Soap TV Series Comedy 81 1977 Season 2 [TorrentX]

Soap was one of the funniest shows to hit TV after the Mary Tyler Moore revolution of the early 1970s changed it from the crap and schlock of the pioneer era. Seen as controversial in its time, Soap featured bizarre plot twists, campy farce, and even an alien abduction. I will be upping each season individually, and the parameters below should be fairly representative of each episode. There were no subtitles on the original discs.
AVI File Details

Name.........: Soap - 101.avi
Filesize.....: 174 MB (or 178,928 KB or 183,222,272 bytes)
Runtime......: 00:24:34 (44,176 fr)
Video Codec..: XviD
Video Bitrate: 882 kb/s
Audio Codec..: 0x0055(MP3) IDd as MPEG-1 Layer 3
Frame Size...: 512x384 (1.33:1) [=4:3]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap_(TV_series)
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. Two of these retrospectives were made available on VHS in 1994. [1]
All episodes are currently available on region 1 DVD in 4 separate box sets. In the past, the series has rerun on local syndicated channels as well as on cable on Comedy Central and TV Land.
Plot
Soap is set in the fictional town of Dunns 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, Guillaumes 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.
Jessica and her husband, Chester, are hardly models of fidelity, as their various love affairs result in several family mishaps, including the murder of Marys stepson, Peter Campbell (Robert Urich). Even though everyone tells Jessica about Chesters affairs, she does not believe them until she sees his philandering with her own two eyes: while out to lunch with Mary, Jessica spots Chester necking with his secretary. Heartbroken, she sobs in her sisters arms. While Soap was a sitcom at its core, the show at times features this kind of dramatic scene that is sensitively handled and very moving. On later occasions, it becomes clear Jess has always known on some level about Chesters affairs but never allowed herself to process the information.
Marys family, the Campbells, are more middle-class, and as the series begins, her son Danny Dallas, a product of her first marriage to Johnny Dallas, is a junior gangster-in-training. Danny is told to kill his stepfather, Burt Campbell, Marys current husband, who, Danny is told, murdered his father Johnny. It is later revealed that Dannys father was killed by Burt in self-defense. Danny refuses to kill Burt and goes on the run from the Mob in a variety of disguises. This eventually ends when Elaine Lefkowitz (played by Dinah Manoff), the spoiled daughter of the Mob Boss (played by Sorrell Booke) , falls in love with Danny and stops her father, who then tells Danny he will have to marry Elaine or he will kill him. In the fourth season, it is revealed that Chester is, in fact, Dannys true father, the product of a secret affair between him and Mary before his marriage to Jessica.
The first season ends with Jessica convicted of the murder of Peter Campbell. The announcer concludes the season by announcing that Jessica is innocent, and that one of five characters - Burt, Chester, Jodie, Benson or Corinne - killed Peter Campbell. The interest over this cliffhanger precursored interest over the "Who shot J.R.?" cliffhanger on Dallas. Chester later confesses to Peters murder and is sent to prison.
Major plots of later seasons
Other plot lines include Jessicas adopted daughter Corinne courting Father Tim Flotsky, with the two eventually marrying and having a child who is possessed by the Devil; Chester being imprisoned for Peters murder, escaping with his prison roommate Dutch, and coming down with amnesia after a failed operation; Jessicas other daughter, Eunice, sleeping with a married congressman, and then falling in love with Dutch; Marys stepson Chuck, a ventriloquist whose hostilities are expressed through his alter ego, a quick-witted dummy named Bob; Jessicas love affairs with several men, including Peter Campbell, a private investigator hired to find the missing presumed-dead Chester, her psychiatrist, and a Latin American revolutionary known as "El Puerco" (his friends just call him "El"); Billy Tates confinement by a cult called the "Sunnies" (a parody of Sun Myung Moons Unification Movement, called the "Moonies" by its critics), and then his affair with his school teacher who becomes unhinged; Danny and his romantic trials with the daughter of a mobster, a black woman, a prostitute, and Chesters second wife, Annie; and Burts confinement to a mental institution, his abduction by aliens while being replaced with an oversexed alien look-a-like on Earth, and getting blackmailed by the Mob after becoming sheriff of their small town.
At the beginning of each episode, off-camera announcer Rod Roddy gives a brief description of the convoluted storyline and remarks, "Confused? You wont be, after this episode of...Soap". At the end of each episode, he asks a series of life-or-death questions in a deliberately deadpan style -- "Will Jessica discover Chesters affair...? Will Benson discover Chesters affair? Will Benson care?" and concludes each episode with the trademark line, "These questions - and many others - will be answered in the next episode of Soap."
