Soap (TV Series) - Pre-broadcast Protests and Controversy

Pre-broadcast Protests and Controversy

In early March 1977, ABC screened the first two episodes of Soap for the executives of its 195 affiliate stations, many of whom were instantly appalled by the show's emphasis on sex and infidelity. Two of the affiliates, neither in a major market, privately told ABC that the show was "raunchy" and its subject matter not fit for television.

In June 1977, a Newsweek preview of the fall season written by Harry F. Waters panned the show while mischaracterizing some of its basic plot elements and offering exaggerated reports of its sexual content. Despite having not seen the pilot, Waters called the show a "sex farce" and claimed (erroneously) that the show included a scene of a Catholic priest being seduced in a confessional. Waters also stated:

Soap promises to be the most controversial network series of the coming season, a show so saturated with sex that it could replace violence as the PTA's Video Enemy No. 1. —Harry F. Waters, Harry F. Waters (June 13, 1977). "99 and 44/100% Impure". Newsweek 90 (3): 92.

Whether Waters' errors and misrepresentations were intentional or accidental is unknown.

Within days of the Newsweek report, a number of local and national religious organizations began to quickly mobilize against Soap, despite the fact that they also had not seen the pilot. Among these were the National Council of Churches, the United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church, the National Council of Catholic Bishops and the Christian Life Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, the latter of which went so far as to divest itself of 2,500 shares of ABC stock "because the board does not approve of programming related to the abuse of human sexuality, violence and perversion."

The Roman Catholic Church, led by its Los Angeles Diocese, also condemned the show and asked all American families to boycott it saying "ABC should be told that American Catholics and all Americans are not going to sit by and watch the networks have open season on Catholicism and morality. is probably one of the most effective arguments for government censorship of TV that has yet come along." In August, the Board of Rabbis of Southern California representing three branches of Judaism, joined the Catholic protest saying that the as-yet unaired show "reached a new low."

Dr. Everett Paker of the United Church of Christ called the Soap "a low-life, salacious program" and complained that the show would be airing when children would be able to watch it.

These religious groups organized a letter-writing campaign designed to pressure the show's sponsors from advertising on the network. Although some of the religious groups asked their members to watch the show first, and then inform ABC of their feelings about it, others began working hard to get ABC to cancel the show before it premiered. One ABC Vice President was shocked to learn that his 11 year-old child was required by a parochial school teacher to write a letter of protest to ABC to take the show off the air. In the end, 32,000 people wrote letters to ABC, all but 9 of them against it.

In addition to the religious protest, Soap also faced substantial pre-broadcast criticism from the International Union of Gay Athletes and the National Gay Task Force, both of which were concerned about the way the gay character Jodie Dallas and his professional football player lover would be portrayed.

To allay the concern of advertisers some of whom had begun to cancel sponsorship of the program, ABC reluctantly dropped the price for commercial time from $75,000 per spot to $40,000 per spot. When Soap premiered on September 13, 1977, 18 out of 195 ABC affiliates had refused to air the program with others choosing to broadcast it after 11PM. By its second week on the air, two more affiliates dropped out, bringing the boycott to 20 stations.