Soupy Sales and Kids Early TV Syndication

[Gregg]

Since I've seen tributes to Soupy Sales on The CBS Evening News and other places, I've got to assume that his kids TV show must have been syndicated. I saw it growing up in the NYC area on Channel 5, then WNEW-TV, now WNYW owned by Fox.

I assumed all these years that with the bare budget production values, it must have been a local show. But if Sales' passing is a national story, his kids show must have been national too?

I know Shari Lewis was on the NBC network. I suppose Buffalo Bob was also on a network?

But Officer Joe Bolton, Capt. Jack McCarthy, Uncle Fred Sales, Tommy 7, Sandy Becker, Chuck McCann, Claude Kirshner... these were exclusively NYC kids shows...also on a small budget. All these guys I suppose were booth announcers who got a chance to go before the camera in a character, usually to fill out a half hour slot for cartoons (McCarthy-Popeye) or film shorts (Bolton-3 Stooges). Maybe Sandy Becker got syndicated too, since he did all bits during his show and didn't play cartoons?

I also remember briefly there was also an International House of Pancakes chef, who promoted IHOP between cartoons. That must have been syndicated. And of course, there was Romper Room, a show that was packaged for markets in the U.S. and Canada. But each individual station put its own host and set together, and brought in local kids, while following the national format. However, Ding Dong School and Miss Frances was I believe CBS Network, maybe a forerunner for Capt. Kangaroo?

Did you get Sales or Becker get in your market?



Gregg
[email protected]

 

[OldNumber7]

For what it's worth, Wikipedia says the 1966 season of the New York show (260 shows) was syndicated by Screen Gems. Sales also was in the national spotlight before and after (in the early 60s he had a short-lived late night show on ABC and, starting in the late 60s, was a regular panelist on game shows). He also had a short-lived national kids show in syndication in the 70s.

 

[bpatrick]

"Ding Dong School" was on NBC at 10 AM (ET) for
much of the '50s; there was a first-run syndicated
version in the late '50s.

Soupy had a syndicated show in the mid-'60s; the
closest place to me that got it was Birmingham, on
WBMG (now WIAT). It was probably his most
successful show. Ted Turner ran his last syndicated
show, in 1979, in an 11 PM slot.

Soupy also had at least three shows on ABC: one
from 7-7:15 PM in the summer of 1955, his Saturday-
noontime "Lunch With Soupy Sales," starting in 1959;
and a Friday-night show in early 1962. I think the first
one originated in Detroit (WXYZ was an ABC o&o and
would have had production facilities); the others originated
in Los Angeles. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[LKellerIII]

I grew up in LA in the 1960s, which had 4 independent stations (like New York). Between those 4, there were a lot of kids show hosts in the early 60s - at least 2 per station.

I was a teen by the time Soupy's show came along, and I didn't watch often, but I think I assumed it was local, too. Somebody will no doubt correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe his weekday show ran on KABC-TV, which had no other kids shows at the time. I don't think ABC produced the show - the producers were probably just using KABC's facilities for production.

There wasn't as much 'synergy' between networks and local stations in those days, compared to now. But even then, there was a lot of cross-over on the production end. I remember noting on the credits of 60s and 70s CBS sitcoms that a lot of them were taped at Metromedia Square in Hollywood, home of KTTV. I always thought that was curious since CBS Television City was only a couple of miles away.

 

[Stanislav]

For what it's worth, Wikipedia says the 1966 season of the New York show (260 shows) was syndicated by Screen Gems.

I assume the channel lineup for those included at least some of the other Metromedia stations?

This makes the absence of the vast majority of Soupy's NYC-era shows even more egregiously stupid -- AFAIK, almost nothing survives. About all you ever see are the famous pie fight with Sinatra and cronies, and the infamous "stripper" practical joke (both of which were probably deliberately dubbed off and saved at the time). I've seen clips from a few other episodes (some of which seem to be sourced from kinescope, or a really lousy multi-generational VT copy), but that's about it -- I don't even think any NYC shows survive in their entirety. It's one thing to excuse the local WNEW-only shows, where you have a local station economizing by constantly erasing and reusing videotape. But syndication means that multiple copies of all those shows went out to the stations that carried them -- it's disheartening to think that almost ALL of them were lost or deliberately wiped/destroyed.

