Second City Television
Encyclopedia
Second City Television (SCTV) is a Canadian
television sketch comedy
show offshoot from Toronto
's The Second City
troupe that ran between 1976 and 1984.
called "The Days of the Week" ("Monday... Tuesday... Wednesday... these are... the days of the week"), to game shows like "Shoot At The Stars" in which celebrities are literally shot at like targets in a shooting gallery
, to full blown movie spoofs like "Play it Again, Bob" in which Woody Allen
(Rick Moranis) tries to get Bob Hope
(Dave Thomas) to star in his next film.
A typical episode of SCTV would present a compendium of programming seen on the station throughout their programming day. This would mean a given episode could contain everything from SCTV news broadcasts to sitcoms, dramas, talk shows, kids shows, and/or game shows. Episodes would also feature a range of SCTV-produced promos and commercials, such as spots for "Al Peck's Used Fruit" or "Shower In A Briefcase", or a PSA which helpfully describes "Seven Signs You May Already Be Dead".
Also seen fairly frequently (particularly in the later episodes) were behind-the-scenes plots focusing on life at the station. These plots often featured Guy Caballero
(Joe Flaherty), the cheap, tyrannical owner and president of SCTV, who was in a wheelchair only so that people would "respect" him; weaselly, sweating station manager Maurice "Moe" Green (Harold Ramis), who was succeeded by flamboyant, leopard-skin clad station manager Mrs. Edith Prickley
(Andrea Martin); vain variety star Johnny La Rue (John Candy); washed-up entertainers like singer Lola Heatherton
(Catherine O'Hara) and "funnyman" Bobby Bittman (Eugene Levy); news anchors Floyd Robertson
(Flaherty) and Earl Camembert
(Levy), talk-show host Sammy Maudlin (Flaherty), beer-addled brothers Bob and Doug McKenzie
(Moranis and Thomas), plus many other characters, all played by the SCTV cast.
The small cast (usually six to eight people at any given time) played a wide variety of other roles on the show, ranging from program hosts to commercial spokespersons for the fictional station. They also mimicked numerous popular celebrities who would appear on SCTV programming; a list of SCTV impersonations appears later in this article.
and Andrew Alexander
.
What is clear is that in 1976, Andrew Alexander, then the producer of Toronto's Second City stage show, was looking to expand his company into the realm of TV production. He called together the current cast of the stage show (including Candy, Flaherty, Thomas and Levy) to discuss a format for a Second City TV series. Also in attendance at the meeting were Second City vets Del Close
, Sheldon Patinkin
, and Harold Ramis
and business partner Bernard Sahlins.
According to Dave Thomas' account in SCTV: Behind The Scenes, various ideas were batted around, then—and here's where meeting attendees remember things differently—either Close or Patinkin came up with the idea of presenting programming from the world's smallest TV station. The cast immediately jumped on the idea as a workable model for presenting virtually unlimited range of characters, sketches, and ideas while still having a central premise that tied everything together. From there, the actual content of the show (the characters, the situations, the Melonville setting, etc. ) was all the work of the cast, with contributions from producers Alexander and Sahlins.
Alexander remained as producer/executive producer throughout SCTV's run. Sahlins stayed for the first two seasons as a producer. Patinkin was a first-season writer and de facto editor and post-production supervisor. Close had no further involvement with the series.
, then a small regional network of stations in Southern Ontario. For the first six episodes, new episodes were seen once a month. For the next seven episodes (beginning in February 1977, and continuing through the spring of 1977) new episodes were seen every second week. Then, in September 1977, Global ordered 13 additional episodes, which were seen once a week from September through December.
These irregularly scheduled 26 episodes (produced over a period of 15 months) were considered one "season" for syndication purposes. All of the original cast (except Harold Ramis
) were from the Toronto branch of The Second City theatre improv troupe, and many had previously worked together on The David Steinberg Show
. Ramis was a Second City vet, but with the Chicago troupe.
The original SCTV cast consisted of John Candy
, Joe Flaherty
, Eugene Levy
, Andrea Martin
, Catherine O'Hara
, Harold Ramis
, and Dave Thomas
. All also served as writers on the show, although Martin and O'Hara did not receive writing credits on the earliest episodes. Ramis served as SCTV's original head writer, but only appeared on-screen as a regular during the first season (spread out over two years).
For the second season (1978–79), SCTV became a weekly series on Global, and was seen in syndication throughout Canada and parts of the United States. After episode 3 of the second season, Ramis was no longer in the cast but continued to receive credit as the show's head writer until towards the end of the season.
and Allarcom-ITV Edmonton owner Charles Allard struck a deal to produce SCTV in ITV Studios
in Edmonton
, Alberta
.
Candy, O'Hara, and Ramis dropped out at this juncture. Added to the cast (and writing room) were Tony Rosato
, Robin Duke
, and Rick Moranis
. Moranis, a friend of Dave Thomas, would be the only cast member not to have come from the ranks of Second City.
This season of the show was seen in Canada on the CBC
, and in scattered markets in the US in syndication.
), and Candy and O'Hara returned. Because of the rush to generate material for this new 90-minute show, several early season 4 episodes were partially or even entirely made up of repeats of previously taped sketches from Seasons 1 to 3. Rosato, Duke and Ramis are often featured in these repeat sketches, uncredited.
Season 4 (25 episodes) ran on an irregular basis from May 1981 to July 1982. Beginning in January 1982, production of the show moved back to Toronto, where it would stay for the remainder of its run.
Writer/performer Martin Short
was added to the cast at the end of Season 4, filming three episodes before O'Hara, Thomas, and Moranis all left. One of those episodes was aired as the Season 4 finale in July 1982; the other two were held for the start of Season 5 (14 episodes), which began in October 1982. For the remaining 12 episodes of Season 5, the cast of Candy, Flaherty, Levy, Martin, and Short were augmented by supporting players John Hemphill and Mary-Charlotte Wilcox, neither of whom were official cast members. Also in Season 5, Ramis and O'Hara each returned for one episode apiece as guest stars.
The last new SCTV episode for NBC was seen in March 1983. During its network run, the show garnered 15 Emmy nominations, winning two (both for outstanding writing in a variety or music program). For both Seasons 4 & 5, the show continued to air on the CBC in Canada as a full hour, edited down from the NBC shows.
. SCTV was offered a slot on early Sunday evenings by NBC, but because they would have had to alter the show's content to appeal to "family" audiences (per a 1975 amendment to the Prime Time Access Rule
) as well as face CBS
' dominant 60 Minutes
, the producers declined.
Instead, for its final season, the show moved to pay-TV channels Superchannel
in Canada and Cinemax
in the United States, changing the name slightly to SCTV Channel. The running time was now 45 minutes, and new episodes (18 in total) were seen every second week from November 1983 to July 1984. For this final season, the cast consisted solely of Flaherty, Levy, Martin, and Short, although Candy, Thomas, and O'Hara all made guest appearances. Writer/performers Hemphill and Wilcox once again appeared semi-regularly.
stage show. However, especially after expanding to a ninety minute format, SCTV quickly pushed the envelope on television sketch comedy. While showing some influence from Monty Python's Flying Circus
and Saturday Night Live, SCTV eschewed both the live television format and even filming before a live studio audience. This was mostly to save money, but it also allowed more attention and care to be taken in building a premise and supporting it.
