As the World Turns...
, Dan Mooney, Gigi Swift, Janet IacobuzioJanet IacobuzioJanet Iacobuzio is an American television soap opera writer. She has written for soaps for nearly 18 years.-Positions held:All My Children* Associate Head Writer: 1993-1994 , 2001 - 2003...
, Josh GriffithJosh Griffith-Career:During the WGA strike, he took over as Head Writer of CBS Daytimes The Young and the Restless. To do this, he accepted Financial core status with the WGA. Maria Arena Bell, a former writer at The Bold and the Beautiful and daughter-in-law of Y&R creator William J... - Producing TeamTelevision producerThe primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
: Christopher GoutmanChristopher GoutmanChristopher Goutman is an American soap opera producer, writer, actor, and director. He has played minor roles on Search for Tomorrow, Texas and The Edge of Night. After leaving acting, he began to direct on All My Children, As the World Turns, Guiding Light, and Another World...
, Carole Shure, Jennifer Schacor, Vivian Gundaker, Sarah Shaker, Sonia BlangiardoSonia BlangiardoSonia Blangiardo is an American television soap opera director and producer.-Positions held:All My Children* Associate Producer * Production Assistant... - Directing TeamTelevision directorA television director directs the activities involved in making a television program and is part of a television crew.-Duties:The duties of a television director vary depending on whether the production is live or recorded to video tape or video server .In both types of productions, the...
: Michael EilbaumMichael EilbaumMichael Eilbaum is an American television soap opera director. He has worked on daytime for over 28 years.-Directing Credits:Another World* Director As the World Turns* Director One Life to Live...
, John O'ConnellJohn O'Connell (director)John O'Connell is an American television director. He has worked in Dramatic and Music multi-camera television production for over 20 years.-Positions held:100 Centre Street* Director * Associate Director...
, Jennifer PeppermanJennifer PeppermanJennifer Pepperman is an American television soap opera director and producer.-Positions held:As the World Turns* Director * Occasional Director * Associate Director...
, Maria WagnerMaria WagnerMaria Wagner is an American television soap opera director and writer.-Directing credits:As the World Turns* Director *Breakdown Writer -Awards and nominations:Daytime Emmy Award...
, Habib AzarHabib AzarHabib Azar is an American film, theater and television director.-Career:He began his television directing career at the daytime soap opera As the World Turns after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University at the age of 22.In 2007, Habib Azar won an Emmy Award for directing As the World...
, Sonia BlangiardoSonia BlangiardoSonia Blangiardo is an American television soap opera director and producer.-Positions held:All My Children* Associate Producer * Production Assistant...
, Ian Toporoff, Christopher Goutman, Michael Kerner, Carol Sedwick, Janet Andrews, James Kowal, Brian LydellBrian LydellBrian Lydell is an American television Music Supervisor.-Positions held:As the World Turns* Music Director One Life to Live* Music Director...
, Jennifer Blood, Nancy Barron, Alexandra Roalsvig, Brett Hellman - Casting Director: Mary Clay Boland
International broadcasts
South Africa In South Africa, As the World Turns started airing on June 1, 2010 on SABC 2 from 14:10 to 15:00 each weekday. Episodes are 4 years behind the USA.The Netherlands has aired the show on RTL 4
RTL 4
RTL 4 is a commercial television station in the Netherlands. It is the most-watched commercial station in the country, popular especially with those aged between 20 and 49. The station has three sister tv channels: RTL 5, RTL 7 and RTL 8...
since 1990 (9:00 am and 5:00 pm) and on RTL 8
RTL 8
RTL 8 is a commercial television station which launched in the Netherlands on 18 August 2007. The channel apperead by the former Tien, previously known as Talpa, which was launched in August 2005, and other assets of John de Mol's Talpa Media were amalgamated with RTL Nederland...
since 2007 (10:30 pm). RTL4 airs the episodes from one year and seven months ago. ATWT is the most popular foreign soap in the Netherlands and has about 800.000 Dutch viewers each day, it's the second popular soap of all soaps in the whole country, after GTST. ATWT actor Todd Rotondi (ex-Bryant) had a cameo role on the Dutch soap Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden
Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden
Goede tijden, slechte tijden , also known as GTST, is the longest-running Dutch soap opera, which began on 1 October 1990 on RTL4. The programme was the first daily soap in the Netherlands. The soap is produced by Joop van den Ende and to date over 4,000 episodes have been broadcast...
