Tomorrow marks the 20th anniversary of The Bold
And The Beautiful, consistently the number-two
rated soap behind sister show The Young And The
Restless (its lead-in in the Eastern time zone and on
a few stations in the earlier time zones such as the
CBS o&os in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Dallas). It
has just a little over a week to go before it passes
The Secret Storm to become the 12th longest-running
soap (I count calendar days including weekends;
Secret Storm ran from Feb. 1, 1954 to Feb. 8, 1974
for a total of 20 years, 7 days; B&B hits the 20 year,
8 day mark on March 31).
And speaking of Y&R, its 34th anniversary comes Monday.
It is currently the ninth longest-running soap. Monday is
also the 34th anniversary of the debut of Pyramid; in 1973
its top prize of $10,000 was a big deal, and the stakes began
to rise on other game shows (they'd been held down since
the scandals). Oddly, Pyramid was not a hit at first for CBS;
it had to move to ABC in 1974 before it became one of the
big game-show hits of the '70s. And to watch it in reruns,
the end game is still the most nerve-wracking 60 seconds in
all game shows, IMO.
For the record, the 20 longest-running soaps as of March 31
will be:
1. Guiding Light
2. As The World Turns
3. General Hospital
4. Days Of Our Lives
5. One Life To Live
6. All My Children
7. Search For Tomorrow
8. Another World
9. The Young And The Restless
10. The Edge Of Night
11. Love Of Life
12. The Bold And The Beautiful
13. The Secret Storm
14. The Doctors
15. Loving/The City (after 1995)
16. Ryan's Hope
17. The Brighter Day
18. Santa Barbara
19. Passions
20. Somerset
And The Beautiful, consistently the number-two
rated soap behind sister show The Young And The
Restless (its lead-in in the Eastern time zone and on
a few stations in the earlier time zones such as the
CBS o&os in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Dallas). It
has just a little over a week to go before it passes
The Secret Storm to become the 12th longest-running
soap (I count calendar days including weekends;
Secret Storm ran from Feb. 1, 1954 to Feb. 8, 1974
for a total of 20 years, 7 days; B&B hits the 20 year,
8 day mark on March 31).
And speaking of Y&R, its 34th anniversary comes Monday.
It is currently the ninth longest-running soap. Monday is
also the 34th anniversary of the debut of Pyramid; in 1973
its top prize of $10,000 was a big deal, and the stakes began
to rise on other game shows (they'd been held down since
the scandals). Oddly, Pyramid was not a hit at first for CBS;
it had to move to ABC in 1974 before it became one of the
big game-show hits of the '70s. And to watch it in reruns,
the end game is still the most nerve-wracking 60 seconds in
all game shows, IMO.
For the record, the 20 longest-running soaps as of March 31
will be:
1. Guiding Light
2. As The World Turns
3. General Hospital
4. Days Of Our Lives
5. One Life To Live
6. All My Children
7. Search For Tomorrow
8. Another World
9. The Young And The Restless
10. The Edge Of Night
11. Love Of Life
12. The Bold And The Beautiful
13. The Secret Storm
14. The Doctors
15. Loving/The City (after 1995)
16. Ryan's Hope
17. The Brighter Day
18. Santa Barbara
19. Passions
20. Somerset