captioning funded by cbs and ford-- built for the road ahead. ( gunfire ) >> pelley: golf company pushed into afghanistan fighting under the new rules designed to win the war. >> killing a thousand taliban is great, but if i kill two civilians in the process, it's a loss. >> pelley: but protecting civilians at all costs can cost the marines dearly. >> it sucks. i don't know another way to say it. it sucks. i don't know if anybody really understands the amount of stress that... that the guys are already starting to feel because of this. >> i've never sang before or danced before in a movie. ♪ kootchie, kootchie, kootchie koo ♪

i trained for three months to be able to do the number. ♪ i've got... >> rose: penelope cruz was the first spanish actress to win an oscar. she's become the sophia loren of her generation. >> i never said, "oh, i think look good." >> rose: you know it's there. you know it. you feel it. you know how men react to you. >> but i didn't say that i know... >> rose: you do know it's there. >> no, i say... >> safer: planting evidence. >> yes. >> safer: bribery. >> sure. >> safer: blackmail. >> yes. >> safer: and all this done by a former preacher. >> yes. and your point would be? >> safer: another "60 minutes" gotcha? nope. another confession wrenched from an ace con man? nope. >> reva, no! >> safer: he represents one of the last gasps for the longest running show in television history. >> i'm steve kroft.

>> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm bob simon. >> i'm morley safer. >> i'm charlie rose. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories and andy rooney tonight on "60 minutes."

>> pelley: if the united states

can win in afghanistan, it will be thanks to the privates and corporals who are now being asked to turn around an eight- year war with a brand-new strategy. we saw how tough it is when we spent three weeks with the second battalion of the 8th marine regiment, part of the first troop increase ordered by president obama. the new plan sounds simple: separate the enemy from the people, then convince the afghans to support their government. but it requires more forces, more time and more risk. last fall, the president sent another 30,000 troops to afghanistan. and back then, we joined with the second battalion's company "g"-- "golf company"-- which was taking the highest casualties in the taliban homeland. in september, the men of golf company assembled for roll call in their combat outpost. >> sergeant robert pullen: lance corporal jonathan f. stroud.

lance corporal gregory a. posey. >> pelley: first sergeant robert pullen shouted for marines who could not answer. this was the roll of the dead. >> pullen: lance corporal dennis j. burrow. lance corporal javier olvera. >> pelley: the company's 200 marines paused for a battlefield memorial for the seven they call brothers killed in action. ( gunfire ) this was golf company last summer, pushing into part of afghanistan never occupied by u.s. troops. they were ambushed repeatedly by the taliban, the enemy that carries the name of the fundamentalist islamic government overthrown in the u.s. invasion after 9/11. but the enemy isn't one force; "taliban" is a catch-all for a collection of tribes and warlords. some are religious extremists, some are drug traffickers, and in golf company's area, many are locals fighting for money.

golf company set up in koshtay, a village in helmand province near pakistan. it's a strange twist of history that golf company's area used to be called "little america." in the 1950s, a massive u.s. foreign aid project dug the canals that now feed half the world's heroin poppies and shoulder-high marijuana, both prime sources of taliban cash. >> lieutenant dan o'hara: ask them if they heard the rocket shot from out here earlier. >> pelley: golf company covers just a few square miles. the job is to push the taliban out and stay in place. second lieutenant dan o'hara from chicago is a platoon leader. >> o'hara: do they know we've been shot at from this compound before? >> pelley: it's his first combat tour. two of his marines have been killed. i wonder how you know the enemy from the citizens. >> o'hara: for the most part,

you don't until they start shooting at you. and even then, their tactic is hit and run. they will shoot, and before you get the chance to close on them, they will run away and kind of just run back into the population. >> pelley: lieutenant colonel christian cabaniss leads the battalion. >> colonel christian cabaniss: these people have suffered for too long. we can't add to it. >> pelley: he sent golf company into battle with orders to use restraint. this was a big change from the past. all u.s. forces in afghanistan are now being told to protect civilians, even if the enemy gets away. over the last eight years, afghans have been outraged by civilian deaths, and it's a big reason the u.s. is not winning. >> cabaniss: killing a thousand taliban is great, but if i kill two civilians in the process, it's a loss. >> pelley: how many of the enemy have you killed so far? >> cabaniss: i have no idea, and it's really irrelevant. >> pelley: body count's not something that you track? >> cabaniss: it doesn't tell me that i'm being successful. it doesn't tell me that at all. the number of tips that i