It's ironic that Ernie Kovacs' total TV output in hours was probably a tenth of Soupy's (if that), yet in spite of the disrespect with which his material was treated, probably more of Kovacs' output survives than Soupy's.

 

[mleach]

Soupy also had at least three shows on ABC: one
from 7-7:15 PM in the summer of 1955, his Saturday-
noontime "Lunch With Soupy Sales," starting in 1959;
and a Friday-night show in early 1962. I think the first
one originated in Detroit (WXYZ was an ABC o&o and
would have had production facilities); the others originated
in Los Angeles. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

Make it four...Soupy hosted for ABC back in the mid 70's the children's game show, "Junior Almost Anything Goes". When ABC cancelled the show, Soupy was not at all happy as he went public about his "hatred" for cartoons. Among Soupy's supporters at the time as I can recall was producer Lee Mendelson, nevermind the fact that Mendelson was a big force behind those Peanuts CARTOONS.

I assume the channel lineup for those included at least some of the other Metromedia stations?

One Metromedia station who wouldn't touch Soupy was Washington's WTTG channel 5 as they had their own successful group of local kid show hosts at the time like "Capt'n Tug" for example. However Soupy Sales did find a home in Washington as WDCA channel 20 picked him up when they signed on the air in the mid 60's.

 

[bpatrick]

I was about to post that Soupy hosted "Junior Almost
Anything Goes" when I noticed you beat me to it. And
someone mentioned Sonny Fox; he hosted the very similar
"Way Out Games" that same year (1976-77). I remember
that Soupy's show was on at noon (ET) on ABC, Sonny's
at 12:30 (ET) on CBS on Saturdays. Sonny's show was
produced by Jack Barry and Dan Enright.

 

[Toledo Eleven]

WXON Channel 20 in Detroit carried the syndicated KTLA shows in 1979. An ad can be found here:
http://vintagetoledotv.squarespace.com/print-ads-wxon20/wxon-tv-20-print-ads/2436800

 

[wbhist]

WXON Channel 20 in Detroit carried the syndicated KTLA shows in 1979. An ad can be found here:
http://vintagetoledotv.squarespace.com/print-ads-wxon20/wxon-tv-20-print-ads/2436800

In New York City, the KTLA-produced syndie version was run on future sister station WPIX. This one I remember, one of the shows had a musical number by the then-current lineup of The 5th Dimension which sounded nothing like the group that had a string of hits from 1967 to 1972.

 

[Ultimajock]

Make it four...Soupy hosted for ABC back in the mid 70's the children's game show, "Junior Almost Anything Goes". When ABC cancelled the show, Soupy was not at all happy as he went public about his "hatred" for cartoons. Among Soupy's supporters at the time as I can recall was producer Lee Mendelson, nevermind the fact that Mendelson was a big force behind those Peanuts CARTOONS.

...well, remember, Mendelson's Peanuts cartoons were still just specials, not weekly or strip series (which made them much more special, no pun intended)...

 

[azumanga]

For what it's worth, Wikipedia says the 1966 season of the New York show (260 shows) was syndicated by Screen Gems.

I assume the channel lineup for those included at least some of the other Metromedia stations?

When did the Metromedia Producers Corporation start up? I've always thought that programming produced by Metromedia's stations for national consumption was distributed by MPC.

 

[wbhist]

When did the Metromedia Producers Corporation start up? I've always thought that programming produced by Metromedia's stations for national consumption was distributed by MPC.

The name itself was first used in late 1968, after Metromedia completed its acquisition of Wolper Productions (following their buyout of David Wolper, who later started another self-named production company). Prior to the MPC name taking effect, titles they handled (such as Truth or Consequences) were syndicated under the Wolper Productions banner.

It should also be noted that The David Susskind Show, despite running under this title on WNEW-TV from 1966 until 1986 (a few months before his death), was syndicated for virtually its entire run by NTA (National Telefilm Associates) - the former owner of WNTA-TV (now WNET) where Susskind began his career as a talk show host with Open End in 1958, a title which applied to his show until he left WPIX in 1966 after a three-year run.