Title: 
Soap (DVD) Review

Word Count:
523

Summary:
Nominated for 17 Emmys in its short four-year run, Soap premiered in the Fall of 1977 as one of the most controversial shows in American television history (and all before a single episode ever aired). The show was opposed by many groups who thought its subject matter would be too mature for a prime-time audience. But Soap never overstepped its bounds, and the show became an instant smash hit with its brilliant and satirical spoofs of classic daytime programming. Sporting an ...


Keywords:
soap dvd review


Article Body:
Nominated for 17 Emmys in its short four-year run, Soap premiered in the Fall of 1977 as one of the most controversial shows in American television history (and all before a single episode ever aired). The show was opposed by many groups who thought its subject matter would be too mature for a prime-time audience. But Soap never overstepped its bounds, and the show became an instant smash hit with its brilliant and satirical spoofs of classic daytime programming. Sporting an all-star cast and talented producers, the show spawned successful spin-off Benson in 1979, a series that launched Robert Guillaume's career to a whole new level...

Set in suburban Connecticut, Soap follows the lives of two sisters - Jessica Tate (Katherine Helmond), a wealthy yet dim elitist, and Mary Campbell (Cathryn Damon), a housewife in a more traditional blue-collar atmosphere. But regardless of their social station in life, neither woman manages to escape the scandal and intrigue surrounding a typical soap opera family. Jessica's daughter Corrine (Diana Canova) is smitten with a priest, yet they are both having an affair with the same tennis pro. Meanwhile, Jessica and her husband Chester (Robert Mandan) incessantly cheat on one another. As for the other side of the family, Mary's husband Burt (Richard Mulligan) is certifiably insane, her son Danny (Ted Wass) is a mobster, stepson Jodie (Billy Crystal) is an out-of-the-closet homosexual, and all of them are caught up in a family filled with promiscuous infidelities and quite possibly murder! Throw in the insubordinate and sarcastic Tate butler Benson (Guillaume), and Soap holds its own as one of the funniest sitcoms in TV history…

The Soap DVD features a number of hilarious episodes including the series premiere in which the audience learns the background of the two differing, yet similar, families. Jessica overhears Chester making plans to meet his mistress just before she meets her own lover, a local tennis pro named Peter. Jessica leaves Peter just before Corinne arrives for a lesson of her own… Meanwhile, the Campbells are beset by a rift between Danny and Burt, and Burt reveals to Mary that his inability to perform in the bedroom is a result of guilt from having killed her first husband… Other notable episodes from Season 1 include Episode 4 in which Jessica and Corrine encounter each other in Peter's apartment, and Episode 25 in which Charles Lefkowitz (Sorrell Booke of Dukes of Hazzard fame) orders Danny to marry Elaine or else he will kill the entire Campbell family…

Below is a list of episodes included on the Soap (Season 1) DVD:

Episode 1 (Episode 1) Air Date: 09-13-1977
Episode 2 (Episode 2) Air Date: 09-20-1977
Episode 3 (Episode 3) Air Date: 09-27-1977
Episode 4 (Episode 4) Air Date: 10-04-1977
Episode 5 (Episode 5) Air Date: 10-04-1977
Episode 6 (Episode 6) Air Date: 10-25-1977
Episode 7 (Episode 7) Air Date: 11-01-1977
Episode 8 (Episode 8) Air Date: 11-08-1977
Episode 9 (Episode 9) Air Date: 11-15-1977
Episode 10 (Episode 10) Air Date: 11-22-1977
Episode 11 (Episode 11) Air Date: 11-29-1977
Episode 12 (Episode 12) Air Date: 12-06-1977
Episode 13 (Episode 13) Air Date: 12-13-1977
Episode 14 (Episode 14) Air Date: 12-27-1977
Episode 15 (Episode 15) Air Date: 01-03-1978
Episode 16 (Episode 16) Air Date: 01-10-1978
Episode 17 (Episode 17) Air Date: 01-17-1978
Episode 18 (Episode 18) Air Date: 01-24-1978
Episode 19 (Episode 19) Air Date: 02-07-1978
Episode 20 (Episode 20) Air Date: 02-14-1978
Episode 21 (Episode 21) Air Date: 02-21-1978
Episode 22 (Episode 22) Air Date: 02-28-1978
Episode 23 (Episode 23) Air Date: 03-14-1978
Episode 24 (Episode 24) Air Date: 03-21-1978
Episode 25 (Episode 25) Air Date: 03-28-1978