Having a moderately low budget and limited resources, SCTV got a reputation for making the most out of what it had, reusing sets and particularly taking advantage of expert makeup and hairstyling. With the luxury of being able to take long periods of time in the makeup chair, elaborate characters could be built. Not being bound by expensive and elaborate prosthetics, cast members and makeup artists worked together to create their characters, referring to the process in interviews as "Improvisation in the chair."
To add to the feel of the show — that of a low-budget local television station that went national — the SCTV crew recruited their dance troupe from the writers on the show, led by costumer Juul Haalmeyer
. The "Juul Haalmeyer Dancers" were spectacularly maladroit, parodying dance teams on variety shows through their sheer ineptness, and ultimately attracting a cult fandom of their own. (Juul Haalmeyer himself reports still being asked for autographs years later.)
The core premise of the show allowed for tremendous variety in presentation, but unlike Monty Python, which often would cut from one sketch to another without any resolution, the SCTV format required television style bridges. One technique they used was to build premises into "promos" for shows that would never run (such as "Melvin and Howards", a parody of the movie Melvin and Howard
which featured Melvin Dummar
, Howard Hughes
, Howard Cosell
, Curly Howard
, and Senator Howard Baker
on a road trip singing old tunes). Another was to take longer pieces that failed and cut them into promos or trailers. These short elements wound up being the equivalent of "blackout" pieces on the Second City stage. However, the internal logic of the series — that this actually was a television station producing low-budget programming — was never lost. SCTV's techniques helped inform and influence later shows, with clear influence on The State
, the Upright Citizen's Brigade, and The Kids in the Hall
.
Later shows built a tight theme, sometimes acting as a metaparody — such as the Emmy-winning "Moral Majority" episode where advertisers and special interest groups forced significant changes to SCTV's programming; "Zontar", a parody of the Larry Buchanan
film Zontar, The Thing from Venus
which featured an alien race seeking to kidnap SCTV's on-air talent for "a nine-show cycle plus three best-ofs" (which was the actual deal NBC worked out with SCTV that season); and an ambitious parody of The Godfather
featuring an all-out network war over pay television between SCTV, CBS
, NBC, ABC
, and PBS
- the last featured mafia
-style hits
on the sets of The Today Show, Three's Company
, and The NFL Today
as well as an extended sequence with guest star John Marley
as an off-beat Leonard Bernstein
, spoofing his Godfather role of Hollywood mogul Jack Woltz
.
In another such episode, a janitorial union
went on strike
, forcing the station to broadcast the network feed from CBC Television
. Parodies of Canadian television ensued, such as Hinterland Who's Who
, Front Page Challenge
, and It's a Fact
, as well as promos for Monday Night Curling, hosted by two orange-jacketed sportscasters who were both named Gord, and Magnum, P.E.I., with John Candy as a private detective chasing his quarry through the scenic potato patches of Prince Edward Island
. Meanwhile, in behind-the-scenes labour negotiations, Eugene Levy's Sid Dithers played the union president, barely able to see over the conference table as he detailed the progress of the strike-talks ("Fifteen minutes for lunsch? Ye can't even blow on your shoop!")
While these shows continued to incorporate the broad range of television parodies the show was known for, they also had a strong narrative thread which set the show apart from other sketch comedy shows of the time.
The show would also have a huge influence on The Simpsons
. In the DVD commentary for "Homer vs. The Eighteenth Amendment
" (in which Dave Thomas guest stars), everyone says how much they loved the show and how influential it was because "it was so funny". Matt Groening
goes on to say that he was specifically inspired by the town of Melonville, its own little universe with many recurring characters, and that that was the type of universe he wanted for The Simpsons. Both Dave Thomas and Andrea Martin have guest starred on The Simpsons.
Mystery Science Theater 3000
(another program that also enjoyed a "cult" following like that of SCTV) at times featured references to the show and its characters; for example, during the film Space Mutiny
, a character with an outrageous hairdo is said to resemble Martin Short's Ed Grimley
and prompted numerous impersonations of said character. In another example, near the end of the film Danger! Death Ray a character throws a watch out of a window, prompting Crow T. Robot
to cry "SCTV is on the air!"
The entire troupe was given a star on Canada's Walk of Fame
in 2002. John Candy
, Martin Short
, Eugene Levy
, and Catherine O'Hara
also have individual stars.
-style spoof in which Martin played a girl raised by geese after her family died in a plane crash. A parody of the popular western
drama
The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams — retitled Grizzly Abrams — depicted the burly wilderness hero as the owner of a wild tortoise
which took weeks to lead police
to the skeletal remains of its master, trapped beneath a fallen log
.
Battle of the PBS Stars was a parody of ABC television's Battle of the Network Stars athletic competitions that pit performers against each other in running and swimming events. SCTV's version featured a team of public television stars captained by William F. Buckley (played by Flaherty) vs. a team led by Carl Sagan (played by Thomas), with confrontations that included Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers's Neighborhood fame (played by Short) in a boxing match with chef Julia Child (played by Candy).
The People's Global Golden Choice Awards sent up the countless show-biz shows in which the industry honors itself. Presenters include stars ranging from Elizabeth Taylor (played by O'Hara) to Jack Klugman (Flaherty) reading off the nominees in each category, with SCTV's chief Guy Caballero secretly having conspired to guarantee that every award goes to his own network's stars.
The TV station concept provided SCTV the ability to lampoon virtually any television genre, as well as commercials, promos, network
IDs, and more. Some of the most memorable sketches involved parodies of low-budget late-night ads, like Al Peck's Used Fruit (they enticed viewers to visit by offering free tickets to Circus Lupus, the Circus of the Wolves; mocked-up photos depicted wolves forming a pyramid and jumping through flaming hoops). Equally memorable were the faux-inept ads for local businesses like Phil's Nails, Chet Vet the Dead Pet Remover, and Tex and Edna Boil's Organ Emporium.
" in every episode.
The characters ultimately became icons of the very Canadian culture
they parodied, spinning off albums, a feature film (Strange Brew
), commercials, and numerous TV and film cameos. Bob and Doug helped to popularize the stereotypical Canadian trait of adding "eh" to the end of sentences, a facet of Canadian life that is often gently ridiculed in American shows featuring Canadian characters. Lines from the sketch, such as "take off, you hoser!", became part of North American popular culture. Thomas later revealed in his 1996 book SCTV: Behind the Scenes that the other members of the cast grew bitter at the immense financial and popular success he and Moranis received from their Bob & Doug McKenzie albums, ultimately leading to their departing the show. Joe Flaherty and John Candy accused Thomas of using his position as head writer to increase the visibility of Bob & Doug, even though the original segments were largely unscripted. An SCTV episode even poked fun at the duo's popularity. Station manager Guy Caballero declared that they had become SCTV's top celebrities, supplanting Johnny LaRue. This led to the pair being given a Bob & Doug "special" with Tony Bennett
as their guest, which wound up being a disaster.