receive from the local population about i.e.d.s in the area, taliban in the area-- that is a measure of effectiveness. >> pelley: you talk about restraint. what do you mean by that? >> cabaniss: as i told the marines before we deployed, it's about a three-second decision, especially with his personal weapon. the first second is "can i?" next two are "should i? what is going to be the effect of my action? is it going to move the afghan closer to the government or further away?" >> pelley: after two months, golf company reported zero civilians killed-- a success-- but at the cost of its seven marines. what's the biggest threat to your marines? >> o'hara: the biggest threat would be the improvised explosive devices, for sure. >> pelley: i.e.d.s. the search for explosives and i.e.d.s dominates the patrols. they hunt for the buried plywood that breaks under a boot and closes the circuit on a 40-pound bomb made of fertilizer. the enemy pays villagers to plant them at $10 each. >> i got a hit right at the end of the thing.

hey, there's a hit at the end of the thing. stay away from that crater. >> pelley: i.e.d.s often push the marines off the roads and into the fields flooded with sewage. with 60 pounds of armor and weapons, it's exhausting, and it is possible to be so bone-tired that the temptation to step on the next solid ground trumps even the fear of death. >> o'hara: we should be good pushing up through here until we get near that i.e.d. site. >> pelley: on august 31, dan o'hara and lance corporal jonathan quiceno from orlando planned a mission to clear an i.e.d. it would be a day that o'hara would not return with all his marines. on the patrol, they destroyed the i.e.d., but coming back, lance corporal david hall from lorain, ohio, triggered another. a med-evac helicopter carried his body away and the taliban opened fire.

( gunfire ) the next day, o'hara gathered hall's squad. when a marine is killed, there is worry and doubt, which a platoon leader should end quickly. >> o'hara: his death isn't the fault of anybody who is sitting here. if it belongs to anybody, it would belong to me, because i was the one out there who was in charge, making the decisions. so just understand we're doing the right things, we're doing good work, we're making a difference here. we're fighting for the people of afghanistan, we're here ultimately fighting for our country, which is what we all signed up to do. >> pelley: after hall's death, lance corporal quiceno told us what many marines are saying about restraint. they understand the strategy, follow their orders, and yet... >> lance corporal jonathan quiceno: it sucks. i don't know another word to say it. it sucks, because all you want to do is get them, you know, for revenge if... you know, to say

the least, you know. >> pelley: because of the marines who've been lost. >> quiceno: sure. i mean, definitely. you know, i mean, how many times have we been shot at? how many times do we know a direction, a distance, a compound, a vicinity, where these guys are coming at, and then, you know... you know, conventional war-- that's it, you know. that whole compound would go, you know. but we can't drop ordnance on them because of civilian casualties. >> pelley: but you said it was frustrating. what do you mean? >> quiceno: it's frustrating. i don't know if anybody really understands the... the amount of stress that... that the guys are already starting to feel because of that, you know? simply just having that... their... their hands tied behind your back, if you will. >> pelley: while we were with golf company, the president was deciding to expand the counter- insurgency strategy, which was controversial in washington. in late august, before the decision to order another 30,000 troops was made, we asked america's top commander in southern afghanistan, brigadier general john nicholson, how the current strategy was supposed to work. >> john nicholson: clearly, at the front end, you're involved

in heavy security operations, in this case, while we build up the afghan security forces. until they are of capability where they can take over the majority of the fighting, we are going to be in a frontline combat role. but over time, we become more focused on aspects of this such as the economic development, education, and helping the government provide basic services to the people. >> pelley: how long does it take to fight a counter-insurgency like this? >> nicholson: well, if you look back in history, a successful counter-insurgency usually lasts at least 14 years. >> pelley: general, you are talking about building a country. it would take generations to do that. >> nicholson: the first thing i can say is, it's doable. the second thing i come back to is, it's important. why is it important? this place was the sanctuary for al-qaeda from which they launched attacks against our country. secondly, the people here want this, they want a better way of life. yes, it's difficult and, yes, it's challenging. >> pelley: it's challenging

