Guiding Light (1950–59)
The Guiding Light (known since 1975 as Guiding Light) was a long-running American television soap opera.
On June 30, 1952, "The Guiding Light" began airing on CBS television. From June 30, 1952 to June 29, 1956, "The Guiding Light" ran on both CBS television and radio, with the actors performing, the same scenes but for different audiences, live twice each weekday. The live television performances were in the morning, and then in the afternoon the actors read for the live radio show. On July 2, 1956, "The Guiding Light" became a CBS television show, only, and the show no longer was heard on radio. Episodes continued at 15 minutes in length.
Guiding Light (1970–79)
On November 5, 1975, the name was changed in the show's opening and closing visuals from "The Guiding Light" to "Guiding Light" in an attempt to modernize the show's image, and, at the same time, the show adopted the harp-and-string-laced "Ritournelle," by Charles Paul, as its theme song, accompanied by a somewhat abstracted visual of sunlight filtering through leaves on a tree. The serial was still called "The Guiding Light" by CBS (and the show's staff announcers, most notably Alan Berns who began his tenure with the program in 1969 and would last as show announcer until the spring of 1997) until fall 1981, when "The" was completely dropped from references and a more upbeat musical theme was adopted.