Guiding Light
Guiding Light (known as The Guiding Light before 1975) is an American television soap opera. It is listed in "Guinness World Records" as the longest-running drama in television in American history, broadcast on CBS for 57 years from June 30, 1952, until September 18, 2009, overlapping a 19-year broadcast on radio from 1937 to 1956. With it 72 years of radio and television runs, "Guiding Light" is the longest running soap opera before "General Hospital" and the fifth-longest running program in all of broadcast history; only the American country music radio program "Grand Ole Opry" (first broadcast in 1925), the BBC religious program "The Daily Service" (1928), the CBS religious program "Music and the Spoken Word" (1929), and the Norwegian children's radio program "Lørdagsbarnetimen" (1924-2010) have been on the air longer.
Guiding Light (1990–99)
Then-Executive Producer Phelps herself was a controversial figure among "Guiding Light" fans. Actress Beverlee McKinsey played Alexandra Spaulding, Alan's older sister, on "Guiding Light" during the Pam Long years, and executed an option in her contract that, combined with vacation time she had earned, allowed her to leave the show without giving the show notice. This was a great loss to the show, as McKinsey was part of a triangle of sorts, as the interfering party between her newly found son, originally named Nick McHenry who would end up being the twin of Lujack; and also was a newspaper reporter who would later be ensnared to be involved with the corporate intrigue at Spaulding, Enterprises) and his new girlfriend Mindy Lewis. (Eventually, veteran actress Marj Dusay would take over the role of Alexandra.) It is widely believed that Phelps didn't read McKinsey's contract and thus allowed the show to lose the legendary actress.