because 70% of afghans are illiterate and 80% have no electricity. one marine said it's like fighting in the bible. in golf company's area, skepticism is worn into the faces that confront the company commander, captain matt martin. the u.s. sees the new strategy as a fresh start; afghans see it as the start of the ninth year that the taliban haven't been defeated. >> captain matt martin: if the men in your village are working with the taliban, all i can tell you is to tell them is to stop now. >> pelley: every wednesday, captain martin holds a village council, called a shura. this is what his marines died for: the chance to win the people. >> martin: the government is interested in putting a clinic here in koshtay. >> pelley: martin offers government aid projects, but it's a tough sell. they want to talk about security. this man said, "don't say we are giving refuge to the taliban. when you leave, they'll attack us. i'm not powerful enough to

resist the taliban. you're not accepting my point of view. we become victims between you and the taliban." this man worried that the u.s. force is too small. "you can't hide the sun with two fingers," he said. "the taliban are everywhere." the next week, golf company was inviting a man named younis to the meeting. he pulled out a letter that the taliban had nailed to the mosque, threatening anyone who met with the americans. but the letter didn't keep him from the meeting, and golf company counted that as a win. younis said, "when we're assured of our security, we'll cooperate with the afghan army." on one of our last days with golf, we saw how cooperation can save the lives of marines. using new and secret technology, the marines destroyed an i.e.d. from long range while it was still being planted in the road. we went with captain zach lehman on a patrol to investigate the site.

but at the same time, a quarter mile away, a different patrol led by lance corporal quiceno was stopped by a terrified villager. >> tell him to calm down. tell him to calm down. >> pelley: the man said the taliban was setting an ambush for captain lehman's patrol headed to the i.e.d. strike. we won't show his face; he risked his life to tip the marines. >> quiceno: he believes the taliban are in the corn, set up in ambush positions. >> pelley: quiceno reported to base that lehman's patrol was to be ambushed. what do you see here? >> captain zach lehman: we had three individuals emplacing an i.e.d. that's a 40-pound jug of homemade explosive. >> we need to get out of here real quick. >> pelley: at that moment, word of the planned ambush reached lehman. >> lehman: okay, lets go. >> pelley: lehman's marines slipped into the cover of the corn for the patrol home, a small u.s. victory on a long route out of afghanistan. general john nicholson is now at the pentagon, planning the future of the war. this is a start? >> nicholson: yes. i mean, it's a down payment, and

it's a down payment we have not made to date, and that is to put in the level of security forces necessary to begin to execute the strategy that we have laid out for ourselves. >> pullen: lance corporal patrick w. schimmel. >> pelley: for golf company, the down payment has been made. it will be a long time before the marines know what was purchased with the lives they remembered in the battlefield memorial. >> pullen: lance corporal leopold f. damas. lance corporal david r. hall. >> pelley: golf company lost no more men before its deployment ended in november. the company and the rest of the 2/8 marines are back in north carolina now, training for their next deployment, which comes next year.

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my parents and i, we were in the car, we were driving down the road and we saw some kids sitting on a porch and my mom just made the comment that amongst one of them could be...a genius, this great person no one would ever know. and that was my aha moment. that stuck with me. so as i grew older, what i wanted to do was use my talents and my opportunities to give back to communities where kids may not have those opportunities. try to inspire some children. [ female announcer ] mutual of omaha. proud sponsor of life's aha moments.

>> rose: at 36, spanish actress penelope cruz is one of the most sensual and photographed women in the world. and as we reported earlier this year, she has won critical acclaim not only in europe, but now also in hollywood. she took home the oscar for best supporting actress last year, the first spanish actress ever to win an academy award. how did this versatile performer from a working class suburb of madrid become this generation's sophia loren?

in part, by turning in performances like the one she gives playing carla, the seductive mistress in the movie "nine." >> penelope cruz: ♪ who's not wearing any clothes? ♪ i'm not, my darling. i've never sung before or danced before in a movie. ♪ kootchie, kootchie, kootchie koo ♪ i trained for three months to be able to do the number. ♪ i've got a plan for what i'm gonna do to you ♪ and i had so much fun. >> rose: and it shows. >> cruz: ♪ if you come to me, darling... ♪ >> rose: penelope cruz loves what she does. she's a risk taker and a tireless worker who's known for throwing herself into roles, pushing herself to the limit, as she does here to make her character, carla, a version of every man's fantasy woman.