The series ended abruptly on April 20, 1981; the final episode contains several cliffhangers that are never resolved. These involve a suicidal Chester preparing to kill Danny and Chesters second wife after catching them in bed, Burt preparing to walk into an ambush set up by his political enemies, and Jessica about to be executed by a communist firing squad.
However, a 1983 episode of Benson mentions Jessicas disappearance, noting the Tate family is seeking to have her declared legally dead. In this episode, Jessica appears as an apparition whom only Benson can see or hear, revealing to Benson that she is not dead, but in a coma somewhere in South America. The other two cliffhangers are not referenced, leaving it to the viewers imagination as to what might have happened.
Opening title sequence
Initially, the opening sequence was a lunch scene between Mary and Jessica. Announcer Rod Roddy would describe the basic premise of the series. "This is a story about two sisters, Jessica Tate and Mary Campbell. These are the Tates. And these are the Campbells, and this is SOAP". After that, the series consisted of two different title sequences during the first two seasons, with the leading cast members assembled together in a tableau. In the first one, a fight slowly breaks out between the cast members. The second involves wooden beams and plaster from overhead, suddenly and without warning, crashing to the floor, but the cast remains still, apparently unfazed by what would be likely seen by others as catastrophic. In the later seasons, the sequences changed to just a fighting one as cast members left or were added.
Katherine Helmond - Jessica Tate - The sister of Mary Campbell and one of the two main focus characters of the show. She is married to Chester Tate but divorces him in the later episodes.
Robert Mandan - Chester Tate - A wealthy stock broker and Jessicas philandering husband.
Jimmy Baio - Billy Tate - The youngest child and only son of Jessica and Chester. He later has an affair with his very young teacher.
Diana Canova - Corinne Tate Flotsky - Jessica and Chesters daughter. It is later revealed that she is adopted and is really the daughter of Jessicas long lost brother Randolph Gatling and family maid Ingrid Svenson. She later gives birth to a baby named Timmy who turns out to be demon possessed, and leaves home to raise her child after the demon is exorcised.
Sal Viscuso - Father Timothy Flotsky - A former Catholic priest who leaves the priesthood to marry Corinne Tate.
Robert Guillaume - Benson DuBois - The Tates wisecracking butler in the early seasons. He was later given his own spin-off, Benson.
Roscoe Lee Browne - Saunders - Bensons replacement as the Tates butler. Similar attitude.
Jennifer Salt - Eunice Tate-Leitner - Jessica and Chesters daughter. A spoiled social climber, she eventually begins a romance with Dutch Leitner.
Donnelly Rhodes - Dutch Leitner - an escaped convict who hides out at the Tates after helping Chester break out of prison. He eventually marries
Chesters daughter Eunice.
Arthur Peterson, Jr. - The Major - The father of Jessica Tate and Mary Campbell. The major suffers from senility and believes he is in the midst of fighting World War II.
Cathryn Damon - Mary Campbell - The sister of Jessica Tate and one of the two main focus characters of the show. At the start of the series she is married to her second husband Burt Campbell. It is revealed her first husband, Johnny Dallas, had been a mobster who was killed by Burt. Eventually, she has a baby with "alien" Burt, and by the series end has slowly become an alcoholic, as no one else sees the baby manifesting alien-esque qualities, such as being able to fly.
Richard Mulligan - Burt Campbell and X-23 (Alien Burt) - Burt is the second husband of Mary Campbell. Burt is a contractor who later becomes sheriff. In Season one and two Burt suffers from mental illness and believes he can make himself invisible. He is also at one point abducted by aliens and replaced with a Burt lookalike. X-23 is the alien duplicate of Burt sent to Earth when Burt is abducted.
Jay Johnson - Chuck and Bob Campbell - Chuck is Burt Campbells son by his first marriage. A ventriloquist, he is always accompanied by Bob, his dummy and alter ego and the pair are always referred to as "Chuck and Bob".
Robert Urich - Peter Campbell - Burt Campbells tennis pro son by his first marriage. His murder in season one leads to the first season cliffhanger.
Ted Wass - Danny Dallas - Mary Campbells somewhat dimwitted son. It is widely assumed that he is the son of Marys first husband Johnny Dallas but in later episodes it is revealed that his real father is Chester Tate. He later becomes Burts deputy sheriff.
Billy Crystal - Jodie Dallas - The son of Mary Campbell and first husba