Nearly 72 years and more than 15,000 episodes after its first broadcast as a CBS radio program in 1937, the U.S. soap opera Guiding Light aired its final episode today. As a final gift to viewers, the show (more or less) tied up loose ends.
Guiding Light, moved to television in 1952 and first broadcast in color in 1967. With today's show, Guiding Light's final episode, the longest-running show on television is no more.
Much as "Friends" just had to end with Ross and Rachel together, so did Guiding Light's final episode have to end with Reva Shane (Kim Zimmer) and Josh Lewis (Robert Newman) together. The couple has been the focus of the show for some time with an on-and-off-and-on relationship, since Newman joined the show in 1981 and Zimmer in 1983.
With the closing moments, the future of Reva and Josh was wrapped up in a semi-tight bow. Early in Guiding Light's final episode, Josh told Reva he loved her, and wanted to marry her, but not then. He wanted to wait a year.
So that's what they did, as Guiding Light's final episode fast-forwarded a year. They met, according to plan, at the local lighthouse and declared their love. Then the two climbed into Josh's pickup truck, along with Reva's son Colin.
"You ready?" asked Josh. "Always," replied Reva.
At that point, they drove away, as the words ''The End'' flashed on the screen before a final fade-out to Guiding Light's final episode.
And with that, the longest-running TV show is over, gone and done with. It's just another victim of economic reality, with talk shows and reality TV being cheaper to produce, obviously, than a scripted soap opera. At the very least, however, Guiding Light's final episode had to satisfy longtime fans.
Written by Michael Santo
Exclusive to HULIQ
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