>> cruz: that really was a dream that came true. guido! >> rose: guido, played by daniel day lewis, is just another in a string of men who fall hopelessly in love with the obsessed, sensual, unstable women cruz loves to play. >> cruz: i saw something in carla that's a little bit off. i think she's a very insecure woman, and she's a little bit stuck on using her sexuality, because she's so obsessed with guido that that's like one of her weapons. i'll be here waiting for you, with my legs open. >> rose: perhaps the most extreme example of this kind of character is her portrayal of the suicidal painter maria elena in woody allen's "vicky cristina barcelona." >> i had so much fun playing that woman. >> rose: now, why did you have so much fun playing that woman? >> cruz: because she was so... she thought she was too special to be happy, that she was a genius.

they say i was a genius, right? >> javier bardem: i always, always encouraged your talent. >> cruz: not talent. i'm not talking about talent! i said genius, genius! a tortured genius, and she would not allow herself to become more stable and more sane, because she thinks that if she does that, she's afraid that she will become somebody boring and mediocre. >> rose: in real life, cruz can be tortured, obsessive, and driven, which was tough for director woody allen, who's known for shooting a scene in one or two takes. you are a perfectionist. you want to try it again and again and again to get it right. >> cruz: yeah, i think i drove him a little bit crazy asking for more takes. i need somebody to stop me. i will never find the moment to stop, say, "okay, it's enough. we have it." >> rose: that performance earned her an oscar last year for best supporting actress, the first

time a spanish actress has ever won an academy award. >> cruz: i still can't believe that i won the oscar last year, because the way i grew up, and just to dream about becoming an actress and making a living out of that sounded like science fiction in my environment. you know, i come from a family where we had just what we needed to survive, so to dream about this type of job was crazy. >> rose: what qualities in you do you think most served getting where you are now? >> cruz: maybe something that has been my best friend and my worst enemy at times, which is how stubborn i can be. and then, when people that really know me tell me that i'm stubborn, i always fight them and say, "that's not true. that's a myth." but i really am. >> rose: cruz grew up in alcobendas, a working class suburb of madrid. today, she lives outside of madrid, but she agreed to meet us in her old neighborhood. she is the oldest of three. her father was a salesman, her

mother a hairdresser. the house she grew up in is gone, but she showed us her grandmother's apartment, where she spent a lot of time. >> cruz: that was her house. no? >> rose: she says she had a happy childhood. it was a simple life. >> there we go. hello, hello. >> rose: when she took me to one of her favorite restaurants, she talked about her mother and what she learned from watching her. that was your first acting lesson, watching your mother in her own beauty salon, observing, seeing people talk about their lives? >> cruz: yeah. it was more interesting for me to pay attention to what they were not saying, you know, to what they wanted to hide from the other clients or from my mother. and they were acting, most of them. and that's why i always say that beauty salon... that her salon was like a first acting school. >> rose: but as a kid, penelope had no ambition to be an actress. she wanted to be a dancer, and

studied classical ballet for over ten years. she still has a passion for it, as we discovered when we visited a new york city ballet rehearsal. want to try? >> cruz: no, i wish i could do that. oh, my god. that's... >> rose: there's probably no performing art that requires more physical discipline. >> cruz: nothing harder than that, i think. >> rose: did dance help you in acting? >> cruz: a lot. if i hadn't had the discipline of all those years in the dance world, it would have been much, much tougher. i mean, it goes too far sometimes. i mean, i used to take my toenails... they would die from dancing, so i would just take the whole toenail and throw it away and not feel anything. but i loved it. >> rose: she loved it until she was 14. then, she saw a movie called "tie me up, tie me down" by up- and-coming spanish director

