Profile of Television Soap Opera "As The World Turns"

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Director Christopher Goutman poses with his Daytime Serials Award for ATWT with actress Julie Bowen at the 62nd Annual Director's Guild of America Awards onJanuary 30, 2010

Television soap opera As the World Turns is set in the fictional town of Oakdale, Illinois. The long-running daytime drama was created by Irna Phillips, who favored character development and psychological realism over melodrama. Noted for placing professionals like doctors, lawyers, and clergy people at the center of her storylines, Phillips writes: "As the world turns, we know the bleakness of winter, the promise of spring, the fullness of summer and the harvest of autumn--the cycle of life is complete. And that is how As the World Turns got it's name."

Network:

CBS

Broadcast History:

As the World Turns debuted on April 2, 1956, at 1:30 pm EST.

In 1959, the show started a weekly ratings streak of wins that wasn't interrupted for over twelve years. In the year-to-date ratings, As the World Turns was the most-watched daytime drama from 1958 - 1978, with ten million viewers tuning in each day. The show expanded from a half-hour to one hour starting on December 1, 1975.

As the World Turns passed its 10,000th episode on May 12, 1995, and celebrated its 50th anniversary on April 2, 2006.

On December 8, 2009, CBS announced its final episode on the network will air on September 17, 2010.

Awards:

Writer's Guild of America Awards 2007
Best Daytime Serial, Daytime Emmy Awards (1987, 1991, 2001, 2003)
Writer's Guild of America Awards 2007
Best Daytime Serial, Daytime Emmy Awards (1987, 1991, 2001, 2003)
Outstanding Drama Series: 1987, 1991, 2001, 2003
Outstanding Directing Team: 1993, 2007
Outstanding Original Song: 1999 (Tied with General Hospital
Outstanding Writing Team: 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005

Senior Cast Members:

Helen Wagner (Nancy Hughes)
Don Hastings (Tom Hughes)
Eileen Fulton (Lisa Miller Hughes)
Kathryn Hays (Kim Hughes)
Marie Masters (Susan Stewart)
Colleen Zenk Pinter (Barbarba Ryan)
Elizabeth Hubbard (Lucinda Walsh)
Kathleen Widdoes (Emma Snyder)
Jon Hensley (Holden Snyder)Scott Holmes, Ellen Dolan (Margo Hughes)
Kelly Menighan Hensley (Emily Stewart)
Maura West (Carly Tenney)
Michael Park (Jack Snyder)

Trivia:

Since the cancellation of Another World (1964) in 1999, several characters from that show (Jake, Cass, Vicky, Donna and Marley) have made appearances on As the World Turns.

As the World Turns is one of the first two half-hour soap operas in television. (The other being The Edge of Night (1956), which premiered the same day.)

As the World Turns was the first CBS soap opera to expand to one hour (1 December 1975) and the third soap opera to expand to one hour in television history. The first was Another World (1964) and the second was Days of Our Lives (1965).

Regular color broadcasts began on 20 February 1967.

The episode of 22 November 1963 was broken into by CBS to announce the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The actors, however, continued performing (as it was done live until 1975), and a complete, uninterrupted copy of this episode still survives.

On the day that the 13,661st episode aired, CBS announced it was axing the soap (the last of the 'true' US daytime soaps as it was made by a media subsidiary of Procter & Gamble). The final episode of As the World Turns will air in September 2011.

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