(Good Times, Bad Times) and Elizabeth Hubbard
Elizabeth Hubbard
Elizabeth Hubbard is an American film, soap opera, stage and television actress. Hubbard was born in New York City]. She attended Radcliffe College, and graduated summa cum laude. She pursued her theatrical education at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, where she was the first American...
was a guest in the RTL talkshow Jensen!
Jensen!
Jensen! is a Dutch late night talk show on the television station RTL 5. It airs weekdays from 22:30 to 23:30 CET ....
and in Mooi! Weer de Leeuw
Mooi! Weer de Leeuw
Mooi! Weer De Leeuw was a popular Dutch television show hosted by comedian Paul de Leeuw, that ran from 2005 to 2009...
. In July 2009, Hubbard plays a guest role on GTST, she plays the role of sexuologe Sair Poindexter, the mother of main character Irene Huygens. GTST announced a return of Sair Poindexter in December.
In Canada As the World Turns aired on Global Television Network
Global Television Network
Global Television Network is an English language privately owned television network in Canada, owned by Calgary-based Shaw Communications, as part of its Shaw Media division...
and on NTV
CJON-TV
CJON-DT is a Canadian English language television station broadcasting on channel 21 in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, with additional transmitters and cable coverage throughout the province. It is known on-air as NTV, for Newfoundland Television...
in Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...
.
In Italy As the World Turns, under the title Così gira il mondo, started to air in 1986 on Canale 5
Canale 5
Canale 5 is an Italian private television network of Mediaset, the media branch of Fininvest. Canale 5 was the first private television network to have a national coverage in Italy in 1980, based on a local channel, TeleMilano 58, founded in 1978....
, in the afternoon after Guiding Light
Guiding Light
Guiding Light is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running drama in television and radio history, running from 1937 until 2009...
time slot, with episodes three years behind the U.S. In 1987 it was moved to another channel, Rete 4
Rete 4
Rete 4 is an Italian television station belonging to the Mediaset network. It is an Italian private commercial TV channel. Rete 4's main news programme is TG4, whose editor-in-chief is Emilio Fede since 1992.-TV Series:...
. The show was canceled in 1992. At that time, episodes were four years behind the U.S.
In Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, the show was aired on Efir 2
Efir 2
BNT 2 is a Bulgarian state-owned TV channel, operated by the Bulgarian National Television. It is the successor to the defunct second program of the national television - Efir 2. Launched on October 16, 2011 the channel replaced the four regional television centers of BNT - BNT Pirin, BNT More, BNT...
from 1993 to 1995.
Diema Family
Diema Family
Diema Family is a bulgarian television channel, aimed at family audiences, part of Nova Broadcasting Group, ownd by Modern Times Group. Television was established in 1999 under the name Alexandra TV. Currently Diema Family is aimed at families, mainly Latin American and broadcast animation series...
will continue with the episodes from 2004, starting on April 8, 2008.
In Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
As The World Turns started airing on Television Jamaica Monday to Friday 1:00pm beginning in 2011.
In Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
, the show began airing on TV Avala
TV Avala
TV Avala is a Serbian television network with national frequency. Registered as a limited liabilty company, the station was given a national TV frequency in Serbia in April 2006....
on August 10, 2009, to very little publicity. It currently airs weekdays at 8:00 am, as well as Saturdays at 5:15 pm. The reruns air occasionally (depending on the rest of the late-night programming) around 3:15 AM. The show was canceled on April 25, 2010, for unknown reasons.
In Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
, the show will be seen on Vizion+, beginning with episodes from 2006.
In the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia
Republic of Macedonia
Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
, the show will begin airing on December 15, 2009, Monday to Friday at 12:15 on Sitel
Sitel (TV channel)
Sitel Television is the second private television channel in the Republic of Macedonia.-Programmes:...
Belize's Great Belize Television
Great Belize Television
Great Belize Television, or as it is locally known, Channel 5, is a Belize City-based local television station established in December of 1991. Channel 5 airs mostly American and Caribbean programs, as well as a variety of locally produced programs...
is the sole broadcaster of ATWT, at 2:00 pm Central Time on schedule with the U.S.
In New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
As The World Turns was aired on TVNZ from 1962 to 1989.
In Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, As The World Turns was aired on Network Ten first at 1.30 pm, then moved to 5:00pm before ultimately being dropped entirely in 1987.
