After watching Soap season one on DVD (I only caught a few episodes on TV when it was on Comedy Central, but never got to see it in it's original run on TV), I think this is a funny, great show and also thought it was quite an original concept for a TV series. I was curious to know if there have been any other series like this show, or is it in a genre of it's own?

I was thinking of this just the other day while stuck in traffic. NBC had a show about 10-12 years back called Grand; lasted two season, with major cast changes between seasons. It wasn't as over-the-top as Soap, but it was essentially a half-hour sit-com soap opera with ridiculos situations. It revolved around the citizens of Grand, PA, whose only industry and reason to exist was the Grand Piano Factory. IIRC, the show was supposedly cancelled, so a series finale was aired (a tornado destroyed the town?) after S1; then they came back for S2 and had to explain it all away.

First year included Bonnie Hunt, Michael McKean (both dropped after S1), John Randolph, Pamela Reed, the gal that plays Claude on Less Than Perfect, and some others you may recognize. Pretty sure the creators/producers had a strong pedigree.....

Wasn't "The Powers That Be" with David Hyde Pierce and John Forsythe kind of a Soap-like sitcom that was set in Washington DC?

"Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" was another spoof, it was on even before "Soap". As for today, "Boston Public" is quickly becoming more spoof than serious.

Honk!