My favorite TV show of all time is Soap from 77.For those who weren’t around in 1977, Soap was the most controversial show to hit the airwaves since All In The Family. The sexual revolution that began in the 60s was in full swing by the 70s. And no Television show better exemplified the free wheeling, sexual 70s like Soap did. You see, the main emphasis was…gasp…sex! Soap managed to offend just about every right wing conservative from Maine to California. And all before it ever went on the air. ABC received thousands of letters and eight of their affiliates refused to run the show. Then on September 13, 1977 at 9:00 pm, America finally got to see what all of the fuss was about. That first episode received an estimated 19 million views nationwide.
My first exposure to Soap came from the ABC fall preview show in August of 77. Right away, my mother wouldn’t let me watch it. Since my bedroom was just off of the living room I was able to catch a few bits and pieces during the first few weeks that it was on. Much to my mother’s chagrin. It would be a few years before I was able to see the show and judge it for myself. Upon my first viewing, I was hooked and the show has stuck with me all these years. In fact it is my all time favorite show.
Why? Katherine Helmond as Jessica Tate. From the moment she breezed into the Tate kitchen in that first episode she had me in stitches. I had never seen her before and she really made me sit up and take notice. Not only was she hysterically funny, but she was also sweet, vulnerable and just plain charming to watch. However, Katherine Helmond was only as good as the director and the writers for Soap. While Katherine Helmond was just one member of a great ensemble cast, she was a stand out. For me, anyway.
Of course the other stand out cast member was Robert Guillaume as Benson. Benson’s irreverent humor and wisecrack’s were scene stealers to be sure. Who can forget the scene in the very first episode when no one ate Benson’s Eggs Benedict for breakfast that morning? Jessica then asks Benson if he’d like to take them home on his day off. Benson replies in the most stereotypically black voice I’ve ever heard, ‘Oooh, I’d sure like dat Miz Tate. We just loves three day ol’ Eggs Benedict down in the ghetto. The little chillin’ can use ‘em for hocky pucks.”
That is another reason why I love Soap. It is so non PC. Chuck and Bob, well actually Bob even called Benson ‘Sambo’ once. Eunice called Jody a ‘thieving little fruit.’ The list just goes on and on.
And dysfunctional? This show had the mother of all dysfunctional families. Check out this rundown. First we have Chester and Jessica Tate. Chester sleeps with anything that breathes except Jessica. Jessica is so deeply in denial about Chester’s infidelities that when she witnesses it for herself she falls apart. Only to turn around and blame it all on a family curse. Jessica’s father still thinks that World War II is still going on. And Chester and Jessica’s children? Corrine Tate, the middle child, sleeps around just as much as her father. Eunice Tate, the oldest child, has taken up with a married congressman. The youngest child, Billy Tate seems to be the only one with both oars in the water. That changes as the series goes along. He’s just as screwed up as the rest.
Jessica’s sister Mary Campbell and her family are another mess all together. Burt, Mary’s husband, is impotent because he murdered Mary’s first husband. Mary doesn’t understand what is going on and really doesn’t do much in the way of helping the situation. Mary’s oldest son, Danny, is in the mob and the only way out is for him to murder the man who murdered his father. Mary’s second son, Jody, is gay and Danny thinks the whole thing is a big joke. Neither of Mary’s sons can stand Burt. Then into this whole mess Burt’s son Chuck and his little wooded doll, Bob arrive. Unbeknownst to Burt, his oldest son, Peter (who’s a tennis pro), arrives in town and starts giving more than tennis lessons to every woman in town. Including Jessica and Corrine.
And all of this information is thrown at you with lightening speed in just the first two episodes. To this day, I don’t know how the cast performed this stuff without cracking up every time they opened their mouth. I’d love to see some bloopers from this show. They had impeccable timing. Sometimes you had to really listen to catch everything that was being said. I’ve watched the entire run of Soap several times and there are still things that I’m hearing that I didn’t catch the first time or even the sixth time through the show.
Then as happens with most sitcoms, the show started to head south. Most fans point to Benson’s leaving as the turning point in the series. While I do agree that Benson leaving left a big hole in the cast, but I believe that the problem lies elsewhere. It’s my opinion that the show just became too ordinary by the time the third season started. It just didn’t walk that fine line between naughty and shocking anymore. And that’s all the show ever really was. Naughty. It wasn’t dirty. It wasn’t filthy. It wasn’t all that shocking. Heck, most of the time it wasn’t even all that sexual. It was just a naughty little show that everyone blew out of proportion. I also think that by the third season, people just weren’t talking about it anymore. As I said, it just became ordinary. In the end, it was just another sitcom on a network full of sitcoms. Without its controversial edge, fewer and fewer people were tuning in each week.
Also, during the third season there was a distinct shift. I think that this was brought on by the departure of director Jay Sandrich. John Bowab directed one episode in season 2 and J.D. Lobue directed a couple of season 2 episodes, but the main director was Jay Sandrich. Jay only directed the first 6 episodes of season 3 before moving over to direct Benson. After that, J.D. Lobue took over until near the end of the 4th season. By that time, the show was sunk. Also, Susan Harris (who created the show) wasn’t writing as many episodes as before because she was concentrating on the series Benson.
Once one of the best shows on TV, Soap limped its way to the end of its third season. Story lines about Burt being abducted by a UFO and a horny duplicate of him being sent down to Mary, were funny they just didn’t have the same spark as before. Season three finished 25th in the overall ratings, but the writing was on the wall. For Soap, the 70s were over. The 80s were about to kill it. The season finale for season three was big, but also on the bland side. Jessica slipped into a coma, the custody battle over Jody’s baby was about to be decided, Lesley was about to shoot Billy, Mary was about to give birth (and it wasn’t sure if it would be human or an alien) Dutch had to choose between Eunice and Corrine and Burt and Danny had been knocked out and abducted by gangsters. Most folks didn’t really care to tune in the next season to view the outcome.
The 4th season opener would resolve most of these stories but leave one sort of dangling for the rest of the entire season. It’s never revealed weather or not Mary’s baby is an alien or not. You get hints along the way that she is perhaps right and the baby is indeed an alien, but no solid evidence is shown. Anyway, if by the end of the third season the show as limping along, in the fourth season the show had been reduced to a crawl. The Jessica and El Puerco story was just ridiculous. I didn’t by the relationship for a minute. Eunice and Dutch getting married was totally unbelievable. Lesley’s continued attempts to kill Billy was stupid. The whole season just didn’t seem to have any direction any more. I was sorry to see it get cancelled. Especially since they didn’t come back the next year to at least resolve the cliffhangers. So, for the last 20 years, Jessica is still in front of the firing squad, Burt is about to get ambushed, Chester is about to kill Danny and Annie and Jody is trapped in a past life. And that is where they remain.
Pity.
A once great show simply faded.
No comments:
Post a Comment