O'Gara, Hugh (September 10, 1977). "KXON says 'No 'Soap to eastern South Dakota TV audiences" . Argus-Leader . Vol.92, no.253. Sioux Falls, SD. p.1 . Retrieved July 11, 2021. Much of Soap's controversy, among liberals and conservatives alike, ironically helped sell the series to the general public. Fueled by six months of pre-show protests (as well as a solid lead-in from the hit shows Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley and Three's Company), the first episode swept its time slot with a 25.6 rating and a 39% share of the national audience. Although ABC received hundreds of phone calls after the premiere, executives at the network described initial public reaction as "mild" with more calls in favor of the show than in protest. A University of Richmond poll found that 74% of viewers found Soap inoffensive, 26% found it offensive, and half of those who were offended said they planned to watch it the next week. [5] The Roman Catholic Church, led by its Los Angeles Archdiocese, also condemned the show and asked all American families to boycott it, saying, "ABC should be told that American Catholics and all Americans are not going to sit by and watch the networks have open season on Catholicism and morality. [ Soap] is probably one of the most effective arguments for government censorship of TV that has yet come along." [9] In August, the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, representing the three branches of Judaism, joined the Catholic protest, saying that the show, yet to be aired, "reached a new low".

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (Katherine Helmond) – nominated: 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981 On August 27, 2013, it was announced that Mill Creek Entertainment had acquired the rights to various television series from the Sony Pictures library, including Soap. [26] The company subsequently rereleased the first and second seasons on DVD on September 2, 2014, [27] and Soap: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1 on June 2, 2015. [28] Most of the episodes on the Mill Creek sets are the original, uncut ABC versions, and the "On the last episode of Soap ..." synopses from the final season have been restored. [29] See also [ edit ] The wealthy Tate family employs a sarcastic butler/cook named Benson ( Robert Guillaume). Benson clearly despises Chester, but has a soft spot for their son, Billy ( Jimmy Baio). He also gets along with the Tates' daughter Corinne ( Diana Canova) as well as their mother, Jessica; but doesn't speak to the other daughter, Eunice ( Jennifer Salt), although that later changed. Benson became a popular character and in 1979 left the Tates' employ to work for Jessica's cousin, Governor Gene Gatling, on the spin-off series Benson, wherein his last name, DuBois, was revealed. The Tates had to hire a new butler/cook named Saunders ( Roscoe Lee Browne), whose attitude is similar to that of Benson, but has a more formal personality. Since its cancellation, Soap's reputation has grown and it is often considered one of the best shows in television history. [2] Much praise has been given to its "exceptionally rich cast" [23] of performers "such as was seldom seen on any serious dramatic show". [13] DuBrow, Ric (September 10, 1991). " Golden Girls Creator Adds Shows". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved November 6, 2021.

Father Flotsky's stand on liberalizing the Mass will have to be treated in a balanced, inoffensive manner. By way of example, the substitution of Oreos for the traditional wafer is unacceptable."

a b c d e "Soap". The Museum of Broadcast Communications. Archived from the original on January 11, 2014 . Retrieved January 31, 2014. Aldridge, Ron (July 4, 1978). "WSOC May Make 'Soap' Permanent". The Charlotte Observer. p.16A . Retrieved July 11, 2011.

Director Jay Sandrich was nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series at the DGA Awards in 1978 and 1979. a b c Ayers, Dennis (October 12, 2007). "Billy Crystal's place in gay pop culture history". AfterElton.com. Some of the episodes on these DVD collections are edited or replaced with the syndicated versions, shortened by as much as 2 to 3 minutes. Season 1 is also missing the disclaimer at the start of the show. In addition, the DVDs omit the three 90-minute Soap retrospective clips shows, which aired before each season began to remind the audience of what happened in the story during the previous season. The season 1 retrospective "Who Killed Peter Campbell?" and season 3 retrospective "Jessica's Wonderful Life" were released on VHS in the 1990s. The Soap Memo" was a rare public look into the behind-the-scenes process at a major network and copies of the document were often found posted on the bulletin boards of television production companies and on studio sets as a rallying point against censorship. In addition, the specific details in the memo further fueled the growing debate regarding the controversial content of Soap. Premiere and critical reception [ edit ]

At the beginning of each episode, off-camera announcer Rod Roddy gives a brief summary of the convoluted storyline and remarks, "Confused? You won't be, after this week's episode of ... Soap." At the end of each episode, he asks a series of life-or-death questions in a deliberately deadpan style—"Will Jessica discover Chester's affair? Will Benson discover Chester's affair? Will Benson care?" and concludes each episode with the trademark line, "These questions—and many others—will be answered in the next episode of ... Soap." In a 1982 analysis in The Village Voice, published as the series was entering syndication, TV critic Tom Carson lauded the ensemble, saying that "the cast matches the best TV series rep troupes ever." Carson went on to note that Soap "patently started out intended as a lampoon of middle-class values, and ended up instead as a weirdly offbeat celebration of them". [24]On the more positive side, TV Guide gave the show a good review saying that there was "a heap of talent" in the cast and asking "Is it funny? Yes it is ... and I guess that constitutes redeeming social value". [22] Aside from the external protests, Soap was also subject to heavy internal revisions from ABC's Broadcast Standards & Practices department, which monitors the content of programs. Writer-creator Susan Harris had developed a story arc for Soap in the form of a "show bible" which traced all the major characters, stories and events for five seasons. The Standards & Practices executives (commonly referred to as "censors") reviewed this extensive bible as well as the script for the two-part pilot and issued a long memo to Harris voicing their concerns about various storylines and characters. In addition to the sexual material that was widely reported in the press, the censors also took issue with the show's religious, political and ethnic content. [20] A 1983 episode of Benson mentions Jessica's disappearance, noting that the Tate family is seeking to have her declared legally dead. In the episode, Jessica appears as an apparition who only Benson can see or hear and reveals to him that she is not dead, but in a coma somewhere in South America. No other incidents from the final episode of Soap are mentioned, and the opening bars of the theme song for Soap play as she leaves the room. The show aired 85 episodes over the course of four seasons. Of these, eight episodes (including the final four) aired as one-hour episodes during the original run on ABC. These hour-long episodes were later split in two, yielding 93 half-hour episodes for syndication. Like most sitcoms of the era, Soap was videotaped rather than filmed, but this coincidentally helped further its emulation of the daytime soap opera format, as most such productions were also videotaped. All episodes are available on Region 1 DVD in four box sets. There is a box set of Season 1 on Region 2 DVD. The series has rerun in syndication on local channels as well as on cable.