Series Description

The Soap TV show was a 30 minute comedy series on which ran for 85 episodes over four seasons from September 13, 1977 through April 20, 1981 on ABC. It made fun of soap operas using a never-ending list of impossible characters! What about a guy who has his dead dog stuffed but thinks he's still alive? How about a fellow with a ventriloquist dummy where you think the dummy is alive and controlling the ventriloquist? Or a smart-mouthed butler who tells off his employers? Well, you get the picture! It's Soap!

Soap Cast

Katherine Helmond .... Jessica Tate
Cathryn Damon .... Mary Campbell
Robert Mandan .... Chester Tate
Richard Mulligan .... Burt Campbell
Billy Crystal .... Jodie Dallas
Ted Wass .... Danny Dallas
Diana Canova .... Corinne Tate Flotsky
Robert Guillaume .... Benson
Jennifer Salt .... Eunice Tate Lightner
Jimmy Baio .... Billy Tate
Arthur Peterson .... The Major
Jay Johnson .... Chuck / Bob Campbell
Robert Urich .... Peter (The Tennis Player)
Donnelly Rhodes .... Dutch Leitner
Sal Viscuso .... Father Timothy Flotsky
Rebecca Balding .... Carol David
Marla Pennington .... Leslie Walker
Eugene Roche .... E. Ronald Mallu
John Byner .... Detective Donahue
Dinah Manoff .... Elaine Lefkowitz-Dallas
Roscoe Lee Browne .... Saunders
Gordon Jump .... Chief of Police Tinkler
Gregory Sierra .... Carlos "El Puerco" Valdez
Rod Roddy .... Announcer

Soap Trivia

The Soap TV show produced a "spin-off" series titled, "Benson".

The characters played by Katherine Helmond on "Soap", "Who's The Boss?", and "Everybody Loves Raymond" all lived in Connecticut!

It's often claimed that Billy Crystal played the first gay regular character in television history on Soap but that's not correct. The first one was on a 1972-1973 series titled, "The Corner Bar". Many local stations still refused to air Soap though five years later for its "immorality". Thankfully, the world has improved since then.