![]() ![]() ABC ordered changes and reshoots, and pleaded with the public to just wait until the show aired and everyone could see it for themselves.Īnd so, in September of 1977, America finally got its first glimpse of Soap. The network arranged screenings of the show’s pilot with local stations - but that backfired, with some station managers declaring they could never put the show on the air. Activists were terrified that Soap would play right into her hands with future campaigns across the country.ĪBC did what it could to quell the backlash (as documented extensively in the book Soap by A. Bryant’s TV commercials depicted gays and lewd and menacing, and persuaded Miami to overturn a gay rights ordinance. This wasn’t a hypothetical fear at the same time that Soap was in production, Anita Bryant whipped Miami voters into a frenzy with a campaign opposing civil rights protections for queer people. ![]() Queer depictions on TV tended to be pretty negative back then, and activists feared that a gay main character would reinforce negative stereotypes and cement queer people as objects of contempt in viewers’ minds. ![]() The other group opposed to Soap were gay activists, who had heard that the show would include a gay character. People listened he soon had a small but active following, fueled by moral panic. So that’s what he did in 1977: He created an organization to criticize TV networks, and organized a “turn off the TV” week to try to rally his followers. ![]() But he discovered that by making a big show of outrage over sex and violence on TV, he could drum up attention for himself. Donald had been an obscure nobody for most of his life, and writes in his autobiography that he was “bored” and felt like a “monkey in a cage” with his small congregation. There were religious extremists, primarily whipped up into a frenzy by a Mississippi preacher named Donald Wildmon. Two main groups emerged as the opponents to the show. ![]()
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