Tropang Trumpo


Tropang Trumpo was a Philippine sketch comedy show produced by ABC-5, and aired from 1994 to 1999.

History

Its original cast included Ogie Alcasid, Michael V., Gelli de Belen, and theatre/voice actors Noni Buencamino, Earl Ignacio and Sheilou Bharwani. 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. The show won as Best Gag Show during the 1995 Star Awards for Television.
Tropang Trumpo started to decline when several new shows started copying its format. In 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 Earl Ignacio also left to side with their beleaguered director. Mortiz, Tantay, Salamante, Manaloto and 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. In mid-1998, original Tropa cast members Gelli de Belen and later addition, Carmina Villaroel left, and the show struggled to survive with its relatively new cast and staff. It finally closed at the end of the year and was replaced with Ispup.
A new show entitled Tropa Moko Unli 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 emerging in 2014 as the new show re-titled as Tropa Mo Ko Nice Diba? was also launched last April 2014.

Cast

1994