Parents' Guide to Soap

Subversively wild for its time, this series has lost its power to shock, but still holds some appeal for its great comic actors and surreal silliness. In an era before mockumentaries, Soap satirized daytime soap operas with their melodramatic wild twists, and grabbed huge public attention with plotlines that were crazy far out for the late ‘70s: Aliens! Demon possession! Organized crime! Multiple cheating spouses! A man, who is gay, loves himself! (Yes, sadly, this was groundbreaking for the era). It was a lot for the viewers of the 1970s, so much so that ABC aired one the very first "viewer discretion" warnings when it premiered in 1977.

To modern eyes, what was shocking then is tame today, and what passed unremarked upon is alarming to us: the sexism, racism, and homophobia are real, and it's hard not to wince, and easy not to laugh, at jokes that punch down. And yet, even the marginalized characters of Soap are allowed their dignity; they're unbothered by criticisms and give as good as they get. So some viewers will be able to look past the creakier aspects of the show and enjoy its pleasures, chief amongst them ditsy dazed wonder Katherine Helmond and Robert Guillaume, who gets most of Soap's best lines (and later got his own spin-off show) as Benson, and delivers them with still-thrilling bite. The goofy storylines are still fun, and though the pace of the show is more leisurely than contemporary viewers may prefer, if your mind wanders, you can always soak up the costumes and set decorations, which are perfect time capsules from the 1970s.