List Price: $29.95 Our Price: $22.46YOU SAVE $7.49!
Buy it
DVD Soap - The Complete Fourth Season
Even as it struggled with lower ratings and ongoing backlash from conservative watchdogs, Soap entered its fourth and final season with big laughs and plenty of surprises. The series was beginning to lose its edge with interwoven plots even more preposterous than usual, but its primary strengths (a great ensemble cast, risk-taking writing, and a delicate combination of humor and pathos) are still abundantly evident as Jessica Tate (Katherine Helmond) emerges from a coma in episode 1. In the 20 episodes that follow, Burt (Robert Mulligan) will survive a blackmailing scandal and, as the new local sheriff, begin a political career; Jodie (Billy Crystal) fights for child custody, enters into psychotherapy, and begins to channel a 90-year-old Jewish man from a previous life; Mary (Cathryn Damon) suspects that her newborn child is an extraterrestrial, and devastates Jessica with a long-held secret about her past involving Chester (Robert Mandan); and the now-liberated Jessica gets involved with El Puerco (Gregory Sierra, from TV's Barney Miller), a revolutionary from the (fictional) Latin American country of Malaguay.
These and other plots--including an affair between Danny (Ted Wass) and Chester's new wife Annie (Nancy Dolman), and the climactic kidnapping of Jessica--ensured that Soap's final season was never boring for even a minute, and the one-liners are endlessly quotable as series creator Susan Harris (here backed, for the first time, by a stable of cowriters) dares to combine comedy with heavier elements of betrayal, alcoholism, life-threatening situations, and heartwarming reconciliation. These shifts of tone still qualify Soap as one of the most accomplished sitcoms in TV history (you'd be hard pressed to find a better cast capable of handling such a dynamic range of comi-tragic extremes), and with Sierra and a then-unknown Joe Mantegna providing the best laughs from an impressive guest-star lineup, the series mixed up its volatile ingredients with considerable aplomb and no small degree of genuine humanity. While some characters suffered due to the season's ambitious plotting, it's still clear that Soap could have thrived into a fifth season and beyond. Alas, it wasn't to be. Amidst threats of sponsor withdrawal and the inevitable fallout of ratings in decline, ABC pulled the plug on Soap, depriving loyal viewers to a resolution to this season's cliffhangers, which left several key characters on the brink of disaster. It's therefore regrettable that this DVD set lacks any bonus material that would provide a retrospective summation of what was, for its time, one of TV's boldest comedy experiments. --Jeff Shannon
I didn't get a real chance to watch this as a kid, but all these years later, this show is still better and radical than anything getting run on network TV this season. That includes the housewives. For this final season, I expected at least another interview segment with the creators talking about what ended this show's run. Was there plans for season 5? Well all this stuff will probably end up in a book somewhere.
Once again Sony disappoints in the quality department. Did they master these DVDs off a bunch of EP speed tapes? It's just hideous transfers that ruin the legacy of a show that deserves its reputation of being unorthodox and filled with talent. It's nice that they put all four seasons out, but why couldn't they have made an effort?
What a disappointment
I have to admit, I was very disappointed in this installment of Soap DVDs. Granted, I didn't expect extras, since they didn't really do any after season 1, but it seems like they could have tried harder for the last one.
Granted, it's been 25 years since they first aired, but I don't remember them dropping the "In the last episode of Soap..." openings in the 4th season, but they only include that on the season's first episode.
Also, I know they were probably filmed as half-hours, but the last portion of the season orginally aired in hour blocks and it seems they should have presented them that way on the DVD.
I was already annoyed that seasons 2 and 3 didn't include the retrospectives that they aired before each new season started. especially season 3's which also served as Benson's exit. However, leaving out the great season 4 one with Jessica in heaven telling everything to Bea Arthur is unforgiveable.
Since the last season was messed up by the anti-Soap campaign by Donald Wildmon, why not include the ads ABC aired explaining why it was pulled temporarily and urging people to call and voice their opinion on the show? Where is a Susan Harris interview discussing this or saying how she planned to resolve the unresolved cliffhangers in a 5th season? At the very least, they could have included the episode of Benson that sort of resolved what happened to Jessica.
I still can't believe it!
