Gary Tomlin

Sunset Beach is an American television soap opera that aired on NBC from January 6, 1997 to December 31, 1999. The show follows the loves and lives of the people living in the Orange County coastal area named Sunset Beach, on the coast of California. Although there is a town in California called Sunset Beach, the show's beach scenes were shot on nearby Seal Beach. The show was co-produced by NBC and Spelling Television. Sunset Beach won two Daytime Emmy Awards and was nominated another eleven times. The show also received twenty-two nominations for various other awards.

6.8/10

Santa Barbara is an American television soap opera, first broadcast in the United States on NBC on July 30, 1984, and last aired on January 15, 1993. The show revolves around the eventful lives of the wealthy Capwell family of Santa Barbara, California. Other prominent families featured on the soap were the rival Lockridge family, and the more modest Andrade and Perkins families. The serial was co-produced by NBC and Dobson Productions until February 1985, when New World Pictures joined NBC and Dobson as a production partner. The newly created partnership, New World Television, then served as the distributor for the show. Santa Barbara aired in over 40 countries around the world. The show's popularity continued to rise, and it even had fans in the White House. In 1985, when character Augusta Lockridge was blinded following a tunnel collapse, Ronald Reagan sent actress Louise Sorel a letter saying he and Nancy were praying for her and hoped she recovered. Santa Barbara has won 24 Daytime Emmy Awards and was nominated 30 times for the same award. The show also won 18 Soap Opera Digest Awards, and won various other awards. In 1993, NBC replaced Santa Barbara with game shows Scrabble and Scattergories. Shortly before the program was canceled by NBC, New World Television tried to shop Santa Barbara to other broadcast and cable networks, but failed to find one that would air the show.

5.6/10

One Life to Live is an American soap opera broadcast on television for more than 43 years on the ABC network, from July 15, 1968, to January 13, 2012, and on the internet as a web series on Hulu and iTunes via The Online Network since April 29, 2013. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature ethnically and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social issues. One Life to Live was expanded from 30 minutes to 45 minutes on July 26, 1976, and then to an hour on January 16, 1978. One Life to Live heavily focuses on the members and relationships of the Lord family. Actress Erika Slezak began portraying original and central heroine Victoria "Viki" Lord on March 1971 and played the character continuously for the rest of the show's run on ABC Daytime, winning a record six Daytime Emmy Awards for the role. In 2002, the series won an Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series. One Life to Live was the last American daytime soap opera taped in New York City, based outside the Los Angeles area, and is now the second American daytime soap opera taped at the Connecticut Film Center in Stamford, Connecticut.

6.8/10

Another World is an American television soap opera that ran on NBC for 35 years from May 4, 1964 to June 25, 1999. Set in the fictional town of Bay City, the show in its early years opens with announcer Bill Wolff intoning its epigram, “We do not live in this world alone, but in a thousand other worlds,” which Phillips said represented the difference between “the world of events we live in, and the world of feelings and dreams that we strive for.” Another World focused less on the conventional drama of domestic life as seen in other soap operas, and more on exotic melodrama between families of different classes and philosophies.

6.8/10

Search for Tomorrow is an American soap opera that premiered on September 3, 1951, on CBS. The show was moved from CBS to NBC on March 29, 1982. It continued on NBC until the final episode aired on December 26, 1986, a run of thirty-five years. At the time of its final broadcast, it was the longest-running non-news program on television. This record would later be broken by Hallmark Hall of Fame, which premiered on Christmas Eve 1951 and still airs occasionally. The show was created by Roy Winsor and was first written by Agnes Nixon for thirteen weeks and, later, by Irving Vendig.

7.4/10