Recently, Moranis and Thomas recreated Bob and Doug in the form of a pair of moose in the animated feature Brother Bear
from Disney
. During Canadian rock band Rush
's 2007 Snakes And Arrows tour, Moranis and Thomas reprised their Bob and Doug Mackenzie roles in an introductory clip projected on the rear screen for the song "The Larger Bowl". Previously, Rush used Joe Flaherty in his Count Floyd persona to introduce their song "The Weapon" during their 1984 Grace Under Pressure Tour. Rush vocalist Geddy Lee sang the chorus on the hit single "Take Off" from the 1982 Mercury Records album Great White North by Bob and Doug McKenzie. That chorus was aired in a 2002 episode of The Simpsons which depicted the Simpson family visiting Toronto.
As a result, Dr. John
became a featured player in the movie "Polynesiantown", John Mellencamp
(no longer known as Johnny Cougar) was Mister Hyde to Ed Grimley
's Doctor Jekyll in "The Nutty Lab Assistant", Natalie Cole
was made into a zombie by a cabbage in "Zontar", and the Boomtown Rats
were both blown up on "Farm Film Celebrity Blow Up" and starred in the To Sir, with Love
parody "Teacher's Pet". It reached a point where Hall & Oates
appeared on a "Sammy Maudlin Show" segment, promoting a new film called "Chariots of Eggs", which was a parody of both Chariots of Fire
and Personal Best, only to show scenes from the faux movie as clips. Canadian singer-songwriter Ian Thomas
(the real-life brother of cast member Dave Thomas) was the "topic" on a "Great White North" sketch. Carl Perkins, Jimmy Buffett, Joe Walsh, The Tubes
, and Plasmatics
also appeared on the "Fishin' Musician".
This, along with SCTVs cult status, led to the show's celebrity fans clamoring to appear. Later on, Tony Bennett
credited his appearance on Bob and Doug McKenzie's variety-show debacle "The Great White North
Palace" as triggering a significant career comeback. Sketch comedy giant Carol Burnett
did an ad for the show in which an alarm clock goes off next to her bed, she rises up suddenly and advises those who couldn't stay up late enough (the NBC version aired from 12:30 to 2 a.m.) to go to bed, get some sleep, then wake up to watch the show. Burnett later briefly appeared in a climactic "courtroom" episode of "The Days of the Week".
Former Chicago Second City player, Saturday Night Live
cast member and film actor Bill Murray
also guest-starred on a "Days of the Week" installment, as a photography buff scrambling to make it to the wedding of singer-songwriter Clay Collins (Rick Moranis
) and town slut Sue-Ellen Allison (Catherine O'Hara
) in time to take pictures of the event. In that same episode, he also played two other roles: Johnny LaRue's biggest fan who is subsequently hired to be LaRue's bodyguard (and who pushes his homemade LaRue t-shirts when possible); and he also appeared as Joe DiMaggio
in a commercial for DiMaggio's restaurant, where he promised anyone who could strike him out a free meal (the strikeout challenges then took place in the middle of the dining room, with many patrons injured by speeding baseballs).
Robin Williams
guest-starred in a sketch called Bowery Boys in the Band, in which his Leo Gorcey
-like character tries to hide a gay lifestyle from his Huntz Hall
-inspired pal (played by Short). Williams also mimicked actor John Houseman
eloquently reading the Melonville telephone book.
Canadian actors including Jayne Eastwood
, Monica Parker, and Peter Wildman
appeared on the show occasionally as guests. Catherine O'Hara's sister, singer-songwriter Mary Margaret O'Hara
, also appeared in a bit part in the episode "Broads Behind Bars". William B. Davis
, still a decade away from his signature role as The X-Files
' "Smoking Man" also has a bit role in one 1983 episode.
s. As SCTV wasn't a live show, it paced its comedy accordingly, and several pieces were more outré than standard network fare. The use of a laugh track often stepped clumsily on the punchlines as a result, and there are some reports that the laugh track editor admitted to not getting SCTVs humour and just threw laughs in wherever they would fit.
The laugh track used in early episodes was actually recorded using audience reactions during live performances in the Second City theatre.
The syndicated series re-aired on NBC in from 1999 through early 2001, in the 185 half-hour format. This shows were presented under the banner of Later
presents SCTV -- "Later" was a recently cancelled Cynthia Garrett-hosted talk show, which SCTV essentially replaced. For some reason, NBC still wanted to keep the "Later" brand alive, so the shows opened with a unique introduction featuring the Later logo below the SCTV logo, and a brief voice-over by host Rita Sever
. The repeats ended in 2001 with the launch of Last Call with Carson Daly
.
For years, SCTV was unavailable on video tape (apart from one compilation, The Best of John Candy on SCTV), or in any form except these re-edited half hour programs. Originally, the producers and editors putting the original shows together never bothered to get clearance to use copyrighted music — for example, the "Fishin' Musician" show ended with Bing Crosby
singing "Gone Fishin'
", even though SCTV never obtained the clearance rights to use copyrighted music recordings.
It has been sometimes believed that the sole reason for SCTV not appearing on DVD before, is that the series did not originally get clearance for the numerous music cues used throughout the six seasons that SCTV was produced. Although the producers did neglect to clear the music for SCTV during production, this has no legal bearing on the use of the music for the DVD releases. However, this could indeed have had a detrimental effect on how smoothly those rights were granted for the use of music on the DVD releases. The ease of obtaining music clearance rights for a given music cue may depend upon the context in which that music cue is used, as well as the willingness of the copyright holder to allow the use of their music in any shape or form.
The shows couldn't be reproduced on DVD or video tape until after the laborious rights issues were resolved and clearances were received. In some cases (as with the aforementioned Crosby song) clearances couldn't be secured after the fact and new music had to be edited in its place for the 2005 DVD releases of the 90-minute shows. In a few cases where the music is intrinsic to the premise of the sketch (such as the sketches "Stairways to Heaven", "The Canadian National Anthem" and "Gordon Lightfoot
Sings Every Song Ever Written") and rights could not be obtained, sketches have been dropped from the DVDs.
has released SCTV on DVD in Region 1. To date, all episodes from Season 4 & 5 (which aired on NBC
) have been released in 4 Volumes and a Best-of DVD has been released which features episodes from Seasons 2 & 3. It is not known if the remaining episodes (Seasons 1-3,6) will be released at some point.
Other Releases
, Martin Short
, Andrea Martin
, Catherine O'Hara
, and Joe Flaherty
took part. The event was a fundraiser for The Alumni Fund, which helps support former Second City cast and crew members facing health or financial difficulties. There is no word yet if the performances will be released.
The initial press release for this event also included Dave Thomas, but he reportedly bowed out due to illness.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
television sketch comedy
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
show offshoot from Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
's The Second City
The Second City
The Second City is a improvisational comedy enterprise which originated in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood.The Second City Theatre opened on December 16, 1959 and has since expanded its presence to several other cities, including Toronto and Los Angeles...
troupe that ran between 1976 and 1984.
Premise
The basic premise of the show is that "SCTV" is an independent television station in the city of Melonville. Melonville is a nickname for Chatham, Ontario, as Chatham is a major melon producer. Rather than broadcasting the usual TV rerun fare, the station produces a bizarre and humorously incompetent range of cheap local programming. This can range from a soap operaSoap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
called "The Days of the Week" ("Monday... Tuesday... Wednesday... these are... the days of the week"), to game shows like "Shoot At The Stars" in which celebrities are literally shot at like targets in a shooting gallery
Shooting gallery
A Shooting gallery or Shooting Gallery is a carnival game typically featuring a pellet gun and numerous moving mechanical tracks with small targets worth various minor prizes or points towards a major prize...
