Soap (TV series)
| Soap | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Created by | Susan Harris |
| Starring |
Jimmy Baio Roscoe Lee Browne Diana Canova Billy Crystal Cathryn Damon Robert Guillaume Katherine Helmond Jay Johnson Robert Mandan Dinah Manoff Richard Mulligan Arthur Peterson Donnelly Rhodes Jennifer Salt Robert Urich Sal Viscuso Ted Wass |
| Narrated by | Rod Roddy |
| Theme music composer | George Aliceson Tipton |
| Composer(s) | George Aliceson Tipton |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 85 (93 in syndication) (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
Paul Junger Witt Tony Thomas |
| Producer(s) | Susan Harris |
| Location(s) | Goldenwest Videotape Division The Prospect Studios Hollywood, California |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera, videotape |
| Running time | 30 minutes (77 episodes) 60 minutes (8 episodes) |
| Production company(s) |
Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions Columbia Pictures Television |
| Distributor | Sony Pictures Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | ABC |
| Original release | September 13, 1977 – April 20, 1981 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | Benson |
Soap is an American sitcom that originally ran on ABC from September 13, 1977 until April 20, 1981. The show was created as a night-time parody of daytime soap operas, presented as a weekly half-hour prime time comedy. Similar to a soap opera, the show's story was presented in a serial format and included melodramatic plot elements such as alien abduction, demonic possession, murder, and kidnapping. In 2007 it was listed as one of Time magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME," and in 2010, the Tates and the Campbells ranked at number 17 in TV Guide's list of "TV's Top Families."
The show was created, written, and executively produced by Susan Harris, and also executively produced by Paul Junger Witt (Harris' future husband) and Tony Thomas. Each returning season was preceded by a 90-minute retrospective of the previous season. Two of these retrospectives were made available on VHS in 1994, but were not included on any DVD collections.
The show aired 85 episodes over the course of four seasons. Eight of these (including the final four) aired as one-hour episodes during the original run on ABC. These hour-long episodes were later split in two, yielding 93 half-hour episodes for syndication. Like most sitcoms of the era, Soap was videotaped, but this coincidentally helped further its emulation of the daytime soap opera format, as most such productions were also videotaped.
All episodes are currently available on region 1 DVD in four separate box sets. There is a box set of season 1 on region 2 DVD. In the past, the series has rerun on local syndicated channels as well as on cable on Comedy Central and TV Land. It ran on over-the-air television on Antenna TV, until December 30, 2012. As of Spring 2016, it is shown on IFC.
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