pedro almodovar. >> cruz: i've never felt so inspired, and i... this is what i want to do. and that week, i looked for an agent, and i did an audition. and she sent me home, and she said, "you are too young. come back next year." but i came back the week after. and she sent me away again. and then, i came back the week after. >> rose: what does this story tell you about you? >> cruz: stubborn. >> rose: at 16, cruz landed her first movie role in a spanish film called "jamon, jamon," playing a voluptuous teenage seductress opposite javier bardem. she became an overnight sensation as much for her nude scenes as for her talent, which made her very uncomfortable. were you concerned about how you'll be perceived? >> cruz: i just knew i had to do the complete opposite. >> rose: her next movie was called "belle epoque." it won a foreign language oscar. >> cruz: in "belle epoque," i was playing a girl that was younger than myself-- much

younger-- and innocent, much more innocent than i was then. >> rose: cruz's ability to play both innocence and sensuality caught hollywood's attention. in the '90s, she moved to los angeles, where she was cast over the next seven years in a string of big-budget but lackluster american films with top directors and big name actors, including "all the pretty horses," with matt damon; "captain correlli's mandolin," with nicholas cage; and "vanilla sky," with tom cruise. they had a well-publicized three-year relationship. tell me about him, what he meant to you at that time. >> cruz: i don't feel comfortable talking about that. all i could tell you is that he's a very, very good person whose only intention, i think, is really to help others. and i think he's been treated in a way that, you know, sometimes has been a little bit unfair.

>> rose: in what way? >> cruz: i really don't want to get into it with more detail. >> rose: but she has no problem talking about her great friendship and professional relationship with director pedro almodovar. they have known each other for almost 20 years and have made four critically acclaimed movies together, including the recently released "broken embraces." "vanity fair" celebrated their collaboration by asking them to pose for the magazine's latest hollywood issue. he says she's his muse; she's says he's her mentor. both agree almodovar relaunched cruz's career, which had stalled out in hollywood, when he gave her the lead in the spanish film "volver" in 2006. >> cruz: it opened a lot of new doors. >> rose: it also showed you what you could do. >> cruz: it's emotionally and in every way more demanding than most of the characters that i played before that point.

>> rose: though the movie was in spanish, her earthy, expressive performance proved to american critics that cruz had the range and the talent-- no matter what the language-- to win an academy award nomination for best actress. it was a vindication for cruz, who has struggled for years to be more than just the beautiful girl. however, her sensuality is an essential part of her appeal. it's always there. other actresses have had it. sophia lauren had it. tell me about you and this sexuality. it's in your d.n.a. >> cruz: i never felt, "oh, i think i look good" or... i always tend to be more in the insecure side. and i thought that has always been a way to protect myself, because i don't trust the good feelings that can come from that. >> rose: the good feelings that come from knowing you're beautiful and sexy and... you don't trust it? >> cruz: no. >> rose: you know it's there. you know it. you feel it.

you know how men react to you. but... >> cruz: no, that... i didn't say that i know it's there. >> rose: you do know it's there. >> cruz: no, i think... >> rose: yes, you do. you know it's there. >> cruz: at moments, it can be there. when i can give that to a character, if it's needed, then i can be more free to explore that in me and put it there. but what i think i have is a physique that can change a lot. >> rose: you know that you cannot depend on that for a lifetime. >> cruz: no-- nobody, nobody. so i never allowed myself to really enjoy that, which is maybe a bad thing. i don't know. >> rose: after making over 40 movies, cruz has decided to take more time for herself. she's been in a relationship with javier bardem for two years. he co-starred with her in that first film, and then in "vicky cristina barcelona." while she won't talk about the relationship, she will tell us that she wants more from her life than making movies. you want to make less movies now.

>> cruz: there was a point where i was making four movies a year. i was always on a set. i had no stories to tell. i was feeling empty. my life was just luggage and hotels, and from set to set, from character to character. and one day, i said, "and where is mine?" you know? and the moment i started to feel that fear, i stopped and i slowed down. >> rose: and you like the rhythm you're in now? >> cruz: yes, because i enjoy it more. but i feel very, very lucky that i can keep working. [ man ] i'm a filthy rich executive.

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>> safer: sadly for some, one more bit of americana has joined the endangered species list: the soap opera. last year, cbs canceled "guiding light," the longest running soap in broadcast history. this september, "as the world turns" will spin no more. for over half a century, the shows served up an endless menu of torrid love affairs, heartbreak, infidelities by the score, double-crosses, kidnaps, suicides, sin, sex and salvation. as we reported in september, "guiding light"-- the oldest of the two-- was done in by that all too familiar villain, low ratings. >> it's a bummer. "guiding light" should never have been taken off the air. >> take one. >> safer: it's a bittersweet time, these last days, as hardcore fans and the show's entire staff turned up for the taping of the final scenes.

