‘The First Hundred Years’…Television’s First Daytime Soap Opera

There are several “firsts” to cover, but first…a word from our sponsor, Tide. In the rare opening credit clip above, you can get the gist of why they were called “soap operas”. Having evolved on radio, most of the midday dramas there were presented by laundry, dishwashing and bath soap makers who were targeting their prime demo…housewives.

‘The First Hundred Years’ debuted on CBS Television December 4, 1950 and originated from Studio 63/64 which had been recently purchased by CBS from Dumont which explains the occasional sighting of Dumont cameras in some of the old CBS photos…now we know those were in Studio 63/64 only at 205 East 62nd Street.

The series was produced on a budget of $8,650 per week and was directed by Gloria Monty, who subsequently directed ‘The Secret Storm’ and produced ‘General Hospital’.

Created and written by prolific radio soap writer Jean Holloway, the series aired lasted only until June 27, 1952, and is credited with being the first to use the Teleprompter. As you see here, back then teleprompters were quite large and were handled more like Q cards.

Although the show ranked among the top ten daytime programs in the spring of 1952, Procter & Gamble officials reportedly felt that it was not drawing quite the audience the company desired, and replaced it with the television version of the long-running radio serial ‘The Guiding Light’ which was a good idea, because that show went on to become the world’s longest running daytime drama running from 1952 till 2009, which was preceded by a fifteen year radio run.

Please remember to visit the Eyes Of A Generation home page as Facebook doesn’t give you all our posts in your timeline.

Source