Fans of the world's longest running soap opera, Guiding Light, bade a sad farewell to the show on Friday, after 72 years following the lives of four families in America. Its role in US culture cannot be overplayed.
Starting out as a radio play in 1937 before graduating to CBS daytime TV in 1952, it was funded by Procter & Gamble, which employed Irna Phillips, the "mother of the genre", to write it.
In the mid-60s, it was one of the first soaps to feature African-American actors in regular roles. Its fictional "anywhere America" location moved around until 1966, when it settled in a town called Springfield. Ring any bells?
Kevin Bacon, Calista Flockhart and Mickey Rourke all started out on the show. Sadly, it went downhill after the plot featured TV's first human cloning. Can't think why.
• This article was amended on Tuesday 22 September 2009. Editing changes left a piece saying that the role of the TV show Guiding Light in US culture "cannot be underplayed", when what it meant was that it could not be overplayed or overstated. This has been corrected.
