SOAP

The Complete Series
Seasons 1 - 4
90 Episodes
12 Discs on DVDR

FREE SHIPPING!!!

DVD Features:
Video and sound reproduction ratio 9.65 of 10
Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)

Main Characters:
Katherine Helmond - Jessica Tate - The sister of Mary Campbell and one of the two main focus characters of the show. She is married to Chester Tate but divorces him in the later episodes.
Robert Mandan - Chester Tate - A wealthy stock broker and Jessica's philandering husband. Jimmy Baio - Billy Tate - The youngest child and only son of Jessica and Chester. He later has an affair with his very young teacher.
Diana Canova - Corinne Tate Flotsky - Jessica and Chester's daughter. It is later revealed that she is adopted and is really the daughter of Jessica's long lost brother Randolph Gatling and family maid Ingrid Svenson. She later gives birth to a baby named Timmy who turns out to be demon possessed, and leaves home to raise her child after the demon is exorcised.
Sal Viscuso - Father Timothy Flotsky - A former Catholic priest who leaves the priesthood to marry Corinne Tate.
Robert Guillaume - Benson DuBois - The Tates' wisecracking butler in the early seasons. He was later given his own spin-off, Benson.
Roscoe Lee Browne - Saunders - Benson's replacement as the Tates' butler. Similar attitude.
Jennifer Salt - Eunice Tate-Leitner - Jessica and Chester's daughter. A spoiled social climber, she eventually begins a romance with Dutch Leitner.
Donnelly Rhodes - Dutch Leitner - an escaped convict who hides out at the Tates' after helping Chester break out of prison. He eventually marries Chester's daughter Eunice.
Arthur Peterson, Jr. - The Major - The father of Jessica Tate and Mary Campbell. The major suffers from senility and believes he is in the midst of fighting World War II.
Cathryn Damon - Mary Campbell - The sister of Jessica Tate and one of the two main focus characters of the show. At the start of the series she is married to her second husband Burt Campbell. It is revealed her first husband, Johnny Dallas, had been a mobster who was killed by Burt. Eventually, she has a baby with "alien" Burt, and by the series' end has slowly become an alcoholic, as no one else sees the baby manifesting alien-esque qualities, such as being able to fly.
Richard Mulligan - Burt Campbell and X-23 (Alien Burt) - Burt is the second husband of Mary Campbell. Burt is a contractor who later becomes sheriff. In Season one Burt suffers from mental illness and believes he can make himself invisible. He is also at one point abducted by aliens and replaced with a Burt lookalike. X-23 is the alien duplicate of Burt sent to Earth when Burt is abducted.
Jay Johnson - Chuck and Bob Campbell - Chuck is Burt Campbell's son by his first marriage. A ventriloquist, he is always accompanied by Bob, his dummy and alter ego and the pair are always referred to as "Chuck and Bob".
Robert Urich - Peter Campbell - Burt Campbell's tennis pro son by his first marriage. His murder in season one leads to the first season cliffhanger.
Ted Wass - Danny Dallas - Mary Campbell's somewhat dimwitted son. It is widely assumed that he is the son of Mary's first husband Johnny Dallas but in later episodes it is revealed that his real father is Chester Tate. He later becomes Burt's deputy sheriff.
Billy Crystal - Jodie Dallas - The son of Mary Campbell and first husband Johnny Dallas. An openly gay man, he later fathers a daughter when a female friend seduces him. Much of his storyline involves getting his daughter back from the mother. The series ends with him believing himself to be an old Jewish man due to a failed hypnotherapy session.
Dinah Manoff - Elaine Lefkowitz-Dallas - The daughter of a Jewish mob boss. A spoiled and demanding woman, her father forces Danny to marry her so that he can get rid of her. She is eventually killed by hit men.

Controversy
The show was controversial for its time, dealing openly with the topics of homosexuality, marital infidelity, impotence, interracial marriage, and same-sex parenting.Soap was among the earliest American primetime series to include a regular gay character (Jodie Dallas, played by Billy Crystal). Soap is commonly cited as the first series to do this, but it was preceded by at least three other such shows: 1972's The Corner Bar, 1975's Hot L Baltimore, and 1976's The Nancy Walker Show. The confusion may result from the fact that none of those shows achieved the ratings success of Soap.Much of Soap's controversy preceded its September 1977 premiere. In June of that year, a review of the show's pilot by Harry F. Waters stated:"SOAP" promises to be the most controversial network series of the coming season, a show so saturated with sex that it could replace violence as the PTA's Video Enemy No. 1." [1]
The review went on to pan the show, while also mischaracterizing some of its basic plot elements and offering exaggerated reports of its sexual content.[citation needed]A number of organizations then mobilized against Soap, including the Christian Life Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, the International Union of Gay Athletes, and the National Gay Task Force[citation needed]. Also mobilized were the National Council of Churches, the United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church, and the National Council of Catholic Bishops, although they asked the members of their 138,000 collective churches to watch the show first, and then inform ABC of their feelings about it. Nonetheless, the network reportedly received 32,000 letters of complaint before the show's premiere, and eight out of 195 ABC affiliates refused to air the show.

 Plot
Soap is set in the fictional town of Dunn's River, Connecticut. In the very first opening sequence, the announcer says that the Tates live in a neighborhood known as "Rich". The wealthy Tate family employs a sarcastic butler, Benson DuBois (referred to only as "Benson" on this series), played by Robert Guillaume, who is perhaps the only "normal" character on the series. In 1979, Guillaume's character was spun off into his own series, Benson. In Soap, the name "DuBois" is never mentioned, and there are several suggestions that Benson is his surname.Jessica and her husband, Chester, are hardly models of fidelity, as their various love affairs result in several family mishaps, including the murder of Mary's stepson, Peter Campbell (Robert Urich). Even though everyone tells Jessica about Chester's affairs, she does not believe them until she sees his philandering with her own eyes: while out to lunch with Mary, Jessica spots Chester necking with his secretary. Heartbroken, she sobs in her sister's arms. On later occasions, it becomes clear Jess has always known on some level about Chester's affairs but never allowed herself to process the information.Mary's family, the Campbells, are more middle-class, and as the series begins, her son Danny Dallas, a product of her first marriage to Johnny Dallas, is a junior gangster-in-training. Danny is told to kill his stepfather, Burt Campbell, Mary's current husband, who, Danny is told, murdered his father Johnny. It is later revealed that Danny's father was killed by Burt in self-defense. Danny refuses to kill Burt and goes on the run from the Mob in a variety of disguises. This eventually ends when Elaine Lefkowitz (played by Dinah Manoff), the spoiled daughter of the Mob Boss (played by Sorrell Booke), falls in love with Danny and stops her father, who then tells Danny he will have to marry Elaine or he will kill him. In the fourth season, it is revealed that Chester is, in fact, Danny's true father, the product of a secret affair between him and Mary before his marriage to Jessica.The first season ends with Jessica convicted of the murder of Peter Campbell. The announcer concludes the season by announcing that Jessica is innocent, and that one of five characters - Burt, Chester, Jodie, Benson or Corinne - killed Peter Campbell. The interest over this cliffhanger precursored interest over the "Who shot J.R.?" cliffhanger on Dallas. Chester later confesses to Peter's murder and is sent to prison.