guidinglight

Kim Zimmer created a true original when she brought 'Guiding Light''s Reva Shayne Lewis to life back in 1983. The character has stripped in fountains, battled postpartum depression, driven her car off a bridge, suffered from amnesia, traveled in time, been comatose, kidnapped and cloned and has "always" loved Joshua Lewis. Along the way, Zimmer took a break to work in Hollywood ('Seinfeld,' 'Designing Women,' 'Babylon 5'), returning to Springfield in 1995, where she's remained ever since.

Soap fans will bid adieu to Reva -- and the rest of the show's characters -- on Friday, Sept. 18 when the CBS soap opera airs its final episode. AOL TV recently caught up with the fan favorite to get her thoughts on starting a new chapter in her life, her four Golden Girls and what she hopes viewers will remember about the beloved series. -- By Michael Maloney

History was made at the Daytime Emmys last night... twice. The Bold and the Beautiful won as the top Daytime Drama and the hosts of The View finally were winners. Good for B&B, the last of the half-hour soaps, coming off a terrific year. And it was great for the ladies of The View, who were probably starting to feel like getting the gold was an impossible dream. Unfortunately, they weren't there -- not one of them -- to accept.

However, amid the joyful wins and a jolly 40th anniversary salute to Sesame Street, there was a sad quality to the Daytime Emmys. Perhaps it was the over-arching reality that daytime TV is struggling, a point made clear when Betty White hosted a farewell to Guiding Light. No offense to the delightful Ms. White, but the salute was lackluster and hardly worthy of a show that has been broadcasting for 72 years! The cast appeared to receive a final ovation, but nobody spoke for the show.

Game show fanatics will be pleased to learn that network game shows are returning to daytime television. Finally, people who take actual sick days will have something else to look forward to other than another mind-bending dose of NyQuil.

CBS has confirmed they are replacing the outgoing Guiding Light with a remake of the classic Let's Make a Deal.

The ex-Tiffany network has already shot a test pilot of the updated show with smiling crooner Wayne Brady in the host's chair. Brady hasn't officially won the job, but he's the front-running favorite. CBS executives are expected to make Brady's deal official later today at the Television Critics Association hoedown, unless, of course, he chooses to go for what's behind Door Number Two. Don't do it Wayne! It's just a lifetime supply of goat feed!

There will be no reprieve from the governor, no last minute miracle save. No, the end is approaching and Guiding Light will stop filming the week of August 3. The CBS soap opera will air its last show on September 18, 2009, and the 72-year-long run of America's most enduring daytime drama will officially wrap.

Fans have been hoping that somehow, someway Guiding Light would find a new home, but neither CBS nor Procter and Gamble have been able to save the show. Soapcentral.com has reported that efforts have been made to no avail. "We have not been able to secure an outlet to carry the show moving forward. We are extremely disappointed with this outcome, but we are confident we have exhausted every possible option," said TeleNext Media SVP Brian T. Cahill.

You may think the soap world has thrown in the the towel because 72-year-old Guiding Light has been canceled, but think again. Daytime TV is buzzing along as usual, and that includes The Bold & the Beautiful snagging three-time Emmy winner Rick Hearst from General Hospital.

Hearst, who was facing the prospect of a demotion to recurring status (as opposed to a contract player), will return to B&B as Whip Jones, a character he introduced and played for a brief stint in 2002.

Now that Guiding Light is destined to become another sad memory of lonely housewives nationwide, CBS is hoping an old daytime tradition will pull them away from their housework.

And for those of you now engulfed in hate flame who've found the fuel to write some snide comment about my Mad Men-ish view of soap opera viewers and women, please calm the #*$& down. One, I realize this is not the 1950s and women don't all strive to stay at home barefoot and pregnant. And two, who the hell else watches soap operas? Only male hair salon stylists and hospital patients who don't have the physical ability or cognitive capacity to operate a bed remote.

I hope this means more game shows are on the way.

Yesterday was a sad day for many TV fans. Guiding Light was cancelled after 72 years of continuous broadcasting (radio and TV). Even people I know who don't watch soaps, were upset by the end of this program.

That said, it's with some real glee that I tell you that AMC has picked up Breaking Bad for a third season. It's not just that the Vince Gilligan's show is one of the best dramas on television – it might be the best! – it's the fact that renewing the program for year number three restores my faith that idiosyncratic, unusual stories like Breaking Bad can find a place to thrive and survive on the tube.

The die was cast today. CBS canceled Guiding Light, the longest running TV program still on the air. The soap opera will cease broadcasting on Friday, September 18, 2009.

