Soap (sitcom)
Soap was a sitcom which ran on the ABC network from 1977 through 1981. The show was designed as a weekly, primetime half hour comedy whose format was similar to that of a soap opera. The format was augmented by the introduction of real-life soap opera actors into the cast. Robert Mandan had previously been seen on Search for Tomorrow, Cathryn Damon had a small part on Love of Life, and Donnelly Rhodes was the first husband of Katherine Chancellor on The Young and the Restless.
The show was controversial for its time, as it included the first homosexual character depicted in a prime-time network television series in the United States. The gay character, Jodie Dallas, was played by actor Billy Crystal. Many stations refused to air the series because of this character.
The show started each week with a shot of two women chatting over lunch. The announcer, Rod Roddy, would intone, "This is the story of two sisters: Jessica Tate and Mary Campbell". The Tate family was very wealthy. In the very first opening sequence, the announcer said that the Tates lived in a neighborhood known as "rich". Jessica liked life but if she could change anything about hers, she would set it all to music. The Tates employed a sarcastic butler, Benson, played by Robert Guillaume (the character of Benson was spun off into his own series, Benson, in 1979.) Jessica and her husband, Chester, were hardly models of fidelity, as their various love affairs resulted in several family mishaps, including the murder of Mary's stepson, Peter (Robert Urich), in the early days of the show.
Mary's family, the Campbells, were more middle-class. Mary also liked life but the announcer intoned that "life wasn't so crazy about her." The Campbells had the problem that Mary's son Danny Dallas was a junior gangster in training. Danny was told to kill his stepfather Burt when it was revealed that Danny's father did not commit suicide, but instead was killed by Burt out of his love for Mary.
Other plot lines involved Jessica's daughter's love affair with a priest (another controversial subject which caused many stations to refuse to air the show); Mary's stepson Chuck, a ventriloquist whose alter ego was his dummy Bob, who voiced all of the negative comments that Chuck was too repressed to say; Jessica's love affair with a Latin American revolutionary; and Mary's husband Burt being replaced by an alien look-alike.
Major characters the actors who portrayed them
- Katherine Helmond - Jessica Tate
- Cathryn Damon - Mary Campbell
- Robert Mandan - Chester Tate
- Richard Mulligan - Burt Campbell
- Diana Canova - Corinne Tate Flotsky
- Jennifer Salt - Eunice Tate-Leitner
- Jimmy Baio - Billy Tate
- Robert Guillaume - Benson
- Arthur Peterson - The Major
- Billy Crystal - Jodie Dallas
- Ted Wass - Danny Dallas
- Jay Johnson - Chuck and Bob Campbell
- Rebecca Balding - Carol David
- Roscoe Lee Browne - Saunders
- John Byner - Detective Donahue
- Donnelly Rhodes - Dutch Leitner
- Robert Urich - Peter Campbell
- Sal Viscuso - Father Timothy Flotsky
- Edward Winter - Congressman Walter McCallum
- Charles Lane - Judge Anthony Petrillo
The show was created, written, produced and directed by Susan Harris.
