The first of 93 half hour episodes, which do not include the "recap" shows that began the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th seasons. Susan Harris, a writer who had done scripts for THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY, ALL IN THE FAMILY, and MAUDE, was the creator, producer, and main writer, going on to other successful shows such as BENSON, THE GOLDEN GIRLS, and EMPTY NEST. SOAP was a prime time satire of the popular soap opera clichés of daytime television, which succeeded only because they created characters that audiences could care about or identify with, thanks also to brilliant casting. We begin in the Tate household, looked after by black manservant Benson Le Beau (Robert Guillaume, so arrogant yet lovable in his brutal honesty that he spun off the character into his own show), who genuinely cares about Jessica Tate (Katherine Helmond), the head of the house, whose philandering husband Chester (Robert Mandan), deceives his wife at every turn. Their son Billy (Jimmy Baio, Scott's cousin) is preparing for his first date, while his sister Eunice (Jennifer Salt) is a hypocritical prude who criticizes him for reading "dirty" magazines (actually, he just looks at the pictures!). Another daughter, Corinne (Diana Canova, daughter of Judy), has a habit of staying out all night, while Jessica's father, Major Gatling (Arthur Peterson),hardly ever leaves the house, still believing he's fighting the Nazis in WW2, occasionally firing at the hapless neighbors. Meanwhile, in the Campbell home, Mary (Cathryn Damon), Jessica's sister, is newly married to her second husband, Burt (Richard Mulligan), who is having difficulty getting along with Mary's two sons from her first marriage. One son, Danny (Ted Wass), is a member of the Mob, conducting business on the phone in Italian, while the other, Jodie (Billy Crystal), is a homosexual depicted in these early shows in a limp-wristed clichéd fashion that would soon change. Burt and Mary are having their troubles as well, with Burt unable to make love to her out of guilt over killing her first husband out of his love for her. The final scene introduces Peter "the Tennis Player" (Robert Urich), who sleeps with a vulnerable Jessica while also seeing her unknowing daughter Corinne. Rod Roddy was the announcer for the entire series.