Today in Soap Opera History (April 2)

On this date in...

1956: AS THE WORLD TURNS, the first 30-minute daytime soap opera, premiered on CBS. Read Irna Phillips' original story bible here.

1956: THE EDGE OF NIGHT premiered on CBS and would run until 1984, switching networks to ABC in 1975.

1971: The original DARK SHADOWS soap opera on ABC aired its final episode.

1978: DALLAS premiered on CBS. The show started as a five-part miniseries. Its success lead the network to turn it into a regular primetime show airing until 1991.

1990: On ANOTHER WORLD, Sharly asked Grant to spend the night with her.

2002: Former daytime soap writer Henry Slesar (THE EDGE OF NIGHT; SOMERSET; CAPITOL; SEARCH FOR TOMORROW) died at age 74.

2009: On GUIDING LIGHT, Colin was born.

Celebrating a birthday today are:
Ron Palillo (ex-Gary, ONE LIFE TO LIVE) - 63
Amelia Marshall (ex-Liz, PASSIONS; ex-Belinda, ALL MY CHILDREN; ex-Gilly, GUIDING LIGHT) - 54
Christopher Meloni (Roman, TRUE BLOOD; ex-Chris, OZ) - 51
Clark Gregg (ex-Michael, THE WEST WING) - 50
Renée Estevez (ex-Nancy, THE WEST WING) - 45
Roselyn Sanchez (ex-Pilar, AS THE WORLD TURNS) - 39
Adam Rodriguez (ex-Bobby, UGLY BETTY) - 37
Aiden Turner (ex-Aidan, ALL MY CHILDREN; ex-Iris, CROSSROADS; ex-EASTENDERS; ex-UNDRESSED) - 35
Jaime Ray Newman (ex-Kristina, GENERAL HOSPITAL) - 34
Bethany Joy Galeotti (Haley, ONE TREE HILL; ex-Michelle, GUIDING LIGHT) - 31
Ashley Peldon (ex-Marah, GUIDING LIGHT) - 28
Shawn Roberts (ex-Dean, DEGRASSI: THE NEXT GENERATION) - 28
Jesse Plemons (ex-Landry, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS) - 24
Amy Castle (ex-Viki, PASSIONS; ex-Tara, GENERAL HOSPITAL) - 22

EDITOR'S NOTE: If you would like to submit a piece of soap opera history for this daily column, please email it to [email protected].

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