InTurn
In 2006, CBS launched a reality show called InTurn on their broadband channel innertubeInnertube
CBS Innertube is a broadband video channel launched by CBS in May 2006. The channel offers original web-only shows, as well as rebroadcasts of CBS's regular shows. This service is currently only available in the United States...
, the winner of which would go on to receive a 13-week acting contract on As the World Turns. The eventual winner of InTurn was Alex Charak
Alex Charak
Alexander Paul "Alex" Charak is an American soap opera actor. He played the role of Elwood Hoffman on the daytime soap opera As The World Turns....
, an 18 year old "Student/Pizza Transportation Artist" from New York. Charak made his debut as the character Elwood Hoffman on September 26, 2006. A one-hour "best-of" show aired on CBS on November 24, 2006.
CBS launched InTurn 2 in the summer of 2007. For the new season, the age restrictions expanded to allow for middle-aged viewers to participate, and there were nine competitors instead of eight. The winner of the second season was Ryan Serhant, a recent graduate of Hamilton College. Serhant made his debut in the contract role on November 7, 2007. He plays Evan Walsh IV, son of Evan Walsh III. He is a young hotshot biochemist prodigy who comes home to Oakdale to try to convince Craig Montgomery to invest in the cutting edge biomedical tech field. He began taping on September 24, 2007, two days after the close of his off-Broadway play, Purple Hearts.
Inturn 3 began airing in April 2008 and featured 17 episodes.
Writers Guild of America Awards
- 2007 "Best Daytime Serial" Written by Jean PassananteJean PassananteJean Passanante is an American television screenwriter best known for her work in daytime soap operas.Passanante got her start as an actress doing bit parts in the 1980s, including John Sayles's Return of the Secaucus 7. In 1985 she married writer Jack Shannon...
, Leah LaimanLeah LaimanLeah Laiman is an American soap opera writer and romance novelist.- Background :This Emmy Award winning writer got her start on daytime television during the early 1980s when General Hospital's Head Writer, Pat Falken Smith, quit the show with the entire writing team...
, Christopher WhitesellChristopher WhitesellChristopher Whitesell is an American television soap opera writer. He has served as either co-head writer, associate head writer, or a breakdown writer on the shows he's worked on.-Positions held:Another World...
, Courtney SimonCourtney SimonCourtney Simon is an American writer and actress. Simon is sometimes credited as "Courtney Sherman" or "Courtney Sherman Simon".- Acting roles :...
, Anna Cascio, Lisa ConnorLisa ConnorLisa Connor is an American soap opera writer, producer, and director. She is currently a writer on the ABC Daytime drama, All My Children.-Positions held:All My Children*Script Writer: March 2010 – present...
, Paula CwiklyPaula CwiklyPaula Cwikly is an American soap opera writer for the Daytime television serial The Young and the Restless. She was NBC Daytime's director of daytime programming.She is a 1982 graduate of the University of Dayton.Batz, Bob...
, Hogan ShefferHogan ShefferHogan Sheffer is an American Daytime Emmy-winning screenwriter. During the WGA strike, he chose financial core status with the WGA and continued working.-Personal life:...
, Judy Tate, Bettina Bradbury, Richard CullitonRichard CullitonRichard Culliton is an American television writer known for his work on soap operas. He has won four Writers Guild of America Awards, including one as a Head Writer, and two Daytime Emmy Awards. He is an alumnus of Northwestern University...
, Susan Dansby, Judith Donato, Josh GriffithJosh Griffith-Career:During the WGA strike, he took over as Head Writer of CBS Daytimes The Young and the Restless. To do this, he accepted Financial core status with the WGA. Maria Arena Bell, a former writer at The Bold and the Beautiful and daughter-in-law of Y&R creator William J...
, Elizabeth PageElizabeth PageElizabeth Page is an American television soap opera writer. She has written for soaps for nearly 15 years.-Positions held:All My Children* Co- Head Writer: Elizabeth Page is an American television soap opera writer. She has written for soaps for nearly 15 years.-Positions held:All My Children* Co-...
, Melissa SalmonsMelissa Salmons-Positions held:*One Life to Live *The Young and the Restless * Liquid Television * Another World * Guiding Light * As the World Turns...
, Charlotte GibsonCharlotte GibsonCharlotte Gibson is an American television soap opera writer. Gibson was hired as a Breakdown Writer on Days of our Lives by Hogan Sheffer. She attended New York University's Graduate Acting Program at the Tisch School of the Arts, graduating in 1990...
