Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Bubbly and entertaining improved over last 2 sets, February 6, 2005
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 On Earth Burt has been replaced by an alien who acts even stranger than before.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.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Burt burt burt, February 3, 2005
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!
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Soap: Season Three, February 28, 2006
After starting off with two uproarious seasons, "Soap" continued to bring in the laughs with the third season. However after the first few episodes of season three, the show lost one of their main cast members. Robert Guillaume, who stole scene after scene in the first two seasons as Benson, left "Soap" to star in his own spin-off series titled (appropriately enough) "Benson". Certainly it was great to see Guillaume get his own show (and deservedly so), but in the process "Soap" lost a little of its comic touch without him. Nevertheless, the show for the most part continued to be very funny throughout season three. I just thought that the first two seasons were much funnier. Most of the other regular cast members returned, and two of the actors were honored with Emmy Awards for their work. Richard Mulligan and Cathryn Damon (as Burt and Mary Campbell) won lead acting Emmys in 1980 for their roles on the show. It was nice that "Soap" got a little bit of Emmy recognition in the four years that it aired. The year before in 1979, Robert Guillaume won a supporting Emmy for his role as Benson on "Soap" just as he was departing for "Benson" (Guillaume would eventually win another Emmy as a lead actor for "Benson" in 1985). "Soap" deserved the awards it got. It's too bad it didn't win more awards. This is a very funny and very entertaining sitcom.
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