Soap

- Season 3

(1979)

A compilation special prior to the season 3 premiere. Jessica reminisces about the family with Benson, who is leaving the Tate household for a position at the state governor's mansion.

Burt finds himself captive on an alien spaceship, with a duplicate of him ready to take his place in Mary's bed; Carol's mother arrives with his newborn daughter Wendy; Jessica chooses Chester over Detective Donohue.

Mary exults about Burt's sudden resurgence in bed, unaware that he's an alien duplicate of her husband; since Wendy's mother abandoned her baby to run off with a cowboy, Jodie takes sole care of his daughter now that his best friend Alice is out of the picture; Burt meets another captive on the spaceship: a 4000-year-old Jewish man named Saul.

After Billy is rescued from The Sunnies, Benson bids farewell to Jessica to work in the mansion of her cousin the Governor; Burt and Saul try to make their escape; Mary begins to suspect that her Burt is not a different man but another man.

Jessica convinces Detective Donahue to leave; Chester falls into old habits with an old flame; Danny is rescued by Millie, the girlfriend of his wife's killer; Billy's divorced teacher, Mrs. Leslie Walker, enjoys his flattery after confessing her loneliness.

Dutch is finally released from prison; the alien Burt mistakes Millie for his stepson Jodie; Saul beams the real Burt back down to the Campbell home, where he comes face-to-face with his duplicate.

The alien Burt prevents Mary from seeing the real Burt; Eunice admits that she can't stand Dutch; Billy takes Leslie to an out-of-the-way place where they must avoid being seen by Chester and Eunice; and the mismatched Tim and Corinne agree to divorce.

Billy spends his first evening in Leslie's apartment and meets her condescending first husband; the real Burt is beamed back to the ship right in front of Mary, who concludes that he really can make himself invisible.

Billy tries to take Leslie to a hotel, but it's the same one in which every member of his family seems to be planning to spend the night; the two Burts meet for a final confrontation.

Billy tells his mother about Leslie; Burt reveals everything about his alien double to Mary; while visiting his wife's grave, Danny meets Polly, a pretty black widow.

Burt laments that Danny has fallen for a black widow; Jessica walks out on her cheating husband; Jodie gets a surprise visit from a social worker.

Chester begs Jessica for another chance; Jodie decides to move back home with his daughter Wendy; Leslie plans a surprise gift for Billy's 18th birthday.

Danny catches up with Polly; Chester and Jessica attend a counseling session with a minister; Burt's doctor reveals that Mary is pregnant--and that Burt's insomnia is caused by a fatal blood disease.

Mary's joyful pregnancy is tempered by the fear that it might turn out to be the child of Alien Burt; after spending the night in bed with Leslie, Billy admits that he's finally found something better than television.

The Campbells receive a visit from Polly's family; Danny learns about Burt's illness and suggests that he leave his legacy by getting into the Guinness Book of World Records; Chester has fallen for the minister's daughter, so Jessica finally kicks him out of the house.

Burt cannot bring himself to tell Mary about his terminal illness; Jessica learns that her old flame Detective Donahue has married someone else.

Jessica goes to psychiatrist Dr. Alan Posner, who keeps a punching bag in his office; Wendy's mother Carol, who jilted Jodie at the altar, makes an unannounced visit; Burt's doctor reveals he's not really dying after all; and Eunice abandons Dutch.

Danny and Polly decide to buy a house; Corinne and Dutch spend the night together; Carol tells Jodie that she intends to go to court to take her daughter away from him.

Burt decides to run for sheriff; Jodie hires Jessica's attorney E. Ronald Mallu for his custody case; after meeting Jessica's crazy family, Dr. Posner believes he could open an office there.

Danny and Polly find their new neighbors hostile; Billy tries to break up with a suddenly-suicidal Leslie; the Tates welcome new butler Saunders as Jessica collapses during a dinner party.

Dr. Hill treats Jessica in the hospital; Jodie's custody trial begins; and Burt is elected the new sheriff, if he can only get the old one to resign.

Dr. Hill tells Jessica she only has days or weeks left to live; Chester moves back home in time for Leslie's latest suicide attempt; Dutch and Corinne are startled by the surprise return of Eunice.

Danny proposes marriage to Polly; Sheriff Burt and Deputy Danny are set up for blackmail by mobster Elmore Tibbs; Dutch cannot choose between two sisters; Carol's mother joins her in perjuring herself in court; Leslie decides to kill Billy; Jessica's death watch features a surprise visit from Benson.