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Hawkins Falls, Population 6200 is an American television soap opera that was broadcast in the 1950s, live from Chicago. Though it was not the first original (non-radio-derived) soap opera on American TV, it was the first to be successful, running for more than five years. Sponsored by Unilever's blue detergent, Surf, the program began as a one-hour comedy-drama on June 17, 1950, and ran in prime time on the NBC network until October 12, 1950. On April 2, 1951, the series was moved to a fifteen-minute daytime slot, where it was retitled Hawkins Falls: A Television Novel, and developed into a soap opera format. Hawkins Falls ran until July 1, 1955, making it NBC's longest-running soap opera until The Doctors exceeded it in 1967. The town of Hawkins Falls was patterned after the real-life town of Woodstock, Illinois. ()
