The End of the "World" As We Know It

Image via Wikipedia

CBS announced it is canceling "As The World Turns", which has been on the air since 1956, for much of the same reasons why they got rid of "Guiding Light":  changing times, declining ratings, etc.  The network now has nine months to come up with a replacement, probably another game show.

ATWT was the daytime drama that pretty much everyone watched in its first few decades on the air.  Your parents, grandparents and great-grandparents probably watched it (and maybe still do).  Kids on their days home from school found it an educational experience, learning new phrases such as "under the circumstances", and maybe a little more about human behavior than they should have.

This is where Meg Ryan, Dana Delany, James Earl Jones, Julianne Moore, Marisa Tomei and so many others got their start before moving on to the big time.  Others, such as Eileen Fulton, Don Hastings and Colleen Zenk Pinter, have remained with the show for decades.

This is the show that got interrupted on November 22, 1963 by news bulletins of President John F. Kennedy's assassination.  It would be days before there was another network entertainment broadcast.

Procter and Gamble, which produces ATWT, practically invented the term "soap opera" when they started sponsoring daytime dramas on radio in the 1930s as a way to sell its soap bars and detergents to women.

After ATWT goes in September 2010, the oldest soap on TV will become "General Hospital", which has been on ABC since 1963.  That's long before Luke and Laura, folks.

I usually avoid soaps like the plague because I had better things to do.  But I won't forget the spinning globe and the haunting theme music (a combination of organ and piano) that was part of the credits when I was one of those kids getting their education from TV away from school.  It's not the end of the world, but for soap opera fans it might as well be.