The show was created as a nighttime parody of daytime soap operas, presented as a weekly half-hour prime time comedy.

Similar to a soap opera, the show's story was presented in a serial format, and featured melodramatic plotlines including alien abduction, demonic possession, extramarital affairs, murder, kidnapping, unknown diseases, amnesia, cults, organized crime, a communist revolution, and teacher-student relationships.

Mary's other son, Jodie (Billy Crystal, in an early role), is homosexual, having a secret affair with a famous professional football quarterback, and contemplating a sex-change operation.

Other plot lines include Jessica's adopted daughter Corinne courting Father Tim Flotsky (Sal Viscuso), who ended up leaving the priesthood, with the two eventually marrying and having a child who is possessed by the Devil; Chester being imprisoned for Peter's murder, escaping with his prison mate Dutch, and being afflicted with amnesia after a failed operation; Jessica's other daughter, Eunice, sleeping with a married congressman (Edward Winter), and then falling in love with Dutch; Mary's stepson Chuck (Jay Johnson), a ventriloquist whose hostilities are expressed through his alter ego, a quick-witted dummy named Bob; Jessica's love affairs with several men, including Donahue (John Byner) a private investigator hired to find the missing presumed-dead Chester, her psychiatrist, and a Latin American revolutionary known as El Puerco ('The Pig'; his friends just call him "El") (Gregory Sierra); Billy Tate's confinement by a cult called the "Sunnies" (a parody of Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church, called the "Moonies" by its critics), and then his affair with his school teacher who becomes unhinged; Danny and his romantic trials after Elaine's death with a black woman (Polly, played by Lynne Moody), a prostitute (Gwen, played by Jesse Welles), and Chester's second wife (Annie,played by Nancy Dolman); and Burt's confinement to a mental institution, his abduction by aliens while being replaced with an oversexed alien lookalike on Earth, and getting blackmailed by the Mob after becoming sheriff of their small town.

[6] 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.

[7] In June 1977, a Newsweek preview of the fall season written by Harry F. Waters panned the show while characterizing some of its basic plot elements incorrectly and offering exaggerated reports of its sexual content.

[8] 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.

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.

"[12] In August, the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, representing the three branches of Judaism, joined the Catholic protest, saying that the show, yet to be aired, "reached a new low".

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

(ABC had scheduled it on Tuesdays after Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley, two of the most popular family television shows being broadcast at the time.

[15] Boycotting affiliates included KDUB in Dubuque, Iowa; KMVT in Twin Falls, Idaho; KTVO in Kirksville, Missouri/Ottumwa, Iowa; KXON in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; WABG-TV in Greenwood, Mississippi; WBAK in Terre Haute, Indiana; WCCB in Charlotte, North Carolina; WJCL in Savannah, Georgia; WJZ in Baltimore; WKAB in Montgomery, Alabama; WOWK-TV in Huntington, West Virginia; WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina; and WYUR in Huntsville, Alabama.

Except for two individuals, the only angry calls came from people wondering what happened to Saturday Night Live, which could now be found on WRET (today's WCNC-TV).

[22] Aside from the external protests, Soap was also subject to heavy internal revisions from ABC's Broadcast Standards & Practices department, which monitors the content of programs.

The Standards & Practices executives (commonly referred to as "censors") reviewed this extensive bible as well as the script for the two-part pilot and issued a long memo to Harris voicing their concerns about various storylines and characters.

In addition to the sexual material that was widely reported in the press, the censors also took issue with the show's religious, political and ethnic content.

The episode was preceded by a disclaimer that the show "was part of a continuing character comedy" that included adult themes and that "viewer discretion" was advised.

Fueled by six months of pre-show protests (as well as a solid lead-in from the hit shows Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, and Three's Company), the first episode swept its time slot with a 25.6 rating and a 39% share of the national audience.

Variety called the show "forced and derivative", "bland" and "predictable and silly" while conceding that the sex is "no more outrageous than daytime soapers, no more outspoken than Three's Company.

"[24] Time magazine praised the "talented cast" and singled out Jimmy Baio and Billy Crystal as "sharp young comedians", but felt the show suffered from "nastiness" and "lacked compassion".

[14] On the more positive side, TV Guide gave the show a good review saying that there was "a heap of talent" in the cast and asking "Is it funny?

[25] Harry F. Waters' 1977 Newsweek review proved prescient of conservative reaction when the following year, the National PTA declared Soap one of "ten worst" shows in television.

In spite of this designation, Soap ranked #13 for the 1977–78 season[8] and went on to gain positive critical reviews and high ratings over the rest of its four-year run.

Although the uproar against Soap subsided shortly after its premiere, the program continued to generate additional criticism for its relatively frank depictions of homosexuals, racial and ethnic minorities and the mentally ill, as well as its treatment of other taboo topics such as social class, marital infidelity, impotence, incest, sexual harassment, rape, student-teacher sexual relationships, kidnapping, organized crime, murder of and by cast members, and new age cults.

The two discuss each of the show's individual characters and their possible motives for killing Burt's son Peter using flashbacks to illustrate specific story lines.

These involve a suicidal Chester preparing to kill Annie (his wife) and Danny (his biological son) after catching them in bed together, a hypnotized Jodie believing himself to be a 90-year-old Jewish man, Burt preparing to walk into an ambush orchestrated by his political enemies, Jessica about to be executed by a Communist firing squad, and Chester and El Puerco challenging each other to a duel.

However, according to the Museum of Broadcast Communications, Soap "ended under suspicion that resistance from ad agencies may have caused ABC to cancel [it] at that point" because its still-controversial content was negatively affecting its relationship with sponsors.

[8] In 2010, The Huffington Post called Soap a "timeless comedy" and concluded: "Rarely does a show come along with such a unique voice and vision from the first episode".

On August 27, 2013, it was announced that Mill Creek Entertainment had acquired the rights to various television series from the Sony Pictures library, including Soap.