show name	Becker
format	Sitcom
runtime	approx. 22–26 minutes
creator	David Hackel
starring	Ted DansonHattie WinstonShawnee SmithAlex DésertTerry Farrell (1998–2002)Saverio Guerra (1998–2003)Nancy Travis (2002–04)Jorge Garcia (2003–04)
country	United States
network	CBS
first aired
last aired
status	Ended
num seasons	6
num episodes	129
list episodes	List of Becker episodes }}

''Becker'' is an American television sitcom that ran from 1998 to 2004 on CBS. Set in the New York City borough of The Bronx, the show starred Ted Danson as John Becker, a misanthropic doctor who operates a small practice and is constantly annoyed by his patients, co-workers, friends, and practically everything and everybody else in his world. Despite everything, his patients and friends are loyal because Becker genuinely cares about them.

The series was produced by Paramount Network Television, previous producers of NBC's ''Cheers'', also starring Danson.

Characters

rowspan="4" align="center" Regina 'Reggie' Kostas Bob Chris Connor Hector Lopez

Actor !! Role !! Years !! Seasons !! Episodes
Ted Danson	Dr. John Becker	1998–2004 ||	1–6	129
Hattie Winston	Margaret Wyborn
Shawnee Smith	Linda
Alex Désert	Jake Malinak
Terry Farrell (actress)	Terry Farrell	|	1998–2002	1–4	94 (+1 Archive Footage)
Saverio Guerra	|	1998–2003	1–2 (Recurring), 3–5 (Regular)	91
Nancy Travis	|	2002–2004	4 (Guest), 5–6 (Regular)	39
Jorge Garcia	|	2003–2004	6	13

For the first four seasons, the main characters were:

John Becker – Ted Danson

Becker, a Harvard Medical School graduate, runs a neighborhood medical practice. He is easily annoyed by things such as a flickering street lamp, noisy neighbors, the couple having very loud sex in the apartment above him, or his numerous failed attempts to quit smoking. Becker has a personal superstition that "All midgets are bad luck, whenever I see one, something bad happens to me". He has been married and divorced twice and is very stingy. He is politically liberal, though he hates political correctness & has had trouble with the IRS. He is an atheist, however, holds an odd view of God, which can be characterized by this quote: "Margaret: I thought you didn't believe in God. Becker: I don't, that's why he's always out to get me."

Despite his gruff nature, Becker exhibits moments of kindness, and genuinely does care for his patients, choosing to remain in a run-down Bronx neighborhood because that’s where he is needed. He often accepts gifts, such as baseball tickets, from patients who cannot afford to pay him.

Margaret Wyborn – Hattie Winston

Becker’s nurse and office manager, and one of the few people who can tolerate Becker, Margaret is a motherly figure to Becker and Linda. She is married, which at best is an on the rocks marriage, to the often mentioned but never-seen "Lewis", who hates Becker (and vice versa). She once thought about becoming a singer instead of a nurse. Margaret is a Christian, specifically a Baptist, and often quotes the Bible. Margaret is generally the most level-headed character and acts as the voice of reason. She also appears to have liberal views; as in one episode, she is asked what Florida is known for, and sarcastically answers “not counting votes?”, and once chastised Becker for what she perceived as homophobic behavior. She is also shown to be quite stubborn, a prime example is where she got her job by not leaving till Becker hired her.

Linda – Shawnee Smith

A muddle-headed young woman whose surname is never revealed, she works at the doctor’s office as a fledgling nurse's aide to establish independence from her wealthy parents. Becker also mentioned that he owed her father a favor, suggesting that that is the only reason Linda is kept around. Although her help is often of questionable value she can occasionally show surprising competence. She once described herself as being like a spare tire, something that can really come through and save the day when needed, but not someone you want to rely on unless you have to. An example of her more competent moments occurred when Becker was having trouble diagnosing a patient's illness. Linda noted that, despite having returned from a vacation in the Bahamas about six weeks ago, the man still had a tan. This led Becker to the cause of the man's problems: Addison's disease. Her mother is an alcoholic and her parents are apparently quite wealthy, having bought Linda a penthouse with a doorman, an original Monet painting, a view of the park, and a Danish ambassador as a neighbor. Even Becker once voiced he was planning to "kill you and live here" after seeing it for the first time. In season two, she invites Bob to live with her after he becomes homeless. Shortly after, she begins trying to set him up with job openings so she can politely kick him out. She has been out with lots of men, including her on-again/off-again ex-boyfriend Gil, who is frequently mentioned (often in a negative context). Linda is popular with some of the patients, sometimes due to her outfits and her optimistic attitude; mostly kids enjoy her being around when it comes to take shots. She respects Becker, often calling him "Doctor" no matter where she is, and has even stuck up for him at a parent/teacher meeting she attended with John to straighten out the "sex talk" he gave to a classroom of little kids. She admires him, and does get along with him when he's having one of his few good days. She also respects Margaret and is often helped out of a lot of tough situations. She has a soft spot for small animals and loves to go shopping, clubbing, and dating a new guy every week. Linda also speaks various languages. One of her ex-boyfriends taught her how to speak some Mandarin and it came in handy while Margaret was having difficulty communicating to a foreign patient. She also speaks Portuguese and speaks it to an at-home patient named Enid Connelly.

