~ I LOVE Hal Sparks! The razor sharp witt on that one is amazing! I think Hal would be a great talk show host! I tuned in to TALK SOUP because Hal Sparks was the host, after Greg Kenner & Skunk Boy. . . what's his name. J. McHale is a funny guy as well.
I watched E!'s
Talk Soup almost from the very beginning. IMO, Greg Kinnear
was the show. Sometimes after a particularly strange or disturbing clip, he'd just sit there, staring in silence for like 15 seconds. Funny, funny stuff.
Too bad he left. Wonder what he's doing these days...?
The Kinnear era also had great recurring characters, such as "Spanish talk show host" Senor Sock, which was a sock puppet with a Spanish accent. As I recall, he was often arrogant and abusive to Greg. I'm sorry, but I just find the idea of a nasty sock puppet badgering Greg Kinnear funny. Senor Sock seemed to be an early version of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog from Conan. And Tom. What was he, the director? The floor manager? He was a frequent on-camera visitor. These old shows should be released on DVD, but I'm sure there would be a rights problem with many of the clips, even though a majority of the shows used during the Kinnear era have been long off the air (except for Springer, of course).
When Kinnear left, E! held auditions, and ultimately selected "skunk boy," a.k.a. John Henson (no relation to the Muppet Hensons) as his replacement. I believe Henson even subbed for Kinnear once or twice. He was funny, too, but not as funny as the third guy to take the chair a few years later, Hal Sparks.
Sparks brought his own wacky routine to the proceedings, and did a devastatingly funny impression of Roseanne Barr when she had her own talk show.
I don't think Hal lasted as long as Kinnear or Henson.
The last permanent host was Alicia...Alicia something...I forget her last name.
Then
Talk Soup was canned by E! so they could show more of their trashy
E! Hollywood Stories and Joan & Melissa Rivers fashion "critiques." The show is back now as
The Soup, with a different host. I've never seen this current incarnation, but nothing can beat the Kinnear era.