Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Tuesday's Overlooked TV: The Soupy Sales Show

I guess you had to be there, or at least be the right age, but I loved this show when I was a kid. Watching clips from it doesn't crack me up now like it did then, but I guess not everything has to age all that well. I'm still glad I watched it fifty years ago.

14 comments:

pattinase (abbott) said...

Me, too. He seemed cutting edge when I was under ten.

Todd Mason said...

A less self-indulgent and more engaged Jerry Lewis. What more could a kid ask for?

Walker Martin said...

I used to watch Soupy Sales all the time also. But one of my main reasons was not so much for the crazy comedy, but because he often had jazz groups on as guest performers. For instance, for many years it was thought that no film clips existed of the great Clifford Brown playing trumpet(he died an early death in an auto accident). Then they discovered a clip of his group performing on the Soupy Sales show.

Anonymous said...

"Not The Craw! The Craw!"

"What do you get when you throw a bomb into a French bakery? A Napoleon blown apart."

You had to be there.

Jeff M.

Walker Martin said...

I see google.com has alot about Soupy Sales and his love of jazz. He evidently had many of the greats on his show. The Clifford Brown tape was one of the few recordings that survived and You Tube has the 5 minute recording, made shortly before the car accident in 1955.

Soupy died in 2009, age 83.

Walker Martin said...

Thinking about Soupy Sales just made me remember the time he was suspended for a couple weeks by the network. It was New Years 1965 and he told his young viewers to send in some of the green pieces of paper from their parents purses. Needless to say he got into trouble over that stunt!

Ron Scheer said...

Great show. I loved the hand puppets.

Elizabeth Foxwell said...

I have a link on my blog to Soupy as hapless investigator Philo Kvetch:

http://elizabethfoxwell.blogspot.com/2009/10/soupy-sales-flashback-philo-kvetch.html

Elizabeth Foxwell said...

It looks like the Philo Kvetch clip has been removed from YouTube. I hope I can find another one sometime.

Rick Robinson said...

I LOVED the Soupy Sales show, White Tooth and Black Fang, the crazy stunts he pulled. Walker, I saw that show. I knew better than to do it, but I wondered at the time how he could get away with it. He didn't. He was also suspended for a few shows for talking about a woman who "had a baby in the oven" as I recall.

Cap'n Bob said...

I saw him for the first time when I was 12, and became an instant lifelong fan.

His real name was Milton Hines, BTW.

Anonymous said...

Milton Supman, Cap'n. But you knew that.

He got away with telling some of the oldest jokes.

During the run of the New York show, actor Frank Nastasi played White Fang, Black Tooth, Pookie, and all the "guy at the door" characters.

"Mr. Sales, Mr. Sales, you gotta help me."
"What is it?"
"It's my brother. He thinks he's a chicken."
"Why didn't you take him to a psychiatrist?"
"We need the eggs."

*bada bing*

Jeff M.

Cap'n Bob said...

Someone's always lying to me. I was told back in high school his last name was Hines.

Yvette said...

I remember Soupy. He used to crack me mup most when he and the cameraman seemed to be sharing an inside joke. I also loved the off screen noises. I mean, I thought he was hysterical.

What did I know?

You hadda' be there is right.

I do remember feeling very sad when I read somewhere that Soupy had died.