; CBS DaytimeCBS DaytimeCBS Daytime is a television programming block on CBS. It's the branding for the CBS Television Network's late morning and early afternoon programming. The block has historically encompassed soap operas, game shows, and talk shows...
Show
As the World Turns has won 43 Daytime Emmys:- 2007 "Outstanding Directing Team"
- 2005 "Outstanding Writing Team"
- 2005 "Outstanding Achievement in Casting for a Drama Series"
- 2004 "Outstanding Writing Team"
- 2003 "Outstanding Drama Series"
- 2002 "Outstanding Writing Team"
- 2001 "Outstanding Writing Team"
- 2001 "Outstanding Drama Series"
- 1999 "Outstanding Original Song" (Tied with General HospitalGeneral HospitalGeneral Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....
) - 1993 "Outstanding Directing Team"
- 1991 "Outstanding Drama Series"
- 1987 "Outstanding Drama Series"
Individuals
- 2011 "Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series" Michael ParkMichael Park (actor)Michael Park is an American actor, best known for his role of Jack Snyder on As the World Turns . Park won back to back Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2010 and 2011.-Career:...
(Jack SnyderJack SnyderJack Snyder is a character on the American soap opera As the World Turns. He has been portrayed by actor Michael Park since April 1, 1997.-Character history:...
) - 2010 "Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series" Michael ParkMichael Park (actor)Michael Park is an American actor, best known for his role of Jack Snyder on As the World Turns . Park won back to back Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2010 and 2011.-Career:...
(Jack SnyderJack SnyderJack Snyder is a character on the American soap opera As the World Turns. He has been portrayed by actor Michael Park since April 1, 1997.-Character history:...
) - 2010 "Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series" Maura WestMaura WestMaura Jo West born Maura Snyder is an American actress, best known for her role as Carly Tenney on the television soap opera As the World Turns and as Diane Jenkins on The Young and the Restless....
(Carly Tenney Snyder) - 2010 "Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series" Julie PinsonJulie PinsonJulie Pinson is an American soap opera actress who portrayed the role of Billie Reed on Days of our Lives. Julie most recently appeared on As the World Turns in the role of "Juicy" Janet Ciccone....
(Janet Ciccone SnyderJanet CicconeJanet Ciccone is a final 3-year fictional character in the U.S. daytime soap opera As the World Turns. She was played by Julie Pinson from May 8, 2008 until the show's final episode on September 17, 2010...
) - 2008 "Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series" Jennifer LandonJennifer LandonJennifer Landon is an American actress. She is known for her role as Gwen Norbeck Munson on As the World Turns .-Private life:...
(Gwen Norbeck MunsonGwen NorbeckGwen Munson is a fictional character on the American soap opera As the World Turns. She was introduced in early 2005 and is played by Jennifer Landon, who won three Daytime Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Younger Actress" in 2006, 2007 and 2008 respectively...
) - 2007 "Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series" Maura WestMaura WestMaura Jo West born Maura Snyder is an American actress, best known for her role as Carly Tenney on the television soap opera As the World Turns and as Diane Jenkins on The Young and the Restless....
(Carly Tenney Snyder) - 2007 "Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series" Jennifer LandonJennifer LandonJennifer Landon is an American actress. She is known for her role as Gwen Norbeck Munson on As the World Turns .-Private life:...
(Gwen Norbeck MunsonGwen NorbeckGwen Munson is a fictional character on the American soap opera As the World Turns. She was introduced in early 2005 and is played by Jennifer Landon, who won three Daytime Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Younger Actress" in 2006, 2007 and 2008 respectively...
) - 2006 "Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series" Jennifer LandonJennifer LandonJennifer Landon is an American actress. She is known for her role as Gwen Norbeck Munson on As the World Turns .-Private life:...
(Gwen Norbeck MunsonGwen NorbeckGwen Munson is a fictional character on the American soap opera As the World Turns. She was introduced in early 2005 and is played by Jennifer Landon, who won three Daytime Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Younger Actress" in 2006, 2007 and 2008 respectively...
) - 2004 "Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series" Cady McClainCady McClainCady McClain is an American actress, singer, and author.-Early career:McClain's professional acting career began in 1979 at the age of 10, when she was featured in a commercial for Band-Aid bandages....
(Rosanna CabotRosanna CabotRosanna Cabot is a fictional character on the American daytime soap opera, As the World Turns.The character was originated by Yvonne Perry who portrayed her from 1992 to 1999...
