| Genre: | Sitcom |
| Creator: | Bruce Jay Friedman |
| Based On: | Steambath (play) |
| Starring: | Jose Perez Robert Picardo Al Ruscio Neil J. Schwartz Patrick Spohn Rita Taggart Janis Ward Allen Williams |
| Theme Music Composer: | David Frishberg |
| Composer: | Artie Butler |
| Num Seasons: | 1 |
| Num Episodes: | 6 |
| Executive Producer: | Joe Byrne Jeb Rosebrook Elias Davis David Pollock |
| Producer: | Jerry Madden |
| Cinematography: | George Spiro Dibie |
| Runtime: | 30 |
| Company: | Joe Byrne/Falrose Productions |
| Network: | Showtime |
Steambath is an American sitcom on Showtime that presented the afterlife as a steam bath. It was adapted from the Off-Broadway play by Bruce Jay Friedman and featured three cast members and the director from the 1973 PBS TV adaptation.
This show presents the afterlife as a steam bath in which recently deceased souls continue to obsess about the same petty concerns that obsessed them in their lives. Ultimately, they are cast into another room offstage which is represented by a dark void by God, the steambath's Puerto Rican attendant. The characters who originated in the play are allowed to stay as various others pass through each week.
Producer Joe Byrne caught the 1973 PBS television production and saw the potential for a weekly series, so he convinced an executive at Warner Bros. to option the rights.[1] All three American TV networks loved it and were keen on keeping Jose Perez as God, but Byrne refused to tone down the material[1] so the project sat in limbo until 1983 when Warner Bros. commissioned author Dan Greenburg to create a script.[2] Greenburg loosely adapted the play and added the character of Blanche to serve as a "romantic interest" for Morty,[2] although their relationship was never explored by David Pollack and Elias Davis, who wrote the rest of the episodes. It was picked up by Showtime, which broadcast the show as a companion to their other new sitcom, Brothers.[2]
In addition to Perez, Neil J. Schwartz & Patrick Spohn returned from the PBS adaptation as the flamboyant songsters simply known as The Young Men, and Burt Brinckerhoff directed three of the six episodes. Although created as a standard sitcom, the show was shot on a closed set[1] and included a laugh track. As with the play and PBS special, profanity and nudity were included, but this caused concern at Showtime, which insisted on whittling some of it out.[3]
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
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