Many things were responsible for the cancellation but the largest of them all was dwindling ratings. The soap opera or daytime drama was originally conceived as a way to keep housewives entertained, and during its inception it found its market. Unfortunately things change and so do the cultures and the demographics. Women were staying home less and those that could get their television from places like http://www.directstartv.com/ were able to record their programs without having to be there in person.

Thankfully, when the cancellation had been made official, the networks knew how to proceed. The series was brought to a satisfying conclusion and while some of us are sad to see it go, we can at least be thankful that it was given an ending.

For fans there is no other delightful story line than to have the evil rantings of James Stenbeck cause trouble for wife (and several times former-wive) Barbara Ryan and son Paul. During his various absences, Craig Montgomery and Lucinda Walsh have tried on their evil hats, but no one can match the twisted complex plans of Stenbeck. Creating depth of character and a sympathetic sinister bad guy is a soap opera staple. Not always easy to do with dedicated audiences. They want consistency and surprises, the character of James Stenbeck has managed to provide such a loyalty. Just when its truly believable that love has changed him, James strikes in humorous and clever ways.

Many notable occurrences happened during the show-s early history. Possibly the most noteworthy being Walter Cronkite-s shocking announcement of President Kennedy-s untimely death on November 22nd, 1963 at 1:40pm, just 10 minutes into the episode. At that time, As The World Turns was still performed live, and the cast was yet unaware of the devastating situation.

As The World Turns had perhaps the longest-running show announcer, Dan McCullough, whose familiar voice opened the show from 1956-1982. In 1967, the show switched to color, and just a few short years later began it-s next 35 years as a full one hour serial.

Shots were fired at Kennedy’s motorcade at 12:30 PM CST on Friday, November 22, 1963, about six minutes later, the first bulletin hit the national TV and radio airwaves. The first bulletin hit the radio first, coming in on ABC’s radio network. CBS was the first TV station to break the news of shots being fired at Kennedy’s motorcade. The bulletin interrupted the live broadcast of popular soap “As The World Turns.” Newscaster Walter Cronkite delivered the audio bulletin without a cameras as none was available at the time.Check out this link here. The bulletin reported that shots had been fired at the Kennedy motorcade and confirmed that initial reports said that the president was hit and seriously injured by the shots. It further went on to say that the injuries to President Kennedy could indeed be fatal.

“As The World Turns” was interrupted twice more by audio bulletins again delivered by Walter Cronkite from CBS’s news desk. The last bulletin interrupted the final minutes of the show. But by then, likely no one was paying attention to the popular soap as it was confirmed that President Kennedy had died from his injuries at 2:22 EST or 1:22 CST.

By playing Nancy Hughes for over 50 years, she is mentioned in the Guinness Book of Records as holding the longest run of a character role in television history.Confused? Here ‘s a little help . A little known fact is that Ms. Wagner was the first actor to have a line when the show aired live for the first time in 1956. The line was “Good Morning, Dear”.

She also had the distinction of being on air performing live on the soap opera when Walter Cronkite broke in to announce the shooting of John F. Kennedy on November 22th, 1963. After he made the announcement, Ms. Wagner went back to her role, not knowing what tragedy had occurred until later on.

Helen Wagner was the matriarch of not only “As The World Turns”, but of all soap operas–she is greatly missed.