Soap
1 9 7 7 - 1 9 8 1 (USA)
Soap was undoubtedly the most controversial new series
of the 77-78' "season of sex" as it was called.
Even before it went on the air, ABC had received over 32,000
letters about the show - all but nine of them against it. ABC
affiliates had been picketed for planning to air it and sponsors
had been urged to boycott the show (which a few did). Some ABC
affiliates refused to carry it and many who did, ran it late at
night.
The object of all this attention was a half-hour comedy which
was billed as a satire on soap operas. It had a continuing story
line but was populated by a cast that was hardly ever seen on any
serious dramatic show. Sex was on practically everyone's mind and
formed the basis of many of the stories.
Stories centred on the wealthy Tate's and the blue-collar Campbell's.
Chester Tate was a pompous businessman with an urge for
extramarital affairs. No wonder since his wife, Jessica, was a
spaced-out, fluttery idiot.
Of their three children: sexy Corrine was always putting her
best attributes forward; Eunice was much quieter and more
conservative and Billy, 14, was a wise-cracking brat.
Living with the Tate's were Jessica's father, the Major, who
crawled around the floor in his old army uniform, still fighting
World War II and Benson, the insolent and obnoxious black butler
and cook, who commented on the events taking place.
Across town lived Jessica's sister, Mary Campbell. Her husband,
Burt, was a working class guy whose main problem was dealing with
stepsons: Jodie, who was gay, and Danny, who was involved with
organised crime.
The major development during the first season was the murder of
Peter, the handsome tennis pro - and Burt's son, who had been
luring most of his female students to bed with him.
First Corrine was accused, but then Jessica was arrested and
subsequently convicted of the crime. In the last episode of the
77-78 season, an off-screen narrator informed viewers that she
didn't really do it, and as the following season opened, Chester
confessed to the crime.
Chester was sent to prison but soon escaped with Dutch, a
convicted murderer. Soon thereafter, Chester lost his memory and
wandered out west, where he became a cook.
Dutch eloped with Eunice, Jessica fell in love with Detective
Donahue - whom she had hired to find Chester. When Chester finally
returned, she had to choose between the two. She choose Chester
but only for a while. After a fling with South American
revolutionary "El Puerco," she and Chester were
divorced.
Benson the butler departed for greener pastures - his own TV
show, Benson - in 1979, after rescuing Billy from a
religious cult, the Sunnies. The new butler was named
Saunders.
Corrine Tate married ex-priest, Timothy Flotsky, but their
union produced a baby possessed by the devil and the Tate's had to
band together to exorcise the spirit.
Across town, Burt found himself kidnapped and cloned by aliens
and Mary got a few nights of uninhibited sex from the clone! But
who then was the father of the baby that resulted?
Jodie, Burt's gay son, decided that women are fun too and sired
his own baby by Carol, but wound up in an ugly custody battle.
Burt got himself elected sheriff, resulting in a run-in with
the racketeer Tibbs and his hooker, Gwen. Danny, who had
previously been in love with Elaine, Millie and Polly, sort of
liked her.
Soap attracted a large and loyal audience and the
controversy over it was confined mostly to the first season. ABC
maintained that the program represented a major breakthrough in TV
comedy and claimed that "through the Campbell's and the Tate's,
many of today's social concerns will be dealt with in a comic
manner."
Others, however, considered Soap nothing more than an
extended dirty joke being broadcast into America's living rooms.
Much of the opposition to the program was led by religious
groups, including the National Council of Churches.
Reverend Everett Parker, a long-time critic of TV, called Soap
"a deliberate effort to break down any resistance to whatever
the industry wants to put into prime time . . . Who else besides
the the churches is going to stand against the effort of
television to tear down our moral values and make all of us into
mere consumers?"
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