Okay, so we were bummed when we found out that our behind-the-scenes tour of the Guiding Light was cancelled. Fortunately, the day was well planned by NCC Radio and Film Department instructor Donna Acerra to include a tour of The Paley Center for Media (formerly The Museum of Television & Radio) in mid-town Manhattan.

This name change served the center well, because this is truly not a museum, per se. You won’t find the relic of the first television set ever made or a collection of cathode ray tubes and radio transistors. Nor, are their any wax figures of Lucille Ball, Huntly and Brinkley, or Edgar Bergen.

What you will find is an impressive collection of more than 140,000 television and radio programs. The center is much like a library in the sense that you access programs you would like to see through a computerized database. There are also a series a screenings scheduled throughout the day in various theaters and screening rooms. For instance, the day we visited right off the bat there were two amazing screenings that captured my interest: the pilot of Seinfeld, which was actually an hour-long special entitled The Seinfeld Chronicles. It was a really great perspective on how the series evolved over its first season. In that first episode, Elaine’s character had not even been developed yet, and Kramer– he was known as Kessler, a neighbor who knocked before entering Jerry’s apartment. Yikes! His hair didn’t have its trademark bird’s nest quality yet.

And, just a few months ago I went to see the movie, Frost/Nixon. I loved the film and Frank Langella’s performance. I left the 19^th Street Theater that night wanting to see the original interviews between President Nixon and David Frost. That day at the Paley they were screening the actual interviews. What luck!

At the Paley, you will also find a great archive of television commercials, through which you will gain perspective on the evolution of social mores, as they truly reflect their unique times and attitudes of the day. (Ask for their compendium of iconic commercials: An Advertising Album 1950-2004).

How about the infamous broadcast of Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds? That radio program brought our nation to brink of total paranoia, as radio listeners thought Welles’ radio play about aliens was the real thing and that Martians had invaded the planet Earth. While this may be considered the most famous clip in radio, the Paley has the best collection of the most obscure, as well.

The Paley Center is located at 25 West 52^nd Street, convenient to many other famous mid-town landmarks. It certainly didn’t hurt that we were very near the nexus of the broadcasting universe, 30 Rockefeller Center. Made even more prominent by its namesake primetime hit comedy, 30 Rock, this is a must-see stop in any tour of New York. Of course, the pristine condition of its 30’s art deco architecture is enough to suck you in, but then there are a myriad of famous-label stores and great restaurants. Another must-see: the Top of The Rock Observation Deck.

We spent hours in just this building alone just sightseeing, shopping and dining; some of the students took the NBC studio tour, but we did not hear of any star sightings on the bus ride home.

All and all – another fantastic day in the world’s media capital. If I were a student, it would only fuel my passion for a career in media. Hey Donna, sign me up for next year!

What can I say? I’m just a big kid.

I know it was a 3 p.m. ritual for me back in high school; race from the bus through the neighbors’ backyards to get home so I could plant myself in front of the TV in time for General Hospital. It was the height of the Luke and Laura saga and I couldn’t miss a minute. My mom watched with me. My friends watched with their moms. This was emotional, moving drama at its sappy best. We kept tissues at the ready.

Now I hear the tradition of the daytime drama may be fading away. Last week, the Guiding Light, the longest running soap (it actually started out on radio) announced that it will wrap production forever early next fall.

This turned out to be especially unfortunate for Northampton Community College’s TV and Radio Department whose students have traveled for the last several years to New York City to go behind the scenes at Guiding Light. This year I had the privilege of being invited to join them and I planned to tell you all about the experience in this blog. So, I was surprised to learn one day before our scheduled departure that there would be no tour of the set—the tour was just cancelled with no promise of re-scheduling. The official announcement had not been made yet, but that very night Brian Williams delivered the sobering news to America.

An insider relayed that this is just the tip of the iceberg—that the future of the entire genre of serial soaps is in jeopardy-perhaps literally, as it is reported that soon cheaper-to-produce game shows will take the place of the soaps. Shockwaves are rattling through the community of actors and production types.

It does make sense though. Who is home during the day anymore? And if you are home with children, there are just so many other things to do:

· Mommy and me classes

· Play dates

· Educational, and not-so-educational, computer games

· Facebook

What mom today cares about what’s happening between the cheating Mrs. Gotbucks and the gardener, when she could be Twittering while the baby’s napping?

And there are also many more dads home these days with their kids. I can’t see any of them wanting to pop the top off a cold Michelob Ultra to the sounds of the theme of the Young & the Restless.

Not to mention that people seem to be creating and living enough of their own daytime drama, as life just gets crazier and crazier.

This, for lack of a better word, episode, in our media history will probably play out as just a nostalgic commentary about how media has changed over the years. It seems inevitable that parts of that history will be sad.

Pass that box of Kleenex, please.

**Stay tuned for details about what we did do and see with NCC that day in NYC.