Soap: Episode 81

Soap: Episode 81
ABC
March 9, 1981
Dramedy
DVD
C+

So ABC brought back Soap in the coveted 10 p.m. on Mondays slot (previously occupied by the TV version of Foul Play, starring Barry Bostwick, and, no, I don't remember it either).  They aired back to back episodes, screwing up the numbering till the end.  IMDB does not agree with A.S. Berman's Soap book, which I recently purchased, but the former does have the correct air-dates.  My feeling on numbering is that, "one-hour special" or not, if Rod Roddy is asking questions after twenty-two minutes, then that's a discrete episode.

But definitely not discreet.  Jessica finds out that El has been seeing prostitutes because he's got a madonna-whore complex (not that either calls it that), and she tells him that if he can fool around, so can she.  (I'm not sure why she doesn't just kick him out, but then look how long it took with Chester.)  Meanwhile, Jodie and Maggie go to a co-ed bathhouse, where they get information sending them to a "minja" warrior training center in Malibu.  Burt, armed only with a gun and a bat (remember that detail), breaks into the house of the Godfather (not Richard Libertini but J.J. Barry, most notable for his two appearances as Janet's boss Mr. Compton on Three's Company) and captures him and everyone else, including Tibbs (Hamilton Camp again).

Guess who was winning Monday nights that Winter?

Mary is concerned about two of her sons.  (Well, she'd be concerned about Jodie, too, if she knew he ends up in a dungeon.).  She goes to see her doctor, not Dr. Saxon (who presumably has his hands full dealing with Danny), but Dr. Drell (Earl Boen), because she's seen baby Scotty fly.  And she tells Chester, one, he's Danny's father, and two, Danny needs his kidney.  Obviously, Chester is surprised.  (I can't remember if I was when I first saw this.)  We find out that Chester and Mary had sex every night for two weeks, but when she found out she was pregnant, he announced his engagement to Jessica.  The girls' mother was going to have Chester's father arrested for an at this point unknown crime, so she blackmailed Chester into marrying Jessica.

Note that Chester refers to 28 years, but I don't know if this is since she realized she was pregnant, or since Danny was born.  If Danny is 28 now, he can't be more than a year older than Jodie, and if he's 27 1/2, I'm really calling shenanigans on the timeline.  Jodie said at the time Carol seduced him that he was 25, and he later said he moved out of the house at 26.  He would have to be 27 by now, maybe even 28.  But then, look at Billy's fluctuating age.

H.B. Haggerty, who's Warrior No. 1, was The Hammer on The Bob Newhart Show.  James Saito, who plays Hiro, at this point had made three of his four M*A*S*H appearances.  The Major, Danny, Eunice, Dutch, Billy, Chuck, and Bob are all absent.  However you number this, it's the 81st episode and it aired in '81.