I watched Soupy when he was on WNEW-TV in New York during 1965-’66, and the short period in February-March 1979 when WPIX-TV carried his Los Angeles show (it really wasn’t the same as the original). Did you know he taped a variety special for ABC in the fall of 1966 that the network NEVER aired? They “tested” it before a bunch of people at “Preview House” in L.A., and the majority of the audience didn’t care for it. So ABC “shelved” it. It was available via the “collectors’ market” (my friend had a copy, but it’s gone), and it was an “unconventional” special, to say the least. In one segment, scheduled “guest star” Judy Garland doesn’t show up, so Ernest Borgnine takes “her” place. That’s what kind of special it was…I wish YOU could see it.

Most of Soupy’s TV shows don’t exist. ONE example of his ABC Saturday afternoon “LUNCH WITH SOUPY SALES” (for General Foods’ “Jell-O”) from 1960 does, on videotape. After 260 half-hours of his New York show were taped and syndicated nationally [through Screen Gems/Columbia] in 1965-’66, WNEW-TV erased ALL of them to reuse the tape stock. However, Soupy managed to track down someone who had 75 of the 16mm kinescopes of that edition [the kinnies were for those stations who didn't have videotape equipment]- THOSE exist. A few other “local” examples, including the famous Frank Sinatra guest shot from the summer of ’65, were saved. And virtually all of the 1978-’79 shows he did at KTLA in Los Angeles (65 of them were syndicated) are safe. So we have several examples of him doing what he did best…