Soap

SOAP is this hilarious serialized saga about two completely Zany sisters and, their madcap families were awesome. This show from day one never ever took itself seriously and that's its greatest claim to fame. Soap dealt bluntly and honestly about a great many pressing social issues like homosexuality, veterans, treatment of the mentally ill.... of course it also in the same breath dealt with rubber suit wearing space aliens and, psycho's with wood puppet fixations.

SOAP for as madcap as it was has a heart of gold. The whole family is welded together in a very unique but strong love. I am a gay man and yet I loved Jessica Tate she was a woman of utter charm and, bearing and she was as off and ditzy but sweet as Gracie Allen. Burns & Allen I would have loved having Jessica Tate as a mom. SOAP was a perfect fusion of the Addams family and the Three Stooges meet Dallas. When I was young SOAP was another of my hiding places on the TV landscape.

SOAP had great moments of fun but SOAP could easily as well be moving and thought provoking. You just can't go wrong buying these tapes you will definitely laugh and, you will learn many things and, get many awesome insights as well! These too are on my highly recommended list of must see items.

Truthfully, i was too young to remember this show when it originally aired back in the late 70's. I do remember a lot of controversy about it, and that some stations chose to air it late rather than during primetime, because they thought it too racy.

A few years ago, I managed to catch this show on Comedy Central, and I have to admit that it is quite possibly the finest sitcom ever created. The characters were not the bland, shallow, unimaginitive figures you see on tv today. There was Jodie, the homosexual that was always unsure of his own sexuality; Chuck, the shy ventriloquist that always carried around his dummy Bob, whom Chuck thought was real, and there was NOTHING he wouldn't say; Burt, the delusional construction worker who had frequent encounters with the paranormal; Danny, the dimwit son of Burt that was mixed up in the mafia and later became a deputy sheriff; Chester, the wall street financier who slept with every woman in town except his own wife; and on and on. The cast (which includes billy crystal) was perfect...everyone played their roles so believably that you truly feel like you are watching a real dysfunctional family.

The writing and jokes were also timeless...This show was designed to take a direct pot shot at the absurdity of modern soap operas, and it hit it's mark perfectly. Most of the plotlines were like something out of a supermarket tabloid which always added to the hilarity of the show. Burt being abducted by aliens, burt thinking he can make himself invisible by snapping his fingers, jessica being captured by central american freedom fighters, jodie's baby being possessed by satan, etc...

Even 20+ years later, this show will not disappoint. While it may be tame by today's standards, it was clearly a pioneer that paved the way for a lot of today's programming.

Soap was and is great. It has to be one of the best comedies ever on t.v. The lampooning and parodying of daytime t.v. was one of the best ever. It dealt with topics ranging from homosexuality to possession. The humor and one liners were classic. Some of the funniest bits and scene stealing was done by Benson, the butler. It was outrageous, funny, comical,haughty, biting satire at it's very best. There has been nothing like since, that even measure up to it. It's a classic from the seventies, that still has a bite!Daytime t.v. should look so well!

"Soap" is one of the funniest of America's exports to the U.K. It may have been considered risque back in the late seventies but all the hullaballu about the show's contents seems silly twenty-odd years on.

The programme has been shown in it's entirity a few times in the U.K. most recently on our Paramount comedy channel. It had the most outrageous storylines and the characters were played brilliantly by all concerned - especially Katherine Helmond, Richard Mulligan and Cathryn Damon - who really were the essence of the show! Chuck & Bob, Benson and The Major were always good for a laugh whenever they were on screen.

Susan Harris wrote the entire series which has made me a great admirer of her work ever since. Of course she scored big again in the eighties with the equally brilliant Golden Girls. Some might not be aware that Susan actually appeared in two episodes of Soap as a hooker, believe it or not! My favourite storylines included the murder of Peter and the subsequent trial of Jessica, the abduction of Burt by aliens, Corinne's possessed baby and Burt trying to get into the Guinness Book of World Records when he thought he was dying!

The "unique" comedy series still holds up well by todays standards and is truly worthy of the label "cult classic".

This is the greatest sitcom ever made, a tremendous parody of the trashy soap operas that were all the rage when it was in production. There was topicality -homosexuality, racism, revolution, crime, and other things- and there was plenty of comedy, physical and otherwise. In particular, I think that the thing which hooked me on this program was the psychotic young ventriloquist and his dummy, which seemed at times to be more alive than some of the people! At least it was real to him! I particularly remember the scene where there is a discussion concerning a murder and the Black dummy, Bob, looks over at Benson and remarks, "I think the Black guy did it." Benson then coolly crosses the room, yanks the dummy out of Chuck's hands and throws it out a window, which sends Chuck into furious hysterics!

This is one of the very few shows from the 1970s that I can honestly say I miss. Good job, all!