Friday afternoon is a landmark occasion in television history: the death of the U.S. soap opera.

When the day’s episode of CBS' As the World Turns closes a historic 54-year run as the most-watched soap in television history, producer Procter & Gamble ends its 80-year run of producing “soaps.” While six drama programs remain on daytime television, none will be produced by the soap companies that created the genre in the early 1930s.

As the World Turns shattered many stereotypes. It was the first soap to tackle divorce, the first to deal with marital rape, and the first to feature a gay male kiss. Despite the oft-conservative nature of big brands—and P&G pressures from outside the writers rooms that often restricted how those stories could evolve—these soaps have long been used as a vehicle for social awareness and potential social change.

During the genre’s most profitable years, from 1958 to 1978, ATWT was consistently daytime TV’s most popular show, garnering up to a 15 Nielsen ratings average per season and bringing many millions to television screens daily. Until 1975, the show was done live.

And the sudser also notably created many genre staples. It was the first soap to air for more than 15 minutes per day. Its visual style and storytelling pace set the tone for soaps internationally. Before All My Children’s Erica Kane, it created one of the first “bitch” characters in Lisa Miller, portrayed by daytime icon Eileen Fulton since 1960. Lisa, and Fulton, led the launch of Our Private World, the first prime-time spinoff of a daytime soap.

And, as was featured in an episode of Mad Men, As the World Turns launched daytime’s first “supercouple” in Jeff Baker and Penny Hughes and subsequently one of the first prominent fan revolts in television history when Jeff was killed.

Soap companies initially backed the genre because they liked the idea of a daily, continuous story that drew viewers back in to find out what happens next, with characters they come to know over time.

And it’s this longevity that made the soap genre so unique as a vehicle for advertising household products for so long, the fact that viewers could come back after years or even decades and see some of the same faces playing their same characters—and learn about the latest innovations in household goods and toiletries during the commercial breaks.

Unfortunately, alongside the proliferation of viewing choices during the day and a massive change in our society that saw many women enter the workforce, it was an increasing focus on one target demo—young women—that saw these soaps continuously decline.

As soaps took focus away from the intergenerational relationships that drew people in order to gain as many viewers as possible in one age group, these shows slowly eroded their fan base. Without mom and grandma watching, a generation of women have now grown up without knowing the Hughes family. And, as the young women have left, so have the advertisers—and P&G's and CBS' budget and support.

But ATWT has accomplished a lot in 54 years. It has helped build the careers of a wide variety of prominent actors. Film legends like James Earl Jones, Martin Sheen, Julianne Moore, and Meg Ryan were once regulars on the soap. Marisa Tomei, Parker Posey, Ming-Na, William Fichtner, and Stephen Webber once played Oakdale residents as well. And a variety of famous actors got a start on the show, from Dana Delaney and Courteney Cox to James Van Der Beek and Jason Biggs to Emily Rossum and Amanda Seyfried. And, before he was leading a high-school glee club, Matthew Morrison’s first recurring television role was a brief stint as Tom Hughes’ son Adam.

As the soap opera genre wanes, longtime daytime creative, production, and acting talent are left with notably fewer job options—and young actors without what has been perhaps the most rigorous ground to hone their craft. Now that ATWT has wrapped production, only one daytime television show is still being produced in New York City—down from four only two years ago and from many more when soap operas were prominent in U.S. daytime lineups. Soaps were once a regular home for some of New York’s most talented stage actors—and renowned stage actors Larry Bryggman and Henderson Forsythe played cornerstone Oakdale residents for decades.

As the World Turns ends its run as many question the future of soaps. At its close, about two million viewers are tuning into the daily episodes on CBS. But, for the many millions of Americans who at one time or another in their life watched, the characters that have kept us company for so long will be missed. And, no matter what the fate of daytime drama, we see the potential of serialized drama alive and well in prime time, increasingly supported by the type of product placement and integration deals that fueled the creation of the “soap opera.”

We see reality television picking up this idea of following characters in their everyday lives. We see sports franchises, pro wrestling promotions, comic-book writers, and others making continued use of this notion of fictional worlds that will never end. We see hybrids of the soap opera format thriving in many other cultures. And, in an era of online video, we are seeing a renewed push for “branded entertainment” and marketing as storytelling that reminds us that we may have only just begun seeing the ongoing legacy of the “soap opera” form.

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Sam Ford is Director of Digital Strategy for Peppercom, a PR agency, and a research affiliate with MIT's Convergence Culture Consortium. Ford is co-editor of "The Survival of Soap Opera,"and co-author of the forthcoming book "Spreadable Media." Follow him on Twitter @Sam_Ford.