The (70's? 80's?) Sitcom "Soap" -- C or D?

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I think it's Comedy Central that does marathon showings of this every once in a while. I'm not all that into sit-coms but I got sucked into a marathon of this one afternoon and just spent the whole afternoon laughing my ass off at it. Will they ever make a sitcom that funny again??

― jewelly (jewelly), Sunday, 20 April 2003 15:54 (twenty-three years ago)

Classic. I'm waiting for it to hit DVD (either that or I am wasting precious moments sitting here when I could be out buying it on DVD, but I don't think it's out yet). Turning invisible by snapping fingers = best insanity ever.

It managed to do a lot of things that, if any other show had tried them, would come off as obnoxiously gimmicky, cute, or "daring." Somehow it worked, maybe just because for Soap, those things were par for the course. Even when the acting was bad, it was great -- hell, that helped it! (Katherine ... Helmond, I think? The redhead, played Mona on Who's the Boss -- her delivery in some episodes sounds like she's reading right off of a teleprompter, but somehow that doesn't hurt things at all).

― Tep (ktepi), Sunday, 20 April 2003 16:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, Soap was terrific fun, though I vaguely remember gradually losing interest after a while. Don't know how long it ran, but I think I stopped watching near the end.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 20 April 2003 16:01 (twenty-three years ago)

Soap is, I think, only watchable in marathon form. I remember the first time I watched it (as a marathon) getting so sucked into the original story arc that I sat waiting to find out whodunnit (or whatever that first arc is, I can't remember now) for hours and hours even though I really, really, really needed to take a shower, etc.

But yeah, after a few seasons it got old. Billy Crystal's gay character was done so poorly that I'm amazed it gets any props at all but then I guess that's how these things have to start...

― Chris P (Chris P), Sunday, 20 April 2003 16:07 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, Billy Crystal's character was awful all the way through. He starts out as a campy cross-dresser (as if all gay men ever do is walk around their houses in women's clothes) and then they tried to make him "serious" and that was even worse (meets and falls in love with a lesbian while both are standing suicidal on a bridge contemplating jumping ... uh, check please!) And the show got really bad toward the end. Have to disagree about Jessica tho -- she was my favorite character and that actress was my fav. actress on the show!!

― jewelly (jewelly), Sunday, 20 April 2003 16:28 (twenty-three years ago)

Have to disagree about Jessica tho -- she was my favorite character and that actress was my fav. actress on the show!!

She's one of my favorites, depending on the plotline -- but I still don't think her delivery was very good, most of the time. Like I said, though -- in Soap, that was okay, it didn't hurt anything.

I suspect Chris is right about marathonning -- Comedy Central (I think, maybe TV Land) used to have it on in the afternoons, two back to back episodes, but it didn't stay there long.

― Tep (ktepi), Sunday, 20 April 2003 16:50 (twenty-three years ago)

Katherine Helmond also has a good cameo in Brazil, as Jonathan Pryce's mother getting ridiculous things done to her face by, I think, Jim Broadbent.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 20 April 2003 17:31 (twenty-three years ago)

Yup to both. She's also in Time Bandits as Peter Vaughan's troll wife (and interestingly in Brazil there's a quiet implication that Vaughan and Helmond's characters have had an affair).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 20 April 2003 17:33 (twenty-three years ago)

...getting ridiculous things done to her face by

Please! So much more than that "The greatest gift of all--cosmetic surgery."

Actually, her face just slides off at one point.

― Skottie, Sunday, 20 April 2003 20:45 (twenty-three years ago)

Classic, yes! It was dearly loved in Norway and Sweden (where it started off a couple of years earlier), too -- although it was AFAICR shown quite some time before any "real" soaps, meaning most of the parody element was lost.

Turning invisible by snapping fingers = best insanity ever.
Although snapping fingers weren't sufficient, of course -- you had to go - > < - ~~ - > < - with your hands as well.

― OleM (OleM), Sunday, 20 April 2003 21:02 (twenty-three years ago)

classic. Though it's been a long time since I've seen it. The thing that sticks out the most, of course, is the finger-snapping, which still makes me giggle when I think about it.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 20 April 2003 21:30 (twenty-three years ago)

Fuck that shit!! Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman!!

― nickn (nickn), Monday, 21 April 2003 05:16 (twenty-three years ago)

Didn't the program end in an unresolved cliffhanger with a character facing a Mexican firing squad?
My main problem with Mary Hartman is that it was so concerned with sending up minute soap opera cliches that it winds up to anal to be funny. (not to mention its slow pacing.) Whereas Soap takes the cliches in broad terms and runs with it. it never tried to fool you that you were watching a actual soap opera.

― gery forbes (gery), Monday, 21 April 2003 06:22 (twenty-three years ago)

Pacing was slow on a show to show basis, perhaps, but it was on 5 days a week (like a real soap) so it progressed as fast as it needed to, I think. It was frequently brilliant. It also had a gay character that was miles ahead of anything else on TV, probably even for a long time afterwards.

― nickn (nickn), Monday, 21 April 2003 22:49 (twenty-three years ago)

nine months pass...

i will pay for copies of each show.

― wes, Tuesday, 17 February 2004 00:09 (twenty-two years ago)

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