Old soap operas on nbc Continue Soaps have been around since the 1930s, when Proctor & Gamble produced 15-minute episodes of Love and Drama for radio. The term soap opera was allegedly coined because these shows were sponsored by a company that made detergents. In the early 1950s, soap operas switched to television, and daytime television had no shortage of offerings. As you'll see, captivating storylines and characters are the key to longevity on daytime television. If you're curious about the shortest running soap, it was NBC's These Are My Children that lasted only 24 days in 1949. But for the longest- running soap operas, see the next page to get started. With more than 15,000 episodes, Guiding Light is not only the longest running soap, but also the longest running non-news program in US television history. Like many of the oldest soaps, Guiding Light began as a radio program in 1937, before moving to television on June 30, 1952. Originally, the soap took place in the fictional town of Five Points, then Selby Flats, and revolved around the Bauer family. Now it's the Spauldings, Coopers and Lewises who are in the spotlight. In the 1960s, The was removed from the show's title to make it sound more contemporary. One of the more bizarre storylines in the series included cloning longtime character Reva Lewis from one of her own frozen eggs! Once the clone was born, it received aging serum so that it could grow up quickly. But she was angry and tried to take Revas's place. Advertisement Set in Oakdale, a fictional city in the Midwest, How the World Turns has been immensely popular since its debut on April 2, 1956. The show is more reality-based than other soaps, but people come back from the dead and children grow up much faster than in real life, as is the norm for the soap world. The first soap opera that uses a two-family setup, As the world turns against a middle-class family against a wealthy but restless, family. The Hughes family remains the bourgeois hero, but the wealthy family that was originally the Lowells is now the Munsons. After more than 13,000 episodes, the world is still spinning, and this soap is still getting strong. Advertising, which was named the Greatest Soap Opera of all time by TV Guide in 2003, has won General Hospital the Daytime Emmy nine times for outstanding drama -- more than any soap! The General Hospital began its work on ABC on April 1, 1963, the very day that NBC launched its rival medical drama The Doctors. Today, the show revolves around the Spencers, the Cassidines, the mobster Sonny Corinthos and the wealthy Quartermaine family. The the adventurous Luke and Laura in the late 1970s sparked the trend of the soap opera super pair. In the fictional Port Charles, New York, most scenes take place at the docks, or where else . General hospital. Throughout the entire History, General Hospital was a springboard for several well-known actors, including Demi Moore, Rick Springfield, John Stamos and Ricky Martin. Advertising How sand through the hourglass . Since its debut on November 8, 1965, loyal viewers have seen Days of Our Lives. The days take place in the fictional midwestern town of Salem, with most of the scenes filmed at University Hospital or Brady Pub. Today, Salem is home to the respected Horton and Brady families, as well as the evil DiMeras. Since the show's debut more than 40 years ago, matriarch Alice Horton has been portrayed by award-winning actress Frances Reid. In the 1980s, the Salem Stalker and Salem Slasher brought romantic adventures to the fore, while Dr. Marlena Evans-Black (Deidre Hall) became obsessed with the devil in the 1990s. Originally broadcast on July 15, 1968, the wealthy Lord family was pitted against the bourgeois Nk and Rileys and the Siegels, the first Jewish family in a daytime drama. Now it's the Buchananers, Rapaports, Gannons and Cramers who see most of the action. They live in Llanview, Pennsylvania, a fictional suburb of Philadelphia. The inhabitants of Llanview have experienced cults, time travel and out-of-body experiences. Llanview, by the way, is just a 30-minute drive from another fictional soap town: All My Children's Pine Valley. As such, there were several story line crossovers, as both soaps are on ABC. Advertising The idea of soap opera creator, author and producer Agnes Nixon, All My Children has taken risks since its launch on January 5, 1970. Set in fictional Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, this soap deals with serious issues and has over the years addressed such controversial topics as abortion, drugs, homosexuality, rape and even the Vietnam