Soap is an American sitcom that originally ran on ABC from 1977 to 1981. The show was a weekly half-hour long primetime comedy and its format was similar to that of a daytime soap opera. It aired for four seasons and 85 episodes, some episodes of which were one hour long. (The hour-long episodes were later split in two, yielding 93 half-hour episodes for syndication.) The show was created, written, and produced by Susan Harris. The final four episodes of the series aired as one-hours during the original run on ABC. Each returning season was preceded by a 90-minute retrospective of the previous season. Soap is set in the fictional town of Dunn's River, Connecticut, and each episode begins with a shot of two women chatting over lunch as announcer Rod Roddy intones, "This is the story of two sisters: Jessica Tate and Mary Campbell". In the very first opening sequence, the announcer says that the Tates live in a neighborhood known as "Rich". The wealthy Tate family employs a sarcastic butler, Benson DuBois (referred to only as "Benson" on this series), played by Robert Guillaume, who is perhaps the only "normal" character on the series. In a long-running gag, Benson looks up lugubriously whenever the doorbell rings and, as everyone stares expectantly at him, he remarks, "You want me to get that...?" In 1979, Guillaume's character was spun off into his own series, Benson. In Soap the name DuBois is never mentioned, and there are several suggestions that Benson is his surname.
What an amazing DVD Set for the Soap Fan!
All 85 Uncut Episodes - 4 Seasons on 12 DVDS