Clara, Lu, 'n Em

[1] The first daytime serial drama-by-installment program, network or otherwise, is widely considered by scholars of the genre to be Painted Dreams, when it premiered in October 1930.

[2][3] Clara, Lu, 'n Em continued in various forms through the 1930s and early 1940s on the NBC Blue Network and CBS, finally airing as a syndicated series in 1945.

[4] The series began as a Northwestern University sorority sketch by Louise Starkey (Clara), Isobel Carothers (Lu) and Helen King (Em).

[citation needed] On June 26, 1936, they returned to the NBC Blue Network, doing a weekly evening series, with music by Ted Fio Rito.

[8] When the program returned with Starkey and King in 1942 on CBS, another of their Northwestern University friends, Harriet Allyn, portrayed Lu.