>> thank you so much. >> safer: "guiding light" has always been a loving reflection of america's morals, manners, and marital mayhem, where actress tina sloan and many others have worked together for over a quarter-century. were you guys surprised when the show got the pink slip? >> tina sloan: the pink slips stunned us, all of us. even though we were on life support-- and we knew we were on life support-- we just couldn't imagine anyone would pull the plug on their watch on a show that's been so historic. >> radio announcer: the "guiding light," the longest running dramatic show in the history of broadcasting... >> safer: it started on radio in 1937, made the transition to television in 1952, and through the years, into a new century, "guiding light" chronicled family life in the mythical town of springfield, where everybody, it seemed, had a dark secret... >> if you even consider telling billy about the baby, i will never, never forget it.

>> safer: ...a place where even the good guys had a lurid past. >> sit down! >> safer: let me take you through some of your... >> robert newman: uh-oh. >> safer: planting evidence. >> newman: yes. >> safer: bribery. >> newman: sure. >> safer: blackmail. >> newman: yeah. >> safer: and all this done by a former preacher. >> newman: yes. and your point would be? >> safer: for the better part of a quarter-century, robert newman and kim zimmer have played springfield's star-crossed lovers, josh and reva... >> kim zimmer: is this what you want?! i told you to stay away from me! i warned you to stay away from me! >> safer: ...marrying and divorcing each other three times. and that's just for starters. >> zimmer: he married my sister when i was dying of cancer. >> newman: and she married my father and my brother. are we going to have this conversation now? >> safer: how many marriages have you had? >> zimmer: i believe i just had my ninth. >> safer: she once survived driving off a bridge in a fit of postpartum depression. >> zimmer: i can't believe this is happening.

>> safer: he once had her cloned. on the soaps, the weird and the wonderful are routine... >> you know, if i'd just run into my whole family in the caracas airport on christmas eve, i'd stop and chat. >> safer: ... and everyone has his or her very own miracle. >> zimmer: i did a menopause story, and then four years later, i was pregnant on the show. ( laughs ) >> safer: so, how many times have you died? >> zimmer: i've been presumed dead three times, yeah. >> safer: and dead once? >> zimmer: i flat-lined on a friday, i woke up on a monday, and walked out of the hospital on a tuesday, yes. i just want to know where my husband is, and i want to know now. >> safer: in the surreal world of the soaps, missing characters presumed dead routinely turn up again. and the medical help is somewhat dicey. >> michael o'leary: dad, it could be benign, but we... you know, we have to check it out. >> safer: peter simon and michael o'leary play the bauers, father and son doctors. >> o'leary i started may 1 of 1983, started the show on a friday. i was an orderly changing

bedpans. monday, i was doing brain surgery with my father. >> simon: was it successful? >> o'leary: no, the first of 38 deaths. >> safer: you are renowned as a doctor who keeps losing his patients, correct? >> o'leary: yes, regardless of whether it was a strep throat or whatever it is, it doesn't matter. if they die, they die fast. >> safer: the very longevity of the show blurs the line between fiction and reality. to many fans, some of the crises may hit very close to home. >> she's very sick. she has leukemia. >> no! >> what's wrong? >> safer: what makes you people so real to so many people? >> beth chamberlin: because they've watched, oftentimes, our birth, our marriage, and... >> sloan: our deaths. >> chamberlin: ... and then our deaths. >> safer: we got a crash course on the byzantine history of "guiding light" from veteran actors ron raines, 15 years on the show; beth chamberlin, 20

years; tina sloan, 26; grant aleksander, 27. >> grant aleksander: there are these great stretches that the audience will grant you. you're allowed to send a child off at the age of 12 and bring them back six months later fully grown. >> chamberlin: or even the next day, possibly. >> aleksander: they will accept all those kinds of things. they won't accept if you take a character and write it in a way that is completely inconsistent with what they have come to accept. >> safer: tina sloan's character, for instance. she's the saint of springfield, who's survived breast cancer and countless other crises-- and slipped up just once. >> sloan: one time, in the entire history of my 26 years here, i slept with someone who was married to my best friend. and she died as a result of this, because she was so upset, she drove off a snowy cliff. and people have still not forgiven me, and this was 20 years ago. >> safer: there are no minor crises in these families. >> aleksander: no. >> sloan: no. >> ron raines: something dramatic always happens at a... at a big dinner. >> sloan: oh, yes, yes.

