Soupy Sales pioneered slapstick television, turning daytime comedy into a messy, anarchic playground where custard pies flew with surgical precision. Born Milton Supman on January 8, 1926, in Franklinton, North Carolina, he grew up in Huntington, West Virginia, and started in radio before moving to television in Detroit in the early 1950s. His Detroit-based children's show, "Lunch with Soupy Sales," became a local phenomenon and then a national one. The format was simple: Soupy stood in front of a door, visitors knocked, and chaos ensued. Pies were thrown with such frequency that Sales reportedly took over 20,000 pies to the face over his career. He was hit by everyone from Frank Sinatra to Tony Curtis to Mickey Mantle, celebrities who appeared on the show specifically for the privilege of throwing a pie at him. The show ran in various forms from the 1950s through the 1970s. His most notorious moment came on New Year's Day 1965, when he told his young viewers to go to their parents' wallets, take out "those funny green pieces of paper with all those nice pictures of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Lincoln, and Jefferson" and mail them to him. Parents were outraged. The station suspended him for a week. He later said he received about $80,000 in Monopoly money and a few real dollar bills. Beyond the pies, Sales was a genuinely gifted comedian and jazz enthusiast. He hosted a late-night show, appeared on Broadway, and was respected by comedians for his improvisational skill. He died on October 22, 2009, in New York City, at age 83. The art of getting hit in the face, he proved, was actually art.