Soap is an American sitcom television series that originally ran on ABC for four seasons, from September 13, 1977, until April 20, 1981. The show was created as a nighttime parody of daytime soap operas, presented as a weekly half-hour prime time comedy. Similar to a soap opera, the show's story was presented in a serial format, and featured melodramatic plotlines including alien abduction, demonic possession, extramarital affairs, murder, kidnapping, unknown diseases, amnesia, cults, organized crime, a communist revolution, and teacher-student relationships.
The show was created, written, and produced by Susan Harris, and also executive produced by Paul Junger Witt and Tony Thomas. Each returning season was preceded by a 90-minute retrospective of the previous season. Two of these retrospectives were made available on VHS in 1994, but were not included on any DVD collections.
85 episodes were broadcast over four seasons. Of these, eight episodes (including the final four) aired as one-hour episodes during the original run on ABC. These hour-long episodes were later split in two, yielding 93 half-hour episodes for syndication. All episodes are available on Region 1 DVD in four box sets. There is a box set of Season 1 on Region 2 DVD. The series has rerun in syndication on local channels as well as on cable.
The show starred Katherine Helmond and Cathryn Damon as sisters and matriarchs of their own families. The cast also included several former soap opera actors. Robert Mandan (Chester Tate) had previously appeared on Search for Tomorrow as a leading man for Mary Stuart; Donnelly Rhodes (Dutch Leitner) had played the first husband of Katherine Chancellor on The Young and the Restless; Arthur Peterson Jr. ("The Major") played Rev. John Ruthledge in the radio version of Guiding Light, while Caroline McWilliams appeared on the television version as Janet Mason Norris; and Marla Pennington (Leslie Walker) appeared for three years as Samantha Livingston Chandler on General Hospital. Additionally, after the series ended, Lynne Moody (Polly Dawson) went in to appear in a recurring capacity on primetime soap opera Knots Landing (which also starred Ted Shackelford, who appeared on Soap in a guest appearance), and Roscoe Lee Browne appeared in a recurring guest role in the seventh season of Falcon Crest.
Plot
Soap is set in the fictional town of Dunn's River, Connecticut.
In the opening sequence of the first installment, the announcer says "This is the story of two sisters—Jessica Tate and Mary Campbell". The Tates live in a wealthy neighborhood (the announcer calls it the neighborhood known as "Rich"). Jessica Tate (Katherine Helmond) and her husband, Chester (Robert Mandan), are hardly models of fidelity, as their various love affairs result in several family mishaps, including the murder of Peter Campbell (Robert Urich), the stepson of her sister Mary (Cathryn Damon). Even though everyone tells Jessica about Chester's continual affairs, she does not believe them until she sees his philandering herself. While out to lunch with Mary, Jessica spots Chester necking with his secretary, Claire (Kathryn Reynolds). Heartbroken, Jessica sobs in her sister's arms. On later occasions, it becomes clear that Jess has always known on some level about Chester's affairs but never allowed herself to process the information.
The wealthy Tate family employs a sarcastic butler/cook named Benson (Robert Guillaume). Benson clearly despises Chester, but has a soft spot for their son, Billy (Jimmy Baio). He also gets along with the Tates' daughter Corinne (Diana Canova) as well as their mother, Jessica; but doesn't speak to the other daughter, Eunice (Jennifer Salt), although that later changed. Benson became a popular character and in 1979 left the Tates' employ to work for Jessica's cousin, Governor Gene Gatling, on the spin-off series Benson, wherein his last name, DuBois, was revealed. The Tates had to hire a new butler/cook named Saunders (Roscoe Lee Browne), whose attitude is similar to that of Benson, but has a more formal personality.
Mary's family, the Campbells, are working class, and as the series begins, her son Danny Dallas (Ted Wass), a product of her first marriage to Johnny Dallas, is a junior gangster-in-training. Danny is told to kill his stepfather, Burt Campbell (Richard Mulligan), Mary's current husband, who, Danny is told, murdered his father Johnny, who was also a mobster. It is later revealed that Danny's father was killed by Burt in self-defense. Danny refuses to kill Burt and goes on the run from the Mob in a variety of disguises. This eventually ends when Elaine Lefkowitz (Dinah Manoff), the spoiled daughter of the Mob Boss (Sorrell Booke), falls in love with Danny and stops her father, who then tells Danny he will have to marry Elaine or he will kill him. In the fourth season, it is revealed that Chester is Danny's true father, the product of a secret affair between him and Mary before his marriage to Jessica. Mary's other son, Jodie (Billy Crystal, in an early role), is homosexual, having a secret affair with a famous professional football quarterback, and contemplating a sex-change operation.
