Talk Soup

Infobox Television
show_name = Talk Soup


genre = Comedy
starring = Greg Kinnear
John Henson
Hal Sparks
Aisha Tyler
country = USA
language = English
num_seasons = 11
num_episodes =
producer = Tom Greenhut
Gregg Cannizzaro
Ben Cheng
Heather Stewart
executive_producer = Alex Duda
Angela Gordon
Aileen Gram
Deborah Adler Myers
location =
camera =
runtime = 22 minutes
network = E!
picture_format =
audio_format =
first_aired = January 7, 1991
last_aired = May 17, 2002
followed_by = The Soup
website = http://www.eonline.com/on/shows/thesoup/
imdb_id = 0106149
tv_com_id = 4818

"Talk Soup" was a television show produced for cable network E! that debuted on January 7, 1991, as a midseason replacement, and aired until August 2002. Talk Soup aired selected clips of the previous day's daily talk shows—ranging from daytime entries like "The Jerry Springer Show" and to celebrity interview shows like "The Tonight Show"—surrounded by humorous commentary delivered by the host. Although "Talk Soup" poked fun at the talk shows, it also advertised the topics and guests of upcoming broadcasts of them. Some of the humor is derived from the reactions to the jokes by various stagehands, who either chuckle softly or groan depending on the severity of the joke. One episode was recorded in front of a live studio audience. A revamped version, "The Soup", now airs weekly on E!.

The show frequently poked fun at actors Randolph Mantooth and Mario Van Peebles. Also featured was a womanizing Argentinian sock puppet named Señor Sock that had bought several Thighmasters because he was madly in love with Suzanne Somers.

Hosts and awards

Hosts included Greg Kinnear (1991–1995), John Henson (1995–1999), Hal Sparks (1999–2000) and Aisha Tyler (2001–2002). Various celebrities filled in as guest hosts from 2000 to fall 2001, with Donna D'Errico standing-in regularly for summer 2001. Guest hosts included Ryan Seacrest, Roger Lodge, Janeane Garofalo and John Henstein.

Kinnear won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1994 for his involvement with the show, and "Talk Soup" won an Emmy in 1995 for Outstanding Special Class Program, and was nominated for an Emmy in 1996 for Special Class Writing and Special Class Program. "Talk Soup" was also nominated in 1996 for the CableACE Award for Outstanding Magazine Show, Series or Special; John Henson nominated for Entertainment or Variety Show Host.

Pop culture references

"Weird Al" Yankovic recorded a song entitled "Talk Soup" for his album "Alapalooza". The lyrics describe a man who is desperate to appear on some of the talk shows whose clips appeared in "Talk Soup". The song ends with a sample of the E! sound clip played at the end of the television show's end credits. Al on the origin of the song:

Well, to put it bluntly, [E!] kind of jerked me around. The producers of the show approached me, asking me to do a new theme song for the show. I wrote the lyrics (which they approved) and then recorded the song (which they said they "loved"). And then they never used it. Go figure. [ [http://weirdal.com/aaarchive.htm#0995 Midnight Star "Ask Al" Q&As for September, 1995] ]

In 2004, E! paid homage to "Talk Soup" by renaming and reformatting "The What The? Awards" to create the show known today as "The Soup" with actor Joel McHale as host and co-writer.

One remnant from "Talk Soup" that got carried over to "The Soup" is the segment "Chat Stew." "Chat Stew" shows clips from various talk shows and funny comments. The segment is introduced with a CGI crock pot filled with talk show logos and host heads, while a woman voices about the "stew" being "so meaty!"

References

External links

* [http://www.eonline.com/on/shows/thesoup/ Official website]
*imdb title|0106149
* [http://www.jumptheshark.com/forum/talk-soup/1954 Jump The Shark - Talk Soup]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20040927015832/http://www.talksoup.info/ Talk Soup R.I.P]
* [http://www.groups.myspace.com/talksoup/ MySpace.com Group]