As the World Turns Stops Turning

Almost exactly a year ago CBS broadcast the final episode of its long-running soap opera Guiding Light. Then in December 2009, the network canceled As the World Turns, which was the sole remaining Procter and Gamble soap on the air.

As the World Turns, created by Irna Phillips, premiered on Monday, April 2nd, 1956 as a half-hour, black and white program, switched to color in 1967 and became an hour-long show 1975. Its 10,000th episode aired in May 1995. Today’s finale will be the show’s 13,858th episode.

Aside from its longevity, As the World Turns may be best known for being on the air on November 22nd, 1963; the program was interrupted by a news bulletin announcing that President Kennedy had been shot. You can watch the episode thanks to the Internet Archive. Walter Cronkite breaks in at the 10:00 mark:

And here’s the April 2nd, 1961 episode:

The Paley Center for Media has roughly 150 episodes, many of which are from the 1990s or the 2000s but there are quite a few from the 1960s as well. UCLA’s Film and Television Archive has a few dozen episodes, including some from 1958 (the earliest of which seems to be from March 20th of that year).

How many episodes exist from the 1950s through the 1970s is unknown, but every episode broadcast after the widespread adoption of VCRs is probably safe.


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5 Replies to “As the World Turns Stops Turning”

  1. While an amazing amount of material has turned up being VHS’d from the mid-80s on, I’m not sure it should therefore be deemed “safe.” Just because someone somewhere taped it doesn’t mean it’s still stored (properly or not) or that anyone could find it all, spread as it is no doubt very far and very wide.

    So much of this material is misplaced, mislabeled and forgotten and if it isn’t intentionally thrown away, especially on a non-archival medium such as VHS, the inevitable relatives who inherit it usually see no reason to keep, preserve, or report 20+ year-old soap operas.

    We’re lucky to have what we have.

    Keep up the good work!

    Roger L
    UCLA Archive Studies

  2. Safe was the wrong word, certainly, and I confounded the issue by discussing the rise of VCRs. To be quite honest, I wrote this post hurriedly and should have made my point better.

    I can’t speak to soap operas specifically, but over the years from things I’ve read it seems companies were more likely to save original elements for television programs by the late 1970s/early 1980s.

    Prior to cable, though, soap operas (like game shows) had next to no syndication value so keeping them made less sense financially than prime time fare. I’m sure I’ve read reports about the status of various game shows and which episodes were wiped or destroyed but I don’t think I’ve ever come across anything discussing soap operas.

    At some point, I imagine Procter & Gamble Productions, Inc. started actively preserving episodes of As the World Turns, or else some other company involved with the production of the show did.

  3. I watched the final episodes of ‘As the World Turns’ over the weekend, and was very moved by how the showrunners brought it to such a poignant conclusion. It is one of the daytime serials that I have watched on an irregular basis over the years.

    With regards to preservation of the show, I do believe the P&G has maintained a large trove of episodes of the series they sponsored. A few years ago, I visited a link (which I did not bookmark) that had vintage episodes of ‘The Edge of Night’, ‘Search for Tomorrow’ and ‘The Secret Storm’ up on the site.

    Now that ABC is closing down its Soapnet cabler, I hope to see another network spring up (akin to Game Show Network) that dedicates itself to showing vintage serial dramas. That was the only reason I ever watched Soapnet.

  4. ATWT debuted along with another new soap, The Edge Of Night (1956-84), both of which were the first half-hour daytime dramas on network TV.

    Soap operas are rapidly becoming a prime candidate for the “Endangered Species” list. And then there were six:

    General Hospital
    Days Of Our Lives
    One Life To Live
    All My Children
    The Young And The Restless
    The Bold And The Beautiful

    …and their time, too, may be running out. :(

    1. And, lo and behold, time is running out for 2 of ABC’s daytime dramas, All My Children and One Life To Live, both to get the axe in September and January, respectively. Which will leave us with 4:

      The Young And The Restless
      The Bold And The Beautiful
      Days Of Our Lives
      General Hospital

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