Regina "Reggie" Kostas – Terry Farrell

The owner and operator of a diner she inherited from her late father, Reggie is a former model and is unhappy being stuck running a diner. When Becker is away from his office or apartment, he can almost always be found at her diner. Reggie is torn over her feelings for Becker the two have the kind of love–hate relationship often seen in sitcoms. She is frequently taunted for her poor cooking and drops hints that the Board of Health has issued her warnings before. Although disenchanted with her occupation, Reggie does seem to enjoy her customers and lets them make it a sort of extension of their homes, allowing Becker, for example, to operate the register to access the cigarettes he keeps there. Reggie eventually goes on to acquire a degree in psychology but has a panic attack when the jokes of the episode hinge on the uselessness of the degree. In the 5th season's premiere episode, "Someone's In The Kitchen with Reggie?", she and Becker sleep together because she is jealous of the fact Chris likes John. The following day, she leaves town, leaving a message telling everyone that she regrets sleeping with Becker and that she couldn't face the humiliation of it. She also says that she wants to pursue a better career. Jake receives a phone call from her, answered by a random customer who wants a cup of coffee while the group is discussing Becker's decision to dump Reggie, saying that she went to Miami to meet up with a few of her modeling friends and that they were going to travel through Europe.

Jake Malinak – Alex Désert

Becker's best friend, Jake also works at the diner selling newspapers and miscellaneous items such as candy, magazines, cigarettes, gum, etc. Jake is blind following a car accident several years before. He lived with his grandmother as a youngster and was close to her before she died. Jake married a woman, Amanda (played by Lindsay Price), 24 hours after they met but they got the marriage annulled, deciding to live together instead. Amanda left Jake after two and a half years, taking all his possessions with her. Jake competed three times in the National Scrabble Championship and even won once. The show ends with him going off to college in Chicago with the money he got in an inheritance and staying with a relative who teaches at the University.

Bob – Saverio Guerra

Bob is an old high school classmate of Reggie's who is short, annoying, and during the first two seasons refers to himself in the third person. Bob is a sex addict who originally wants to have sex with Reggie, in spite of the fact Reggie has made her disgust for him quite plain and that he was married. During season two, Bob becomes homeless after losing most of his money in a divorce. Linda invites him to live with her in her parent's penthouse but quickly tries to figure out ways to kick him out. After messing up several job openings Linda tries to set him up with, Bob becomes the superintendent of Becker's apartment building in the third season. As with Linda, Bob's last name is never revealed, although we do discover his middle name is Benito. Bob is a recurring character for the first two seasons, and is made a main character for Seasons 3 through 5. Although he avoids his job as a building superintendent at Becker's building, one of his few talents is that he is an excellent cook. Despite the food at Reggie's Diner being sub par, he is still able to cook very well. Bob disappears after the fifth season. His absence is explained by Jake in the Season 6 premiere episode in which Jake claims he went on a vacation. Despite being of the show's major characters, he is never referred to again nor does he return for the series finale (it could be said that he went on a year-long holiday and that he would have returned the next year). Saverio Guerra decided not to renew his contract for the sixth season.

New characters in seasons 5 and 6

Chris Connor — Nancy Travis

Chris Connor joined the show as the new neighbor who moves to the Bronx after traveling the world. Chris, originally supposed to be in the show for only four episodes, joined the show at the end of Season 4 and became a regular cast member in Season 5. Chris takes over the diner and begins a love-hate relationship with Becker. She is his total opposite always nice and cheerful, but they eventually got together by the end of the series. Travis had previously worked with Danson in ''Three Men and a Baby''.

Terry Farrell's dismissal

Between the fourth and fifth seasons, Terry Farrell was fired. She has told interviewers that it came as a complete shock to her and that she is unsure of exactly why it happened, although she reportedly led a strike among the show's cast. Travis was hired just before Farrell's dismissal, and became a regular after the dismissal. Creator David Hackel stated that Farrell was fired only to give the show's writers new ideas after four years, calling the cast change "one of the toughest decisions of my career."

