A Tale of Two Old Shows

They say nothing in TV lasts forever. They also say nothing in TV should last forever. It just seems that way.

The hospital drama ER has just concluded its fifteenth and final season on NBC Thursday night (that's 105 in dog years). Guiding Light, the long-running daytime soap that began when Franklin Roosevelt was President and before anyone had ever heard of television, will end its run this September after 72 years in broadcasting.

ER began in 1994, depicting the life and loves of doctors caught up in the frenzy of a Chicago hospital's emergency room. George Clooney, Anthony Edwards, Juliana Margulies, Noah Wyle, Laura Innes and Eriq LaSalle (among others) became familiar faces thanks to this show. Clooney, of course, parlayed all of this into a Hollywood movie career.

Guiding Light, depicting the life and loves of the good citizens of Springfield (no, not the one the Simpsons inhabit), began on NBC Radio in 1937, moved to CBS Radio in 1947, simulcast on radio and TV from 1952-56, then it was strictly TV until now. James Earl Jones, Kevin Bacon, Calista Flockhart and Hayden Panettiere (among others) passed through Springfield before moving on to bigger things. The show also provided gainful employment for longtime regulars Kim Zimmer and Charita Bauer.

ER was at or near the top of the TV ratings its first few seasons on the air, then began its slow ratings decline. It has lasted this long in spite of plots that were either recycled or bordering on the ridiculous, the original cast eventually replaced by actors you couldn't pick out of a lineup, and NBC having nothing better to replace it.

CBS has tried for years to unload Guiding Light because it was the lowest-rated of all the soaps on TV, but didn't want to offend Procter and Gamble, which not only produces the show but is one of TV's biggest advertisers. Daytime TV itself is having problems (even Oprah Winfrey is losing viewers) because its core audience of women have gotten lives of their own.

So rest in peace, ER and Guiding Light. Neither of you would be around as long as you did without somebody liking what you did.