Soap: Episode 74

Soap: Episode 74
ABC
December 10, 1980
Dramedy
DVD
C-

OK, now it's getting a little painful, especially since I know this isn't a temporary dip but is an inevitable descent.  I'm not saying there might not be a C+ or even B- ahead of us but things do not bode well.  Danny continues to be dumber (and unfunnier) than a box of rocks, in one scene failing to read aloud words like "leper" and "ancient," and in another planning on wearing a ridiculous costume to a massage parlor.  Elsewhere, Jodie hires detective Maggie Chandler (Barbara Rhoades in her first of ten appearances)*, who calls him a "cupcake" and "fruitbowl," which presumably is meant to show how hard-boiled she is but made me immediately dislike her when I first saw this, and now knowing that she'll become Jodie's girlfriend makes things even worse.  Jessica is captured by guerrillas (and the "gorilla" joke is repeated from last week) but seems unaware that the men dying around her aren't just pretending.  Dutch sobs some more.  All we're missing is Leslie bursting in and saying, "All right, this time I'm really gonna do it!", but I know she will in at least one more episode.  I can't blame Mary for wanting to sleep all day.  At least Bob is kind of funny.


*For some reason, Rhoades kept being cast as characters named Maggie.  She was Maggie Gallagher on Maude, Mr Dugan, and Hanging In, and would be Maggie Davis on the Klugman-Stamos series You Again?