Back when Soap first aired in 1977, I wasn’t exactly the age of its target audience. It took more than one season to wear down my very liberal, Monty-Python-loving parents and be allowed to watch it.  I enjoyed it then, and I enjoy it even more now.  This isn’t the sanitized, politically correct sitcoms we often see today.  Soap was irreverent and offensive in many ways.  The sitcom was designed to poke fun at the soap opera genre.  At the same time, it does way more than that. 
The ongoing stories center around two sisters, Jessica & Mary & their families.  The Tates (Jessica’s family) are a little more well-off.   The Campbells (Mary’s family) are more of a middle-class family.

THE TATE HOUSEHOLD

Chester Tate – Robert Mandan
Jessica Tate – Katherine Helmond
Benson (the Butler) – Robert Guillaume
Eunice Tate – Jennifer Salt
Corinne Tate – Diana Canova
Billy Tate – Jimmy Baio
The Major (Jessica’s Father) – Arthur Peterson

THE CAMPBELL HOUSEHOLD

Burt Campbell – Richard Mulligan
Mary Campbell – Cathryn Damon
Danny Dallas – Ted Wass
Jodie Dallas – Billy Crystal
Peter Campbell – Robert Urich
Bob Campbell – Jay Johnson

The story evolves as a lampoon on soap operas and exaggerates their storylines.  It was far from politically correct, such as taking on racism with the way the Tates often talked to Benson.  At the same time, he dished it out getting humor out of the fact that Jessica’s father, the Major, lived in a state of shell shock. The jokes were in no way politically correct, but push the envelope in the same style as All In The Family did.

In the first season, we learn various things about the characters.  Burt is a pathological liar. Danny was a mob wannabe, Jody was gay, Corinne was a nymphomaniac and Eunice was ultra-conservative. Both Jessica & Chester were cheating on each other.  The addition of Bob Campbell and his ventriloquist dummy Chuck midway through the season was a stroke of genius. Something that could have been really stupid ended up being one of the great comedic angles of the show, which demonstrates just how damn good the writing was.  There are tender and poignant moments on Soap as well, which work in the context of the story.  This wasn’t done in the same way shows like M*A*S*H handled it at the time, but small moments mixed in amidst the hilarity that just made the characters more meaningful and real to the viewer.

I don’t know what the world is coming to anymore… when a gay man who was thinking of becoming a woman then decides to try suicide turns out to be the most normal member of the family…

At the same time, Soap was ground-breaking.  It dealt with a gay character long before any other prime-time series would touch the subject (or soap opera for that matter).  Billy Crystal took a huge risk at the time with the role and it paid off quite well for him.  Credit must also go to the actors for the fantastic physical comedy. Richard Mulligan in particular gave a performance that I often remembered years later.

The 3-disc DVD set is cheap enough for anyone to buy and I really recommend it despite the fact that it also touches on one of my pet peeves. There’s no extras in the set. No commentary from the actors or crew who were there at the time, no featurettes, nothing.  It really would have been nice to listen to how some of the ideas were developed as well as the resistance I’m sure they faced from the network at the time.

Watching Soap again after so many years, I laughed out loud, even all by myself.  How many series can you say that about? You might be shocked by the tone of some of the comedy, but on the other hand you might find yourself enjoying it way more than you expected to.