, to full blown movie spoofs like "Play it Again, Bob" in which Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
(Rick Moranis) tries to get Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
(Dave Thomas) to star in his next film.
A typical episode of SCTV would present a compendium of programming seen on the station throughout their programming day. This would mean a given episode could contain everything from SCTV news broadcasts to sitcoms, dramas, talk shows, kids shows, and/or game shows. Episodes would also feature a range of SCTV-produced promos and commercials, such as spots for "Al Peck's Used Fruit" or "Shower In A Briefcase", or a PSA which helpfully describes "Seven Signs You May Already Be Dead".
Also seen fairly frequently (particularly in the later episodes) were behind-the-scenes plots focusing on life at the station. These plots often featured Guy Caballero
Guy Caballero
Guy Caballero is a fictional character on the television series SCTV played by Joe Flaherty. President and owner of the fictional SCTV network, Caballero usually appeared on the series to introduce various network programs, although he also occasionally got wrapped up in behind-the-scenes...
(Joe Flaherty), the cheap, tyrannical owner and president of SCTV, who was in a wheelchair only so that people would "respect" him; weaselly, sweating station manager Maurice "Moe" Green (Harold Ramis), who was succeeded by flamboyant, leopard-skin clad station manager Mrs. Edith Prickley
Edith Prickley
Edith Prickley was a character in all six seasons of the Canadian sketch comedy series SCTV. Created and played by Andrea Martin, the character took over as the station manager for the fictional television station Second City Television, based out of a city called Melonville, and serving the...
(Andrea Martin); vain variety star Johnny La Rue (John Candy); washed-up entertainers like singer Lola Heatherton
Lola Heatherton
Lola Heatherton was a fictional character on the late '70s/early '80s comedy program SCTV, portrayed by Catherine O'Hara and based largely on Joey Heatherton and Lola Falana...
(Catherine O'Hara) and "funnyman" Bobby Bittman (Eugene Levy); news anchors Floyd Robertson
Floyd Robertson
Floyd Robertson is a fictional news anchor and reporter, portrayed by Joe Flaherty on the Canadian sketch comedy series SCTV in the 1970s and 1980s. He was a co-anchor, with Earl Camembert , of the SCTV News...
(Flaherty) and Earl Camembert
Earl Camembert
Earl Camembert is a fictional news reporter and anchorman portrayed by Eugene Levy on the Canadian sketch comedy show SCTV, which aired in the 1970s and 1980s.-Career:...
(Levy), talk-show host Sammy Maudlin (Flaherty), beer-addled brothers Bob and Doug McKenzie
Bob and Doug McKenzie
Bob and Doug McKenzie are a pair of fictional Canadian brothers who hosted "Great White North", a sketch which was introduced on SCTV for the show's third season when it moved to CBC Television in 1980. Bob is played by Rick Moranis and Doug is played by Dave Thomas...
(Moranis and Thomas), plus many other characters, all played by the SCTV cast.
The small cast (usually six to eight people at any given time) played a wide variety of other roles on the show, ranging from program hosts to commercial spokespersons for the fictional station. They also mimicked numerous popular celebrities who would appear on SCTV programming; a list of SCTV impersonations appears later in this article.
Show creation
There is much dispute as to who created the SCTV series. The show itself bears no "created by" credit, although it gives "developed by" credits to Bernard SahlinsBernard Sahlins
Bernard "Bernie" Sahlins is an American writer, director and comedian best known as a founder of The Second City improvisational comedy troupe with Paul Sills and Howard Alk in 1959. Sahlins also opened the Second City Theatre in Toronto in 1973....
and Andrew Alexander
Andrew Alexander
Andrew Alexander is a theatre, film, and television producer, known most widely for his leadership and co- ownership of The Second City, and for executive producing the television show SCTV.-Early life:...
.
What is clear is that in 1976, Andrew Alexander, then the producer of Toronto's Second City stage show, was looking to expand his company into the realm of TV production. He called together the current cast of the stage show (including Candy, Flaherty, Thomas and Levy) to discuss a format for a Second City TV series. Also in attendance at the meeting were Second City vets Del Close
Del Close
Del Close was an actor, improviser, writer, and teacher. Considered one of the premier influences on modern improvisational theater, Close had a prolific career, appearing in a number of films and television shows...
, Sheldon Patinkin
Sheldon Patinkin
Sheldon Patinkin is the chair of the Theater Department of Columbia College Chicago, Artistic Director of the Getz Theater of Columbia College, Artistic Consultant of The Second City and of Steppenwolf Theatre and Co-Director of the Steppenwolf Theatre Summer Ensemble Workshops...
, and Harold Ramis
Harold Ramis
Harold Allen Ramis is an American actor, director, and writer, specializing in comedy. His best-known film acting roles are as Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters and Russell Ziskey in Stripes , both of which he also co-wrote...
and business partner Bernard Sahlins.
According to Dave Thomas' account in SCTV: Behind The Scenes, various ideas were batted around, then—and here's where meeting attendees remember things differently—either Close or Patinkin came up with the idea of presenting programming from the world's smallest TV station. The cast immediately jumped on the idea as a workable model for presenting virtually unlimited range of characters, sketches, and ideas while still having a central premise that tied everything together. From there, the actual content of the show (the characters, the situations, the Melonville setting, etc. ) was all the work of the cast, with contributions from producers Alexander and Sahlins.
Alexander remained as producer/executive producer throughout SCTV's run. Sahlins stayed for the first two seasons as a producer. Patinkin was a first-season writer and de facto editor and post-production supervisor. Close had no further involvement with the series.
Seasons 1 & 2: 1976-79
SCTV was initially produced in 1976 at the Toronto studios of the Global Television NetworkGlobal Television Network
Global Television Network is an English language privately owned television network in Canada, owned by Calgary-based Shaw Communications, as part of its Shaw Media division...
, then a small regional network of stations in Southern Ontario. For the first six episodes, new episodes were seen once a month. For the next seven episodes (beginning in February 1977, and continuing through the spring of 1977) new episodes were seen every second week. Then, in September 1977, Global ordered 13 additional episodes, which were seen once a week from September through December.
These irregularly scheduled 26 episodes (produced over a period of 15 months) were considered one "season" for syndication purposes. All of the original cast (except Harold Ramis
Harold Ramis
Harold Allen Ramis is an American actor, director, and writer, specializing in comedy. His best-known film acting roles are as Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters and Russell Ziskey in Stripes , both of which he also co-wrote...
) were from the Toronto branch of The Second City theatre improv troupe, and many had previously worked together on The David Steinberg Show
David Steinberg
David Steinberg is a Canadian comedian, actor, writer, director, and author. At the height of his popularity, during the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was one of the best-known stand-up comics in the United States...
. Ramis was a Second City vet, but with the Chicago troupe.
The original SCTV cast consisted of John Candy
John Candy
John Franklin Candy was a Canadian actor and comedian. He rose to fame as a member of the Toronto branch of The Second City and its related Second City Television series, and through his appearances in comedy films such as Stripes, Splash, Cool Runnings, The Great Outdoors, Spaceballs, and Uncle...