As I wrote the other day, the prospects looked grim for Guiding Light, and apparently my idea of letting the show continue until it reached its 75th anniversary (three years from now) was only popular with fans. I heard from many the past couple of days. They, like me, are sorry to see Guiding Light come to an end.

It looks the lighthouse may be switched off before the end of 2009. CBS is expected to determine whether or not to renew Guiding Light later this week. All things considered, I think the network is going to call it a day for the 72-year-old soap opera.

The ratings have been lagging and the way Guiding Light is situated around the country – being broadcast in different time slots instead of having a regular fixed time like the rest of the CBS soaps – it's not likely to ever challenge in the Nielsens.

It's been a little over a year since Guiding Light bolted from the confines of a New York studio to create a reality based production, a sort of cinema-verite style that brought to life a real New Jersey town to "play" Springfield. The results have been middling at best, but recently GL has lurched forward in a positive way and that can all be explained in two words/one name -- Grant Aleksander. The actor is back as Phillip Spaulding, one of the most important characters in the history of the show.

The last year of GL hasn't only been about the new production. Coinciding with all that physical change which has set more and more scenes outdoors and in "wild" set, the cast has been undergoing massive change. Top line veterans Ricky Paull Goldin, Nicole Forester and Beth Ehlers have all departed, and recently John Driscoll was tragically killed off.

Did you know that double Oscar winners Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro acted in soap operas? It's true. Many of today's biggest stars honed their craft by doing New York soaps like As the World Turns and Another World. Before she was Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, Sarah Michelle Gellar was Susan Lucci's daughter on All My Children.

Hollywood soaps like Days of Our Lives, General Hospital, and The Young and the Restless also produced stars. Tom Selleck, for instance, was a Y&R hunk before becoming Magnum, P.I. There are a lot of current stars right now on hit shows who were daytime characters just a few years ago. After the jump, we count down the top ten primetime stars who started in soaps.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ... and a lot of it happened right on our TV screens. As we look forward to 2009, here's one more glimpse back at what was good and what was really NOT in the year gone by.

Overall, it seems like the Writer's Strike really hurt the business. Shows that might have survived, didn't. New shows have been stuck in development longer than usual. But despite all that, there were moments that were thrilling, shows that are terrific ... and those that weren't.

Did you see Mad Men recently? As part of Harry's creating a TV division at the Sterling Cooper ad agency, he was made responsible for screening scripts of TV fare so that the content pleased/satisfied/supported the advertisers' desires. Interestingly, it was Joan -- the office manager/head secretary -- who was given the scripts to read and her main focus of As the World Turns.

She became completely engrossed in the 1962 Oakdale story in which a character came to from a coma with a new personality. Her enthusiasm for the soap story convinced the advertisers to back As the World Turns rather than Love of Life, another CBS soap at the time.

Mad Men was historically accurate about As the World Turns. It was the top-rated soap opera for 20 years -- 1958-1978 -- and in 1962 (the year in which Mad Men is currently set), ATWT had increased its share from 47.7 to 53.7 in just a year. It was the soap on the rise and over half all TVs on in daytime were watching this CBS soap.

When I heard about the pregnancy, I was shocked. It was so unexpected, such a surprise, a complete unplanned occurrence that had me scratching my head and wondering what was going on. No, I'm not talking about the revelation that John McCain's choice for vice president, Governor Sarah Palin's unmarried teenaged daughter is pregnant.

I'm talking about Guiding Light's Reva Shayne's stunning discovery that she's having a baby well into her 40's and after a near-fatal bout with breast cancer.

Seriously, I was floored by that turn in the storyline. The writers had me and every other viewer fearful that Reva's breast cancer had returned. On the brink of her marrying Jeffrey, Reva learned that the drugs she'd been taking had actually acted like fertility pills and, bada-bing, bada-boom, Reva's having a baby.

Everyone thinks they can write. No, really. If you talk to anyone who likes TV and movies, invariably you'll hear that they have a great story. Well, some do and some don't. In the soap business, just about every kind of story has been told.

A show like Passions, which has recently come to an end, told wild tales about witches and sorcery and dwarfs and demons.

General Hospital has been firmly set in plots about mobsters in the manner of The Godfather, with Sonny Corinthos a latter day Michael Corleone.

As the World Turns, currently in its 52nd year, is rooted in traditional love stories and family conflicts, although you have to give them props for Luke and Noah, a frontline gay romance which is definitely a 21st century development.