Soap - ABC - 1977-1981
SOAP is the story of two families - The Tate's and The Campbell's. Jessica Tate and Mary Campbell are sisters and the show is basically the story of the two families as a parody on Soap Operas. The show is a comedy that takes different aspects of Soap Operas - Murder, Adultery, Organized Crime, Cults, etc. and puts an outrageous spin and goes way too far with some of it.
The cast is fantastic as it includes: Billy Crystal, Katherine Helmond (Mona on Who's The Boss), Richard Mulligan (Empty Nest), Robert Guillaume, Ted Wass (Blossom's dad) - just to name a few.
The characters that the cast plays are just brilliant. Crystal plays a gay man, Helmond plays the dim-witted Jessica, Mulligan is the wacky Burt, Guillaume is the wisecracking butler, and Wass is 'Tough Guy' early on but later becomes just as wacky as Burt. Other characters are Chuck and Bob - Chuck being Burt's son from a previous marriage and Bob as his dummy as Chuck is a ventriloquist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTHFiqqGC5U&feature=related