Hector Lopez — Jorge Garcia

Hector Lopez is a friend of Jake. Jake knew Hector as a little brother of one of his childhood friends. When Jake talked about him as kid, he said that he would do anything to get money including selling his parents' condoms, to which he responded by saying, "Hey, those weren't scams, they were business ventures. Besides I got a baby sister out of it." He was a cast member only during the sixth season and served as a replacement of sorts for Bob (Saverio Guerra did not renew his contract for the 6th season). In the last episode, Hector takes over control of the news stand after Jake announces he will be moving to Chicago the next day. After his 13 episode stint in Becker, Garcia moved on to do the hit TV show LOST.

Premise

The show revolved around Becker and the things that annoyed him, although the supporting cast also had their moments. The relationships between Becker and Reggie (later, Chris) formed the key plots of many episodes.

The show tackled more serious issues as well, such as race, homosexuality, Cerebral AVM, and political correctness.

Syndication

In the U.S., the show has previously aired on WGN America until 2010. ReelzChannel added the show in fall 2010. USA Network and Universal HD are rebroadcasting the series in high definition.

Reception

''Becker'' debuted in a Monday slot at 9:30 PM Eastern time.

The show performed well for its first four seasons, piggybacking off the ratings of its lead-in, ''Everybody Loves Raymond''. CBS moved the show to Sunday in 2002, and its ratings deteriorated quickly, eventually forcing the network to put it on hiatus. CBS had planned to cancel it after the fifth season, but gave it a last-minute reprieve because of a dearth of promising comedy pilots. Becker's sixth season was to be as a mid season replacement for the 2003–2004 season, and thus only 13 episodes were ordered. Despite this, CBS' comedy lineup forced them to move ''Becker'''s sixth season debut to the fall, where the show was moved to Wednesday and paired up with ''The King of Queens''. Ratings remained low, and the show finished out its run in January 2004, after 129 episodes.

Nielsen Ratings

Season	Episodes	Timeslot (ET)	Season Premiere	Season Finale	Rank	Viewers(in millions)
1			Monday 9:30	November 2, 1998	May 17, 1999	#18
2			Monday 9:30	September 20, 1999	May 22, 2000	#19
3			Monday 9:30	October 9, 2000	May 24, 2001	#16
4			Monday 9:30	October 1, 2001	May 20, 2002	#13
5		Sunday 8:00 (2002)	Sunday 8:30 (2003)	October 6, 2002	April 20, 2003	#51
6			Wednesday 9:30	October 8, 2003	January 28, 2004	#46

DVD releases

CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount) has released the first three seasons of ''Becker'' on DVD in Region 1.

In Region 2, Paramount Home Entertainment released the first season on DVD on April 28, 2008. There were issues with the discs that meant audio and video were out of sync.

In Region 4, Paramount Home Entertainment has released the first three seasons on DVD.

DVD Name !! rowspan="2"|Ep# !! rowspan="2"|Originally aired !! colspan="3">Release dates
	! Region 1 !! Region 2 !! Region 4

See also

List of Becker episodes

Television in the United States

References

External links

Category:1990s American television series Category:1998 television series debuts Category:2000s American television series Category:2004 American television series endings Category:American television sitcoms Category:CBS network shows Category:English-language television series Category:Television series by CBS Paramount Television Category:Television shows set in New York City

ar:بيكر (مسلسل) de:Becker (Fernsehserie) es:Becker (serie de televisión) fa:بکر (مجموعه تلویزیونی) fr:Becker (série télévisée) it:Becker (serie televisiva) he:בקר (סדרת טלוויזיה) nl:Becker (televisieserie) no:Becker pl:Jak pan może, panie doktorze? pt:Becker (série) simple:Becker (TV series)

George Sanford Becker (February 19, 1922 – April 9, 1996), who was known professionally as Sandy Becker, was a television announcer, actor, and comedian who hosted several popular children's programs in New York City. The best known of these was ''The Sandy Becker Show'', which ran from 1955 to 1968 on Channel 5 WABD-TV and WNEW-TV.

Biography

Becker was born and raised in New York, and graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He held local radio announcing jobs before first reaching public fame on radio as the title character of ''Young Doctor Malone'', a role he was invited to take to television, but declined in order to pursue his own television projects. (Originally a pre-medical student at New York University, Becker played the good doctor on radio for a decade, however ... after having been the show's announcer.) Soon, he started working for Channel 5 and became the host of a program featuring Bugs Bunny cartoons, ''The Looney Tunes Show'' on weeknights from 1955 to 1958. A second Friday night program called ''Bugs Bunny Theater'' ran from 1956 to 1957. Becker also did television announcing, such as for Wildroot Cream-Oil ads in the television series "The Adventures of Robin Hood."

In the middle of those activities, Becker found his true calling, spun in large part off his knack for entertaining his own three children with his vocal and comic versatility. This led him to his morning show beginning in 1955, and he added a noontime program ''Sandy Becker's Funhouse'' briefly in 1955. He hosted the syndicated ''Wonderama'' from 1955-56.

