Soap - DVD

Soap - The Complete First Season

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 87 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Even before it premiered on September 13, 1977 (Tuesdays at 9:30 pm on ABC), Soap was mired in controversy (including 32,000 letters of protest) and primed to make television history. Conceived as a primetime satire of daytime melodramas, this groundbreaking series toppled many of the TV taboos that remained after All in the Family and M*A*S*H, openly addressing a variety of risky topics (homosexuality, infidelity, impotence, familial murder) with a deft combination of irreverent wit, wacky slapstick, supreme stupidity, and--key to its success--engaging drama from characters you could really care about, regardless of their rampant quirks and foibles.

As a friendly announcer informs us, "this is the story of two sisters" in suburban Connecticut--wealthy dimwit Jessica Tate (Katherine Helmond) and blue-collar housewife Mary Campbell (Cathryn Damon)--whose class-divided families are bound by enough scandalous secrets to make each of these 25 episodes (all written by creator-producer Susan Harris and directed by sitcom veteran Jay Sandrich) a polished gem of half-hour comedy. The integration of plot and character is flawless, and dirty laundry was rarely this absurd: Jessica's cheating on her cheating husband (Robert Mandan, the show's underrated lynchpin); stepson Jodie (Billy Crystal) is (gasp!) openly gay, and brother Danny (Ted Wass) has Mafia connections; daughter Corrine (Diana Canova) is in love with a priest; Mary's husband Burt (manic genius Richard Mulligan) is a would-be killer who thinks he's invisible; and all of them are suspects in a murder case that fuels the season's cliffhanger finale.

This is ensemble comedy at its finest, and is it any wonder Robert Guillaume--as the Tates' insolent servant Benson--got his own spin-off sitcom in 1979? His line readings (such as "You want me to get that?" when the doorbell rings) are instant classics, and while Helmond tops the cast with her inimitable brand of idiocy, there's not a weak link in the entire cast. All those protesting prudes fought a futile battle: Soap was never naughty without purpose (indeed, the show possesses subtle integrity) and a large and loyal audience propelled it to even crazier heights in subsequent seasons. (Technical note: Given the shortcomings of 25-year-old videotape, with minor glitches and color variations, these episodes look and sound remarkably good.) --Jeff Shannon

Soap - The Complete Fourth Season

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 35 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Even as it struggled with lower ratings and ongoing backlash from conservative watchdogs, Soap entered its fourth and final season with big laughs and plenty of surprises. The series was beginning to lose its edge with interwoven plots even more preposterous than usual, but its primary strengths (a great ensemble cast, risk-taking writing, and a delicate combination of humor and pathos) are still abundantly evident as Jessica Tate (Katherine Helmond) emerges from a coma in episode 1. In the 20 episodes that follow, Burt (Robert Mulligan) will survive a blackmailing scandal and, as the new local sheriff, begin a political career; Jodie (Billy Crystal) fights for child custody, enters into psychotherapy, and begins to channel a 90-year-old Jewish man from a previous life; Mary (Cathryn Damon) suspects that her newborn child is an extraterrestrial, and devastates Jessica with a long-held secret about her past involving Chester (Robert Mandan); and the now-liberated Jessica gets involved with El Puerco (Gregory Sierra, from TV's Barney Miller), a revolutionary from the (fictional) Latin American country of Malaguay.

These and other plots--including an affair between Danny (Ted Wass) and Chester's new wife Annie (Nancy Dolman), and the climactic kidnapping of Jessica--ensured that Soap's final season was never boring for even a minute, and the one-liners are endlessly quotable as series creator Susan Harris (here backed, for the first time, by a stable of cowriters) dares to combine comedy with heavier elements of betrayal, alcoholism, life-threatening situations, and heartwarming reconciliation. These shifts of tone still qualify Soap as one of the most accomplished sitcoms in TV history (you'd be hard pressed to find a better cast capable of handling such a dynamic range of comi-tragic extremes), and with Sierra and a then-unknown Joe Mantegna providing the best laughs from an impressive guest-star lineup, the series mixed up its volatile ingredients with considerable aplomb and no small degree of genuine humanity. While some characters suffered due to the season's ambitious plotting, it's still clear that Soap could have thrived into a fifth season and beyond. Alas, it wasn't to be. Amidst threats of sponsor withdrawal and the inevitable fallout of ratings in decline, ABC pulled the plug on Soap, depriving loyal viewers to a resolution to this season's cliffhangers, which left several key characters on the brink of disaster. It's therefore regrettable that this DVD set lacks any bonus material that would provide a retrospective summation of what was, for its time, one of TV's boldest comedy experiments. --Jeff Shannon