The first season ends with Jessica convicted of the murder of Peter Campbell. The announcer concludes the season by announcing that Jessica is innocent, and that one of five characters—Burt, Chester, Jodie, Benson, or Corinne—killed Peter Campbell. Chester later confesses to Peter's murder and is sent to prison. He is soon released after a successful temporary insanity defense, due to a medical condition in his brain. Other plot lines include Jessica's adopted daughter Corinne courting Father Tim Flotsky (Sal Viscuso), who ended up leaving the priesthood, with the two eventually marrying and having a child who is possessed by the Devil; Chester being imprisoned for Peter's murder, escaping with his prison mate Dutch, and being afflicted with amnesia after a failed operation; Jessica's other daughter, Eunice, sleeping with a married congressman (Edward Winter), and then falling in love with Dutch; Mary's stepson Chuck (Jay Johnson), a ventriloquist whose hostilities are expressed through his alter ego, a quick-witted dummy named Bob; Jessica's love affairs with several men, including Donahue (John Byner) a private investigator hired to find the missing presumed-dead Chester, her psychiatrist, and a Latin American revolutionary known as El Puerco ('The Pig'; his friends just call him "El") (Gregory Sierra); Billy Tate's confinement by a cult called the "Sunnies" (a parody of Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church, called the "Moonies" by its critics), and then his affair with his school teacher who becomes unhinged; Danny and his romantic trials after Elaine's death with a black woman (Polly, played by Lynne Moody), a prostitute (Gwen, played by Jesse Welles), and Chester's second wife (Annie, played by Nancy Dolman); and Burt's confinement to a mental institution, his abduction by aliens while being replaced with an oversexed alien lookalike on Earth, and getting blackmailed by the Mob after becoming sheriff of their small town.
At the beginning of each episode, off-camera announcer Rod Roddy gives a brief summary of the convoluted storyline and remarks, "Confused? You won't be, after week's episode of... Soap." At the end of each episode, he asks a series of life-or-death questions in a deliberately deadpan style—"Will Jessica discover Chester's affair? Will Benson discover Chester's affair? Will Benson care?" and concludes each episode with the trademark line, "These questions—and many others—will be answered in the next episode of... Soap."
The fourth season ended with Jessica being shot by a South American firing squad, it being unclear whether she survived. This was the result of the unexpected cancellation of the fifth season, which prevented the producers from coming up with a logical end.The Cliffhanger Final Episode of Soap Aired 40 Years Ago Today
Cast and characters
Main Katherine Helmond as Jessica Tate, the matriarch of the Tate family Robert Mandan as Chester Tate, Jessica's philandering (later ex-) husband Diana Canova as Corinne Tate Flotsky, Chester and Jessica's adoptive second child Jennifer Salt as Eunice Tate Leitner, Chester and Jessica's eldest child Jimmy Baio as Billy Tate, Chester and Jessica's youngest child Cathryn Damon as Mary Campbell, the matriarch of the Campbell family Richard Mulligan as Burt Campbell, Mary's neurotic second husband Ted Wass as Danny Dallas, Mary's elder son Billy Crystal as Jodie Dallas, Mary's younger son Jay Johnson as Chuck and Bob Campbell, Burt's son and his psychopathic dummy Arthur Peterson Jr. as "The Major", Jessica and Mary's senile father Robert Guillaume as Benson, the Tate family's cook/butler (seasons 1–3) Donnelly Rhodes as Dutch Leitner, Chester's former cellmate and Eunice's eventual husband (seasons 2–4) Roscoe Lee Brown as Saunders, Benson's replacement (seasons 3–4) Rod Roddy as the announcer (initially Casey Kasem, who quit after the pilot episode)
Notable recurring cast Eugene Roche as E. Ronald Mallu, Esq., (seasons 1–4), the Tate family's lawyer who falls in love with Jessica Rebecca Balding as Carol David, (seasons 1–4), Mallu's assistant who falls in love with Jodie and becomes pregnant with his child Robert Urich as Peter Campbell (season 1), Burt's elder son, a tennis coach who has simultaneous affairs with Jessica and Corinne Sal Viscuso as Father Timothy Flotsky (seasons 1–3), a Catholic priest who renounces the priesthood to marry Corinne Gordon Jump as Chief of Police Tinkler (seasons 1–2), the head of the Dunn's River police force Inga Swenson as Ingrid Svenson (seasons 1–2), Corinne's biological mother Dinah Manoff as Elaine Lefkowitz Dallas (seasons 1–2), Danny's first wife Doris Roberts as Flo Flotsky (seasons 1–2), Tim's domineering mother Caroline McWilliams as Sally (season 2), Burt's secretary John Byner as Detective George Donohue (seasons 2–3), a private detective hired to find Chester who begins a relationship with Jessica Randee Heller as Alice (seasons 2–3), Jodie's lesbian roommate Marla Pennington as Leslie Walker (seasons 3–4), Billy's unhinged high school English teacher and girlfriend Lynne Moody as Polly Dawson (seasons 3–4), Danny's widowed girlfriend Allan Miller as Dr. Alan Posner (seasons 3–4), Jessica's psychiatrist who later falls in love with her Nancy Dolman as Annie Selig Tate (season 4), Eunice's college friend and Chester's second wife Gregory Sierra as "El Puerco" Valdez (season 4), a South American communist revolutionary who kidnaps and then falls in love with Jessica Barbara Rhoades as Maggie Chandler (season 4), a private investigator hired by and later in a relationship with Jodie Joe Mantegna as Juan One (season 4), one of "El Puerco"'s men Candice Azzara as Millie (season 2), Mobster Mel's girlfriend, later Danny's girlfriend
Guest stars Notable actors who appeared in guest roles include Sorrell Booke, Nita Talbot, Lee Bergere, Ted Shackelford, Robert Englund, Kurtwood Smith, Alan Oppenheimer and Bernard Fox.
Episodes
Pre-production Casting Richard Mulligan was originally considered for the part of Chester Tate, but director Jay Sandrich felt Mulligan would be more appropriate as Burt Campbell. Sandrich suggested Robert Mandan (whom he had directed on the Mary Tyler Moore Show) for the role of Chester instead.
Recalling the challenge of casting the role of Benson, Sandrich recalled,