Becker would also host a weekday evening & afternoon children's wraparound show which had him playing comedic characters, performing puppet skits and engaging his viewers in informational segments,contests and interview guest performers and personalities in between the reruns of movie and TV cartoons."The Sandy Becker Show" was seen weekday evening and afternoons from Monday March 30, 1961 to Friday February 16, 1968.

For a time, "The Sandy Becker Show" also aired on Saturday evenings from March 27, 1961 to September 4, 1965.

Becker's propensity for doing comic voices brought him much work in animation; his best known work there was perhaps as Mr. Wizard on ''King Leonardo and His Short Subjects'' — "Drizzle, drazzle, drozzle, drone / Time for this one to come home" — who was always indulging and then rescuing Tudor Turtle from his outlandish wishes. He also provided the voices for Sergeant Okie Homa and Ruffled Feathers on ''Go Go Gophers''. The former character sounded similar to John Wayne, while the latter simply exploded into babbling gibberish whenever he explained his latest idea to stop the coyote adversaries.

On his morning and (later) afternoon children's programs, Becker created such characters as double-talking disc jockey Hambone, addled but brilliant Big Professor (who claimed to know the answer to every question in the world), rumpled Hispanic kid's show host K. Lastima, incompetent mad-scientist Dr. Gesundheit, and — showing a remarkable knack for silent comedy — simple-minded Norton Nork, whose routines of earnest bumbling were joined only by musical accompaniment and a droll Becker narration that ended, invariably, with, "That's my boy, Norton Nork — you've done it again!"

Another aspect of Sandy's humor was derived from his interaction with his (often ethnically stereotyped) hand puppets, which included Marvin Mouse, Googie, the German-accented Geeba Geeba, the English Sir Clive Clyde, Wowee the Indian, the space creature Sputnik, the Latino K. Lastima (the name taken from the Spanish phrase "¡Qué lástima!" {"What a pity"}), and the Irish Danny Moran.

Sandy's show was so popular in the NY area that when he began using a version of the Hambone Theme music from an old 78 RPM record by Red Saunders which was recorded in 1952, the Okeh record company re-released the song on a 45 RPM record. Enough kids bought the record that it reached Survey position #22 on local rock radio station WMCA in March 1963. For his show's own theme music, Sandy came to use Guy Warren's "That Happy Feeling" as recorded in 1962 by Bert Kaempfert.

Becker also created a puppet known as Henry Headline, who delivered lighter news to the children who tuned him in every day. He was quoted in an early 1960s interview as saying it was better to introduce children to news listening on a lighter note. "The impact of a major news story might be lost to them or it might even frighten them," he told the ''Long Island Press''. "They'll learn about wars and international crises soon enough. I try to keep the news as light as possible. Occasionally I'll use an item that has historical value."

In spite of that view — or perhaps because of it — Becker is warmly remembered for the manner in which he handled one of America's deepest tragedies on the air. On November 22, 1963, after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Becker went on the air and, quite movingly, attempted to explain to his young viewers what had happened.

Sadly, most of Becker's programs were not preserved. Most went out live and were not kinescoped or videotaped, they live on only in the memories of those fortunate enough to have watched them. However, some clips are surfacing on the internet. After he withdrew from on-camera hosting in 1968, Becker helped other children's shows create puppets and characters, and he became known as a mentor to new generations of children's hosts.

"I never treated them as though they were in swaddling clothes," he said many years later of his young viewers. "Most kid shows regard young viewers as babies. I wanted to treat them as their parents might if they were on TV."

References

External links

Tribute site

Barron, James. "Sandy Becker, 74, Radio Announcer And TV Show Host", ''The New York Times'', April 12, 1996.

Category:1922 births Category:1996 deaths Category:American television personalities Category:American voice actors

fr:Sandy Becker

name	Soupy Sales
birth name	Milton Supman
birth date	January 08, 1926
birth place	Franklinton, North Carolina, United States
death date	October 22, 2009
death place	Bronx, New York, United States
medium	Television, radio, film
active	1949–2009
genre	Slapstick, word play, improvisation
influences	Marx BrothersHarry Ritz
influenced	Howard Stern Saturday Night LivePaul Reubens aka Pee-wee HermanAndy Kaufman
spouse
notable work	''Lunch with Soupy Sales''}}

Soupy Sales (January 8, 1926 – October 22, 2009) was an American comedian, actor, radio-TV personality and host, and jazz aficionado. He was best known for his local and network children's television show, ''Lunch with Soupy Sales''; a series of comedy sketches frequently ending with Sales receiving a pie in the face, which became his trademark.

From 1968 to 1975, he was a regular panelist on the syndicated revival of ''What's My Line?'' and appeared on several other TV game shows. During the 1980s Sales hosted his own show on WNBC-AM in New York City.