Soap - The Complete Second Season

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 37 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Soap is gone. Long Live Soap! 5 out of 5 stars.
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Love it! Love it! Love it! One of the funniest shows ever made for TV.

A blast from the past 5 out of 5 stars.
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Oh, how I loved to watch SOAP when it first aired. My entire family would congregate in the living room and laugh away. Recently, my family discovered this dvd series. I was thrilled to see the show stands the test of time and still enthralls my children as much as it did me. The show has also triggered intelligent questions from my children regarding sociological issues dealt with in SOAP. It is also just a hoot!

great gift for my mom :-) 5 out of 5 stars.
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my mom likes the old school comedy... so far I've bought the 1st and 2nd season of Soap for her and she's thrilled. Excellent choice :-)

Sillier than Season 1 5 out of 5 stars.
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Season 2 of "Soap" picks up where Season 1 left off. Finally, Peter's killer is revealed; Fr. Tim and Corinne get married; and Jodie moves in with Carol. These events give rise to a new series of story arcs, including Eunice falling in love with an escaped convict, Corinne giving birth to a demonically possessed baby, and Chester losing his mind and running away from home.

I bought the first two seasons of "Soap" after spending most of my childhood hearing, from my parents (who saw it when it was first on TV), just how funny it was. It took me a while to get around to watching it, because I was convinced that it could not possibly live up to what my parents had told me, but when I did finally get around to seeing it, over 30 years after it was first aired, I realized that everything my parents had told me was true. "Soap" is, without a doubt, one of the funniest TV shows I have ever seen, and it holds up extremely well after all of these years.

The story lines in the second season of "Soap" are sillier than those in the first, and whether this is a good thing or a bad thing will largely depend on your point of view. I, personally, liked the "out there" story lines. Aliens, evil babies, cults, all of these things are great as far as I'm concerned. However, my mother preferred the more reality-based plots of the first season. The best thing about Season two is that it allowed some of the characters who were in the background in Season one to become more developed. Eunice (Jennifer Salt), for example, whom I considered to be essentially a "non-character" in Season one, now gets a major story arc and proves that she is just as funny as her fellow cast members, although Jodie (Billy Crystal), who had a major part in Season one, slips into the background. Finally, as with Season one, Season two also ends on a cliff-hanger (or three). One that will make you want to keep watching into Season three.

Editorial Review:

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 06/28/2005 Run time: 566 minutes Rating: Nr

Soap - The Complete Third Season

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 27 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The Third Season......Ya, It Was Good! 4 out of 5 stars.
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This is a series where every episode is just so great. You have so much physical comedy you can't take your eyes away for very long or else you will miss something fantastic. The one-liners, the interaction between Chuck and Bob, the interplay between all of Jessica's boyfriends, not to mention her husband, is simply fantastic. This goes for all three seasons I have seen so far.

Season Three while not as good as Season One (When is it ever?) Is better than Season Two. At this point we care deeply about the characters and follow them religiously. We're worried about Jody's baby, and rooting for the relationship between Polly and Danny as it reveals the dark side of our culture. Season Three does have a more series air about it, but it doesn't take anything away from the laughs. This season tugs at your heart strings as well as your funny bone.

is there a season five??? 5 out of 5 stars.
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i love every single episode , but i,m stumped what happens to jessica ??is she executed??

Editorial Review:

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 12/20/2005 Run time: 611 minutes Rating: Nr

Soap: The Complete Fourth Season

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