) - 2004 "Lifetime Achievement Award" Helen WagnerHelen WagnerHelen Wagner was an American actress. Born in Lubbock, Texas, she is best known for her long running role as Nancy Hughes McClosky on the soap opera As the World Turns. Wagner also played the role of Trudy Bauer during the initial TV years of Guiding Light in the early 1950s...
(Nancy HughesNancy HughesNancy Hughes McClosky is a fictional character on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns. From the show's inception in 1956 until 2010, Nancy Hughes has served as the core family's matriarch...
) - 2004 "Lifetime Achievement Award" Don HastingsDon HastingsDonald Francis Hastings is a longtime American actor, singer, and writer best known for his 50-year role as Dr. Robert "Bob" Hughes" on the soap opera As the World Turns...
(Bob HughesBob HughesDr. Robert "Bob" Hughes. M.D. is a fictional character on the American soap opera, As the World Turns. Bob was played by actor Don Hastings from October 1960 until the series' final episode on September 17, 2010...
) - 2004 "Lifetime Achievement Award" Eileen FultonEileen FultonEileen Fulton is an American actress.Fulton is known for her role as Lisa Grimaldi on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns, a role that she played almost continuously for 50 years from May 18, 1960 until the show's cancellation on September 17, 2010.-As the...
(Lisa GrimaldiLisa GrimaldiLisa Grimaldi is a fictional character on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns. The daughter of Henry and Alma Miller, Lisa grew up in Rockford, Illinois, USA before moving to Oakdale...
) - 2003 "Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series" Benjamin HendricksonBenjamin HendricksonBenjamin Hendrickson was an American actor known for playing Harold "Hal" Munson, Jr., the Chief of Detectives for the mythical town of Oakdale on the daytime soap opera, As the World Turns.- Theater and film :...
(Hal MunsonHal MunsonHarold "Hal" Todd Munson, Jr. is a fictional character that appeared on the American soap opera As the World Turns. He was played by the late Benjamin Hendrickson from 1985 to 2004 and 2005 to July 12, 2006...
) - 2001 "Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series" Martha ByrneMartha ByrneMary Martha Byrne is an American actress, singer and screenwriter.In 2008, she left CBS's As the World Turns as the passionate role of Lily Snyder. In 2009, she was featured on ABC's General Hospital as Andrea Floyd...
(Lily Walsh SnyderLily Walsh SnyderLily Walsh Snyder was a fictional character on the American TV soap opera, As the World Turns. Most notably played by Martha Byrne from May 1985 to December 1989 and again from 1993 to April 22, 2008, the character was originated in June 1984 by Lucy Deakins...
/Rose D'Angelo) - 2001 "Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series" Lesli KayLesli KayLesli Kay Coulouris previously Lesli Kay Sterling is an American actress, who is known primarily for her role on the CBS soap As the World Turns.-Career:...
(Molly Conlan) - 1990 "Outstanding Juvenile Male in a Drama Series" Andrew KavovitAndrew KavovitAndrew Michael Kavovit is an Emmy-award winning actor, best known as one of the portrayers of Paul Ryan as a youngster in the CBS soap opera As the World Turns, a role he played from 1986-1992 and then again 1996-2001...
(Paul Ryan) - 1988 "Outstanding Ingenue in a Drama Series" Julianne MooreJulianne MooreJulianne Moore is an American actress and a children's book author. Throughout her career, she has been nominated for four Oscars, six Golden Globes, three BAFTAs and nine Screen Actors Guild Awards....
(Frannie HughesFrannie HughesFrances Jennifer "Frannie" Hughes is a fictional character on the daytime soap opera As the World Turns played by several actresses from 1973 to 1992, and most notably by Julianne Moore from April 2, 1985, to May 1988 and April 5, 2010....
/Sabrina HughesSabrina HughesSabrina Hughes is a fictional character in the daytime soap opera As the World Turns...
) - 1987 "Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series" Larry BryggmanLarry BryggmanLarry Bryggman is an American actor.-Early life:Bryggman was born in Concord, California of Swedish descent; his father worked for a neon sign company and his mother was a piano teacher. Bryggman attended the City College of San Francisco as well as the American Theatre Wing in New York...
(Dr. John Dixon) - 1987 "Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series" Gregg MarxGregg MarxGregg Marx is an American actor known mainly for his work on two daytime soap operas.He first played the role of David Banning on Days of our Lives from 1981 to 1983. He then moved to As the World Turns where he portrayed Tom Hughes from 1984 to 1987...