Early life and career

Sales was born Milton Supman, in Franklinton in Franklin County, North Carolina to Irving and Sadie Supman. His father, a dry goods merchant, had immigrated to America from Hungary in 1894. Sales had two siblings, Leonard Supman (deceased) and Jack Supman (born 1921). His was the only Jewish family in the town; Sales joked that local Ku Klux Klan members bought the sheets used for their robes from his father's store.

Sales got his nickname from his family. His older brothers had been nicknamed "Hambone" and "Chicken Bone." Milton was dubbed "Soup Bone," which was later shortened to "Soupy." When he became a disc jockey, he began using the stage name Soupy Hines. After he became established, it was decided that "Hines" was too close to the Heinz soup company, so he chose the Sales, in part after vaudville comedian Chic Sale.

Sales graduated from Huntington High School in Huntington, West Virginia in 1944. He then enlisted in the United States Navy and served on the in the South Pacific during the latter part of World War II. He sometimes entertained his shipmates by telling jokes and playing crazy characters over the ship's public address system. One of the characters he created was "White Fang," a large dog that played outrageous practical jokes on the seamen. The sounds for "White Fang" came from a recording of "The Hound of the Baskervilles". He took the record with him when he left the Navy.

Sales enrolled in Marshall College, where he earned a Master's Degree in Journalism. While attending Marshall, he performed in nightclubs as a comedian, singer, and dancer. After graduating, he began working as a scriptwriter and disc jockey at radio station WHTN (now WVHU) 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. Sales claimed he left the Cleveland station "for health reasons: they got sick of me." He moved to Detroit in 1953 and worked for WXYZ-TV (Channel 7), ABC's O&O; station.

''Lunch with Soupy Sales''

Sales is best known for his daily children's television show, ''Lunch With Soupy''. The show was originally called ''12 O'Clock Comics'', and was later known as ''The Soupy Sales Show''. Improvised and slapstick in nature, ''Lunch with Soupy Sales'' was a rapid-fire stream of comedy sketches, gags, and puns, almost all of which resulted in Sales receiving a pie in the face, which became his trademark. Sales developed pie-throwing into an art form: straight to the face, on top of the head, a pie to both ears from behind, moving into a stationary pie, and countless other variations. He claimed that he and his visitors had been hit by more than 20,000 pies during his career. He recounted a time when a young fan mistakenly threw a frozen pie at his neck and he "dropped like a pile of bricks."

History of the show

Detroit

''Lunch With Soupy'' began in 1953 from the studios of WXYZ-TV, Channel 7, located in the historic Maccabees Building, in Detroit. Soupy occasionally took the studio cameras to the lawn of the Detroit Public Library, located across the street from the TV studios, and talked with local students walking to and from school. Beginning in October, 1959, Soupy's show was broadcast nationally on the ABC television network.

During the same period that ''Lunch With Soupy'' aired in Detroit, Sales also hosted a nighttime show, ''Soup's On'', to compete with 11 O'Clock News programs. The guest star was always a musician, and frequently a jazz performer, at a time when jazz was popular in Detroit and the city was home to twenty-four jazz clubs. Sales believed that his show helped sustain jazz in Detroit, as artists would regularly sell out their nightclub shows after appearing on ''Soupy's On''. Coleman Hawkins, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, and Stan Getz were among the artists who appeared on the show; Miles Davis made six appearances. Clifford Brown's appearance on ''Soup's On'', according to Sales, may be the only extant footage of Brown, and has been included in ''Ken Burns' Jazz'' and an A&E; Network biography about Sales. Jackie Wilson also sang on his 11:00 show.

Soupy briefly had a third dinner time show filmed largely in Palmer Park. The three shows were rumored to have earned him in excess of $100,000 per year. One of his character puppets was Willy the Worm, a "balloon" propelled worm that emerged from its house that used a high pitched voice to announce birthdays or special events on the noontime show - that character never appeared when Soupy moved to Los Angeles. In his lunchtime show, he wore his orlon sweater. In many of his shows he appeared in costume, performed his dance, the Soupy Shuffle, introduced many characters such as Nicky Nooney, the Mississippi Gambler, etc., and took "zillions" of pies in the face. In one of his routines he came out in a toga - reciting "Friends, Romans, Countrymen - lend me your ears!" Out of camera range a box of rubber ears were being dropped on his head from a ladder.

Los Angeles

In 1960, Sales moved to the ABC-TV Studios in Los Angeles, California. ABC-TV cancelled the show in March 1961, but it continued as a local program on KABC-TV until January 1962. The show briefly went back on the ABC network as a late night fill-in for the ''Steve Allen Show'' in 1962 but was canceled after three months. All of the puppets on the show during its Los Angeles run were also operated by Clyde Adler.

