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| Former GUIDING LIGHT star Kim Zimmer in "Wicked" |
In Madame Morrible’s big, frizzy, upswept wig and voluminous Ozian costume, Kim Zimmer disappears so deep in her character in “Wicked” that she walks out the stage door, and fans who watched her for decades as Reva Shayne, the primary romantic lead on GUIDING LIGHT, don’t recognize her.
“I walk right past people who make no comment,” Zimmer said by telephone from a coffee shop in Columbus, Ohio, where “Wicked” stopped before beginning a five-week run at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music. “The night after they see the show, I find people waiting who say, ‘I loved you as Reva on the GUIDING LIGHT. I didn’t know it was you until I got home and read the program. When I realized who you were, I had to come back to get your autograph.’”
“Soaps did not fold because the audience became tired of them,” Zimmer said. “They just became too costly."
1952: Popular (NBC and later) CBS radio soap opera THE GUIDING LIGHT, on the air since 1937, made its television debut on CBS-TV. The original television cast included Theo Goetz, Jone Allison, Lyle Sudrow, Charita Bauer and Helen Wagner. In the episode, Meta lamented to her sister Trudy that she had left her husband Joe and her step-daughter Kathy hated her. Trudy convinced Meta to talk to Joe on the telephone.
WHO: Kate Linder (Esther, THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS) hosts her Annual Afternoon Tea in Vancouver to benefit the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation with her Y&R friends including Christian LeBlanc (Michael), Michelle Stafford (Phyllis), Jess Walton (Jill), Tricia Cast (Nina) and Y&R hair and make-up experts, Patti Denny and George Guzman. Janine Baker, breast cancer survivor and Stafford's sister, will be the special guest speaker.
GLEE original castmembers Heather Morris (Brittany), Mark Salling (Puck), Amber Riley (Mercedes) and Harry Shum, Jr. (Mike) will not be returning to the Fox musical soap as series regulars, 
Starting Thursday, July 4th at 1 p.m. ET/PT AMC invites viewers to tune-in to "THE WALKING DEAD Season 4 Preview Weekend" and catch up on the series that has been hailed by USA Today as "one of the season's best series," and reigns as the number one show in delivery for adults 18-49. THE WALKING DEAD marathon will be hosted by "Comic Book Men" executive producer Kevin Smith from the Atlanta-based set where the cast are currently filming season 4 of the hit series. Smith talks to the cast and crew and shares behind-the-scenes footage from the highly anticipated upcoming fourth season. The first season of TWD airs twice on July 4, featuring marathons of both the original and special black-and-white editions. These are followed by season two on Friday, and season three on both Saturday and Sunday. Each day of this four day event begins at 1 p.m. (Side note, the black and white editions only apply to season one on July 4).
The daytime Nielsen ratings are in for the week of June 17-21, 2013. All four daytime soaps were down in total viewers versus the previous week but still up year to year.
The gay rights movement saw a significant victory at the Supreme Court on Wednesday. In a 5-4 ruling in United States v. Windsor, the court struck down a provision of the 17-year-old Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that denies federal benefits -- like Social Security benefits or the ability to file joint tax returns -- to same-sex couples legally married.
After recently announcing over 200 hours of original programming, arts network Ovation has additionally acquired all episodes of critically acclaimed series SMASH from NBCUniversal Cable & New Media. Ovation will debut the series beginning Friday, July 19th at 8 p.m. ET. The announcement was made today by Robert Weiss, Ovation's Chief Creative Officer.
FOX has set the fall premiere dates for its new and returning series.
In a true celebration of U.S. Latino pop culture, Telemundo announced the nominees to the second annual Premios Tu Mundo (Your World Awards), a spectacular event featuring star-studded musical performances to be broadcast live on Thursday, August 15, at 8 p.m. ET, from the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida. Through a fan voting and selection process that combines the power of television, web, mobile and social media platforms, and is managed by Telescope Inc., the market leader in audience participation and consumer engagement for live television (The Voice, American Idol, X-Factor), Telemundo viewers will have the final say in what’s hot in novelas, music, fashion, movies and sports, selecting from 20 competing categories, and making the winners a true reflection of the people’s choice. 
Telemundo is proud to announce the premiere of its new primetime original production MARIDO EN ALQUILER (Husband for Hire) on Wednesday, July 10 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. 
In the conclusion of her in-depth, emotional interview, actress Jaime Lyn Bauer opens up to REIMAGINE THAT! host and Retroality.TV editor Chris Mann about her at times complicated working relationship with late THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS creator William J. Bell, her 2002 return to the CBS soap and the possibility of reprising her iconic role of prolific author Lorie Brooks during the show's 40th anniversary season (and beyond). And while she considers writing her own long-awaited autobiography, she shares her experiences reinventing herself following the 2008 stock market crash as a financial services planner for the organization People Helping People.
The results are in from the We Love Soaps Indie Series of the Week poll for web series that aired June 16-22, 2013. SUPER KNOCKED UP was voted the favorite show of our readers for the week. The latest episode of THE INN was second followed by the season finale of WRECKED. The latest from BLOOMERS was fourth and THE FALL came in fifth.
Tyler Blackburn, who plays Caleb Rivers on ABC Family's PRETTY LITTLE LIARS and Brittany Curran, who guest stars as Phoebe on TWISTED, will participate in live chats via Twitter during the East Coast broadcasts of their series tomorrow, June 25th, starting at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.
OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network announced today that it has ordered an additional 16 episodes of the network's popular drama series from Tyler Perry THE HAVES AND THE HAVE NOTS (Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET) bringing the total season order to 32 episodes.
Starz Chief Executive Officer, Chris Albrecht, announced today that Starz will partner with Sony Pictures Television to greenlight OUTLANDER, an original series adapted from Diana Gabaldon's international bestselling books. The network has ordered 16 episodes of the series which will begin filming in Scotland this fall. It is slated to premiere in 2014.
CBS premiere of UNDER THE DOME, based on the bestselling novel by acclaimed author Stephen King and produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television, delivered 13.14 million viewers, the most-watched summer drama premiere on any network since 1992, according to Nielsen preliminary live plus same day ratings for Monday, June 24.
THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS Emmy winner Greg Rikaart has teamed up with Charitybuzz to auction off an incredible experience to raise funds for the True Colors Fund.
A pair of telenovelas premiere tonight. On Telemundo, DAMA Y OBRERO takes over the 8 p.m. ET slot. A Miami-produced adaptation of a 2012 Chilean telenovela of the same name, it stars José Luis Reséndez, Ana Layevska and Fabián Ríos – a bit of sameness in the trio as all actors who have worked together before – Layevska and Reséndez in LA MADRASTRA, Layevska and Ríos in EL FANTASMA DE ELENA and MI CORAZÓN INSISTE, Reséndez and Ríos in last year’s CORAZÓN VALIENTE, but never all in the same project. In any event, it should be gratifying to finally see Ana Layevska, a delightfully inventive actress, once again in a leading role after watching her steal her previous three telenovelas at the network playing two antagonists and a supporting role.
The results are in from the We Love Soaps "Soap of the Week" poll for June 17-21, 2013. NBC's DAYS OF OUR LIVES was voted the favorite daily soap opera of our readers for the sixth week in a row. The OnLine Network's ONE LIFE TO LIVE was second followed by ABC's GENERAL HOSPITAL. TOLN's ALL MY CHILDREN finished fourth. See the complete list of shows below as well as the favorite couples, actors and actresses.