Opinion

Soupy Sales, 1926-2009

Long before “Saturday Night Live,” “The Daily Show” and David Letter man, there was Soupy Sales — the hippest show on television.

For those of the Baby Boomer generation, and especially New Yorkers, Soupy Sales — who died Thursday at 83 — was the original must-see TV during the late ’50s and early ’60s.

Ostensibly, “The Soupy Sales Show” was a children’s program, what with its animal characters (Pookie the Lion, White Fang, Black Tooth), bad puns, pratfall sketches (Philo Kvetch) and the inevitable pie-in-the-face routine.

But his audience quickly outgrew the adolescent set, and he attracted a large older following drawn to his freewheeling, largely improvised program and everyone’s-in-on-the-joke style.

Before long, some of the biggest names in show business — including Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and Shirley MacLaine — were lining up to appear on the show, hoping to take one in the face from Soupy.

Even his misfires became the stuff of TV legend.

On New Year’s Day 1965, needing to fill a minute before the end of his live program, Sales improvised a bit in which he told his young viewers to reach into their sleeping parents’ wallets and send him “those little green pieces of paper.”

When an outraged parent complained, Channel 5 suspended him for a week. But his viewers had gotten the joke from the start — and, far from hurting him, the incident only enhanced his reputation.

He’ll be missed. RIP.