Did this show EVER air on radio? I know Guiding Light started on radio, but I've had debates with a couple of people who claim to have either read or heard that SFT was also a radio soap before it was on TV, but I say it is not true.

According to the book Soap World, SFT was developed especially for TV. So no, it never aired on radio like GL.

I'm pretty sure Guiding Light is the only soap that originally aired on radio to still be in production today. Quite a legendary feat, I might add! :clap:

This reminds me of how in my high school American history class, a small part of a chapter was about the creation of success of soaps, from radio to TV. My teacher, who I admit was a very, very, very knowledgable man when it comes to US history and politics and such, and someone I will always respect, insisted that "As the World Turns" was THE first soap opera ever created, that it aired on radio first, and then "Guiding Light" came later. I tried to be nice about correcting him (because I am that dorky), but he insisted. He figured that being the young'un that I am, I really had no clue what I was talking about, so he brought up "The Edge of Night," definitely unaware that I know more than a thing or two about that show too.

To this day, I still think he believes he was right.

JT--maybe you can answer this one--was "The Edge of Night" intended to be the daytime version of "Perry Mason"?

JT--maybe you can answer this one--was "The Edge of Night" intended to be the daytime version of "Perry Mason"?
I think it was. I have a big old book of soaps (published in the early 1980s) called Soap World, and said EON's first couple, Mike Karr and Sara Lane, were like the daytime version of Perry Mason and Della Street.

Yep, catlover is exactly right. EON was gonna be a full-fledged TV version of "Perry Mason," but if I remember right, PM's creator, Erle Stanley Gardner, had a dispute with CBS over some things and he left the project. One of PM's writiers, Irving Vendig, took over and the show was born.

Of course, Gardner and CBS made up and the primetime TV version of Perry debuted the following year.

The Edge Of Night and As The World Turns were the first two serials to premiere as thirty-minute telecasts. The Edge Of Night was called such because when it began its 28-year run in 1956, CBS played the show at 4:30pm, which was late afternoon and "the edge of night".

Here are some SFT pics I found - mainly title cards, also a cast pic and a closeup of the show's star, Mary Stuart.