Plot: What’s it about?
Many years ago, ABC used to be on top of their game when it came to sitcoms with comedy hits like Happy Days and The Odd Couple. In the late seventies, the network took a chance on some innuendo friendly sitcoms for their regular lineup. One such sitcom portrayed the wackiness of two girls sharing an apartment with one man and the misadventures and complications with the three and the characters around them (Three’s Company). In that same timeframe came a sitcom that brought more controversy even before the show was broadcast. It told the tale of two sisters, their families and the secrets and the flaws of them all within a connecting storyline. It’s a tale of dysfunction, twists and when a television daytime genre is sans the word opera, all you have left is Soap.
Jessica Tate (Katherine Helmond) lives a pretty decent lifestyle being the wife of a investment banker (Robert Mandan) who jumps every living thing, a daughter to a father (Arthur Peterson) who still thinks World War II is going on, a mother of a wise cracking son (Jimmy Baio), two daughters, one (Jennifer Salt) who’s having an affair with a senator and the other (Diana Canova) having her time with the hunky tennis pro unaware that her mother is having an affair with him as well and in the middle of all of that is the Tate’s housekeeper Benson (Robert Guillaume) who finds room to wisely sound back at the Tates.
Jessica’s sister Mary Campbell (Cathryn Damon) lives on the other side of town and doesn’t have as decent a lifestyle as Jessica but has two sons, one (Ted Wass) involved with organized crime and the other (Billy Crystal) in a homosexual relationship with a star quarterback, and a second husband (Richard Mulligan) who has his share of unstable moments as well. These moments unfold as his ventriloquist son (Jay Johnson) and his puppet (Bob) comes back to be with him along with a son he hasn’t seen for many years that is connected to both families in a most unexpected way.
With the writing staff and it’s cast of actors and actresses that went on to bigger and better things, Soap represented a prime time half hour soap opera with comic overtones and a storyline that makes the viewer wonder what’s going to happen with these two families next. The humor is wacky without being too over the top and well played without being too obviously predictable. Throughout the first season, it ranges from outrageous to touching, wacky and low key without running out of gas and keeping the viewer entertained from the first moment to the next with a recap at the end and the beginning (narrated by the late Price Is Right announcer Rod Roddy). Season One ends with a memorable cliffhanger that only was matched a few years later by another dramatic nighttime soap that keeps this viewer intrigued enough to see what Season 2 will hold for.
Video: How does it look?
Soap was recorded on videotape during its run in the 1.33 full frame and the picture quality is similar to all the daytime soaps with a lot of browns and not too wide a picture palette. Stock footage is used on this show to interchange to most scenes and has the old projector color film look taken off a projector. The videotape images despite it’s color limitations comes out clear, hazy and with very little burn in of picture which was a common look for shows filmed in videotape of that time. There are a few times the shades change but less often than not, the picture transfer is a decent clear one.
Audio: How does it sound?
The Dolby Digital 2.0 track is limited to the middle channels as the tracks only major use is in the dialogue, laugh tracks and in the musical theme and minor pieces played throughout the episodes by George Aliceson Tipton (Phantom of the Paradise). The sound is crisp with very little muteness but with nothing earthshattering to demonstrate anyone’s home entertainment system. It’s decent for a TV show but as for a DVD, it’s passable. The five discs have no subtitles.
Supplements: What are the extras?
The only extras are trailers to the films America’s Sweethearts and Hollywood Homicide with DVD trailers of other comedy and action shows on DVD by Columbia/Tri-Star. Two families, one show, first season, many different directions, not many extras, other resounding twists, funny moments, many known faces. Confused? You won’t be until the next season of Soap.
