Longest-Running Soap Operas, 7-9
Our list of the longest-running soap operas continues with The Young and the Restless.
7. The Young and the Restless (1973-????)
The Young and the Restless took to the small screen on March 26, 1973, and more than 10,000 episodes later, it shows no signs of letting up. Home for Y&R characters is Genoa City, Wisconsin, a fictional version of a real village. The TV town is a hotbed of corporate intrigue and grandeur, pitting two wealthy families -- the Newmans and the Abbotts -- against each other.
One of Y&R's most outrageous characters, Sheila Carter Grainger Forrester Warwick (Kimberlin Brown) has switched babies, tried to burn her own mother alive, used paternity results as blackmail, shot people, lived in a mental institution, and escaped from a mental institution by convincing someone to have plastic surgery and take her place. She is currently presumed dead, but in soap world that means nothing -- look for her to menace again! With story lines like that, it's no wonder that Y&R has held the top spot in the ratings war since 1988.
8. Search for Tomorrow (1951-1986)
For the show's entire run, from September 3, 1951 to December 26,
1986, Search for Tomorrow followed the life of heroine Joanne Gardner. Joanne and her friends lived in the fictional town of Henderson, and many scenes took place at her kitchen table over a cup of coffee. In the mid-1980s, in a last-ditch attempt to bring up ratings before cancellation, the entire town was wiped out in a flood, but even that didn't do the trick. By 1986, NBC decided that searching for tomorrow wasn't nearly as exciting as juicy topics like government scandals, so after 9,130 episodes, the soap was axed in favor of a glitzy new show called Capitol.
9. Another World (1964-1999)
The subject of abortion isn't exactly unheard of today, but in 1964,
it was groundbreaking to say the least. During its first year on the air, Another World came on strong with a bold and risky story line in which a teen has an illegal abortion and ends up a sterile, acquitted murderer who marries her lawyer. In the early days, Another World, which is set in the fictional town of Bay City, started out pitting a middle-class branch and an upper-class branch of the Matthews family against each other. Later, the Randolph, Cory, and Hudson families became part of the show's fabric, but in 1999, after 8,891 episodes, Another World was canceled.
Our list of TV's longest-running soap operas concludes on the next page.