, Joe Flaherty
Joe Flaherty
Joe Flaherty is an American-Canadian actor and comedian. He is best known for his work on the Canadian sketch comedy SCTV, from 1976 to 1984, and as Harold Weir on Freaks and Geeks...
, Eugene Levy
Eugene Levy
Eugene Levy, CM is a Canadian actor, comedian, television director, producer, musician, and writer. He is known for his work in Canadian television series, American movies, and television movies. He is the only actor to have appeared in all eight of the American Pie films, as Noah Levenstein...
, Andrea Martin
Andrea Martin
Andrea Louise Martin is an American and Canadian actress and comedienne. She has appeared in films such as My Big Fat Greek Wedding, on stage in productions such as My Favorite Year, Fiddler on the Roof and Candide, and in the television series, SCTV.-Personal life:Martin, the oldest of three...
, Catherine O'Hara
Catherine O'Hara
Catherine Anne O'Hara is a Canadian-American actress and comedienne. She is well known for her comedy work on SCTV, and her roles in the films After Hours, Beetlejuice, Home Alone, and The Nightmare Before Christmas, and also in the mockumentary films written and directed by Christopher Guest...
, Harold Ramis
Harold Ramis
Harold Allen Ramis is an American actor, director, and writer, specializing in comedy. His best-known film acting roles are as Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters and Russell Ziskey in Stripes , both of which he also co-wrote...
, and Dave Thomas
Dave Thomas (actor)
David "Dave" Thomas is a Canadian comedian and actor. He was born in St. Catharines, Ontario, but moved to Durham, North Carolina where his father, John E. Thomas, attended Duke University and earned a PhD in Philosophy. Thomas attended George Watts and Moorehead elementary schools...
. All also served as writers on the show, although Martin and O'Hara did not receive writing credits on the earliest episodes. Ramis served as SCTV's original head writer, but only appeared on-screen as a regular during the first season (spread out over two years).
For the second season (1978–79), SCTV became a weekly series on Global, and was seen in syndication throughout Canada and parts of the United States. After episode 3 of the second season, Ramis was no longer in the cast but continued to receive credit as the show's head writer until towards the end of the season.
Season 3: 1980-81
The show was off the air for the 1979-80 season, but returned to production after producer Andrew AlexanderAndrew Alexander
Andrew Alexander is a theatre, film, and television producer, known most widely for his leadership and co- ownership of The Second City, and for executive producing the television show SCTV.-Early life:...
and Allarcom-ITV Edmonton owner Charles Allard struck a deal to produce SCTV in ITV Studios
CITV-TV
CITV-DT is a television station in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Known on air as Global Edmonton, the station is owned by Shaw Media, and is an owned-and-operated station of the Global Television Network. It transmits on channel 13 and cable 8 in Edmonton, and is carried on the Bell TV and Shaw...
in Edmonton
Edmonton
Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...
, Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
.
Candy, O'Hara, and Ramis dropped out at this juncture. Added to the cast (and writing room) were Tony Rosato
Tony Rosato
Tony Rosato is an Italian-Canadian animated voice actor who has appeared in television and movies in both Canada and the United States....
, Robin Duke
Robin Duke
Robin Duke is a Canadian actress and comedian. Duke is most famous for her work on the NBC comedy series Saturday Night Live. In the 2000s, Women Fully Clothed, a sketch comedy troupe which she co-founded, toured Canada...
, and Rick Moranis
Rick Moranis
Frederick Allan "Rick" Moranis is a Canadian comedian, actor, musician, and a magician. Moranis came to prominence in the late 1970s on the sketch comedy show Second City Television, and later appeared in several Hollywood films including Strange Brew; Ghostbusters; Spaceballs; Little Shop of...
. Moranis, a friend of Dave Thomas, would be the only cast member not to have come from the ranks of Second City.
This season of the show was seen in Canada on the CBC
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...
, and in scattered markets in the US in syndication.
Seasons 4 & 5: 1981-83
In 1981, SCTV was picked up as a 90-minute show by NBC as a mid-season replacement (for The Midnight Special). Less than two months after Season 3 ended, SCTV was back on the air for Season 4, airing first as SCTV Network 90, then as SCTV Network, late Friday nights. For this iteration, Rosato and Duke dropped out (ending up as cast members of Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
), and Candy and O'Hara returned. Because of the rush to generate material for this new 90-minute show, several early season 4 episodes were partially or even entirely made up of repeats of previously taped sketches from Seasons 1 to 3. Rosato, Duke and Ramis are often featured in these repeat sketches, uncredited.
Season 4 (25 episodes) ran on an irregular basis from May 1981 to July 1982. Beginning in January 1982, production of the show moved back to Toronto, where it would stay for the remainder of its run.
Writer/performer Martin Short
Martin Short
Martin Hayter Short, CM is a Canadian actor, comedian, writer, singer and producer. He is best-known for his comedy work, particularly on the TV programs SCTV and Saturday Night Live...
was added to the cast at the end of Season 4, filming three episodes before O'Hara, Thomas, and Moranis all left. One of those episodes was aired as the Season 4 finale in July 1982; the other two were held for the start of Season 5 (14 episodes), which began in October 1982. For the remaining 12 episodes of Season 5, the cast of Candy, Flaherty, Levy, Martin, and Short were augmented by supporting players John Hemphill and Mary-Charlotte Wilcox, neither of whom were official cast members. Also in Season 5, Ramis and O'Hara each returned for one episode apiece as guest stars.
The last new SCTV episode for NBC was seen in March 1983. During its network run, the show garnered 15 Emmy nominations, winning two (both for outstanding writing in a variety or music program). For both Seasons 4 & 5, the show continued to air on the CBC in Canada as a full hour, edited down from the NBC shows.
Season 6: 1983-84
In the fall of 1983, NBC wanted the late Friday night timeslot for the new Friday Night VideosFriday Night Videos
Friday Night Videos is an American music video show broadcast on the NBC television network from July 29, 1983 to December 30, 2000, and was the network's attempt to capitalize on the emerging popularity of music videos as seen on MTV...
. SCTV was offered a slot on early Sunday evenings by NBC, but because they would have had to alter the show's content to appeal to "family" audiences (per a 1975 amendment to the Prime Time Access Rule
Prime Time Access Rule
The Prime Time Access Rule was instituted by the Federal Communications Commission in 1970 to restrict the amount of network broadcast programming that a local television station, Owned-and-operated station by or affiliated with a television network may air during "prime time"...
) as well as face CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
' dominant 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
, the producers declined.
Instead, for its final season, the show moved to pay-TV channels Superchannel
Movie Central
Movie Central is a Canadian English language Category A premium television service. Movie Central is designated to operate west of the Ontario-Manitoba border, including the territories...
in Canada and Cinemax
Cinemax
Cinemax, sometimes abbreviated as simply "Max", is a collection of premium television networks that broadcasts primarily feature films, along with softcore erotica, original action series, documentaries and special behind-the-scenes features. Cinemax is operated by Home Box Office, Inc., a...
in the United States, changing the name slightly to SCTV Channel. The running time was now 45 minutes, and new episodes (18 in total) were seen every second week from November 1983 to July 1984. For this final season, the cast consisted solely of Flaherty, Levy, Martin, and Short, although Candy, Thomas, and O'Hara all made guest appearances. Writer/performers Hemphill and Wilcox once again appeared semi-regularly.
