Guiding Light to Go Dark

It is, as you mention, a question of definitions. Is Superman a single story? I mean, the character has been around since the 30s (er I guess I have to say 1930s) but I'm not in tune enough to know wether or not there has been a continuing single story. Does Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985 count as a reset, which caps a single story at 55 years or so? You would have to ask the Nerd World guys, I think.
.
Quick Google Fu tells me that Guiness has Guiding Light listed as "the longest running TV Drama" which isn't quite the same thing. So it is probably a safe bet at for North America. Was Doctor Who ever a radio thing?

I caught many an hour of this show over summers, or sick at home from school, because my mom is an avid watcher. Overall, it was a pretty good show -- not as many insane storylines as other shows, and some pretty significant/recongizable actors made appearances or got their start on Guiding Light: Malina Kanakaredes, Hayden Paniettiere, Bethany Joy Galeotti, Rebecca Mader & Cynthia Watros & Michelle Forbes (Lost connections!), Calista Flockhart, Nia Long, Allison Janney, Taye Diggs, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Ed Begley (Senior), Mira Sorvino, Christopher Walken (!!), Peter Gallagher, Giancarlo Esposito, Victor Garber, Sherry Stringfield, James Earl Jones, Billy Dee Williams, Cicely Tyson, JoBeth Williams, Ian Ziering, Brittany Snow, and of course, Kevin Bacon.
.
I wonder if the segmentation of television via cable/internet might mean that soaps continue on, on say SOAPnet? I mean, they are a pretty amazing place to incubate talent, and they do have a following, albeit a diminishing one.
.
Anyways, I for one will miss GL....or at least making fun of my mom for watching it. Not sure what it'll be like not to have Reva Shayne, the Spauldings, and the Bauers on television....

I have a curious fascination with the longest running idea.
.
Through the McMahon family of promoters, you can trace professional wrestling from the WWE (founded in 1950s) through NWA to Capitol Wresting (1920s). If you make the case that all professional wrestling counts as a single ongoing narrative, which I think you can, because there are heros, villians, conflicts, grudge matches, and all that, and you consider that multiple characters have drifted over the years from one circuit to another and back again, and often carried storylines with them. Well then, professional wrestling on a whole is like one big ongoing story in much the same way as a soap opera, right?
.
So, that would be my position, I think. Guiding Light doesn't get to claim longest running continous story cause prowrestling was around before it (I think).
.
This presumes we are counting pro wrestling more as a story then as a sport, which is a debate onto itself.

Blondie was the first comic strip that came to mind, and, debuting in 1930, it's older than TGL. I'm having a difficult time tracking down *the* longest running comic serial.

The longest running continuing story would be Gasoline Alley, which started being a daily continuity strip in 1921 or so. It was on 2/14/21 that Walt Wallet found the Baby Skeezix on his doorstep. Walt is now a doddering old man well over 100 years old...

Aww I find this very depressing. I watched Guiding Light growing up with my grandmother, starting back in the Nola/Morgan/Kelly days and then watched it sporadically all through college. I still keep up with it from time to time, and will definitely be sorry to see it go, but I can't say that I'm not surprised. Soap operas have been bleeding audience for years now....