SOAP: The Perfect Storm of Comedy and Tragedy

Two summers ago, I became absolutely hooked on an sitcom called Soap. Airing from the late seventies to the early eighties, the show was a genius satire of the ridiculous soap operas that were airing at the time: it mocked the crazy plot lines, wacky characters, and general cheese factor involved with most of those soap operas.

However, Soap was more than just fluff mockery. While it is certainly a satire, it was also groundbreaking for its time. The show's plot revolved around two families, one rich and one working class. Almost every character had some kind of secret that hindered their daily lives: One was cheating on his wife with everything that breathed, one was the other woman in an illicit sexual relationship with a congressman, one had accidentally killed his wife's first husband, one was a convicted murderer, and so on and so forth. The show was even so groundbreaking at to have TV's first openly gay character (played by Billy Crystal), as well as a black character who wasn't afraid to speak his mind. These characters were all incredibly controversial, and all dealing with some sort of pain or distress in their lives.

As a comedic satire, the show is absolutely hilarious. The characters all have serious issues, but deal with them in ways that certainly bring laughter to the audience. However, the show really does know how to sober up. Characters dealt with loss, issues of trust, regret, guilt; each of these were portrayed in a serious way around all of the hilarious nonsense that also occurred. The show was a wonderful balance between comedy and tragedy.