New York

In 1964, Sales found a new weekday home at WNEW-TV in New York City. This version was seen locally until September 1966, and 260 episodes were syndicated by Screen Gems to local stations outside the New York market during the 1965–1966 season. This show marked the height of Sales' popularity. It featured guest appearances by stars such as Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis, Jerry Lewis, Judy Garland and Sammy Davis, Jr., as well as musical groups like the Shangri-Las and The Supremes.

As with his earlier shows, Sales performed musical numbers on the show and his extensive jazz record collection was used in his TV work. "Mumbles" by Oscar Peterson with Clark Terry was Pookie's theme. "Comin' Home Baby" by Herbie Mann was the theme for Sales' "Gunninger the Mentalist" character (a parody of Dunninger the Mentalist). This was also the period when Sales starred in the movie comedy ''Birds Do It''. During the run of the New York show, actor Frank Nastasi played White Fang, Black Tooth, Pookie, and all the "guy at the door" characters.

The New Soupy Sales Show: Los Angeles

''The New Soupy Sales Show'' appeared in 1978 with the same format, and ran for one season. 65 episodes were briefly syndicated, through Air Time International, to local stations in early 1979. It was taped in Los Angeles at KTLA, with Clyde Adler returning to work as a puppeteer with Sales.

Characters on the show

Clyde Adler, a film editor at Detroit's WXYZ-TV, performed in sketches and voiced and operated all puppets on Sales' show in Detroit in the 1950s and in Los Angeles from 1959 to 1962 and in 1978. Actor Frank Nastasi assumed the role of straight man and puppeteer when Sales took the show to New York from 1964 to 1966. Nastasi was originally from Detroit and had worked with Sales at WXYZ. Appearing on the show were both puppets and live performers.

The puppets were:

White Fang, "The Biggest and Meanest Dog in the USA," who appeared only as a giant white shaggy paw with black triangular felt "claws" jutting out from the corner of the screen. Fang spoke with unintelligible short grunts and growls, which Soupy repeated back in English, for comic effect. White Fang was often the pie thrower when Soupy's jokes bombed.

Black Tooth, "The Biggest and Sweetest Dog in the USA", also seen only as a giant black paw with white triangular felt claws, and with more feminine, but similarly unintelligible, dialogue. Black Tooth's trademark was pulling Soupy off-camera to give loud and noisy kisses.

Pookie the Lion, a lion puppet appearing in a large window behind Soupy (1950s), was a hipster with a rapier wit. For example: Soupy: "Do you know why my life is so miserable?" Pookie: "You got me!" Soupy: "That's why!" One of Pookie's favorite lines when greeting Soupy was, "Hey bubby... want a kiss?". In the Detroit shows, Pookie never spoke but communicated in whistles. That puppet also was used to mouth the words while pantomiming novelty records on the show.

Hippy the Hippo, a minor character who occasionally appeared with Pookie the Lion and never spoke. Frank Nastasi gave Hippy a voice for the New York shows. Clyde Adler also voiced Hippy in the shows done in the late 1970s.

Regular live characters included:

Peaches, Soupy's girlfriend, visually played by footage of Sales in drag.

Philo Kvetch, a private detective played by Sales in a long-running comedy skit during the show's New York run (a parody of early 20th century fictional detective Philo Vance).

The Mask, evil nemesis of Philo Kvetch, revealed in the last episode to be Nikita Khrushchev, who had been deposed about a year earlier.

"Onions" Oregano, henchman of The Mask, played by Frank Nastasi, who ate ''loads of onions''. Every time Oregano would breathe in Philo's direction, Philo would make all sorts of comic choking faces, pull out a can of air freshener, and say "Get those onions out of here!"

Hobart and Reba, a husband and wife who lived in the potbelly stove on the New York set.

Willie the Worm was a 35-cent toy Sales got from Woolworth's, according to WXYZ art director Jack Flechsig. With animated squeezings of his rubber air bulb, the latex accordion worm flexed in and out of a little apple. Willy was "The Sickest Worm in all of Dee-troit" and suffered from a perennial cold and comically-explosive sneeze. He helped read birthday greetings to Detroit-area kids while the show was on WXYZ. Willie didn't survive the show's move to the Big Apple.

New Year's Day incident

On January 1, 1965, miffed at having to work on the holiday, Sales ended his live broadcast by encouraging his young viewers to tiptoe into their still-sleeping parents' bedrooms and remove those "funny green pieces of paper with pictures of U.S. Presidents" from their pants and pocketbooks. "Put them in an envelope and mail them to me", Soupy instructed the children. "And I'll send you a postcard from Puerto Rico!" He was then hit with a pie. Several days later, a chagrined Soupy announced that money (mostly Monopoly money) was unexpectedly being received in the mail. He explained that he had been joking and announced that the contributions would be donated to charity. As parents' complaints increased, WNEW's management felt compelled to suspend Sales for two weeks. Young viewers picketed Channel 5. The uproar surrounding Sales' suspension increased his popularity. Sales described the incident in his 2001 autobiography ''Soupy Sez! My Life and Zany Times''.