I was very young whne this originally aired and I have to admit alot of the humor went over my head. What didn't was the fact that i was seeing something truly original.
A televisions show that could make you bust a gut and bring real tears to the eyes. Katherine Helmond was absolutely amazing in her role as Jessica.
I still can't believe the way it was left with the cliffhangers. I guess we'll never know...
It doesn't seem possible, but the second season of Soap is even better than the first. Only the greatest primetime sitcoms achieve triple-threat genius: Casting, writing, and direction reached their zenith as the 1978-79 season began with a resolution to season 1's cliffhanger murder. Chester (Robert Mandan) loses his memory and wander out west while his ditzy wife Jessica (Katherine Helmond) enjoys a fling with the detective (new cast member John Byner) she'd hired to find Chester. Across town, the working-class Campbells have their own melodramas to contend with: Despite being gay, stepson Jodie (Billy Crystal) is an expectant father and moves in with pregnant Carol (Rebecca Balding), and later a lesbian roommate; Mary (Cathryn Damon) suspects Burt (Richard Mulligan) of having an... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Billy Crystal DVD Release Date: Released the 20 July 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $29.95 Your Price: $17.97YOU SAVE $11.98!
Buy it
Even before it premiered on September 13, 1977 (Tuesdays at 9:30 pm on ABC), Soap was mired in controversy (including 32,000 letters of protest) and primed to make television history. Conceived as a primetime satire of daytime melodramas, this groundbreaking series toppled many of the TV taboos that remained after All in the Family and M*A*S*H, openly addressing a variety of risky topics (homosexuality, infidelity, impotence, familial murder) with a deft combination of irreverent wit, wacky slapstick, supreme stupidity, and--key to its success--engaging drama from characters you could really care about, regardless of their rampant quirks and foibles.
As a friendly announcer informs us, "this is the story of two sisters" in suburban Connecticut--wealthy dimwit... More Info about this DVD Director(s): J.D. Lobue DVD Release Date: Released the 16 September 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $29.95 Your Price: $23.09YOU SAVE $6.86!
Buy it
One of the zaniest and bawdiest shows to hit network primetime in the 1980s, Night Court starred Harry Anderson as the Mel Tormé-loving, magic-playing, too-young judge Harry Stone presiding over the night beat of New York. Joining him were lecherous assistant district attorney Dan (John Larroquette), bald Bunyanesque bailiff Bull (Richard Moll), uptight court clerk Lana (Karen Austin), earnest public defender Elizabeth (Paula Kelly), and grizzled bailiff Selma (Selma Hacker).
In between cases involving ladies of the evening, a derelict who thinks he's Santa, and sparring spouses, the court staff spends most of their spare time trying to figure out the judge's age and background, making jokes about Bull's imposing appearance, or, in Dan's case, propositioning any woman... More Info about this DVD Director(s): John Larroquette - Charles Robinson - Christine Ballard - Alan Bergmann - Lee Bernhardi DVD Release Date: Released the 08 February 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $27.98 Your Price: $8.39YOU SAVE $19.59!
Buy it
From the melancholy opening notes of the theme song, Taxi promised to be a different kind of sitcom, epitomized by the show's central character, Alex Reiger (Judd Hirsch, Ordinary People): down to earth and compassionate, with neuroses that smacked of real life and not the forced zaniness of too many television shows. Alex was the conscience and emotional caretaker of a makeshift family of cab drivers working out of a grungy garage in New York City, run by the domineering Louis De Palma (Danny DeVito, who would go on to be a bigger star than the rest of the cast in movies like Get Shorty and Batman Returns). Taxi didn't always maintain a degree of realism--if you haven't seen it in a long time, you may be surprised by some of the cornier jokes and bits... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Judd Hirsch DVD Release Date: Released the 13 September 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $38.99 Your Price: $29.24YOU SAVE $9.75!
Buy it
I recently showed my wife taxi for the first time. She says she enjoys the series. She likes the variety of personalities and how each episode takes one of those personalities.
Great Show!! All three seasons are fun!! Looking forward to season four. More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Judd Hirsch DVD Release Date: Released the 01 February 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $38.99 Your Price: $35.09YOU SAVE $3.9!
Buy it
