Soap: Episode 53

Soap: Episode 53
ABC
November 1, 1979
Dramedy
DVD
B-

The best scene in this Harris & Silver episode is Corinne and Tim reluctantly agreeing to divorce.(This is the first time Viscuso appears this season and it's his last time on the show.)  There's humor and drama, with Jessica adding to both.  Earlier, Corinne has lunch with Eunice, who confesses that Dutch now disgusts her and she was more in love with the situation of him being a criminal than with him as a man.  Corinne spots Chester at another table with a strange woman, but Eunice refuses to believe it.  Eunice and her date, Chester and another date, and Billy and Leslie all show up at the same out-of-the-way restaurant for dinner.  And Real Burt tries to get Mary to meet him at the local drugstore, but Alien Burt convinces her it was a prankster.

Waiter Martin Ferrero would be Wounded Man in Jeep on M*A*S*H and a Salesman on Mork & Mindy.  Jodie and the Major are absent.

Soap: Episode 52

Soap: Episode 52
ABC
October 11, 1979
Dramedy
DVD
B-

In this Harris & Silver episode, Dutch is out of prison and living with the Tates, and he's the only person who can stomach Jessica's cooking.  Billy and his teacher agree to meet at her place to discuss their relationship.  Danny comes home, with Millie, and Burt returns soon after, running into his alien double.  (Mulligan does double reaction shots.)  Mrs. David goes back to Texas, leaving Wendy (apparently Jenna Kay Starr) with Jodie.  And we find out a little bit more about Bob's paternity case, mentioned in a previous episode.  It seems like this is the first episode in a long time to feature the entire family, although Tim hasn't been seen in awhile.

Soap: Episode 51

Soap: Episode 51
ABC
October 4, 1979
Dramedy
DVD
C+

The shark licks its chops for much of this Harris & Silver episode, although another scene of the female characters in the kitchen discussing sex helps save it.  (Jennifer Salt's amusement at Helmond looks completely genuine.)  The episode starts with some unfunny and implausible time travel by Burt and Saul.  (Not only can they perfectly communicate with Romans and Mexicans, but their hands are bound simply because they show up in front of a firing squad.)  And Billy's romance with his divorced History teacher, Leslie Walker (25-year-old Marla Pennington in her first of seventeen Soap appearances), begins here.  Leslie is actually kind of sweet, if unethical, here, but knowing what would happen to her character, I'm not happy about the start of this thread.  And Chester starts cheating on Jessica not long after Donahue finally leaves "for good."  (He'd be back later in the season.)  At least we finally find out where Danny is, tied up in a barn by Mel but freed by a smitten Millie.

Jodie, the Major, Chuck, and Bob are absent.

Soap: Episode 50

Soap: Episode 50
ABC
September 27, 1979
Dramedy
DVD
B-

This Harris & Silver episode has some parts that aren't great, like the stuff with the Sunnies, and Burt and Saul on the spaceship, but it does have two moving scenes of best friends saying goodbye for good: Jodie and Alice, and Jessica and Benson.  Benson of course left for his own series, working for Jessica's cousin Governor Gatling, but Alice goes to Alaska, about as far away as she can get.  There's a mention of Danny being missing, but still no scene with him.

Soap: Episode 49

Soap: Episode 49
ABC
September 20, 1979
Dramedy
DVD
B-

In this Harris & Silver episode, Mary enjoys alien-Burt's libido, to Bob's disgust.  Eunice convinces Dutch to not try to escape dressed as a woman but to turn state's evidence and get released in a couple weeks.  Billy is resisting brainwashing, while his rescue party gets sidetracked into a dance number.  And Mrs. David says that Carol ran off with a cowboy, and she (Mrs. David, not Carol) wants Jodie to raise the baby if he'll make Alice leave, since "two homos is one homo too many."

Jack Gilford makes his first of five appearances as Saul, Burt's fellow captive, a 4000-year-old Jew.  Corinne and Danny are both absent.  And, yes, that's a pre-Elm-Street Robert Englund in his first of two appearances as the Sunnie named Simon.

