Soap is an American sitcom television series that originally ran on ABC from 1977 through 1981. A parody of soap operas, the show's story was presented in a serial format and featured melodramatic plotlines revolving around a large family in the fictional town of Dunn's River, Connecticut.
The series revolves around the households of sisters Jessica Tate (Katherine Helmond) and Mary Campbell (Cathryn Damon). Actors who play members of the Tate household include Robert Mandan as Jessica's husband Chester; Jennifer Salt, Diana Canova, and Jimmy Baio as their children; Eunice, Corinne and Billy; Arthur Peterson Jr. as Jessica and Mary's father, a retired U.S. Army major; and Robert Guillaume as the family butler Benson. Other members of the Campbell household include Richard Mulligan as Mary's second husband Burt; Ted Wass and Billy Crystal as Danny and Jodie, Mary's sons from her first marriage; and Jay Johnson as Burt's son Chuck and his ventriloquist dummy Bob. Later additions to the main cast include Donnelly Rhodes as Dutch Leitner, an escaped convict who lives with the Tates, and Roscoe Lee Browne as Saunders, Benson's replacement as the Tate family butler.
Additionally, Rod Roddy provides the voice of the unseen announcer, who recaps the plot of the previous episode and teases the plot of the following one. Casey Kasem provided the narration in the pilot episode.
Tate family Jessica Tate (née Gatling) (Katherine Helmond) – The sister of Mary Campbell and one of the two main characters of the show. She is married to wealthy Chester Tate but separates from and later divorces him after years of infidelity. Sweet-natured, extraordinarily naïve and sheltered, she is often in her own world. Her flirtatious nature and hourglass figure make her a frequent target of male attention. In the final moments of the series, she faces a firing squad with rescue unlikely. A subsequent appearance on Benson, set two years later, revealed that she survived, but was left comatose. Helmond is one of the two actors to appear in every episode, with Richard Mulligan (Burt) being the other. Chester Tate (Robert Mandan) – A wealthy stockbroker and Jessica's husband. He is a constant and almost compulsive philanderer, having had dozens of affairs. He eventually swears off his infidelity, but subsequently experiences a brain tumor, followed by a bout of amnesia. After he recovers, he resumes his philandering ways, causing his marriage to Jessica to end in divorce; he nonetheless continues to love her even after he marries Eunice's friend Annie. It is later revealed that he only agreed to marry Jessica in exchange for her mother keeping quiet about Chester's father's financial crimes, having already been in a relationship with her sister Mary and unknowingly fathering her first son, Danny. The series ends as he prepares to pull the trigger on Danny and Annie. Eunice Tate-Leitner (Jennifer Salt) – Jessica and Chester's eldest daughter. A spoiled social climber, Eunice dates a married congressman and later falls in love with escaped convict Dutch Leitner. While she loves Dutch passionately during his time on the run and his subsequent incarceration, she cools off considerably once he becomes a free man, leaving him on a whim several times. Corinne Tate Flotsky (Diana Canova) – Jessica and Chester's adopted daughter, actually the daughter of Jessica's long-lost brother Randolph Gatling and family maid Ingrid Svenson. She admits to having slept with most of the male population of Dunn's River (including Burt's son Peter, even after learning he's Burt's son) after her childhood love Tim became a Catholic priest. She eventually convinces Tim to leave the priesthood and marry her, but their son, Timmy, ends up being possessed, and Tim eventually leaves her and returns to the cloth. She later has an affair with Dutch and leaves Dunn's River for California to raise Timmy after Dutch gets back together with Eunice. Billy Tate (Jimmy Baio) – The youngest child and only son of Jessica and Chester (according to Benson, "the only one in this family worth a damn"). He gets caught up in a cult and later has an affair with his high school teacher, Leslie Walker. After he breaks off the affair, she makes multiple failed (and laughable) attempts to kill him and his family. He later becomes a general in El Puerco's revolutionary army after rescuing him and Jessica from being lost in the ocean, learning Spanish and becoming very devoted to the revolutionaries' anti-Communist cause. However, his family members do not take this seriously. Major Gatling (Arthur Peterson Jr.) - The father of Jessica Tate and Mary Campbell. The Major suffers from dementia and believes he is in the midst of fighting World War II. He often refers to Chester as "Colonel". The Major is always in uniform and often irritates Benson and Saunders with his obliviously racist remarks. Benson DuBois (Robert Guillaume) – The Tates' wisecracking African American cook and butler in the first two seasons. He enjoys making sarcastic quips at his employers' expense but cannot deny his soft spot for Jessica, Corinne, and, most notably, Billy. Following the second season, Benson leaves the Tates to be the head of household affairs for Jessica's cousin, Governor Eugene Gatling (as depicted in the spin-off series Benson), though he makes two guest appearances in the third season. Father Timothy Flotsky (Sal Viscuso) – A Catholic priest who leaves the priesthood to marry Corinne Tate. He is skeptical when Corinne's pregnancy progresses more quickly than it should; it turns out that a demon possesses their son Timmy. Tim later decides that leaving the Church was a mistake, leaving Corinne and Timmy to become a priest again. Timmy Tate-Flotsky – Corinne and Tim's son, who is possessed by the devil for a time (voiced by Tim McIntire). Once Jessica confronts the demon inhabiting him, he becomes a normal infant. Ingrid Svenson (Inga Swenson) – Corinne's biological mother, who was the former maid of Jessica and Mary's parents and who was in love with Jessica and Mary's brother, Randolph Gatling. She attempts to avenge the Tate/Campbell family for opposing her romance with Randolph. She tries to influence Jessica's murder trial by sleeping with the judge and blackmailing Sally, Burt's secretary, into trying to break up Burt and Mary's marriage. Randolph Gatling (Bernard Fox) - Jessica and Mary's estranged brother and Corinne's biological father. He lives in Ecuador with his wife, former family maid, Ingrid Svenson, and has no interest in reconnecting with his family. Dutch Leitner (Donnelly Rhodes) – An escaped convict who hides out with the Tates after helping Chester break out of prison. He falls in love with and eventually marries Eunice after on-off relationships with both her and Corinne. Though dim-witted and coarse in his manners, he is good-hearted, emotionally sensitive, and genuinely devoted to the family. Saunders (Roscoe Lee Browne) – Benson's replacement as the Tates' cook/butler. He is slightly more refined and polished than his predecessor, but no less disdainful of his employers. Annie Selig Tate (Nancy Dolman) – Eunice's friend who serves as her maid of honor at her wedding to Dutch. She later becomes Chester's second wife, earning Eunice's disgust. She has an affair with Danny when Chester begins to ignore her to win Jessica back, and the series ends with Chester preparing to kill them both.
