Soap - The Complete Third Season

Rating:
Summary: So Funny Can't Wait for the Fourth!!!
Review: I loved this show when it came out. I love it now. I can't believe how timely it still is now. It is just so funny. Burt (Richard Mulligan) and Danny (Ted Wass) together are just too much. We all laugh our heads off! I brought home the first set and my kids ages 8 and 13 sat down to watch the whole thing with me. The jokes for adults go over the kids heads and are funny to whole family. I got season two and now this. The color quality is much better on this season. I want the next season and hope it comes out soon.

Rating:
Summary: Improved DVD Presentation from Last Two Sets
Review: Ah, the shows from my childhood. This one stands out among them as one of the best ("The Mary Tyler Moore Show" holds first place). And I don't care if the show did go a few steps too far with alien abductions and implausible deadly illnesses, this is my favorite period in this show's history (not counting Burt's uncharacteristic desire to run for Sherif).

As far as the discs themselves are concerned, I'm guessing that the people at Sony/Columbia House continue to learn from their mistakes. This set contains all uncut episodes with no superfluous extras - aside from the standard previews of other DVD sets in their library (I firmly believe that this is not an extra, but rather just useless clutter).

Picture and sound quality are just okay. Two of the episodes on disc 1 suffer from low, muffled audio but it's nothing so terrible that it renders it unwatchable. The blurriness issues that permeated the season two set seem to have been mostly resolved for this season three release.

So overall I'm pleased... LOVE that purple color scheme on the cover art!!

Best S3 Chester Tate moment (in my opinion):
Gloria, the minister's daughter, is dumping Chester for someone who she says is "better looking, better dressed, better in bed - BETTER!"
Chester replies, "Better DRESSED??"

Rating:
Summary: Bubbly and entertaining improved over last 2 sets
Review: Continuing to break new ground, Soap dived right into a number of new issues for this comedy series. The plot lines continued to be "out there" as Burt (Richard Mulligan) is abducted by aliens and tries to escape. On Earth Burt has been replaced by an alien who acts even stranger than before. The only one to notice is, of course, his wife Mary. Benson (Robert Guillaume who would soon star in his own spin-off playing his popular character) saves Billy (Jimmy Baio) from a cult and finally Jodie the first gay character portrayed positively on TV finds out he has a baby daughter from an affair Jodie had with a woman. In other words, all's wrong in the world of Soap which is exactly as it should be.

Improving on the first two sets Soap: The Complete Third Season looks positively robust by comparison to the first two sets. With better clarity, image quality, sharper and better color reproduction, this set shows that Columbia Tristar spend the bulk of the marketing funds to make the series look as rich as possible for this DVD release. While there are still analog imperfections (and what could you expect of a series videotaped over twenty years ago?), the show looks the best it ever has on DVD. Likewise, the sound also comes across with better presence than the previous set although it is muffled on a couple of episodes throughout this three disc set. Overall, CTHE have done an exceptional job of improving the video and audio quality of this series over seasons one and two.

As I said, it's clear that most of the budget went to improving the video and audio of the series which would explain the complete lack of extras. The only extras we get here are previews for other CTHE releases. My memory isn't always the best but it does appear as if the episodes presented here are (for the most part) uncut when compared to the syndicated episodes. What about vintage interviews that CTHE might have in the vaults for future sets?

This is the one area where Columbia could have improved the series. Having Susan Harris, Katherine Helmond or Billy Crystal do a commentary track would have boosted the sales of this set for fans that have recorded it off TV over the years. Again, I'm sure it was a budget issue.

Overall, a fine job from Columbia on preparing this release for DVD. Sure it could always be better but keep in mind that the studio has to work with the budget for each set their given. It's clear that most of that budget went to improving the video and audio of the series. Does it look stellar? No but it would be difficult to improve this beyond what we see here.


Rating:
Summary: Burt burt burt
Review: Season three became even more loony then the second season and also more poignant. Absolutely hilarious storylines with Burt dominated the season for the highlights (anyone remember dancing alien Burt???) Richard Mulligan managed to show a fantastic range of human emotion when called upon to do so.

Billy Crystal's comedic escapades took a back seat this season to showcase his dramatic acting abilities. In this season, he went from being the comedian to a true comedic actor with serious acting chops tackling, for the day, the tough issue of gay parent rights... wait... isn't congress not supporting gay marriage???

Even racial undertones were tackled this season with Danny and Polly. As ever, inspired lunacy ensued in this wonderful season that became even more socially and politically charged while maintaining great comic foils. Who can forget Chester sobbing at the door after being kick out of the house "Please Please Jessica... BAW HAW HAW..." and Dutch finding out about Jessica's sickness "...OH GOD... WHY HER??? WHAT ARE WE GONNA DOOOO!!!!" (Sounding like the cowardly lion) and Bob's comments to Polly's parents, "So I hear your negros..." and I could go on and on but then you wouldn't be confused following this next episode of soap!


Rating:
Summary: Confused...You Won't Be
Review: The third season of the satire Soap took the characters to some strange places. Not content to repeat itself, series creator Susan Harris and co-writer Stu Silver made sure things were even more outrageous. Still though, they were able to get the best from their rather large ensemble cast, continuing to chronicle the lives of both the Tates and the Campbell clans.

Waking up in the spaceship that abducted him, Burt (Richard Mulligan) is befriended by fellow prisoner Saul (character actor great Jack Gilford), as they plan their escape. While on Earth, Jessica (Katherine Helmond) finally chooses between Chester (Robert Mandan) and Donahue (John Byner). The Tates wisecracking butler Benson (Robert Guillaume) organizes a rescue of Billy (Jimmy Baio) from the sunny cult, before leaving to star in his own spin-off series, which premiered the same night the third season began. Mary (Catherine Damon) notices that "Burt" (who is one of his alien captors in disguise) is acting even more strange than before. Jodie (Billy Crystal) is surprised when his friend's Mom (Peggy Pope) arrives with his baby daughter.

Somehow Harris, Silver, and director Jay Sandrich, who hung around for a bit longer as series helmer but ultimately left, made it all work. Suprisingly the alien storyline, clearly over the top, fits quite nicely amid the rest of the fun. In an attempt to woo new viewers a 90 minute recap was made to help those folks catch up...

The DVD set has no extras and that's a shame. After all, the second season set had a 20 minute retrospective and why do they continue to "edit" a few of the episodes?