Soap: Episode 48

And one to grow on

Soap: Episode 48
ABC
September 13, 1979
Dramedy
DVD
B-

Harris & Silver kick off Season Three by mostly picking up where they left off, although they can't get to every thread of course.  Jessica chooses Chester over Detective Donahue, who pretends to get dizzy every time he tries to leave the house, although it doesn't stop him from joining Chester, the Major, and a temporarily returned from the Governor's mansion Benson in the Major's plan to rescue Billy from the Sunnies.  (Three of them are in blackface as part of the disguise, leading to some racial jokes that haven't dated well.)  The aliens tell Burt they're going to keep him and send one of their own down to Earth in a duplicate of his body.  The alien is thrilled because he hasn't had sex in 2000 years.  And, on the day Jodie and Alice are celebrating their third month of living together, agreeing that relationships are so much better without sex, Carol's mother shows up with baby Wendy, who is adorable and definitely looks like Jodie.

(Hypothetically, depending when this was shot, that could be Crystal's daughter Lindsay, born in October of '77, but I think there'd be a mention of it in IMDB trivia or someplace if it were.  When Tony Danza's daughter Katherine would later appear on Who's the Boss?, there would be obvious clues that it was her.  In any case, Wendy, while not looking like a newborn, doesn't seem to be a toddler.)

As with Three's Company, there's a more cartoony feel than a couple years earlier, with the exception of the Wendy storyline.  It says something that the studio audience has accepted Jodie enough that they audibly express how cute they think the scenes are of him as a father.  Down the road, the home audience would root for Jodie in his custody battle, at a time when gay parents generally lost such battles.  I'll get back to this, but for all Soap's mistakes, this is an area where I think the show made a difference.

Billy isn't shown although he's of course mentioned a lot.  And Chuck, Bob, and Danny are all gone without being mentioned.

Soap: Episode 47

Soap: Episode 47
ABC
March 15, 1979
Dramedy
DVD
B

This Harris & Silver season-closer really only wraps up one thread: the family, led by Jessica, unites to defy the Devil, who stops possessing the baby.  Well, most of the family.  Burt and Chester have an argument, so Chester throws Burt out.  Sometime later (the chronology in the episode is screwy, switching back and forth between day and night without explanation), Burt is abducted by the spaceship he saw before.  Meanwhile, Danny tracks down one of the kidnappers, almost kills him but can't go through with it, and it looks like he might be killed himself.  And Billy is held prisoner by the Sunnies.  Yeah, most of the family.  My favorite scene here is Mary assuring Jessica and Corinne that the Devil is not there because of their affairs, while she's amazed at all the men in town that Corinne has slept with.  My second favorite is the exorcism scene, which ends with us finally seeing the baby.  Kudos to Tim McIntire for his Devil voice; despite some '70s cheesiness with the special effects, this episode is a bit scary at some points.

Candice Azzara makes her first of five appearances on Soap as Millie; she'd show up in the last season of Who's the Boss?

While the first season averaged an impressive B, the high B- of Season Two (in a C+ to B range) is nothing to be ashamed of.  The series is starting to drift towards more slapstick and Flanderization, but there are still some good and even great moments.  I recall the departure of Benson, early in Season Three, as a bit of a shark-jump, but we'll see.

Soap: Episode 46

Soap: Episode 46
ABC
March 8, 1979
Dramedy
DVD
B-

This Harris & Silver episode has one completely unnecessary scene: Jessica and Detective Donahue in a posh restaurant, where he makes a fool of himself and she tells him she's not ready to choose between him and Chester.  It's not funny, it goes on too long, and it contributes nothing to their relationship or the plot.  The rest of the show is more solid, especially anything to do with Benson, from checking in with Billy to agreeing to help Tim fight the Devil.  The episode is also notable for Jodie and Alice starting to have possibly romantic feelings for each other, to their surprise and confusion.  (Again, the word "bisexual" is never mentioned in the series.)

Scott Mulhern appears as a nameless Sunnie, but in the Fall he'd get the name Roger; he was Andy Cooper on M*A*S*H.  Kit McDonough, who plays Alice's date Maxine, had very recently flirted with Klinger on M*A*S*H, while he was in drag, and she herself played a character mistaken for a man in drag by Mr. Roper, so I'm guessing she was comfortable with playing characters whose sexuality and/or gender was questioned.

