The Cliffhanger Final Episode of Soap Aired 40 Years Ago Today

On April 20, 1981, ABC aired the Season 4 finale of Soap, Susan Harris's critically-acclaimed comic spoof of soap operas. Harris had planned for five seasons, but ABC's abrupt cancellation forced the series to end on a cliffhanger. 

This clip is the last scene of the final episode, featuring Jessica Tate (Katherine Helmond) facing a Communist firing squad who had been holding her hostage in an effort to trade her for her paramour El Puerco, a counter-revolutionary leader. She flits about with the squad leader General Sandia (Luis Avalos) and the gunmen themselves with her usual casual style, but the final shot is Jessica getting shot. Hell of a way to end a series.

Fortunately, Harris also had Benson, a successful spinoff of Soap starring Robert Guillaume, who won one of Soap's four Emmys for Outstanding Supporting Actor in the role of the Tates' butler Benson DuBois, and she was able to bring Helmond back as Jessica for a guest appearance on a 1983 episode to give her a bit of closure. Seems she is somehow able to astral project herself to chat with Benson, and she says "I am positively not dead," before turning directly to the camera and saying "I'm in a coma somewhere in South America. But don't worry, I'll get out of it all right." The scene ends with a nice musical beat featuring a hint of the Soap theme blending into Benson's theme song.

Andy Hunsaker has a head full of sitcom gags and nerd-genre lore, and can be followed @AndyHunsaker if you're into that sort of thing.