(Tom Hughes) - 1987 "Outstanding Ingenue in a Drama Series" Martha ByrneMartha ByrneMary Martha Byrne is an American actress, singer and screenwriter.In 2008, she left CBS's As the World Turns as the passionate role of Lily Snyder. In 2009, she was featured on ABC's General Hospital as Andrea Floyd...
(Lily Walsh) - 1986 "Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series" John Wesley ShippJohn Wesley ShippJohn Wesley Shipp is an American actor best known as Mitch Leery, the title character's father on the television drama Dawson's Creek from 1998 to 2001 and for roles in several daytime soap operas...
(Doug Cummings) - 1985 "Outstanding Juvenile Male in a Drama Series" Brian BloomBrian BloomBrian Keith Bloom is an American actor, voice actor, and screenwriter.Bloom was born in Merrick, New York, the brother of producer/actor Scott Bloom and musician Mike Bloom....
(Dusty DonovanDusty DonovanDustin "Dusty" Donovan is a fictional character on CBS's daytime drama As the World Turns. He was recently portrayed by Grayson McCouch from February 18, 2003 to January 18, 2008. McCouch returned to the role on September 24, 2008.-Character history:...
) - 1984 "Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series" Larry BryggmanLarry BryggmanLarry Bryggman is an American actor.-Early life:Bryggman was born in Concord, California of Swedish descent; his father worked for a neon sign company and his mother was a piano teacher. Bryggman attended the City College of San Francisco as well as the American Theatre Wing in New York...
(Dr. John Dixon) - 1984 "Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series" Justin DeasJustin DeasJustin Deas is an American actor. He is known for his role as Tom Hughes #10 on As the World Turns and for his role as Buzz Cooper Sr. on Guiding Light...
(Tom Hughes)
Daytime television firsts
- As the World Turns ran for 30 minutes along with The Edge of NightThe Edge of NightThe Edge of Night is an American television mystery series/soap opera produced by Procter & Gamble. It debuted on CBS on April 2, 1956, and ran as a live broadcast on that network until November 28, 1975; the series then moved to ABC, where it aired from December 1, 1975, until December 28, 1984...
, which premiered the same day. - In 1988, the serial made daytime television history by introducing daytime television's first gay male character, Hank Elliot (played by Brian Starcher). The show made history again, in 2007, when Luke SnyderLuke SnyderLuciano Eduardo "Luke" Snyder is a fictional character from the American daytime drama As the World Turns. He was most recently portrayed by actor Van Hansis....
and Noah MayerNoah MayerNoah Mayer is a fictional character on CBS's daytime drama As the World Turns. He is portrayed by Jake Silbermann and made his first appearance on June 1, 2007.Noah Mayer was an intern at WOAK television and a student at Oakdale University...
(played by Van HansisVan HansisVan Hansis is an American actor. Hansis, who uses the name Van professionally, starred on the long-running CBS soap opera As the World Turns as Luke Snyder, the son of one of the show's signature supercouples, Holden and Lily Snyder ,...
and Jake SilbermannJake SilbermannJake Silbermann is an American actor.-Biography:Silbermann was born June 1, 1983, and is a native of New York City. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in theater from Syracuse University, where he participated in many productions including Three Sisters and True West...
respectively) shared a kiss and formed a relationship, becoming the only gay male couple on daytime television. On January 12, 2009, after a long and tumultuous relationship, Luke and Noah finally consummated their love, giving ATWT another daytime first.
It was also the longest running dramatic series created exclusively for television.
Supercouples
- Jeff Baker and Penny Hughes
- Bob HughesBob HughesDr. Robert "Bob" Hughes. M.D. is a fictional character on the American soap opera, As the World Turns. Bob was played by actor Don Hastings from October 1960 until the series' final episode on September 17, 2010...
and Kim Sullivan HughesKim Sullivan HughesKimberly "Kim" Hughes was a fictional character on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns. The character was portrayed by Kathryn Hays continuously from 1972... - Tom Hughes and Margo Montgomery Hughes
- Steve Andropoulos and Betsy StewartSteve Andropoulos and Betsy StewartStavares "Steve" Andropoulos and Elizabeth "Betsy" Stewart Andropoulos are fictional characters and a supercouple from the American soap opera As the World Turns. Steve was portrayed by actor Frank Runyeon and Betsy was portrayed by both actress Meg Ryan and actress Lindsay Frost...
