Last week, CBS announced plans to cancel the soap opera As The World Turns, which has been on the air since 1956.
Eileen Fulton has played the character "Lisa" on the show since 1960. And Lisa is definitely a character: She's been married nine times, widowed several times over, divorced again and again.
But when she started on the show 49 years ago, Fulton was supposed to be "a sweet little girl next-door," she tells guest host Ari Shapiro.
"I had little cute lines to say or something, but I thought the worst thoughts — the worst, most obscene things — and it came across," Fulton says.
One of the show's writers realized Fulton could play a villainess, and she became one of the first "mean girls" on TV soaps. She even had bodyguards at one point.
"Of course I did, and that's fun. They love to hate me," Fulton says with a laugh, recalling that a fan once stopped her in the street and slapped her, the fan hated her character so much.
The show's end is more than the loss of a job for the soap star.
"I'm very sad about it; I'm sad for the fans," Fulton says. "We are family."
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