Significance
SCTV initially adapted its comedy from existing sketches and improvisation from the Second CityThe Second City
The Second City is a improvisational comedy enterprise which originated in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood.The Second City Theatre opened on December 16, 1959 and has since expanded its presence to several other cities, including Toronto and Los Angeles...
stage show. However, especially after expanding to a ninety minute format, SCTV quickly pushed the envelope on television sketch comedy. While showing some influence from Monty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python’s Flying Circus is a BBC TV sketch comedy series. The shows were composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines...
and Saturday Night Live, SCTV eschewed both the live television format and even filming before a live studio audience. This was mostly to save money, but it also allowed more attention and care to be taken in building a premise and supporting it.
Having a moderately low budget and limited resources, SCTV got a reputation for making the most out of what it had, reusing sets and particularly taking advantage of expert makeup and hairstyling. With the luxury of being able to take long periods of time in the makeup chair, elaborate characters could be built. Not being bound by expensive and elaborate prosthetics, cast members and makeup artists worked together to create their characters, referring to the process in interviews as "Improvisation in the chair."
To add to the feel of the show — that of a low-budget local television station that went national — the SCTV crew recruited their dance troupe from the writers on the show, led by costumer Juul Haalmeyer
Juul Haalmeyer
Juul Haalmeyer is a costume designer, best known for doing costume design on several iterations of SCTV. Haalmeyer also worked as a costume designer for many movies, television shows, theatre productions, concerts wardrobes for various artists and specials like Bridge to Silence, All My Sons, Long...
. The "Juul Haalmeyer Dancers" were spectacularly maladroit, parodying dance teams on variety shows through their sheer ineptness, and ultimately attracting a cult fandom of their own. (Juul Haalmeyer himself reports still being asked for autographs years later.)
The core premise of the show allowed for tremendous variety in presentation, but unlike Monty Python, which often would cut from one sketch to another without any resolution, the SCTV format required television style bridges. One technique they used was to build premises into "promos" for shows that would never run (such as "Melvin and Howards", a parody of the movie Melvin and Howard
Melvin and Howard
Melvin and Howard is a 1980 American comedy-drama film directed by Jonathan Demme. The screenplay by Bo Goldman was inspired by real-life Utah service station owner Melvin Dummar, who was listed as the beneficiary of USD$156 million in a will allegedly handwritten by Howard Hughes that was...
which featured Melvin Dummar
Melvin Dummar
Melvin Earl Dummar is a Utah man who earned national attentionwhen he claimed to have saved reclusive business tycoon Howard Hughes in a Nevada desert in 1967, and to have been awarded part of Hughes' vast estate. Dummar's story was adapted into the Academy Award winning film Melvin and Howard, in...
, Howard Hughes
Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world...
, Howard Cosell
Howard Cosell
Howard William Cosell was an American sports journalist who was widely known for his blustery, cocksure personality. Cosell said of himself, "Arrogant, pompous, obnoxious, vain, cruel, verbose, a showoff. I have been called all of these...
, Curly Howard
Curly Howard
Jerome Lester "Jerry" Horwitz , better known by his stage name Curly Howard, was an American comedian and vaudevillian. He is best known as a member of the American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges, along with his older brothers Moe Howard and Shemp Howard, and actor Larry Fine...
, and Senator Howard Baker
Howard Baker
Howard Henry Baker, Jr. is a former Senate Majority Leader, Republican U.S. Senator from Tennessee, White House Chief of Staff, and a former United States Ambassador to Japan.Known in Washington, D.C...
on a road trip singing old tunes). Another was to take longer pieces that failed and cut them into promos or trailers. These short elements wound up being the equivalent of "blackout" pieces on the Second City stage. However, the internal logic of the series — that this actually was a television station producing low-budget programming — was never lost. SCTV's techniques helped inform and influence later shows, with clear influence on The State
The State (TV series)
The State is a half-hour sketch-comedy television show, originally broadcast on MTV between December 17, 1993 and July 1, 1995. The show combined bizarre characters and scenarios to present sketches that won the favor of its target teenaged audience...
, the Upright Citizen's Brigade, and The Kids in the Hall
The Kids in the Hall
The Kids in the Hall is a Canadian sketch comedy group formed in 1984, consisting of comedians Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson. Their eponymous television show ran from 1988 to 1994 on CBC in Canada, and 1989 to 1995 on CBS and HBO in the United States...
.
Later shows built a tight theme, sometimes acting as a metaparody — such as the Emmy-winning "Moral Majority" episode where advertisers and special interest groups forced significant changes to SCTV's programming; "Zontar", a parody of the Larry Buchanan
Larry Buchanan
Larry Buchanan was a film director, producer and writer, who proclaimed himself a "schlockmeister". Many of his titles have landed on "worst movie" lists, but all at least broke even and many made a profit.Buchanan was born in Mexia, Texas. He was orphaned as a baby, and was raised in Dallas in...
film Zontar, The Thing from Venus
Zontar, The Thing from Venus
Zontar, the Thing from Venus also known as Zontar: The Invader from Venus is a 1966, made for television, science fiction film, directed by Larry Buchanan and based on the teleplay by Hillman Taylor and Buchanan. It is a remake of Roger Corman's It Conquered the World , and also featured an alien...
which featured an alien race seeking to kidnap SCTV's on-air talent for "a nine-show cycle plus three best-ofs" (which was the actual deal NBC worked out with SCTV that season); and an ambitious parody of The Godfather
The Godfather
The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...
featuring an all-out network war over pay television between SCTV, CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, NBC, ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, and PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
- the last featured mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
-style hits
Gangland killing
A gangland killing is a murder carried out by organized criminals. According to FBI Uniform Crime Reports, there were 425 gangland killings from 2000 to 2004, 0.6% of all murders committed in the United States during that time...
on the sets of The Today Show, Three's Company
Three's Company
Three's Company is an American sitcom that aired from March 15, 1977, to September 18, 1984, on ABC. It is based on the British sitcom, Man About the House....
, and The NFL Today
The NFL Today
The NFL Today is an American sports series that precedes the American football program The NFL on CBS on CBS Sports. The program usually airs at noon on Sundays of the National Football League regular season...
as well as an extended sequence with guest star John Marley
John Marley
John Marley was an American actor who was known for his role as Phil Cavalleri in Love Story and as Jack Woltz— the defiant film mogul who awakens to find the severed head of his prized horse in his bed—in The Godfather...
as an off-beat Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
, spoofing his Godfather role of Hollywood mogul Jack Woltz
Jack Woltz
Jack Woltz is a fictional character from the Mario Puzo novel The Godfather and the 1972 film adaptation. In the film, he is portrayed by John Marley.-In the film:...
.
In another such episode, a janitorial union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
went on strike
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
, forcing the station to broadcast the network feed from CBC Television
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...
. Parodies of Canadian television ensued, such as Hinterland Who's Who
Hinterland Who's Who
Hinterland Who's Who is best known as a series of 60-second public service announcements profiling Canadian animals and birds, produced by Environment Canada Wildlife Service and the National Film Board of Canada in the 1960s and 70s, and re-launched by the Canadian Wildlife Federation in the 2000s...
