The Mrs. and my daughter and I are currently making our way thru my collection of “Soap” videotapes, which I got by taping the old “Soap” marathon off of Comedy Central back about 10 years ago. The whole series is just as funny as I remember it (which was quite funny), and I’m enjoying again the antics of a young Billy Crystal, the physical humor of Richard Mulligan, the numbskull goodness of Katherine Helmond, and the sardonic wit of Robert Guilllaume. I know they all went on to do more things in the entertainment industry.
But what happened to the rest of the cast? Particularly the actors who played Bob and Chuck? I expect Bob ended up in a trunk or closet somewhere, but what about Jay Johnson, who played Chuck?
Ted Wass’s biggest job was playing BLOSSOM’s dad, Chuck & Bob still occasionally turn up on commercials and at comedy stores, Cathryn Damon died while a regular on WEBSTER, and Robert “Chester” Mandan makes fairly frequent guest appearances usually playing the same stuff-shirt character (though he was a regular as a bum on DAYS OF OUR LIVES for a while).
I think the funniest scene ever in Soap was the time Jody hid Bob in the refrigerator, Chuck then has severel withdrawl symptoms upon discovering Bob’s disapearance, and finally the priceless look on Burt’s face when he opens the refrigerator door.
My particular favorite was the scene set in a bar, in which all of the Campbell have gotten very drunk. When Bob announces that he’s going to be sick, all of the others instinctively shy back before he can spew.
Chuck and Bob were on an episode of Mrs. Colombo (starring Capt. Janeaway!). They also hosted a syndicated game show whose name escapes me. Celebrity Charades or something like that.
Actually I think it he used a different dummy than Bob on those shows, but he looked & sounded the same.
Yes! One of the funniest scenes I’ve ever seen. they were sitting around the breakfast table while Chuck is frantically trying to recover Bob, and one of his ‘withdrawal symptoms’ is to pick up a grapefruit and turn it into a puppet! I don’t remember the greapfruit’s “joke” at the time, but I was in tears!
When Chuck finally does rescue Bob from the refrigerator, Bob calmly announces “the light does stay on in there!”
Chuck’s grapefruit said something along the these lines to Jody: “Hah! I’m a fruit talking to another fruit!”
I wish they’d done more with Chuck and Bob’s characters. They never got into any adventures. Billy at least got kidnapped by the Sunnies and had the affair with his teacher, who later tried to kill herself and him.