SOUPY SALES: THE INDEPENDENT OBITUARY

My obituary of Soupy Sales was in yesterday's (Halloween) Independent. You can link to it here. Sad as it was to note his passing, it was amazing to see the reaction from friends of my generation. If we had conceived of the idea of water-coooler TV when I was 11 or 12, Soupy, wrestling, and roller derby would have been the topics, and when I went back and watched clips of Soup on youtube it was easy to see why.

My favourite Soupy moments were the episodes of Philo Kvetch. Soupy plays Philo perfectly as a movie serial detective, and Frank Nastasi as Onions Oregano was just out of control, especially as he breathed over his evil boss, The Mask (see left). Find the clip where Bruno the Killer Ape chases Philo up to the roof, and is about to throw him over, when a helicopter comes by and lowers a bunch of bananas to distract the ape and save Soupy's life.

Apparently, the legendary Soupy off-colour jokes ('I took my girlfriend to the baseball game, and we played a game of our own: I kissed her on the strikes, and she kissed me on the balls') are apocryphal, but it would be nice to think not. It was the hilarious interaction between Soup and the crew in the studio which made the show so exciting for a kid to watch, and so amusing even now. RIP Milton Supman.