Welcome to a new Sitcom Tuesday! Today, we’re continuing our coverage on the best episodes from Soap (1977-1981, ABC), perhaps the most controversial sitcom of the ’70s. I’m pleased to announce that the entire series has been released on DVD.
“This is the story of two sisters, Jessica Tate and Mary Campbell. Jessica lives in a neighborhood known as “rich”. Jessica likes life, the only thing about life she would change if she could, is that she would set it all to music. The Tates have more secrets than they do money. We’re approaching Mary Campbell’s house. Mary, too, likes life. Unfortunately, life doesn’t seem to be too crazy about her. As you can see the Campbell’s don’t have nearly as much money as the Tates. They do, however, have as many secrets.” Soap stars KATHERINE HELMOND as Jessica Tate, CATHRYN DAMON as Mary Campbell, RICHARD MULLIGAN as Burt Campbell, ROBERT MANDAN as Chester Tate, DIANA CANOVA as Corinne Tate, BILLY CRYSTAL as Jodie Dallas, TED WASS as Danny Dallas, JENNIFER SALT as Eunice Tate, ARTHUR PETERSON as The Major, JIMMY BAIO as Billy Tate, JAY JOHNSON as Chuck (and Bob) Tate, and ROBERT GUIILLAUME as Benson.
Soap‘s second season is the series’ most consistent, and as a result, stands as what we could probably term the show’s “golden age.” With all of the characters well established and explored in the first season, Harris and new writing partner Stu Silver are able to do almost anything they want. Indeed, the show becomes even more daring — with gut-wrenching tragedy (like Elaine’s murder, which would feel out of place on almost any other sitcom), groundbreaking storytelling (including frank discusses about sex — it’s almost shocking how much they were able to get away with in ’78), and zany comedy (which intensifies at the end of the year when devil babies and alien spaceships rule the scripts). In Season Two, the show incorporates more daytime tropes, as Chester’s amnesia and Corinne’s demon baby provide some of the more memorable story lines of the year, particularly because of the show’s regular employment of its tongue-in-cheek tone. Although we have been advised by Harris to not merely see Soap as a primetime satire of daytime TV, this season sure seems like one wicked parody of television dramas (and comedies) and how the medium crafts stories. Because of the high quality of this season, this list was the toughest to make. Nevertheless, I have picked ten episodes that I think exemplify this season’s strongest installments. For new fans, this list will give you a place to start. For seasoned fans, there might be a few surprises.
Here are my picks for the ten best episodes of Season Two. (They are in AIRING ORDER.) Every episode this season is directed by Jay Sandrich, unless otherwise noted. Note that each episode is listed by the number it is given on the DVD set, and hour-long installments are considered two separate entries. (This is not only because they would be split into two during syndication, but also because I do not think it fair to compare episodes of varying lengths.) The clip show special that opened the season is not considered an installment, although this particular one has been released on VHS.
01) Episode 26 (I) (Aired: 09/14/78)
Chester tries to commit suicide; Corinne meets Tim’s mother.
Written by Susan Harris
While Jodie’s attempted suicide in the previous season was treated with seriousness, Chester’s decision to hang himself in the kitchen following Jessica’s guilty verdict is rendered a slapstick tour de force, kicking off a season where comedy and drama are paired together in the most masterful of ways. (The balance would slip next season.) This is the first half of what originally was produced and aired, and labeled on the DVD, as a single one-hour episode, but the scenes from this part are collectively funnier than what followed. Tim’s mother, played by Doris Roberts, trying to strangle Corinne is probably the highlight. But I recommend watching the second half, in which Chester confesses and we meet Dutch, as well!
02) Episode 28 (Aired: 09/28/78)
The Campbells have trouble tolerating Elaine; Eunice sleeps with Dutch.
Story by Susan Harris | Teleplay by Susan Harris & Jordan Crittenden
This is maybe the first of several ’78 and ’79 episodes in which every scene is a winner, with big laughs and fabulous character moments. While the episode is notable for the first pairing of Dutch and Eunice (who have what might be considered today an insensitive conversation about rape), there are some unparalleled moments of comedy. The dinner scene with Burt, Mary, Danny and Elaine, in which the latter’s nastiness finally earns her a pie in the face (courtesy of a fed up Mary) is a classic, and the conversation that Mary and Jessica share in the Tate kitchen, where they compare family scandals (Dutch and Chester in the basement vs. Jodie becoming a father) is among the show’s finest — ever.
03) Episode 31 (Aired: 10/19/78)
Burt and Mary try to get Danny and Elaine to be nice to each other; Dutch visits Eunice.
Story by Susan Harris | Teleplay by Susan Harris & Jordan Crittenden
In addition to another funny scene between Dutch and Eunice, who share a midnight visit while the former is on the run, this installment makes the list because of the goings on in the Campbell household, where we continue with Danny trying to change Elaine, (who, it should be noted, is played by Dinah Manoff, daughter of Lee Grant, the star of Witt, Thomas, and Harris’ Fay) by treating her with a hyper-masculine form of cruelty. As Burt bluntly talks to Elaine about being nicer to Danny and trusting his family, Mary encourages Danny to cut the routine and just treat his wife with kindness. It’s not only a funny scene, but it starts one of the show’s most earnest arcs. Plus Chester wakes up and thinks he’s Gunga Din!
04) Episode 32 (Aired: 11/02/78)
Elaine opens up to Danny; Jodie meets Carol’s father.
Written by Susan Harris
A legendary installment, this one — perhaps more than any other this season — epitomizes the series’ incorporation of both the light and the dark. While this episode is well remembered for a shockingly truthful scene between Danny and Elaine in which she breaks down in front of him and reveals why she’s so hard (and it’s not played for laughs), it also features what will become a Susan Harris staple (particularly on her big hit of the following decade, The Golden Girls, which we’ll be covering here sometime in 2016): women talking sex and eating cake. With that unmistakable Harris writing, the Tate and Campbell women’s conversation is a new height for the series — one that it will spend its next few years trying to reach.