, Front Page Challenge
Front Page Challenge
Front Page Challenge was a long-running Canadian panel game about current events and history. Created by comedy writer/performer John Aylesworth and produced and aired by CBC Television, the series ran from 1957 to 1995.-Synopsis:The series featured notable journalists attempting to guess the...
, and It's a Fact
It's a Fact
It's a Fact is the first solo album by jazz musician Jeff Lorber.-Track listing:#Tierra Verde #Full Moon #Warm Springs #It's a Fact #The Magician #Your Love Has Got Me #Delevans #Always There...
, as well as promos for Monday Night Curling, hosted by two orange-jacketed sportscasters who were both named Gord, and Magnum, P.E.I., with John Candy as a private detective chasing his quarry through the scenic potato patches of Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...
. Meanwhile, in behind-the-scenes labour negotiations, Eugene Levy's Sid Dithers played the union president, barely able to see over the conference table as he detailed the progress of the strike-talks ("Fifteen minutes for lunsch? Ye can't even blow on your shoop!")
While these shows continued to incorporate the broad range of television parodies the show was known for, they also had a strong narrative thread which set the show apart from other sketch comedy shows of the time.
The show would also have a huge influence on The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
. In the DVD commentary for "Homer vs. The Eighteenth Amendment
Homer vs. The Eighteenth Amendment
"Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment" is the eighteenth episode of The Simpsons eighth season, which originally aired March 16, 1997. Prohibition is enacted in Springfield and Homer helps fight it by illegally supplying alcohol to the town. It was written by John Swartzwelder, and directed by Bob...
" (in which Dave Thomas guest stars), everyone says how much they loved the show and how influential it was because "it was so funny". Matt Groening
Matt Groening
Matthew Abram "Matt" Groening is an American cartoonist, screenwriter, and producer. He is the creator of the comic strip Life in Hell as well as two successful television series, The Simpsons and Futurama....
goes on to say that he was specifically inspired by the town of Melonville, its own little universe with many recurring characters, and that that was the type of universe he wanted for The Simpsons. Both Dave Thomas and Andrea Martin have guest starred on The Simpsons.
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc., that ran from 1988 to 1999....
(another program that also enjoyed a "cult" following like that of SCTV) at times featured references to the show and its characters; for example, during the film Space Mutiny
Space Mutiny
Space Mutiny is a 1988 South African science-fiction action film about a mutiny aboard the spaceship known as the Southern Sun.- Plot :...
, a character with an outrageous hairdo is said to resemble Martin Short's Ed Grimley
Ed Grimley
Edward Mayhoff 'Ed' Grimley is a fictional character created and portrayed by Martin Short. Developed amongst The Second City improv comedy troupe, Grimley made his television debut the sketch comedy show SCTV in 1982, leading to popular success for both Short and the persona continued on Saturday...
and prompted numerous impersonations of said character. In another example, near the end of the film Danger! Death Ray a character throws a watch out of a window, prompting Crow T. Robot
Crow T. Robot
Crow T. Robot is a fictional character from the American science fiction comedy television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 . Crow is a robot, who, along with others, quips and riffs upon poor-quality B movies.- Overview :...
to cry "SCTV is on the air!"
The entire troupe was given a star on Canada's Walk of Fame
Canada's Walk of Fame
Canada's Walk of Fame , located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is a walk of fame that acknowledges the achievements and accomplishments of successful Canadians...
in 2002. John Candy
John Candy
John Franklin Candy was a Canadian actor and comedian. He rose to fame as a member of the Toronto branch of The Second City and its related Second City Television series, and through his appearances in comedy films such as Stripes, Splash, Cool Runnings, The Great Outdoors, Spaceballs, and Uncle...
, Martin Short
Martin Short
Martin Hayter Short, CM is a Canadian actor, comedian, writer, singer and producer. He is best-known for his comedy work, particularly on the TV programs SCTV and Saturday Night Live...
, Eugene Levy
Eugene Levy
Eugene Levy, CM is a Canadian actor, comedian, television director, producer, musician, and writer. He is known for his work in Canadian television series, American movies, and television movies. He is the only actor to have appeared in all eight of the American Pie films, as Noah Levenstein...
, and Catherine O'Hara
Catherine O'Hara
Catherine Anne O'Hara is a Canadian-American actress and comedienne. She is well known for her comedy work on SCTV, and her roles in the films After Hours, Beetlejuice, Home Alone, and The Nightmare Before Christmas, and also in the mockumentary films written and directed by Christopher Guest...
also have individual stars.
Features
SCTV parody shows included Natalie Wingneck, a TarzanTarzan
Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...
-style spoof in which Martin played a girl raised by geese after her family died in a plane crash. A parody of the popular western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams — retitled Grizzly Abrams — depicted the burly wilderness hero as the owner of a wild tortoise
Tortoise
Tortoises are a family of land-dwelling reptiles of the order of turtles . Like their marine cousins, the sea turtles, tortoises are shielded from predators by a shell. The top part of the shell is the carapace, the underside is the plastron, and the two are connected by the bridge. The tortoise...
which took weeks to lead police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
to the skeletal remains of its master, trapped beneath a fallen log
Logging
Logging is the cutting, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks.In forestry, the term logging is sometimes used in a narrow sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard...
.
Battle of the PBS Stars was a parody of ABC television's Battle of the Network Stars athletic competitions that pit performers against each other in running and swimming events. SCTV's version featured a team of public television stars captained by William F. Buckley (played by Flaherty) vs. a team led by Carl Sagan (played by Thomas), with confrontations that included Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers's Neighborhood fame (played by Short) in a boxing match with chef Julia Child (played by Candy).
The People's Global Golden Choice Awards sent up the countless show-biz shows in which the industry honors itself. Presenters include stars ranging from Elizabeth Taylor (played by O'Hara) to Jack Klugman (Flaherty) reading off the nominees in each category, with SCTV's chief Guy Caballero secretly having conspired to guarantee that every award goes to his own network's stars.
The TV station concept provided SCTV the ability to lampoon virtually any television genre, as well as commercials, promos, network
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
IDs, and more. Some of the most memorable sketches involved parodies of low-budget late-night ads, like Al Peck's Used Fruit (they enticed viewers to visit by offering free tickets to Circus Lupus, the Circus of the Wolves; mocked-up photos depicted wolves forming a pyramid and jumping through flaming hoops). Equally memorable were the faux-inept ads for local businesses like Phil's Nails, Chet Vet the Dead Pet Remover, and Tex and Edna Boil's Organ Emporium.