Claims that Sales told dirty jokes on the air

An urban legend claimed Sales sneaked off-color humor onto his show for the amusement of his huge adult audience. This has been denied repeatedly, including by Snopes.com. However, according to Sale's 2001 book, ''Soupy Sez! My Life and Zany Times'', at least one viewer of his WNEW show remembers distinctly the "Why is it every time I see F, you see K" routine, including an image of the TV screen moving up and down as the show's cameraman laughed at Soupy's joke. For many years, Sales had a standing offer of $10,000 to anyone who could prove he worked "blue" on his kids' shows. Nobody ever took the offer, although the rumor persisted. Sales states in his autobiography:

After many years, I think I finally figured out how these ridiculous stories got started. Kids would come home and they'd tell a dirty joke, you know, grade school humor, and the parents would say, "Where'd you hear that?" And they'd say "The Soupy Sales Show", because I happened to have the biggest show in town. And they'd call another person and say, "Gladys, did you hear the joke that Soupy Sales was telling on his show?" and the word of mouth goes on and on, until people start to believe you actually said things like that.

Topless dancer pranks

The show's set included a door in the background. During the show, Sales would answer a knock at the door and interact with an actor seen only as an arm. Occasionally, the person at the door was a celebrity, such as Burt Lancaster, Fess Parker or Alice Cooper. Once, while the show was being broadcast live from Detroit, Sales' studio crew pulled a prank on him: when he opened the door, he saw a topless dancer partially covered with a balloon. Some reports say the gag was furthered by the crew switching the studio monitors so that Sales would think the stripper image was going out over the air.

A second, nonbroadcasting, camera captured the uncensored version, while a stagehand moved a balloon back and forth in the doorway, giving at least some indication to the home viewers what was supposed to be behind the door. Sales was forced to try to keep the show going without revealing the risque scene backstage. The prank was recreated when the show originated in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles prank footage survives.

Records

One of the fans of the Soupy Sales show was Frank Sinatra. When Sinatra started his own record label, Reprise Records, he signed Sales to a recording contract. Two albums were produced with Reprise, "The Soupy Sales Show" in 1961 and "Up In The Air" in 1962.

Sales' novelty dance record, ''The Mouse,'' dates from the mid-1960s period of his career, when his show was based in New York. Sales performed ''The Mouse'' on the Ed Sullivan Show in September 1965, just prior to The Beatles' segment of the show. Sales signed with Motown Records in 1969 releasing a single, "Muck-Arty Park" (a play on the 1968 hit "MacArthur Park"), as well as an album "A Bag of Soup." Soupy and Frank Nastasi also cut and recorded a comedy and song story disk "Spy With A Pie" for ABC/Paramount. "Spy With A Pie" was rereleased by "Simon Says" children's records.

Game shows

From 1968 to 1975, Sales was a regular panelist on the syndicated revival of ''What's My Line?'' He usually was the first panelist introduced and occupied the chair on the far left side (facing the camera), opposite Arlene Francis. In 1976, Sales was the host of ''Junior Almost Anything Goes'', ABC's Saturday morning version of their team-based physical stunt program. Sales was also a panelist on the 1980 revival of ''To Tell the Truth''; he had appeared as a guest on the show during the mid- to late 1970s. Other game show appearances included over a dozen episodes of the original ''Match Game'' from 1966 to 1969, a week of shows on the 1970s edition of ''Match Game'', a few guest spots on ''Hollywood Squares'' (December 12, 1977 & April 4, 1978) as well as a few appearances on the combined version on ''(The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour)'' in 1983–84 and a recurring role in all versions of ''Pyramid'' from 1973 to 1988 and 1991. In one episode, he repeatedly uttered the word "bacon" in an attempt to get a befuddled contestant to say "greasy things." He also made an appearance on ''Pictionary'' in 1997.

Radio show

Sales hosted a midday radio show on WNBC in New York from March 1985 to March 1987. His program was between the drive time shifts of Don Imus (morning) and Howard Stern (afternoon), with whom Sales had an acrimonious relationship. An example of this was an incident involving Stern telling listeners that he was cutting the strings in Sales' in-studio piano at 4:05 p.m. on May 1, 1985. On December 21, 2007, Stern revealed this was a stunt staged for "theater of the mind" and to torture Sales; in truth, the piano was never harmed.

Film

He had a sporadic film career that spanned over 40 years, including:

1961 - ''The Two Little Bears''

1963 - ''Critic's Choice''

1966 - ''Birds do It'' (a starring role)

1977 - ''Don't Push, I'll Charge When I'm Ready''

1983 - ''Superman III'' (cameo appearance)

1993 - ''And God Spoke: The Making of...'' His memorable appearance as himself, hired by two incompetent filmmakers to portray Moses because Charlton Heston wasn't available.

