Soupy Sales
Biography
Milton Supman, known professionally as Soupy Sales, was an American comedian, actor, radio/television personality, 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.
Sales is best known for his daily children's television show, Lunch with Soupy Sales. 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."
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Full filmography
- The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962) as Self
- The Love Boat (1977) as Victor Marshall
- Saturday Night Live (1975) as Self (uncredited)
- The Mike Douglas Show (1961) as Self - Co-Host
- The Mike Douglas Show (1961) as Self
- Wings (1990)
- The Merv Griffin Show (1962) as Self
- Love, American Style (1969)
- Burke's Law (1963) as Henry Geller
- The Beverly Hillbillies (1962)
- What's My Line? (1950) as Self - Mystery Guest
- The Rebel (1959) as Stable Owner
- The Rebel (1959) as Meyers
- Boy Meets World (1993) as Mr. Martini
- The Carol Burnett Show (1967) as Self
- The Ed Sullivan Show (1948) as Self
- Route 66 (1960)
- Monsters (1988) as Howard Filby
- Tonight Starring Jack Paar (1957) as Self - Guest Host
- The Dean Martin Show (1965)
- True Blue (1989)
- Kraft Music Hall (1958) as Self
- Vacation Playhouse (1963) as Fireman Smokey
- Vacation Playhouse (1963) as Fred Brady