Campbell family Mary Campbell (née Gatling, previously Dallas) (Cathryn Damon) – The sister of Jessica Tate and one of the two main characters of the show. Much more down-to-earth than her sister, she provides a comic foil to the antics of the rest of the cast. At the start of the series, she is recently married to her second husband, building contractor Burt Campbell, who, unbeknownst to Mary, is suffering impotence as a result of having killed her first husband, gangster Johnny Dallas, in self-defense. In season three, Mary gives birth to a baby named Scott who she suspects was fathered by Burt's alien double, but whom no one else sees behaving oddly. This, along with Burt's political career and her past with Chester being exposed, drives Mary to alcoholism. Burt Campbell (Richard Mulligan) – Burt is Mary Campbell's second husband. In contrast to Chester, Burt is a loving family man with a strong marriage to Mary. Burt is a high-strung building contractor who later becomes sheriff and is under consideration for a run as lieutenant governor. In Season 1, Burt suffers from mental illness due to his guilt over accidentally killing Mary's first husband and later the murder of his son Peter. He is, for a time, abducted by aliens and replaced with a lookalike before managing to talk them into giving him back his life. He is later diagnosed as terminally ill, but it turns out to be a false alarm. At the end of Season 3, Burt becomes sheriff and gets increasingly involved in politics throughout Season 4, leading him to ignore his family and put his marriage at risk. His final moment in the series is when he prepares to walk into an ambush orchestrated by his political enemies. Mulligan is one of the two actors to appear in every episode, with Katherine Helmond (Jessica) being the other. Danny Dallas (Ted Wass) – Mary Campbell's eldest son. Sweet-natured and good-looking but not exceptionally bright, he initially follows in his late father Johnny's footsteps by becoming a gangster. Danny is tasked with killing Johnny's killer and Danny's new stepfather, Burt. He can't bring himself to do so and, after making peace with the mob, he becomes Burt's enthusiastic sidekick in multiple endeavors. His real father is eventually revealed not to be Johnny Dallas but Chester Tate, born from his relationship with Mary before marrying her sister Jessica. Danny is very protective of his younger brother Jodie but is initially in denial about Jodie's homosexuality. Danny is forced to marry Elaine, the mob boss's daughter, to save his own life. He eventually falls in love with her before she is later kidnapped and fatally shot. Danny later gets involved in a series of failed relationships, including the girlfriend of one of Elaine's kidnappers (Millie), an African American woman (Polly Dawson), a prostitute (Gwen), and Chester's new wife (Annie). In the final moments of the series, Chester discovers Danny in bed with Annie and prepares to shoot them both. Jodie Dallas (Billy Crystal) – The son of Mary Campbell and her first husband Johnny Dallas. An openly gay man, he shares his mother's common sense and pleasant temperament. He is first dating a closeted football player named Dennis and prepares to undergo a sex-change operation. After Dennis dumps him, he attempts suicide, but survives and aborts the sex-change. He later fathers a daughter named Wendy with Carol, a legal aid, who seduces him after meeting at his Aunt Jessica's murder trial. After Carol runs off to join the rodeo, Wendy is left with Jodie, triggering a custody battle and a kidnapping that Jodie foils with the help of private investigator Maggie, for whom Jodie has feelings that make him doubt his sexuality. The series ends with Jodie believing himself to be an old Jewish man, Julius Kassendorf, due to a failed hypnotherapy session. Chuck and Bob Campbell (Jay Johnson) – Chuck is Burt Campbell's son by his first marriage. A ventriloquist, he is always accompanied by his dummy Bob. The pair dress alike and are always referred to as "Chuck and Bob". While Chuck is mild-mannered, introverted, and polite, his alter-ego Bob is aggressive, rude and abrasive. Chuck always treats Bob as though he were real, and nearly all of the main characters find themselves conversing with or referring to Bob at one point or another despite knowing he is a dummy, the only exceptions being Benson and Saunders.