Tropang Trumpo (Tagalog for Troop of Tops) is a Philippine sketch comedy show produced by ABC (now TV5), a one-hour comedy program that featured gags, spoofs and lampoons, was known to be the "mother" of all local gag shows. It was the show that started it all, so to speak, and paved the way for all the comedy shows that followed thereafter. It was aired from March 12, 1994 to March 13, 1999, and was replaced by Ispup.

History

Its original cast included Ogie Alcasid, Michael V., Gelli de Belen, and theatre/voice actors Noni Buencamino, Manny Castañeda, Earl Ignacio, Sheilou Bharwani, Mhalou Crisologo, Ana Abad Santos and Lorna Gay Long. Tropa aired on Saturday nights and was originally directed by Jose Javier Reyes. However, when Reyes became busy with movies, former Goin' Bananas cast members Edgar "Bobot" Mortiz, Al Tantay and former Goin' Bananas headwriter Dan Salamante came in and assumed the respective posts of director and writers. Mortiz, Tantay and Salamante introduced new segments for the show, the most famous was Battle of the Brainless, a satirical quiz show sketch parodying the 90s game show Battle of the Brains aired over RPN, where simple quiz questions are never answered. The show went on even when two of its main cast, Michael V. and Ogie Alcasid, left in 1995 to do another gag show for GMA entitled Bubble Gang. It was then that Maoi Roca and Smokey Manoloto joined the show with Gelli de Belen, Carmina Villaroel and Earl Ignacio. The show won as Best Gag Show during the 1995 Star Awards for Television and received regional acclaim as "Highly Commended" in the Best Comedy Programme or Series in the 1996 Asian Television Awards held in Singapore.

Tropang Trumpo started to decline when several new shows started copying its format. In 1997, however, Tropang Trumpo was reformatted again and introduced a new powerful ensemble led by the ever-loyal Smokey Manoloto, Sunshine Cruz and Keempee de Leon. Backing up the main cast were Cholo Escano, Cheska Garcia, Meryll Soriano, Sherilyn Reyes and Marco McKinley. In late 1997 former cast members Gelli de Belen and Carmina Villaroel joined the show. In early 1998, the show had to reformat after Edgar Mortiz, Al Tantay and Dan Salamante left due to conflict with ABC executives. At the same time, cast members Smokey Manaloto and Keempee de Leon also left to side with their beleaguered director. Mortiz, Tantay, Salamante, Manaloto and de Leon, along with former cast member Earl Ignacio transferred to IBC where they did a new gag show entitled Goin' Bayabas, a spin-off of the 80's gag show Goin' Bananas. To keep "Tropa" afloat the ABC management named Ding Bolanos as Mortiz's replacement and surviving lead cast members Gelli de Belen, Carmina Villaroel and Candy Pangilinan lead the show. In mid-1998 de Belen and Villaroel left the show again as the management decided to reformat the show. Among the new cast members joining the show in the reformat were Anjanette Abayari, Lindsay Custodio, Daniel Pasia, Blakdyak and Jake Roxas. It finally closed at the end of the year and was replaced with Ispup.

The show was reaired from January 6 to November 17, 2001, every Saturdays on the same network airing in 1 hour as Tropang Trumpo: Ang Orig .In 2007, it was reaired again. This time, it joined forces with Wow Mali!, and Ispup in the show named Comedy Bites, also aired in Saturdays.

A new show entitled Tropa Moko Unli^[1] was launched on September 14, 2013, as a part of the Weekend Do It Better programming block on TV5, combining the former shows Tropang Trumpo and Lokomoko U.

Cast

• Ogie Alcasid (1994–1995)
• Michael V. (1994–1995)
• Gelli de Belen (1994–1996; 1997-1998)
• Carmina Villarroel (1994–1996; 1997-1998)
• Earl Ignacio (1994–1997)
• Nonie Buencamino (1994)
• Shielu Bharwani (1994)
• Manny Castañeda (1994)
• Ana Abad Santos (1994)
• Malou Crisologo (1994–1995)
• Jomari Yllana (1994–1995)
• Mark Anthony Fernandez (1994–1995)
• Eric Fructuoso (1994–1995)
• Whitney Tyson (1994-1996)
• Smokey Manaloto (1995-1998)
• Maoi Roca (1995-1997)
• Maricel Morales (1995)
• Diego "Binoy" Salvador (1995-1999)
• Ariel "Hyubs" Azarcon (1995-1998)
• Jennifer Mendoza (1995-1996)
• Caloy Alde (1996-1999)
• Marco Mckinley (1996-1997)
• Leandro Baldemor (1997)
• Meryll Soriano (1997)
• Gary Estrada (1997)
• Sunshine Cruz (1997)
• Keempee de Leon (1997-1998)
• Cholo Escano (1997)
• Sherilyn Reyes (1997-1998)
• Cheska Garcia (1997-1998)
• Candy Pangilinan (1997-1999)
• Kevin Vernal (1997-1998)
• Onemig Bondoc (1998)
• Raffy Rodriguez (1998-1999)
• Anjanette Abayari (1998-1999)
• Blakdyak (1998-1999)
• Daniel Pasia (1998-1999)
• Jake Roxas (1998-1999)
• Lindsay Custodio (1998-1999)
• Novia (1998-1999)
• Rufa Mae Quinto (1998-1999)

Directors

• Jose Javier Reyes
• Al Quinn
• Deo Directo
• Edgar Mortiz
• Al Tantay (Writer)
• Dan Salamante (Headwriter/Musical Director)

Recurring characters and segments

See also

• List of TV5 (Philippine TV network) original programming
• Bubble Gang
• Super Laff-In

References

External links

• Tropang Trumpo at IMDb