Soap

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!

When this show first started in 1977 it was touted as "controversial". It was a comedic parody of the day time soap operas based on the families of two sisters, Jessica Tate (Katherine Helmond) and Mary Campbell (Cathryn Damon). Jessica's husband, Chester, makes a personal hobby out of infidelity in spite of the fact that he says he loves Jessica. Mary is in her second marriage, married to Burt (Richard Mulligan) who actually killed Mary's first husband - but nobody knows, including Mary.

Mary's grown children include Danny (who is working for the mafia), and Jody who is gay (this is not a secret). Chuck is Burt's grown son, and his problem is that he channels his personality through a ventriloquist's dummy who says all kinds of hateful prejudiced things, taking no responsibility himself because "the dummy said it". Probably the most enduring character in the show is Benson who is the African American butler in the Tate household. He takes no guff and has funny passive aggressive ways of dealing with those who cross him. But he finds Jessica endearing if not very bright and is kind to her.

Jessica has three children with their own problems. So the story lines include the mafia, a forced marriage that turns to love and then turns tragic, the issue of child custody when one party is gay, UFOs and aliens, South American rebels patterned after the Sandanistas, an adult woman having an affair with a teenage boy, religious cults like the Moonies, oh, and there is the old trope of the murder whodunnit.

This all works well for about two years. During that time the country was becoming more socially liberal, and what once shocked was becoming standard TV fare. That is probably what did in the show - normalcy caught up with it and the characters and their storylines were played out.

This show is on DVD and is worth watching mainly to see where we have been as a society in just a few short decades, and plus there is a human element of the show that is still quite compelling and timeless.

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.

I watched the re-runs of this hilarious show when they came on on Comedy Central (which they may still, who knows) and loved it. The show actually has an ongoing plot, which carries from the first episode through the end of the series (which, btw, is rather sad). The characters all have their own quirks or

characteristics that make them unique. Mary and Corrine were my favorites :)

"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".