War. Susan Lucci, one of only two actors to remain on the show throughout the series, was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for 18 consecutive years without winning her role as Erica Kane. But Lucci was finally victorious in 1999. Advertisement The Young and the Restless took place on the small screen on March 26, 1973, and more than 10,000 episodes later, it shows no signs of giving up. Home to Y&R characters is Genoa City, Wisconsin, a fictional version of a real village. The TV city is a hotbed of corporate intrigue and granddoicity, pitting two wealthy families -- the Newmans and the Abbotts -- against each other. One of Y&R's most outrageous characters, Sheila Carter Grainger Forrester Warwick (Kimberlin Brown), has changed babies, tried to burn her own mother alive, used paternity results as blackmail, shot people, in a psychiatric institution and escaped from a psychiatric institution by persuacly persuacly persuasion someone to take part in a plastic surgery and take her place. She is currently thought dead, but in the soap world, that means nothing -- look for her to threaten her With such storylines, it is no wonder that Y&R has held the top spot in the ratings war since 1988. For the entire run of the show, from September 3, 1951 to December 26, 1986, Search for Tomorrow followed the life of heroine Joanne Gardner. Joanne and her friends lived in the fictional town of Henderson, and many scenes took place at her kitchen table over a cup of coffee. In the mid-1980s, in a last-guessing attempt to bring ratings to the polls, the whole city was wiped out in a flood, but even that didn't do the trick. In 1986, NBC decided that tomorrow's search wasn't nearly as exciting as juicy topics like government scandals, so the soap was axed after 9,130 episodes in favor of a glittering new show called Capitol. Advertising The subject of abortion is not exactly outrageous today, but in 1964 it was groundbreaking, to say the least. During his first year in the air, Another World came up strong with a bold and risky story in which a teenager has an illegal abortion and ends a sterile, acquitted murderer who marries her lawyer. In the early days, Another World, set in the fictional town of Bay City, began playing a middle-class branch and a branch of the Upper Class of the Matthews family against each other. Later, the Randolph, Cory and Hudson families became part of the show's fabric, but in 1999, after 8,891 episodes, Another World was cancelled. Advertising When Love of Life first aired on September 24, 1951, it did not take any ad-free breaks. The show belonged to a company called American Home Products and was licensed to CBS, so there was no need to break for commercials. American Home Products merchandise was sold either before or after the show. The show first took place in the fictional Barrowsville, then moved to the suburb of Rosehill, New York. The show revolved around the relationship between the good Vanessa Dale and her evil sister Meg Dale Harper. Christopher Reeve's first leading role was that of Meg's son Ben Harper, from 1974 to 1976. After the ratings had plummeted, the show abruptly ended with a cliffhanger on February 1, 1980, and since the show was canceled, the fans really got stuck . Forever. From its debut on April 2, 1956 to the 1960s, The Edge of Night was consistently one of the highest-ranked soaps on television. Known for his well-staged action sequences, which were filmed on location and not on set, most of the series' storylines were set in the fictional town of Monticello, and revolved around Deputy District Attorney Mike Karr and his love interest Sarah Lane. In 1978, the audience of The Edge of Night was almost 50 percent male! This is probably because the soap is not a traditional love drama theme; it should be a daily version of Perry Mason. After the bounce of various networks and time windows, the show was finally cancelled in December 1984, after more than Episodes. To learn more, watch the 10 longest-running TV shows or take a classic TV quiz to test your knowledge. CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Helen Davies, Marjorie Dorfman, Mary Fons, Deborah Hawkins, Martin Hintz, Linnea Lundgren, David Priess, Julia Clark Robinson, Paul Seaburn, Heidi Stevens and Steve Theunissen If you ever catch some vintage soap opera shots, you can see some familiar faces. Here are some of today's hottest stars getting their start in daytime dramas. For her first 19 years she was called Demetria Guynes, but then she married the musician Freddy Moore and adopted the name that most people know today.