>> raines: family sitting down, at a wedding, at a funeral. >> safer: indeed, funeral scenes are commonplace on "guiding light," what with all the characters who've met mysterious deaths, or been written out of the plot, or simply succumbed to the good dr. bauer's ministrations. for the actors, though, taping this memorial hit home-- a requiem, in a way, for the program itself. >> zimmer: i'm 54 years old. i will never have a job like this again, ever in my life-- nothing this steady and this stable and this wonderful. >> safer: the backstage story of "guiding light" is a rich one. >> no! no! >> announcer: ned holden confesses his love to his adopted sister mary rutledge in our next dramatic episode. >> safer: here, on the show's 70th anniversary, the actors recreated the radio version from the 1930s. >> newman: they see my light in the window and need they

guidance in their lives. >> safer: the original focus was inspirational, featuring a minister whose guiding light attracted the down and out, the lonely and the troubled. >> but does it feel right to you? >> how could you deceive me like this? doesn't our marriage mean anything to you? >> safer: in their heyday on radio, producing soaps was like printing money. >> dove leaves things fluffy soft, too. >> safer: they got their name-- "soaps" or "washboard weepers"-- by delivering the soap maker's dream, a captive audience-- women across america, stuck at home with the laundry and the kids. but times, they have been changing. >> tim brooks: they've been going, one by one. i worked on a show called "the doctors" once. does anybody remember that? >> safer: former network executive and television historian tim brooks says the soaps hit their peak in the 1970s, when the networks were running 16 of them. the passing of "guiding light" and "as the world turns" will

leave just six. how come? >> brooks: it's that the world has changed. the world has turned, so to speak. >> safer: afflicting the soaps: women leaving home for the workplace; more and more competition from talk shows and so-called reality tv; and, despite the casting of younger actors, a dwindling number of younger viewers willing to sit still for an hour a day. >> brooks: the audience has gotten older, and as the soap operas have attracted more and more 50-plus, 60-plus audience, they've become less attractive to the soap manufacturers. >> action! >> safer: seeing the handwriting on the wall, "guiding light's" executive producer, ellen wheeler, did everything she could to postpone the inevitable. she's a whirlwind on the set, where time is money... >> ellen wheeler: frank, shut up. i have speed. you have to tape now. you actually have to do real work now. >> safer: ...hustling cast and crew from scene to scene. >> wheeler: it's great to work at that speed. and if it was really good, we don't have time to pat ourselves on the back. but if it was really bad, we don't have to think about it

either, because we've got to move on to the next one. >> safer: she cut costs by using smaller crews, smaller sets-- turning, for instance, a basement storage room at cbs into springfield's mini-mart. >> you have no idea what you're missing. >> jill lorie hurst: a lot of men try to pick up women in this place. big pickup spot. >> safer: though writer jill lorie hurst and producer wheeler knew the end was coming, accepting it was another matter. >> hurst: we find that we still have so many stories we would love to tell. >> wheeler: we have to say good- bye to the characters, and we have to say good-bye to the whole town. we have to say good-bye to each other. our working relationships are over. >> safer: that means not just the actors, but the production staff responsible for sorting out the thousands of details involved in doing an hour show, monday through friday, soldiering on through the last few episodes. >> you see the expiration date on that? >> safer: it's all coming to an end very soon. >> frank dicoupolos: it's sad. it is sad.

