Today in Soap Opera History (September 27)

1965: New daytime soaps Morning Star and Paradise Bay premiered on NBC. Never Too Young (and The Nurses) debuted on ABC. 1988: Ridge was shot on The Bold and the Beautiful.

Every day, we dig into the archives to celebrate the moments, milestones, and memories that shaped the soaps we love—from daytime classics to digital dramas. Relive the weddings, scandals, premieres, finales, and unforgettable twists that made history.

On this day in...

1962: Primetime serial The Nurses premiered on CBS. The was titled was changed to The Doctors and The Nurses a year later.

1965: Two new Ted Corday daytime soap operas, Morning Star and Paradise Bay, premiered on NBC. Both shows lasted less than a year, with the final episodes airing on July 1, 1966.



1965: The Nurses premiered on ABC. The show, set at Alden General Hospital, was a daytime continuation of a serialized primetime CBS drama The Doctors and The Nurses (see above). Mary Fickett starred as Liz Thorpe with Melinda Cordell as Gail Lucas. Other cast members included Claudia McNeil, Lee Patterson, Nicholas Pryor, Paul Stevens, Arthur Franz, and Lesley Woods. The series ran until March 31, 1967.

1965: Teen soap opera Never Too Young premiered on ABC. Dack Rambo and Leave it to Beaver's Tony Dow were among the show's stars. The series featured several musical guests, who performed at The High Dive, including: The Castaways (seen in the clip below), The Sunrays, Marvin Gaye, Johnny Rivers, Mel Carter, Freddie Cannon, and the Ramsey Lewis Trio.



1971: On The Doctors, Mike Powers (Peter Burnell) complained to Toni Ferra (Anna Stuart) about Dr. Carl Hendryx making things tough for him at the hospital.

1979: On As the World Turns, Chris, Nancy, Bob, Dana, Tom and Barbara arrived to see a Joffrey Ballet benefit performance in Oakdale with guest conductor Ian McFarland (Peter Simon). The scenes were shot on location at the Ed Sullivan Theater, current home to The Late Show with David Letterman. Backstage Ian told Dana (Deborah Hobart) he felt completely destroyed without her. During the performance, Ian collapsed. Joffrey dancers Starr Danias and Gregory Huffman are featured.



1982: On Another World, Jamie Frame (Richard Bekins) was upset with the company Cass Winthrop (Stephen Schnetzer) hired to distribute Jamie's film, A View of the Bay.



1984: On Santa Barbara, Eden Capwell (Marcy Walker) had a nightmare about her father, C.C. (Charles Bateman).



1985: On General Hospital, Frisco Jones (Jack Wagner) wanted to go undercover so he could get close to Mr. Wu.

1988: On The Bold and the Beautiful, Stephanie Forrester (Susan Flannery) looked on in horror as she witnessed her son, Thorne (Clayton Norcross) shoot his brother, Ridge (Ronn Moss).



1989: On Days of our Lives, Robin Jacobs (Derya Ruggles, in her final appearance) left Salem and moved to New York with Jeremy.

1995: Former Search for Tomorrow announcer Alison Steele died at age 58.

2004: On Passions, the face of Alistair Crane (David Bailey) was finally revealed. After five years of only hearing Alistair (voiced by Alan Oppenheimer) or seeing body movements (performed by Bill Dempsey), viewers finally got to see what Alistair looked like. Unfortunately, Bailey would die just two months after this first scene with Katherine Crane (Leigh Taylor-Young) aired. John Reilly would subsequently step in to play the role of Alistair.

2006: On The Young and the Restless, the doctors told the Winters family that they were going to run more tests on Devon (Bryton James) to make sure he did not have brain swelling. Drucilla (Victoria Rowell) started to pray for Devon, who suddenly went into cardiac arrest.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS

Peter Simon (ex-Ed, Guiding Light; ex-Scott, Search for Tomorrow; ex-Ian, As the World Turns) - 82
A Martinez (Eduardo, Days of our Lives; ex-Ray, One Life to Live; ex-Roy, General Hospital; ex-Cruz, Santa Barbara) - 77
Shaun Cassidy (ex-Dusty, General Hospital) - 67
Christopher Cousins (ex-Alan/Martin, The Young and the Restless; ex-Cain, One Life to Live; ex-Colin, As the World Turns; ex-Greg, Another World) - 65
Patrick Muldoon (ex-Austin, Days of our Lives; ex-Richard, Melrose Place) - 57
Gwyneth Paltrow (ex-Holly, Glee) - 53
Tom Casiello (Former Writer, WWE; The Young and the Restless; Days of our Lives; One Life to Live; As the World Turns; Another World)
Anna Camp (ex-Caitlin, The Good Wife; ex-Sarah, True Blood) - 43
Derrell Whitt (Will, The Bay) - 37