Soap: Episode 45

Soap: Episode 45
ABC
March 1, 1979
Dramedy
DVD
B

In this Harris & Silver episode, Chester tries to adjust to all the changes to the household since his absence, from Jessica being in love with another man to the quirks of his grandson.  (He makes a remark about the baby taking after him, but he's no blood relative.)  The baby seems to be possessed, so Corinne goes to Tim's cave and persuades him to come home.  Meanwhile, Jodie brings Alice home to meet the family, which goes as badly as you'd expect, and then Burt and Danny leave to track down the kidnappers, but instead Burt spots a flying saucer, setting up a thread that would have long-term consequences.

Soap: Episode 42

Soap: Episode 42
ABC
February 1, 1979
Dramedy
DVD
B-

Corinne gives birth to a healthy baby boy, while Jessica and Mary reminisce about their labor stories.  (Eunice says she wants Dutch's baby, but this never happened during the run of the show.)  Jessica and Detective Donahue have a date at his place, while Chester regains his memory.  Burt decides to prove that Sally partially lied about his adultery.  (It's actually fully lied, but he and the audience don't know that yet.)  And Alice turns into a Jewish mother after living with Jodie three days.

Jo de Winter returns as Corinne's nameless obstetrician.  The Major, Danny, Chuck, Bob, and oddly enough Corinne are absent.

Soap: Episode 41

Soap: Episode 41
ABC
January 18, 1979
Dramedy
DVD
B

This is one of the better Harris & Silver episodes, since it doesn't really have any weak scenes.  It starts with the Campbell & Dallas men drinking to forget their losses-- of wives, lovers, and Bob's suede jacket.  Even the Dutch & Eunice scene, with him being caught by the police, isn't bad.  Meanwhile, Tim leaves Corinne to go live in a cave and make peace with God, and not long after this, Corinne goes into labor, in her sixth week!  Note that Billy is somehow still 15, although his birthday is supposed to be in October.  (There is no way to explain this with any timeline.)  This is also the episode where Jodie meets a lesbian, Alice (Randee Heller in her first of nine appearances), and talks her out of suicide.

Chester is absent and no one seems to be grieving him, if they ever did.

Soap: Episode 40

Soap: Episode 40
ABC
January 11, 1979
Dramedy
DVD
B-

The main reason to watch this Harris & Silver episode is for the scene where Jodie confronts Carol, who's gone back home to Texas.  The other threads are that the family gathers together for a memorial service for Chester (who's slowly regaining his memory), but no one actually has any good memories of him; and Sally tells Mary about her "affair" with Burt, and his new fling with an 18-year-old.  Note that the rhyming recaps are already getting old in this second venture and I'll be glad when they're dropped.

Peggy Pope makes her first of five appearances as Carol's mother.  Charles Hallahan, who plays Lance, would be Colin Turnbull on M*A*S*H.  Eunice is absent and I don't know if she's heard that her father is probably dead.

Soap: Episode 39

Soap: Episode 39
ABC
January 4, 1979
Dramedy
DVD
B-

The best thing about this Harris & Silver episode is the interaction between Guillaume and Helmond, whether he's pretending to be her husband to protect Eunice and Dutch, or comforting her over her actual husband's death.  (And we know he hates Chester.)  It turns out that Chester is actually alive but still amnesiac.  Meanwhile, Burt tries to gently dump Sally, who first threatens suicide and then swears revenge.  And Danny wants revenge on Elaine's killers.  Note that Elaine was buried only a day or two after her death.  (Peter's funeral was similarly rushed.)  Also note that Benson and Billy think Eunice can't cook, although she told Walter she could.  And further note that Burt and Danny already had a conversation about their gun knowledge, when Danny tried to kill Burt.

GW Bailey, who plays the Hobo, would begin his recurring role as Rizzo on M*A*S*H later that year.  Richard Stahl, who plays Officer Hickey, would appear on an early episode of Who's the Boss?, again working with Helmond.  Corinne, Tim, and the Major are absent.

