When did the final episode of “Guiding Light” air on WMAZ?
Posted on Fri, Sep. 18, 2009 Lights out: As “Guiding Light” nears end, midstate viewers share memories By Phillip Ramati Dorothy Colhard has loved “Guiding Light” almost as long as the soap opera has been broadcast, going back to its days on NBC radio. “I’ve listened to it on the radio since I was in the seventh grade, in 1941,” said the 81-year-old Colhard. “I would come home from junior high and sit down and listen to the program with my grandmother.” Colhard stuck with the program when it jumped to television on CBS, first as a 15-minute program, then a half-hour show before finally expanding to an hour. When her children took an afternoon nap, Colhard would take a break and catch up with the Lewis, Spaulding, Cooper and Bauer families. For “Guiding Light” fans, there will be no more Bauer barbecues on the Fourth of July, no more weddings for Reva Shayne (for those keeping score, she was married nine times to seven different men), and no more of the endless plot twists that have att
Friday marked the final flicker of CBS’ “Guiding Light,” as that venerable daytime drama logged its farewell hour after 72 years on the air. The last episode took an upbeat, life-affirming tone, complete with a scene that gathered many of the characters at a picnic in the park on a beautiful day. And the closing moments sealed the future of the show’s signature on-and-off-again supercouple: Reva (Kim Zimmer, who created the role in 1983) and Josh (Robert Newman, who started on the show in 1981). They rendezvoused, according to plan, at the local lighthouse and declared their undying love. Then these soul mates climbed into Josh’s pickup truck. “You ready?” asked Josh. “Always,” Reva said. And they drove away, as the words “The End” flashed on the screen before a final fade-out. “Guiding Light” began on radio in 1937, then moved to TV in 1952. In recent decades it was set in the midwestern town of Springfield, where it focused on the Spaulding, Lewis and Cooper clans. Along with veteran