- Craig Montgomery and Sierra Esteban
- Holden Snyder and Lily Walsh SnyderHolden Snyder and Lily WalshHolden Snyder and Lily Walsh Snyder are fictional characters and the signature supercouple of the American daytime drama As the World Turns. Holden was portrayed by Jon Hensley and Lily was portrayed by Martha Byrne except for brief periods of recasting with Heather Rattray and Noelle Beck...
- Jack Snyder and Carly Tenney SnyderJack Snyder and Carly TenneyJack Snyder and Carly Tenney Snyder are fictional characters and a supercouple from the American daytime drama As the World Turns. Jack is portrayed by Michael Park, and Carly is portrayed by Maura West...
- Will Munson and Gwen Norbeck MunsonWill Munson and Gwen NorbeckWill Munson and Gwen Norbeck Munson are fictional characters and a supercouple on the American soap opera As the World Turns. Will is played by Jesse Soffer and Gwen is played by Jennifer Landon. The supercouple is often lauded by critics and fans, who compare them to ATWT's staple couple Holden...
Other awards
In 2010, As the World Turns was nominated for a GLAAD Media AwardGLAAD Media Awards
The GLAAD Media Award is an accolade bestowed by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation to recognize and honor various branches of the media for their outstanding representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the issues that affect their lives...
for "Outstanding Daily Drama" during the 21st GLAAD Media Awards
21st GLAAD Media Awards
The 21st GLAAD Media Awards was the 2010 annual presentation of the media awards presented by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. The awards seek to honor films, television shows, musicians and works of journalism that fairly and accurately represent the LGBT community and issues...
.
DVD release
In October 2011, SoapClassics has released a 4 DVD collection of 20 selected episodes, marking the first time that any ATWT episodes have been available on any recorded medium. The oldest episode on the collection dates from September 29, 1979, while the latest episode is from April 10, 2010. In November 2011, a "Christmas in Oakdale" DVD was released, celebrating five Christmas episodes from the show. The featured Christmases are 1985, 1992, 1995, 2000 and 2007.The firm intends to release a series of DVD collections and is exploring multiple distribution options, including broadcast and cable television, in markets both domestic and overseas.
See also
- History of As the World Turns (1956-1959)History of As the World Turns (1956-1959)This article is about the history of As the World Turns , the longest-running American television soap opera.-Original Cast:List of characters who were part of the original cast when it debuted on April 2, 1956:*Chris Hughes*Nancy Hughes...
- History of As the World Turns (1960-1969)History of As the World Turns (1960-1969)This article is about the history of As the World Turns , the second longest-running American television soap opera.-Storylines:* While babysitting for the Stewarts, Ellen Lowell realized that Dan Stewart is really her son Jimmy....
- History of As the World Turns (1970-1979)History of As the World Turns (1970-1979)This article is about the history of As the World Turns , the longest-running American television soap opera.-Storylines:* Ellen Cole fires Franny Brennan. When she threatened to reveal all, Ellen Cole hit her over the head....
- History of As the World Turns (1980-1989)History of As the World Turns (1980-1989)This article does not contain any information for 1976-1980, despite the title. The information starts for 1980.This article is about the history of As the World Turns , the second longest-running American television soap opera.-1980 - 1989:...
- History of As the World Turns (1990-1999)History of As the World Turns (1990-1999)This article is about the history of As the World Turns , the second longest-running American television soap opera.-Storylines:*Claire Cassen is killed after running into a road to try and apologize to Dan Stewart; unaware of passing cars, Claire is struck by one and dies after apologizing to Dan...
- History of As the World Turns (2000–2007)
- History of As the World Turns (2008)History of As the World Turns (2008)- Scorecard :- Special storylines :Gwen and Will's Baby - Sofie Duran is sad she gave up her baby and when Gwen and Will Munson choose Alison Stwart and Aaron Snyder to be the godparents to their baby, Hallie Jennifer Munson. Everything's going fine until Sofie kidnaps Hallie...
- History of As the World Turns (2009)History of As the World Turns (2009)- Scorecard :- Special Storylines :Johnny & Lucy - December 2008 Lucy and Johnny return to town because Johnny is very sick and needs bone marrow and they are trying to hid from everyone in town until Josie comes finds out they are back in town and she tells Dusty whom goes to the Lakeview...