Soap: Episode 38

Soap: Episode 38
ABC
December 21, 1978
Dramedy
DVD
B

This Harris & Silver episode has some weaker scenes and yet redeems itself.  For instance, Burt and Mary confront each other about their "affairs," and it's marred by Mary's ridiculous thing (which has come up in the past) that she thinks she's fat.  But at least they're finally talking, even if he's still lying (about who the woman was).  And I don't really care about Detective Donohue and Jessica supposedly being in love, but I do like the talking-to Benson gives him.  And the kidnapping thread continues to have too much slapstick and stupid humor, but then there is the literally killer ending of Elaine coming home to die in Danny's arms.  Despite the start and middle of their relationship, this ending is bittersweetly beautiful, especially with the reaction shot of the rest of the family huddling together in their grief.  (Well, not Chuck & Bob who are upstairs working on their mind-reading act.)  The only thread I don't have an issue with is Tim not believing Corinne about the timing of her pregnancy.  Viscuso and Canova work well together, and both characters have views that the audience can relate to.

Greg Antonacci and Frank Coppola are of course back as kidnappers Dave and Mel, but only the latter would return.  This is of course Manoff's final appearance as Elaine, although she would go on to a long-running role as Richard Mulligan's daughter Carol on Empty Nest.  Billy, the Major, Eunice, Dutch, and obviously Chester are absent.

Soap: Episode 37

Soap: Episode 37
ABC
December 14, 1978
Dramedy
DVD
B-

I don't really care about most of the threads in this Harris & Silver episode (Dutch & Elaine scared of spiders on the farm, Burt and Danny dealing with the kidnappers, Detective Donohue telling Jessica he loves her), but it is worth tuning in for the scenes before and during the wedding.  Crystal brings out so many sides to Jodie and the others, particularly Damon, work well with him.

Greg Antonacci and Frank Coppola return as the kidnappers Dave and Mel.  Corinne for some reason is absent, even at the wedding.  Note that, while not technically implied male nudity, Dutch carries out the week's theme by dropping his pants.

Soap: Episode 36

Soap: Episode 36
ABC
December 7, 1978
Dramedy
DVD
B-

This Harris & Silver episode, would've been a B, since I like the scene where Corinne's nameless Doctor (Jo de Winter, who was "Dear Libby" on The Brady Bunch) tells her that she has the healthy uterus of a woman who's five months pregnant, even though Corinne has been married only a month.  (More about the timeline below.)  Helmond has some funny lines, and de Winter and Canova are solid.  I also like the scene with Carol and Dennis both trying to Talk with Jodie while he's filming a silly commercial (although one perfectly plausible in that era of the Fruit of the Loom underwear ads such as this one, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnAAr2dQrNA).  I could take or leave the scene introducing Detective Donohue (John Byner in his first of seventeen Soap appearances).  But the two scenes with Danny and Burt dealing with Elaine's kidnapping put too much emphasis on slapstick and dumb humor, like Burt's reaction to a ransom of $250,000, "that's almost a quarter of a million."

As for the timeline, Corinne says she hadn't been with anyone between Tim and Peter, and the latter died six months ago.  And since it was November on the previous episode, that would give us a death date of presumably May (or very early June).  So is this still taking place in '77?  It would've made more sense for Corinne to say Peter died about a year ago (making her pregnancy even more surprising), and he did die roughly at the same point in Season One as we're now at for Season Two.  Unless the murder has been retconned, or Sally isn't that great a secretary and she doesn't update her work calendar.  Also, don't forget that Carol is pregnant.  So it'll be interesting to see when her baby is supposed to be due, if the show ever tells us.  (I don't think so.)

Alex Henteloff, who's Mr. Peppy Flake, had been Capt. Casey on an early M*A*S*H episode, while Wendell Wright, who plays Rodney Raisin, would appear on What's Happening!! a couple weeks later.  Understandably, Elaine, Chester, Eunice, and Dutch are absent, but so is the Major.

