The first daytime soap opera to have its episodes preserved....

There are extant episodes of "Love of Life" from 1953 onwards, also "Search for Tomorrow" (1953 onwards) as well as "The Edge of Night" and "As the World Turns" from 1956 onwards. Also quite a few chapters of "Guiding Light" (1953 onwards) "The Secret Storm" from 1954 onwards exist. But these are kinescopes since soaps were broadcast live in those days. And there's no stockpile of consecutive episodes. Historically it would be interesting to have a gigantic DVD box with these programs available. The earliest surviving group of consecutive episodes date from the mid-1970's as tapes were routinely erased by their owners to retape new episodes. It's a minor miracle that Dan Curtis had the foresight to keep every chapter of "Dark Shadows", only possible because the entire series was performed like earlier soaps "live" stopping the tape only if an extreme disaster occurred. Check on youtube and you can see the original Vanessa Dale (Love of Life), Peter Ames and conniving Pauline Tyrell (The Secret Storm), or even Kathy Roberts Grant with Bert Bauer gossiping about her (Guiding Light).

I meant that "Autumn Affair" was the first daytime soap to have the MAJORITY of episodes kept, instead of just examples. I'm well aware earlier episodes exist of "Love of Life" and others. (with two series that started in the 1960s, "Dark Shadows" and "Coronation Street", having a near complete run held on either tape or kinescope/telerecording, and every episode existing of "Days of Our Lives" as well)

The oldest daytime soap opera episode to survive is possibly from "Search for Tomorrow", whose premier episode (from September 3, 1951) still exists as a kinescope recording.

Unless, of course, you count the prime-time series "One Man's Family", which has a surviving episode from August 29, 1949. I don't know how many other episodes survive of it (maybe many? Based on the review on the page for the series)




Does Magna Carta mean nothing to you? Did she die in vain?