the thing that i'm going to miss the most are the people. this is a family. this is my family away from my family. >> safer: as actor frank dicoupolos notes, it's a tight- knit group, onscreen and off. >> i called you a bitch on the last episode. >> but we're friends now. >> safer: dicoupolos has played the same character, a springfield cop, for 22 years. >> calista flockhart: i'm really sorry, miss jane, i really am. >> safer: the thousands of actors who've passed through springfield over the years include calista flockhart, angela bassett, hayden panatierre, jimmy smits, taye diggs, alison janney, and kevin bacon, a teen with a drinking problem. >> kevin bacon: i can stop tomorrow if i wanted to. >> hurst: some amazing people have worked at "guiding light." >> wheeler: amazing. to be at the end-- it puts a lot of fear in your heart. you want to be true to all the things they created, and all the love and hope that they gave to generations of people. >> safer: what's that last show

going to be like for you people? >> chamberlin: i think it won't sink in for maybe a month later that we're actually not going back. we're not just light on story right now; there is no story to be told. >> pass a, take 1. action! >> sloan: we're just all so lucky to have each other, all of us. >> safer: and so, they taped the final tv episode, number 15,762. add to that roughly 4,000 radio shows and you get, over the course of the program's life and death, 20,000 snapshots of springfield. and now, time to look for work. >> dicoupolos: you go out there and do what actors do. they audition, roles come up. you know, that's the nature of the beast. >> "guiding light." that's a wrap. ( cheers and applause ) a few years ago i got a wake up call.

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>> stahl: now, a few minutes with andy rooney. >> rooney: i'm a sucker for any new kitchen tool. over the years, i've filled our kitchen drawers with gadgets we never use. this seemed like a good idea at the time. it's for grating parmesan cheese. well, i buy cheese already grated now. this is for slicing bread-- never used it. and i can't believe how many things i don't need one of that i have two of, like another bread slicer. i only have one of these, fortunately. it's for pressing the oil out of a can of tuna fish.

i bought this for making ravioli. you lay the dough here, fill it, and press it closed. two of those. i don't use either one. if we want ravioli, we go to an italian restaurant, and i bet they don't use one of those, either. there are all sorts of nutcrackers in our kitchen drawers. you'd crack a pecan or a walnut with this, i guess. if that doesn't work, we have two of these. i haven't cracked a nut in years, but here we have three nutcrackers. this is a nice one, but again, i don't know what it does. but again, we have two. this is an eight-pound cast iron clunker for making corn sticks. some of you probably know what this is. it's for dipping honey out of a jar. why didn't the bees think of that? you put a tomato in here if you want to slice it. if i ever want to slice a tomato, i'll be ready. in the past few years, i've bought three can openers and none of them work. look at this. i always end up going back to the old manual opener, or one of

these, semiautomatic. i'm not sure about this. maybe it's for fishing a boiled egg out of hot water. now here's something i do use. it's my favorite knife. it looks too big, but i have a theory about knives. it's better to use a big knife, even for a small job. this will carve a turkey or cut an olive in half. i buy anything that says it helps open jars, even if it doesn't. two of these for cutting sponge cake. harry truman was president the last time i cut a sponge cake. this is for measuring how much pasta to cook. i guess at it, and usually cook too much. a pickle-picker, lemon rind scrapper, melon baller, cookie cutter. this picks the stem off strawberries. i'll keep that. at least it doesn't take up much room in the drawer. to tell you the truth, i don't know whether to throw all these tools away or put them back in the kitchen drawers. i mean, you never know when you're going to need one of these things.

>> stahl: i'm lesley stahl. we'll be back next week with another edition of "60 minutes." captioning funded by cbs, and ford-- built for the road ahead. captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org es. i was doing the corporate grind like everyone else. but to be successful, i knew i had to be different. ink, ink, ink, ink, ink. i mean, i love that card. it does things differently too. great customer service, going above and beyond to help me out as a small business. it's accepted in twice as many places around the world as american express and if i ever need to get my employees ink cards, they're free. make your mark with ink. chase what matters. go to chase.com/ink.

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ben & jerry: my two best friends. what would i do for a klondike bar? you don't wanna know. i am so happy right now. ♪ just so happy. and my car was worn out, so we got the '97 camry. when i was 16, i got the camry, and i drove it for nine years. then when i turned 16, i was passed down the camry. i was like, "yes!" [ man] and then we just got a camry hybrid. it's just such a perfect, practical car. [ boy ] i'm hoping to probably get the new camry hybrid. [ laughter ] [ male announcer ] share your toyota story on facebook.com/toyota. ♪