Soap: Episode 35

Soap: Episode 35
ABC
November 30, 1978
Dramedy
DVD
B


This Harris & Silver episode contains perhaps the funniest exchange on the series, the "Mickey Mouse's dog was gay?!" dialogue between Jodie and Jessica, showing what pros Crystal and Helmond already were.  (And I think Mary's laughter at the end is Damon's genuine amusement.)

The scene has a more serious side, as both Mary's son and sister want her to talk to Burt, but she's not ready yet.  And Burt tries to let Sally down gently but she gets so upset that he agrees to keep it going.  At the end of that scene, she calmly calls someone to tell them that Burt will soon be a broken man.  Meanwhile, Eunice runs off with Dutch, Chester goes missing, and Elaine gets kidnapped.  Note that the wall calendar by Sally's desk says November.  We'll see if this helps with the timeline later.

Harrison Page, who was on That Girl in two different roles, one of them a policeman, here plays Benson's old friend Deputy Gilmore.  Frank Coppola makes his first of five appearances as Mel and Greg Antonacci his first of three as Dave, who I believe are the kidnappers.

Soap: Episode 34

Soap: Episode 34
ABC
November 23, 1978
Dramedy
DVD
B

The best scenes in this Harris & Silver episode are the ones of female-bonding, from Mary and Elaine doing mudpacks together to Carol's wedding shower.  And speaking of showers, Mary doesn't buy Burt's story about a plane landing in the road, especially since she notices he showered before he came home.  Jessica admits that, looking back, she thinks Chester cheated on their honeymoon, but she encourages Mary to talk to Burt.  Meanwhile, Tim works for Burt's construction company but quits after one day, Chester thinks he's Marlene Dietrich, and the Flanderization of Danny's intelligence begins, with his plan to hire midgets to work in four-foot-high office space.

Soap: Episode 33

Soap: Episode 33
ABC
November 9, 1978
Dramedy
DVD
B-

Susan Harris co-wrote this episode with Stu Silver, his first of fifty-two Soap episodes.  Generally, I like it, with the best scene this time being the one where Corinne and Jessica eat popcorn and talk about the former's pregnancy.  Jessica is surprisingly pro-choice, saying that if Corinne doesn't want to have a baby she shouldn't, although she does guess that Corinne wants to.  Corinne does, despite Tim's unemployment.

Meanwhile, Jodie gets the last of his belongings from Dennis and ends up punching his ex out when Dennis calls Carol a slut.  Danny and Elaine are now very lovey-dovey, and Bob gets away with a Devil in Miss Jones reference.  Chester is home and still amnesiac, so Eunice thinks he should be committed.  (Yeah, that worked out so well with Burt.)  Dutch tries to say goodbye to Eunice but gives in when she begs to run away with him.

The weakest thread is that Mary's professor (Lee Bergere in his last appearance on the show) keeps coming on to her and ends up on top of her on the couch.  Burt walks in and jumps to the wrong conclusion, but instead of talking to them, he goes out, gets drunk, and ends up at Sally's apartment.  She has him stay the night.  If they had to do this plot, couldn't they have given a more plausible reason for Burt to not confront Mary than uncertainty?

Soap: Episode 32

Soap: Episode 32
ABC
November 2, 1978
Dramedy
DVD
B

This episode has two good dramatic scenes and a proto-Golden-Girls scene, but I can't give it a B+ because some of the other scenes are weak.  One of these is another hospital scene, where Chester still has amnesia and the doctor finds it funny.  Also, the Sally being in love/lust with Burt thread doesn't really work, especially knowing her motivation.

One of the dramatic scenes is Elaine explaining to Danny why she's a bitch (not that she puts it that way).  The other is Burt talking about how his father was never a success.  As for the GG-like scene, it's Susan Harris having four female characters sit around the kitchen table, eating junk and talking about sex.  Meanwhile, Jodie meets Carol's father, "Boomer" David (Michael Conrad, who was Mr. Trevesco on The Bob Newhart Show), and tells him "The Princess is pregnant."  Boomer is nice to Jodie's face but tells Carol to never bring "the faggot" home.

The Major, Chuck, and Bob are absent.