His show was broadcast in black & white; yep, it was that old. And for those of us old enough to remember those hazy, grainy days, "The Soupy Sales Show" was our earliest form of "Must-See TV," every evening, just before the dinner hour (at least in my time zone). As kids, maybe we didn't get every joke - Soupy had a way of ad-libbing that seemed more concerned with amusing his crew than talking (down) to the kids - but we knew there was something deliciously subversive going on.

Soupy Sales died yesterday (October 22) at age 83 and, while he hadn't been in the public eye much in recent years, there isn't a Hipster of a Certain Age who doesn't have a warm, fuzzy spot for the guy born Milton Supman, who knew how to take a pie in the face (reportedly 9,000 in his career) and set the standard for surreal kids' entertainment. Could there have been a "PeeWee's Playhouse" without him?

Born in Franklinton, N.C. and raised in West Virginia, Sales first became a TV star with a show that began airing in Detroit in 1953. When he took his act national, broadcasting first from L.A. and then from N.Y., he brought with him a cast of wonderful characters that were little more than cheap hand puppets but had charm beyond measure - the growling White Fang, the overly romantic Black Tooth ("don't kiss!") and an adorable hipster lion named Pookie.

Pookie often appeared at Soupy’s window, his usual entry point, performing a Muppet-like musical boogie to the tune of Oscar Peterson’s song “Mumbles,” and music was obviously a passion of the show’s host, who had been a DJ earlier in his career and liked to highlight his favorite jazz records on the show.

At the height of Sales' popularity, musical guests like Sammy Davis Jr., Alice Cooper, the Shangri-Las and the Supremes would drop in on Soupy, and even Frank Sinatra wanted to come aboard and take a pie in the face. When Sinatra started his own Reprise Records, he signed Sales to the label, resulting in two albums - "The Soupy Sales Show" (1961) and "Up In The Air" (1962). And, of course, there was “The Mouse,” a novelty dance record from the mid-1960s period when his show was based in New York. Sales performed the song on the Ed Sullivan Show and, on another Sullivan show visit, was on the same bill with The Beatles.

Music caught on with Soupy’s kids as well. His sons Tony and Hunt Sales played bass and drums, respectively, for David Bowie in his Tin Machine band and worked with Iggy Pop on the “Lust For Life” album.

Alas, the current inventory of Soupy Sales’ musical comedy is pretty skimpy in the digital world – you can find an mp3 of the Motown single “Muck-Arty Park” (a parody of “MacArthur Park”) but not “The Mouse” at the usual digital retail sites. So, until someone opens up the vaults, here’s a video version of “The Mouse” – the song starts at about 3:15, after some typically zany shtick.