05) Episode 34 (Aired: 11/23/78)
Burt wakes up with Sally; Chester thinks he’s Marlene Dietrich.
Story by Susan Harris | Teleplay by Susan Harris & Stu Silver
Chester thinking he’s Marlene Dietrich is probably the funniest thing that the show ever handed to Robert Mandan. It isn’t often that he gets to be as zany as the other characters, but this episode proves that he can certainly deliver. It’s another crowning achievement in this season of hilarity. But this episode is, like so many this year, filled with delectable bits — among them, Burt’s convoluted “airplane on the highway” lie to cover up for the fact that he spent the entire evening doing who-knows-what at Sally’s, the scene between Mary and Elaine in their garish face masks (including a great joke about cow placentas and heifers), and Jessica’s attempt to give a worthy toast at the bridal shower that she’s thrown for Carol.
06) Episode 36 (Aired: 12/07/78)
Jessica hires Detective Donohue; Corinne gets some surprising news about her pregnancy.
Story by Susan Harris | Teleplay by Susan Harris & Stu Silver
Yet again, we have another installment in which each scene is just as funny, if not funnier, than the one that preceded it. We begin with some great slapstick among the Campbell clan when Elaine goes missing, move to the introduction of John Byner as Detective Donohue, whom Jessica has hired to find Chester, then find Corinne at the gynecologist, who reveals that she’s actually five months along (Helmond’s Jessica is laugh-so-hard-you-cry funny here), pick up with Jodie as Dennis, Carol, and a wacky commercial involving men dressed as fruit compete for his attention, and conclude with more physical comedy as Burt and Danny talk to Elaine’s kidnappers. It’s an action and hilarity packed installment. MVE runner up.
07) Episode 40 (Aired: 01/11/79)
The family has a memorial for Chester; Jodie goes to Carol’s home in Texas.
Written by Susan Harris & Stu Silver
With everyone believing that Chester had died, this installment begins with a memorial service in which the family tries hard to memorialize the late amnesic philanderer, but of course, it isn’t easy. Little do they know that he’s wandering around (alive, obviously) and believing himself to be Lester Pate… The comedic (and dramatic) center point of the episode, however, has Jodie tracking down Carol at her home in Texas, where she tells him that she doesn’t want him to be the father of her baby. But this is after he gets a chance to meet her daffy pure Texan mother, Lurleen David, played by Peggy Pope, who makes the first of several hilarious and memorable guest appearances.
08) Episode 44 (Aired: 02/15/79)
Jessica tells Chester about her affair with Donohue; Sally confesses to Mary.
Written by Susan Harris & Stu Silver | Directed by John Bowab
The A.V. club wrote an article specifically about this episode, and frankly, it seems a bit of an odd choice to single out. It’s a strong episode, no doubt, but certainly not the funniest of the season. Nevertheless, we have a lot of memorable moments, chief of which (and why it was worthy of the author’s time) is that it hints at the demonic devil baby storyline that will monopolize the rest of the season. And indeed it’s a wickedly frightening bit. First, however, we get some worthy comedy, as Jessica tells the returned Chester that she has been unfaithful — with the detective she hired to find him, and Billy gets his first real storyline as an old crush of his invites him to join her cult, the Sunnies.
09) Episode 46 (Aired: 03/08/79)
Corinne’s baby is harassing the Tate household; Jodie and Alice make a decision.
Written by Susan Harris & Stu Silver
A lot of this feels like set-up for the season finale, and while I wrote last week about my strained relationship with season ending episodes as they have to do a lot of heavy-lifting in terms of story and meeting their predisposed cliffhangers, these two episodes probably represent Soap at its pinnacle, and the most event-like that it would ever be. (That’s not to say that these are the greatest episodes, because I think there are definitely funnier ones.) But much of this offering finds the family coming to terms with and facing up to Corinne and Tim’s possessed baby. The absurdity yields a lot of comedy. Meanwhile, Alice gets her best scene on the series as she and Jodie decide to try a relationship.
10) Episode 47 (Aired: 03/15/79)
Danny confronts Elaine’s murderer; the Tates confront Corinne’s baby.
Written by Susan Harris & Stu Silver
As mentioned above, this is a Soap EVENT as the Tates and Campbells prepare to exorcise the devil out of Corinne’s baby. Unfortunately, while this is a strong season finale, that moment is an anti-climax, as the demon is driven out by a sappy half-hearted speech that Jessica gives about family. It’s a letdown from all that has transpired, hurting the whole storyline. Other than that, this is a very funny outing. The scene in which Corrine voices her belief that this possessed baby is a consequence of her promiscuous past is filled with great lines. (She slept with the mayor and his opponent. The better man won.) And in addition to the memorable cliffhanger of Burt being abducted, Jessica has a choice to make…
Other notable episodes that narrowly missed the list above include: Episode 39 (Aired: 01/04/79), which features one of the funniest scenes of the season as Jessica, Billy, and Benson pretend to be a family to throw a police officer off the scent of Eunice and Dutch (but this is the offering’s only standout moment), Episode 41 (Aired: 01/18/79), which introduces Alice (not an abundantly humorous character) and features a fun scene of the Campbell/Dallas men getting drunk, and Episode 43 (Aired: 02/08/79), in which Chester returns just after Jessica and Donohue have spent their first night together (and the best of these three here).
*** The MVE Award for the Best Episode from Season Two of Soap goes to…..
Episode 32
Come back next Tuesday for the best from the third season! And tune in tomorrow for a new Wildcard Wednesday post!