Why did TV Land bother to purchase a season or so of Soap and promote it as carrying “Soap” in their lineup? Then, they instantly exile it off to the Kitschen where it is DOES NOT belong! :mad:
Even worse, some of the funniest events in the course of “Soap” are never shown. Like, Bert thinking he’s invisible or Bert being abducted by aliens. Yet, they keep running the same ~20 episodes over and over again!
This was, IMHO, the funniest series next to MAS*H.
Bend over, fans, for TV Land has really dropped the Soap!
So to speak!
Wow, was SOAP only three seasons? No, TV Land doesn’t. They start and end in the middle. They skip so much! They don’t even show when Bert runs for sherriff.
Does anyone know how Bert was blackmailed? Was it something to do with the woman (his secretary) he had an affair with who threatened to get even with him?
Also, doesn’t the lady who played “Ms. Kraus” from “Benson” show up again towards the end of series? You’ll recall she appears at one point to say she’s Corrine’s real mother.
Ah, what memories…about our little Wendy, Wendy, Wendy!
Sally, Burt’s secretary, attempted to seduce Burt because Sally was being blackmailed by Ingrid Swenson, the swedish maid of the Gatlin family (Mary, Jessica, their Dad the major, and their brother Rupert or something). Ingrid had Rupert’s baby out of wedlock, whom Jessica Tate adopted (Corinne) and raised as her own. Ingrid fled to Ecuador with Rupert (or something) and vowed vengeance. But she did not return to the USA to haunt the Tates and Campbells (Jessica and Mary’s families) until Corinne was arrested for the murder of Peter Campbell, with whom both she, and her adoptive mother, Jessica were having an affair. Peter was Burt’s son.
Getting back to Sally, she had starred in a porno movie with a number of midgets back when her brother needed surgery or medicine or something, and she just did it for the money. She never managed to seduce Burt, but the night Burt showed up drunk at Sally’s apartment because he thought he saw his wife Mary having an affair with her English professor on the couch (he was pawing at her, she kicked him in the nuts), Sally took him in, and the next morning she convinced him they’d had sex all night, even tho Burt had just passed out. Sally eventually repented, and was pursuaded by Danny and Jody to go to Mary and reveal the plot, but was forced to show Mary the porno movie to convince her.
If that’s not clear, I’d be glad to explain further. Remember when Billy got kidnapped by the Sunnies?
My hometown is Memphis, Tennessee. When Soap premiered in the late 1970s (1977?), the local ABC affliliate (Channel 13 WHBQ) would not air it because of its content, and because many Southern baptists protested the station not too show it.
SO, what came on instead of Soap? GOMER PYLE! Fortunately Soap was shown the second season (probably the Baptists realized that Jim Nabors was a sodomite)
The first so-called “gay character” on TV, and he tries to get a sex change, because after all, gays and transsexuals are the same thing. Oh, then he turns straight when he meets the right woman. Feh. To this day, I can’t stand Billy Crystal, either.
Maybe I did take it to heart too much, but I had plenty of reasons, with all my friends and family sitting around getting a good laugh out of it while I had steam coming out of my ears.
C’mon, Eve! Jody wanted the operation because his NFL quarterback lover wouldn’t come out of the closet, and was going to marry a woman for “cover” purposes. Jody, in ill-thought out desperation, plans to have the surgery, so Dennis will marry him instead. When Dennis points out this won’t work, Jody attempts suicide.
And Jody had sex with one woman exactly once, with Carol, who was trying to seduce him, because he was a “challenge”. She got him drunk. Jody maintained his homosexual identity but tried to do the right thing when Carol turned up pregnant, by offering to marry her. He and Dennis reconciled for a time, then broke up over Carol.
After that, Jody roomed with a lesbian whom he referred to as his “best friend” but both continued to date homosexuals.
Considering it was the late '70’s and the first prime-time portrayal of homosexuality, I thought they did pretty well. They did establish Jody as a caring, loving person who resisted other’s efforts to ‘cure’ him. Yes, it did cater to certain stereotypes, but it seemed to me that Jody always held the moral high ground. And it had a lot of people in the series showing him unconditional acceptance of his orientation, like his mom, and his hospital roommate.
Well, I’m not saying I was completely* justified* in my loathing of the show—but loathe it I did. I would squirm in embarrassment and fury whenever Billy Crystal’s character was onscreen.
