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| Available at Amazon.com |
There were certain shows that your parents didn’t let you stay up and watch in the ‘70s. Who knows what Charlie’s Angels could incite inside a prepubescent boy? Most of the series that were forbidden on the family room TV have proved to be prudish and tepid. The Mod Squad wasn’t that violent. The hardcore debauchery has leaked out of The Love Boat. Dora the Explorer has as much sex and violence content as them. Soap was on the parental bad list. It deserved it. Even thirty years later, Soap still shocks and entertains.
This prime-time spoof of soap operas dealt with two sisters that married men on either side of the tracks. Jessica Tate (Katherine Helmond) married a wealthy Chester Tate (Robert Mandan). They live in a mansion with the acidic Benson (Robert Guillaume) as their butler. Her daughters, Eunice (Jennifer Salt) and Corinne (Diana Canova), have man troubles. Son Billy (Jimmy Baio) is a teen on the verge of being troubled. The Major (Arthur Peterson) thinks he’s still fighting World War II in Germany. Mary Campbell (Cathryn Damon) married Burt Campbell (Richard Mulligan), a construction guy. Her sons from a previous husband are the mobster Danny Dallas (Ted Wass) and the openly gay Jodie Dallas (Billy Crystal). Burt’s sons are Peter and Chuck Campbell (Jay Johnson). Chuck is attached to his little pal Bob. That’s the family portrait of a weekly freak show.
Things get extremely complicated right from the start. Jessica and Chester aren’t being close to faithful. Chester bangs his secretary. Jessica receives extra lessons from her tennis coach (Robert Urich). However the tennis coach also lobs with Corrine. The problem is no sex with Burt and Mary. Burt is limp between the legs cause he can’t confess to what happened to Mary’s first husband. Danny gets hired to rub out his real father’s killer. There’s a murder in the first season that brings Jon Byner (Bizarre) to investigate. All the family members look like guilty suspects as they keep hiding their private lives.
Over the course of four seasons, Soap never backed down from going after the weirdest parts of American life. Danny becomes a marked man. Corinne gets involved with a priest and has a devil child. A religious cult abducts Billy. Jodie goes straight and gets an unexpected consequence. Eunice hooks up with a bad guy. Aliens abduct Burt. Mary finally gets sexually satisfied. Jessica joins Latin American rebels. Benson leaves for his own show. The series flowed between the absurd to the heartfelt to the stunning without losing its credibility.
For those who bought all four season box sets, do not feel tempted to double dip. They have merely put all 12 DVDs from those box sets on a spindle inside a new box. There’s no bonus disc or remastering. You already have what’s in here. People have complained about the spindle packaging as being a nightmare. If you’re storing your DVDs in notebooks or envelopes, the spindle is great. You don’t feel tempted to hang onto the box.
The brilliance of Soap can be felt in its ability to still be controversial after all these decades. It’s easy to imagine the torch and pitchfork crowd gathering around the DVD section of a bigbox store to protest this release. How dare there be a TV show that finds humor in adultery, murder, religion, war and homosexuality? Soap is not a sitcom for people who think viewing The Simpsons will banish you to hell. Soap is fine heathen fun.
The video is 1.33:1 full frame. The series was shot on videotape so it’s not that sharp. The quality of image varies on episodes. A few of them look like they were duped off EP speed VHS tapes. The audio is Dolby Digital mono. The sound is better than the picture. The show is Closed Captioned.
The Creators Come Clean (20:43) has Susan Harris, Tony Thomas and Paul Witt discuss the creative process that developed Soap. They kept the episodes open ended to allow the characters to develop. They address the controversy that came with the show. They seem to hint that there will be more installments of the trio discussing the series, but this is it.
Soap: The Complete Series allows you to binge out on the insanity of the Campbells and Tates. It’s nice to know that there’s something from the ‘70s that’s still jaw dropping.
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Sony Home Video presents Soap: The Complete Series. Starring: Billy Crystal, Jay Johnson, Richard Mulligan, Robert Guillaume & Katherine Helmond. Box set Content: 90 episodes on 12 discs. Originally Broadcasted: Sept. 13, 1977 – April 20, 1981. Released on DVD: June 10, 2008. Available at Amazon.com
About Joe Corey
