The Best Of The Soupy Sales Show

Some things age very well like wine; others don't: like Soupy Sales. Watching these "best of" clips from his 1965 show, you have to wonder what people ever saw in Soupy Sales. With the exception of "The Waiter" skit which features Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., Trini Lopez, and about two dozen pies in the face, there's little memorable here. The skits seem to be impromptu, and they're mostly reaction shots of Soupy listening to White Fang, Black Tooth, and Pookie the Lion, his regular puppets. But then we have the revival: the 1979 show, which is a total dud. Affecting a fairly offensive and stupid sounding Harlem accent, Soupy's humor is much more self-deprecating than in the earlier years. No wonder, he's a bomb, and he knows it. Granted that situation comedies today are no great feather in comedy's cap, The Soupy Sales Show I and II (pray God, there's no III) were about as lame as they come. Not recommended. (Available from most distributors.)