The Passing of Soupy Sales
Sad news today: Soupy Sales died. He was one of my most favorite children’s TV personalities and I always enjoyed seeing him later on talk shows and game shows. Here’s a bit of Soupy (with Fang):
The thing about Soupy that was so cool was that he was funny, but he wasn’t sappy, syrupy, kids show funny. And now as an adult I wonder why he went into children’s TV and if, when he did he just decided to do his own thing. Because he did – because he ad libbed, looked off camera to whatever crew was nearby, because he looked like he was making it up as he was going along – he was really funny. At 9 or 10 I could see that there was value in double sided children’s programming; that it can be good and funny for kids, but have adult humor too. And by that I don’t meed crude, violent or porno-like. It didn’t need to be 100% for children. Sesame Street knows this and certainly the Muppets people know this. Shows like The Addams Family played right in the middle. And it’s the reason that Fractured Fairy Tales and Rocky and Bullwinkle were waaaay more funny than Woody Woodpecker or the Flintstones.
It doesn’t take much for kids to get the humor thrown at them. Tossing in a bit for the grown-ups helps kids learn other types of thinking about comedy – satire, for instance and information that adults are talking about (Rocky and Bullwinkle dealt squarely with the Cold War).
Back to Soupy. I haven’t thought much about him in the last 30plus years. Then I saw the note online about his passing. And I was reminded what a really cool guy he was. And probably someone who, rather than offering the network a conventional kids show, told them that his slightly twisted, hip way of playing in front of the camera and mugging to furry hands and jazzy hand puppets would work. It sure did for me.
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