"This Is the Life" was the longest-running among a number of Christian-oriented dramatic series. Often airing on Sunday mornings, this anthology series aired in syndication from the mid 1950s through the late 1980s, and was produced by the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, and distributed by the International Lutheran Laymen's League. Prior to its syndication run, "This Is the Life" ran on the ABC and DuMont networks from 1952-1953. During the network run, the show focused on the Fisher family, a typical family from Middleburg in an unnamed Midwestern state. Stories - which one or more of the Fishers were always a part of - were not unlike those seen on situation comedies seen later in the 1950s (e.g., "Leave It to Beaver"); as such, these epsiodes were akin to today's dramadeys, or dramas with occassional comedic moments. The mid-1950s brought about the best-known format — the anthology format, with a different cast of characters appearing on each episode. While the topics of these shows included the typical dilemmas faced by Christians, many times serious and controversial issues were addressed: censorship, morality, bigotry and racism, infidelity, juvenile delinquency, war (including the Vietnam War) and drug abuse. As the story unfolded, the main characters would ultimately turn to a Lutheran clergyman for assistance in resolving their problem. Each episode ended with an inspirational message from a clergyman rostered in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, along with the moral and appropriate Biblical verses. "This Is the Life" begat other Christian denominations producing their own religous anthology series, with the most successful being 1960's "Insight," produced by the Roman Catholic-affiliated Paulist Productions; it ran through the mid-1980s. The Southern Baptist Convention and United Methodist Church also produced their own religous anthologies.