1999 - ''Palmer's Pick Up''

2000 - ''A Little Bit of Lipstick''

2000 - ''Behind the Seams''

2001 - ''This Train''

2005 - ''The Innocent and the Damned''

2005 - ''Angels with Angles ''

Animation

In 1983, Sales did voice work for Ruby-Spears, voicing Donkey Kong in the animated show ''Saturday Supercade''.

Personal life

Sales was married twice: first to Barbara Fox (from 1950 until their divorce in 1979). They had two sons, both of whom are rock musicians: bassist Tony Sales and drummer Hunt Sales. Along with David Bowie and Reeves Gabrels, the Sales brothers comprised the art rock band Tin Machine and worked with Iggy Pop on ''Lust For Life''. In 1980, Sales married dancer Trudy Carson, who survives him.

Death

Sales died on October 22, 2009, at Calvary Hospice in the Bronx, New York, aged 83, from cancer.

According to writer/columnist Mark Evanier, comedian Tim Powers reported that a fan left a cream pie on Sales' Hollywood Walk of Fame star.

Legacy

ABC replaced ''The Soupy Sales Show'' in 1961 with Cynthia Pepper's short-lived sitcom, ''Margie''. Sales and Pepper later became good friends.

In the episode "TV Or Not TV" of the 1960s cartoon series ''The Jetsons'', a segment was shown with a character named "Soapy Sam" who hit George Jetson in the face with a pie.

In the episode "The One with the Lesbian Wedding" of the TV series ''Friends'', Phoebe mentions Soupy Sales while supposedly being inhabited by the spirit of her dead massage client.

Phoebe: (Possessed by Mrs. Adelman) I know who it is you remind me of. Evelyn Durmer. Course that's before she got the lousy face-lift. Now she looks like Soupy Sales. Joey: Pheebs, who's Evelyn Durmer? Phoebe: (As herself) I don't know. Who's Soupy Sales? Howard Stern named Sales as one of his childhood heroes, and in an interview on the 2007 Sirius Satellite Radio program "The History of Howard Stern," he expressed regret over his harsh words and actions towards Sales.

Sales is referenced in the Bloodhound Gang's song "Pretty (When I'm Drunk)".

Soupy Sales is referenced by name in the song, "6ix" on the 1996 The Lemonheads album, ''Car Button Cloth''. His on-air request that children send money to him is also referenced in that song with the line, "Come on kids, grab your parents' wallet". While those are the lyrics performed in the recording, they are not the printed lyrics included in the album packaging.

In the 2007 film ''Juno'', Sales is referred to during the scene in which Juno confronts Bleeker about taking another girl to the prom. Juno had earlier suggested he go out with her, but he said he didn't like her because she smelled like soup. Later, when Juno realizes she loves him, she calls his date Soupy Sales.

There is a brief track called "Soupy Sales" on the album ''Coroner's Office'' by the death metal band Post Mortem.

There is a track on Jim Bryson's 2000 album ''The Occasionals'' called "Soupy Sales".

Phil Ochs, in his introduction to "(The Marines Have Landed On The Shores Of) Santo Domingo" from the ''Phil Ochs In Concert'' live album references Soupy Sales: "I was over there, entertaining the troops. I won't say which troops. Over there with a USO group, including Walter Lippmann and Soupy Sales."

Reruns

Beginning in 2011, Jewish Life Television Network [JLTV] began showing a handful of reruns of existing New York City and late 1970s Los Angeles shows.

References

Further reading

Kiska, Tim. ''From Soupy to Nuts!: A History of Detroit Television'' (Momentum Books, 2005) ISBN 1-879094-70-3; ISBN 978-1-879094-70-3

External links

The Soupy Sales Show ''Original NYC on-set Photos and sound file of radio interview''

"Soupy Weighs In", ''On the Media'', 2006-02-04 (accessed 2004-04-04)

"Coins & Currency", ''TVAcres.com'' (accessed 2004-04-04)

The Soupy Shuffle (.ram file)

Soupy Sales on YouTube

"No More Pies in the Face for Soupy Sales", ''Christian Science Monitor'', 1996-05-23

Archive of American Television interview

Soupy Sales - Daily Telegraph obituary

Category:1926 births Category:2009 deaths Category:People from Franklinton, North Carolina Category:American Jews Category:Actors from New York Category:American comedians Category:American film actors Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:American stage actors Category:American stand-up comedians Category:American television actors Category:American television personalities Category:Cancer deaths in New York Category:Jewish comedians Category:Marshall University alumni Category:Radio personalities from New York City Category:People from Huntington, West Virginia Category:People from New York City Category:Pie throwing Category:Television in Detroit, Michigan Category:United States Navy sailors Category:American Jews Category:Television programs featuring puppetry

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