The Longest-Running TV Show Franchise Of All Time

And if “Unser Sandmännchen” was too obscure for record-seekers, one should recall the vast, wild world of American soap operas. Many of the most popular soaps debuted on TV — or even the radio — back in the 1950s, and writers have managed to keep the characters embroiled in turgid melodrama after turgid melodrama for generations. Evil twins, murders, fake deaths, infidelity, miracle resurrections, illegitimate children, incest, trials, marriages, breakups, dead actors replaced by new onesunlikely hookups, all of these were fodder for the soap opera writer. It’s a wonder that soaps haven’t caught on with modern comic book readers, as comics and soaps — both seemingly endless stories — share a lot of the same DNA.

The longest-running American soap of all time remains “Guiding Light,” which put out 15,762 episodes during its lifetime, from 1952 to 2009. “Guiding Light,” however, may soon lose its crown to “General Hospital,” which currently only has made about 15,600 episodes since its TV debut in 1963, but which is still in production.

“Days of Our Lives,” meanwhile, is also still running, but has only made about 15,000 episodes since 1965, while “As the World Turns” made just 13,858 from 1956 to 2010, when it was finally canceled. Fans of “The Young and the Restless” will have to comfort themselves with the mere 13,000 episodes that the show has made since its 1973 debut. The British soap, “Coronation Street” lags behind with only 11,295 episodes since 1960.

Soaps have so many episodes because they are filmed and broadcast daily. Production on soaps was swift, and the actors on it are some of the best in the business, having to learn lines and perform scenes, sometimes without rehearsal. Soaps are the workhorses of the medium, and they deserve as much respect as possible.

“Star Trek’s” 900-some episodes are but a drop in the bucket.