Today in Soap Opera History (January 15)

1953: Love of Life's Meg was upset with Vanessa.
1983: Guiding Light's Mike investigated a birth certificate.
1988: General Hospital's Grant tried to kidnap Robin.
1993: NBC aired the final episode of Santa Barbara.

"History speaks to artists. It changes the artist's thinking and is constantly reshaping it into different and unexpected images."
― Anselm Kiefer

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1953: On Love of Life, Van (Peggy McCay) and Meg (Jean McBride) were at odds over Meg's son, Beanie (Dennis Parnell). Meg later asked Van, "How can you go on being friends with a man who threatened my life?" McCay left Love of Life in 1955 after 4 years. She currently stars as Caroline Brady on Days of our Lives.

Television Academy Unveils New Online Portal for 'The Interviews: An Oral History of Television'

The Television Academy Foundation has launched its new website for The Interviews: An Oral History of Television, featuring never-before-seen interviews with many of television’s most beloved stars, show creators and behind-the-scenes innovators.

It is the world’s largest such collection available online.

For more than 20 years, the Foundation has been recording and preserving the first-person stories of television’s creation and its evolution, amassing the largest oral history archive on the medium and, since 2008, making it available online.

That website houses a curated and fully searchable, cross-referenced online archive of over 4,000 hours of uncensored interviews with icons from television's earliest days to current stars and visionaries. It’s an unmatched collection of in-depth conversations with industry professionals from many disciplines and in all genres in television.

Today in Soap Opera History (January 15)

1953: Love of Life's Meg was upset with Vanessa.
1983: Guiding Light's Mike investigated a birth certificate.
1988: General Hospital's Grant tried to kidnap Robin.
1993: NBC aired the final episode of Santa Barbara.

"History is a vast early warning system."
― Norman Cousins

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1953: On Love of Life, Van (Peggy McCay) and Meg (Jean McBride) were at odds over Meg's son, Beanie (Dennis Parnell). Meg later asked Van, "How can you go on being friends with a man who threatened my life?" McCay left Love of Life in 1955 after 4 years. She currently stars as Caroline Brady on Days of our Lives.

Today in Soap Opera History (January 15)

1953: Love of Life's Meg was upset with Vanessa.
1983: Guiding Light's Mike investigated a birth certificate.
1988: General Hospital's Grant tried to kidnap Robin.
1993: NBC aired the final episode of Santa Barbara.

"More and more, I tend to read history. I often find it more up to date than the daily newspapers."
― Joe Murray

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1953: On Love of Life, Van (Peggy McCay) and Meg (Jean McBride) were at odds over Meg's son, Beanie (Dennis Parnell). Meg later asked Van, "How can you go on being friends with a man who threatened my life?" McCay left Love of Life in 1955 after 4 years. She currently stars as Caroline Brady on Days of our Lives.

Today in Soap Opera History (January 15)

1953: Love of Life's Meg was upset with Vanessa.
1983: Guiding Light's Mike investigated a birth certificate.
1988: General Hospital's Grant tried to kidnap Robin.
1993: NBC aired the final episode of Santa Barbara.

"The present contains nothing more than the past, and what is found in the effect is already in the cause."
― Henri Louis Bergson

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1953: On Love of Life, Van (Peggy McCay) and Meg (Jean McBride) were at odds over Meg's son, Beanie (Dennis Parnell). Meg later asked Van, "How can you go on being friends with a man who threatened my life?" McCay left Love of Life in 1955 after 4 years. She currently stars as Caroline Brady on Days of our Lives.

Today in Soap Opera History (January 15)

1953: Love of Life's Meg was upset with Vanessa.
1983: Guiding Light's Mike investigated a birth certificate.
1988: General Hospital's Grant tried to kidnap Robin.
1993: NBC aired the final episode of Santa Barbara.

"A page of history is worth a pound of logic."
― Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to Scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1953: On Love of Life, Van (Peggy McCay) and Meg (Jean McBride) were at odds over Meg's son, Beanie (Dennis Parnell). Meg later asked Van, "How can you go on being friends with a man who threatened my life?" McCay left Love of Life in 1955 after 4 years. She currently stars as Caroline Brady on Days of our Lives.

Today in Soap Opera History (January 15)

1953: LOVE OF LIFE's Meg was upset with Van. 1983: GL's
Mike investigated a birth certificate. 1988: GH's Grant tried
to take Robin. 1993: NBC aired the final episode of SANTA
BARBARA.

"Maybe if people started to listen, history would stop repeating itself."
- Lily Tomlin

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1953: On LOVE OF LIFE, Van (Peggy McCay) and Meg (Jean McBride) were at odds over Meg's son, Beanie (Dennis Parnell). Meg later asked Van, "How can you go on being friends with a man who threatened my life?" McCay left LOVE OF LIFE in 1955 after four years. She currently stars as Caroline Brady on DAYS OF OUR LIVES.

Ruth Warrick Archive Interview: 'The Guiding Light,' 'As the World Turns,' 'Peyton Place' and 'All My Children'

Actress Ruth Warrick passed away eight years ago today at age 88. In 1999 she reflected on her long career in films and television in an interview with the Archive For American Television.

Below are the fascinating parts of the interview that focus on her soap roles in The Guiding Light (Janet Johnson), As the World Turns (Edith Hughes), Peyton Place (Hannah Cord) and All My Children (Phoebe Tyler Wallingford).

WATCH: MEDIA PROBES ("Soap Operas")

In 1982 PBS aired an eight-part series, MEDIA PROBES, that examined the role and impact of mass communications. The series was designed in a slick magazine format that entertained and informed viewers about photography, soap operas, TV news, language, politics, design, sound and the future.

On April 28, 1982, ALL MY CHILDREN's Ruth Warrick hosted a look at the creative and productive processes of soap scenes and the unusual relationships that develop between viewers and their soaps.

The process begins in a barren rehearsal hal at 7 a.m. as ALL MY CHILDREN director Larry Auerbach leads Susan Lucci and Michael Minor through the scenes they'll be playing that day. Also examined are the unique relationship that exists between some 35 million viewers and their soaps. At a theme park in Memphis, documentary footage catches the passion when GENERAL HOSPITAL's Doug Sheehan plays a love scene with a fan. And soap writer Harding 'Pete' Lemay (ANOTHER WORLD, SEARCH FOR TOMORROW, GUIDING LIGHT) talks about the rigors of writing for the soaps.

Warrick notes that soaps are in the same tradition as the serial writing of Charles Dickens.

Watch the "Soap Operas" episode below:

CLASSIC ATWT Photo of the Day: Ruth Warrick

Prior to her roles on PEYTON PLACE and ALL MY CHILDREN, Ruth Warrick played Edith Hughes on AS THE WORLD TURNS from 1956 to 1960.

Edith was having a scandalous affair with Jim Lowell (father of Ellen), who was married to Claire as the program opened. After Jim's untimely death, Edith married Dr. George Frey and left Oakdale.

Edith returned once, in 1963, to attend a birthday party for Grandpa.

Warrick received the Daytime Emmy Awards for Lifetime Achievement in 2004 along with former ATWT co-stars Helen Wagner and Frances Reid (as well as Eileen Fulton and Don Hastings).