TV funny man Soupy Sales dies at 83

[redsfandan]

TV funny man Soupy Sales dies at 83

-"We have lost a comedy American icon," says comedian's friend and manager
-He was known for his long-running children's show "Lunch With Soupy Sales"
-Fans of the show anticipated his trademark pie-in-face gag
-Sales also seen on "To Tell the Truth" and "What's My Line?"

(CNN) -- Soupy Sales, a comedian from the golden era of television, died Thursday. He was 83.

The funny man seen many times on popular game shows died at a New York hospice, said Paul Dver, Sales' longtime friend and manager.

"We have lost a comedy American icon," Dver said. "I feel the personal loss, and I also feel the magic that he had around him being gone. That's a much more severe loss than a loss of a friend."

Sales was known for his long-running children's show "Lunch With Soupy Sales," which started in 1953 and began his trademark slapstick pie-throwing antics. The comedy show featured skits that culminated in Sales getting walloped with pies in the face.

"Soupy was the last of the great TV comics when you talk about Ernie Kovacs, Red Skelton, right down to Howdy Doody," Dver said. "But it was bigger than that, because he used a children's format aimed at the kids and then he would forget he was doing a kids' show and do a wild, unrehearsed, wacky improv for a half-hour every day for 15 years."

Later in his career, he was a regular on TV game shows, such as "Hollywood Squares," "To Tell the Truth" and "What's My Line?"

Sales recently fell backstage at a local Emmy awards show in New York and developed serious ailments after that, Dver said.

CNN's Lee Garen contributed to this report.

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/1...les/index.html

© 2008 Cable News Network

[RedsBaron]

Soupy Sales was born Milton Supman in North Carolina and grew up in Huntington, WV. He was a high school classmate of my 83 year old law partner.

[reds1869]

Sad loss, especially for Huntington. RIP.

[Bob Borkowski]

I remember watching this guy in the early 60's when I visited my brother in Detroit. He was funny. He always seemed to have such a great time with whatever he was doing and I especially enjoyed the bits with White Fang and Black Tooth.

Another bio that I read said that he began in Cincinnati broadcasting but I don't remember that at all.

May he rest in peace. Time marches on.

[CySeymour]

Per Wikipedia:

Sales next entered Marshall College, where he earned a Master's Degree in Journalism. While attending Marshall College, he performed in nightclubs as a comedian, singer, and dancer. After graduating, he began working as a scriptwriter and a disc jockey at radio station WHTN in Huntington. He moved to Cincinnati in 1949, where he worked as a morning radio DJ and performed in nightclubs. He began his television career on WKRC-TV with Soupy's Soda Shop, TV's first teen dance program, and Club Nothing!, a late-night comedy/variety program.

When WKRC canceled his TV shows, Sales moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he hosted another radio and TV series and continued his nightclub act. It was in a skit on his late night comedy/variety TV series Soupy's On! that he got his first pie in the face. Soupy claims he left the Cleveland station "for health reasons: they got sick of me."[citation needed] Sales moved to Detroit, Michigan in 1953 and worked for WXYZ-TV (Channel 7), ABC's O&O station.

[Bob Borkowski]

Per Wikipedia:

Excellent! Thank you sir.

[westofyou]

Soupy was a Detroit icon, TV wise that is. I never warmed to his type of humor though myself. But he sure was popular when I was kid.

[cumberlandreds]

I most remember Sales being on To Tell the Truth. His humor was a silly type humor that probably wouldn't go over too well today. I can remember also when I was young calling him "Snoopy" Sales. RIP. Another bit of youth has passed.

[Caveat Emperor]

I most remember Sales being on To Tell the Truth. His humor was a silly type humor that probably wouldn't go over too well today. I can remember also when I was young calling him "Snoopy" Sales. RIP. Another bit of youth has passed.

I'm not sure -- my dad (being from the NYC area growing up) loved this guy and had a tape of his old bits. I sat and watched it with him once a few years back, and he reminded me of a 1960s Pee-Wee Herman. I don't know if it would go over well today (2009), but it's not all that different than the stuff I watched as a kid in the late 80s / early 90s.

For those who don't know, Sales also pulled one of the better pranks in media history on New Years Day in 1965. On his live show in New York, he encouraged kids watching to sneak into their parents purses (while they were presumably sleeping off hangovers from the night before) and steal all the "funny green pieces of paper with pictures of U.S. Presidents" from them. He then instructed his viewers to take the money, send it to him, and that he'd send them back a postcard from Puetro Rico.

As far as pranks go, encouraging kids to steal from their drunk parents is up there with anything Stern or Opie & Anthony every did.

[PedroBourbon]

Soupy was a Detroit icon, TV wise that is. I never warmed to his type of humor though myself. But he sure was popular when I was kid.

My father grew up in Detroit and told me stories about Soupy. I tried to get into it but never really did. I'm a big Stern fan and Howard talks about him every now and then. I respect his career as he obviously made an impact on my dad and that's important to me.

[BCubb2003]

It's amazing how much original programming Cincinnati radio and television did over the years.