Guiding Light
Seventy-two years on radio and television between them — the longest-running story ever told in any medium.
Guiding Light rebuilt its titles: two distinct opening sequences are catalogued here across seasons 44 and 51, running between 31 and 52 seconds.
It arrived on CBS in 1952, when Candid Camera, Truth or Consequences and Search for Tomorrow were also on the network.
Only 139 of the 2,618 shows catalogued here changed their titles at all; Guiding Light did so once.
All 2 opening title sequences
Season 44
52sFan upload dated 1995; counting a season per year from the 1952 television launch, that is the forty-fourth.
Season 51
31sFan upload dated 2002; counting a season per year from the 1952 television launch, that is the fifty-first.
More drama opening titles from the 1950s
1 sequence
Bonanza
A burning map and four men riding out of it — one of the first title sequences designed to show off colour television, which is precisely why it looks like that.
- Season 1
2 sequences
As the World Turns
The turning globe that gave American daytime its most-copied image, over fifty-four years.
- Season 41
- Season 52
1 sequenceRawhide
A cattle drive that never arrives, with Frankie Laine's theme and a young Clint Eastwood.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThe Rifleman
A widowed rancher and his son, opened by twelve rounds fired down a street in under ten seconds.
- Season 1
1 sequenceWagon Train
A wagon company crossing to California, and the series Gene Roddenberry pitched Star Trek against.
- Season 1
1 sequenceHave Gun – Will Travel
A gunfighter who advertises in the newspaper, and one of the first westerns to open on a business card.
- Seasons 1–6