This article is about the history of As the World Turns (ATWT), the second longest-running American television soap opera.

1956 - 1959

In the beginning, the story focused on the middle-class Hughes family in the small Midwestern burg of Oakdale. Lawyer Chris Hughes (Don MacLaughlin), a partner in a small law firm, was the patriarch of the family. His wife Nancy (Helen Wagner), while a very traditional housewife, was always the strong voice of reason in the household. Chris and Nancy had three children: Don, Penny, and Bob. A fourth child, Susan, was never seen as she died as a result of swimming during a thunderstorm before the series started.

As the show began, Chris and Nancy were debating whether they should have Chris's father, Will (Santos Ortega) live with them. Their daughter, Penny, was angry with Nancy over her decision to prohibit her going on a spring vacation trip with her best friend, Ellen Lowell. Penny had also always been jealous of her mother's relationship with the late Susan.

The Hughes family was connected professionally and personally with the more well-to-do Lowells, headed by prominent Judge Lowell (William Johnstone ). Judge Lowell's son Jim (Les Damon ), also an attorney, would eventually tear his family apart by entering into an ill-fated adulterous affair with Chris Hughes's free-spirited sister Edith (Ruth Warrick). Jim ultimately divorced his wife to be with soulmate Edith, but Jim died soon after, causing a heartbroken Edith to leave town. The divorce and death also had a profound effect on Jim's daughter Ellen, who would propel many traumatic storylines in the 60's.