Remembering Soupy Sales

I'm not ashamed to say that Soupy Sales was one of the formative influences on my sense of humor as a preteen and adolescent, along with Rocky & Bullwinkle and the early years of Mad magazine. So I was sad to hear of his death yesterday.

As a youth living in suburban Minneapolis in the early 1960s, I found myself drawn to anarchic and form-busting humor, but there wasn't much to be had. The early '60s were, in a sense, still the 1950s - watch an episode of Mad Men if you don't believe it. The '60s as a time of mass cultural upheaval didn't really kick in until the end of 1963-early 1964, with the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the arrival of the Beatles.

But, beginning in 1961, when he moved from Detroit to Los Angeles - at least in terms of when it started showing up on TV in Minneapolis - there was Soupy Sales and his weekly kids' show. It was the hippest, most subversive kids' show on TV - barely controlled silliness and anarchy that inevitably ended with him getting a pie in the face.

Later on, the pies would become almost a raison d'etre - the trademark bit of craziness that became a hip thing for celebrities to participate in. Eventually, even Frank Sinatra - who, at a certain point in that era was the definition of both mainstream and hipster cool - made an appearance and got hit with a pie.

But the pies were, you should pardon the expression, the dessert at the end of the show. The best of Soupy Sales - what made me take notice as a kid - was that sense that I was getting a peek into an adult world that I may not have understood, except that I knew it was funny.

Soupy was really doing two shows at once. He was doing shtick for the camera and the kids at home - vaudeville riffs involving slapstick, music, filmed excerpts from silent movies (with sound effects), incredibly silly puns and bits with puppets. But he was also playing to the crew behind the camera, who could always be heard laughing when he'd ad lib something aimed at them, rather than the kids.

Continued...

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Comments

[porsche996]

RIP Soupy. You fueled my subversive sense of humor as a child and I have always been thankful and felt as if we were kindred spirits. I've always held as a special memory watching you on New Years morning entreating and suggesting to us kids that we sneak into our parents room that morning (who might be under the weather, or drunkenly unconscious) and sending you all of the little green pictures of the presidents we could find!

I know the bit got you fired, but it was soooo funny and meaningful on so many levels. It had to get you fired as a microcosm of the macro, the ridiculousness and poignancy of it was not missed by this 10 year old....I had real affection for you for taking the hit and wanting so to be free of the show and the responsibility of your niche that was all that the suits would provide....you were so obviously an unfit role model for us kids, and we loved you for it.
Another landmark of my life passes beyond the curtain....

[JAL12]

Sorry Paul but Shenanigans was Stubby Kaye's show not Soupy's. I will miss Soupy a lot. He was a wonderful guy and his show was, as Marshall says, an important part of my formative years. In fact, Marshall cites the same influences I had growing up (though I was in NYC). I'm glad there are at least a couple of dvds out there of Soupy's shows. If anyone knows of any others, please get them out there quickly! The fun will hit you like a pie in the face. RIP Soup.

[Paul Baack]

RIP Soupy Sales. His TV show "Shenanigans" was an important touchstone of my boyhood.