Impersonations
Impersonations were also an integral part of the comedy, with almost every cast member playing multiple roles as well-known personalities. Some impressions included:| Star | Impersonations |
|---|---|
| John Candy | Orson Welles Orson Welles George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio... Julia Child Julia Child Julia Child was an American chef, author, and television personality. She is recognized for introducing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and her subsequent television programs, the most notable of which was The French Chef, which... Luciano Pavarotti Luciano Pavarotti right|thumb|Luciano Pavarotti performing at the opening of the Constantine Palace in [[Strelna]], 31 May 2003. The concert was part of the celebrations for the 300th anniversary of [[St... Divine Curly Howard Curly Howard Jerome Lester "Jerry" Horwitz , better known by his stage name Curly Howard, was an American comedian and vaudevillian. He is best known as a member of the American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges, along with his older brothers Moe Howard and Shemp Howard, and actor Larry Fine... Richard Burton Richard Burton Richard Burton, CBE was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role , and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Although never trained as an actor, Burton was, at one time, the highest-paid... Tip O'Neill Tip O'Neill Thomas Phillip "Tip" O'Neill, Jr. was an American politician. O'Neill was an outspoken liberal Democrat and influential member of the U.S. Congress, serving in the House of Representatives for 34 years and representing two congressional districts in Massachusetts... Jimmy the Greek Hervé Villechaize Hervé Villechaize Hervé Jean-Pierre Villechaize was a French actor who achieved worldwide recognition for his role as Mr. Roarke's assistant, Tattoo, in the television series Fantasy Island... Alfred Hitchcock Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood... |
| Robin Duke | Shelley Winters Shelley Winters Shelley Winters was an American actress who appeared in dozens of films, as well as on stage and television; her career spanned over 50 years until her death in 2006... Imogene Coca Imogene Coca Imogene Fernandez de Coca was an American comic actress best known for her role opposite Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows.... Linda Ronstadt Linda Ronstadt Linda Ronstadt is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden... |
| Joe Flaherty | Gregory Peck Gregory Peck Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an... Gavin MacLeod Gavin MacLeod Gavin MacLeod is an American actor most notable for playing Happy Haines on McHale's Navy, Murray Slaughter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Captain Merrill Stubing on The Love Boat... Donald Sutherland Donald Sutherland Donald McNichol Sutherland, OC is a Canadian actor with a film career spanning nearly 50 years. Some of Sutherland's more notable movie roles included offbeat warriors in such war movies as The Dirty Dozen, , MASH , and Kelly's Heroes , as well as in such popular films as Klute, Invasion of the... Peter O'Toole Peter O'Toole Peter Seamus Lorcan O'Toole is an Irish actor of stage and screen. O'Toole achieved stardom in 1962 playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, and then went on to become a highly-honoured film and stage actor. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, and holds the record for most... Kirk Douglas Kirk Douglas Kirk Douglas is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past , Champion , Ace in the Hole , The Bad and the Beautiful , Lust for Life , Paths of Glory , Gunfight at the O.K... Charlton Heston Charlton Heston Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes... Henry Fonda Henry Fonda Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins... Bing Crosby Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation.... William F. Buckley, Jr. William F. Buckley, Jr. William Frank Buckley, Jr. was an American conservative author and commentator. He founded the political magazine National Review in 1955, hosted 1,429 episodes of the television show Firing Line from 1966 until 1999, and was a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist. His writing was noted for... Geraldo Rivera Geraldo Rivera Geraldo Rivera is an American attorney, journalist, author, reporter, and former talk show host... Charles Bronson Charles Bronson Charles Bronson , born Charles Dennis Buchinsky was an American actor, best-known for such films as Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, Rider on the Rain, The Mechanic, and the popular Death Wish series... Alan Alda Alan Alda Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo , better known as Alan Alda, is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and author. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H... Gene Siskel Gene Siskel Eugene Kal "Gene" Siskel was an American film critic and journalist for the Chicago Tribune. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted the popular review show Siskel & Ebert At the Movies from 1975 until his death.... Richard Nixon Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under... Jack Klugman Jack Klugman Jacob Joachim "Jack" Klugman is an American stage, film and television actor known for his roles in sitcoms, movies, and television and on Broadway... Slim Whitman Slim Whitman Ottis Dewey Whitman, Jr. , known professionally as Slim Whitman, is an American country music singer and songwriter, known for his yodelling abilities. He has sold in excess of 120 million albums in unit sales and has had numerous successful recordings... Larry Fine Larry Fine Louis Feinberg , known professionally as Larry Fine, was an American comedian and actor, who is best known as a member of the comedy act The Three Stooges.-Early life:... Salvador Dali Salvador Dalí Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain.... |
| Eugene Levy | Ricardo Montalban Ricardo Montalbán Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Merino, KSG was a Mexican radio, television, theatre and film actor. He had a career spanning six decades and many notable roles... Henry Kissinger Henry Kissinger Heinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and... Judd Hirsch Judd Hirsch Judd Hirsch is an American actor most known for playing Alex Rieger on the television comedy series Taxi, John Lacey on the NBC series Dear John, and Alan Eppes on the CBS series Numb3rs.-Early life and education:... Bud Abbott Bud Abbott William Alexander "Bud" Abbott was an American actor, producer and comedian. He is best remembered as the straight man of the comedy team of Abbott and Costello, with Lou Costello.-Early life:... John Charles Daly John Charles Daly John Charles Patrick Croghan Daly John Charles Patrick Croghan Daly John Charles Patrick Croghan Daly (generally known as John Charles Daly or simply John Daly (February 20, 1914 – February 24, 1991) was an American journalist, game show host and radio personality, probably best known for hosting... Floyd Lawson The Andy Griffith Show The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised by CBS between October 3, 1960, and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays a widowed sheriff in the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina... Milton Berle Milton Berle Milton Berlinger , better known as Milton Berle, was an American comedian and actor. As the manic host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater , in 1948 he was the first major star of U.S. television and as such became known as Uncle Miltie and Mr... Neil Sedaka Neil Sedaka Neil Sedaka is an American pop/rock singer, pianist, and composer. His career has spanned nearly 55 years, during which time he has sold millions of records as an artist and has written or co-written over 500 songs for himself and other artists, collaborating mostly with lyricists Howard... Howard Cosell Howard Cosell Howard William Cosell was an American sports journalist who was widely known for his blustery, cocksure personality. Cosell said of himself, "Arrogant, pompous, obnoxious, vain, cruel, verbose, a showoff. I have been called all of these... Ralph Young Ralph Young Ralph Stuart "Pep" Young was an American Major League Baseball second baseman. During his nine major league seasons, he played with the New York Yankees , Detroit Tigers , and Philadelphia Athletics .-Background:Young was a right-handed second baseman and switch hitter... Perry Como Perry Como Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como was an American singer and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with them in 1943. "Mr... Gene Shalit Gene Shalit Gene Shalit is a film and book critic. He has filled these roles on NBC's The Today Show since January 15, 1973. He is known for his frequent use of puns, his oversized handlebar moustache, and for wearing colorful bowties.-Career:... |
| Andrea Martin | Barbra Streisand Barbra Streisand Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,... Liza Minnelli Liza Minnelli Liza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli.... Linda Lavin Linda Lavin Linda Lavin is an American singer and actress. She is best known for playing the title character in the sitcom Alice and for her Broadway performances.After acting as a child, Lavin joined the Compass Players in the late 1950s... Joni Mitchell Joni Mitchell Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto... Joyce DeWitt Joyce DeWitt Joyce Anne DeWitt is an American actress most famous for playing Janet Wood on the ABC sitcom Three's Company.-Early life:... Indira Gandhi Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhara was an Indian politician who served as the third Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms and a fourth term . She was assassinated by Sikh extremists... Connie Francis Connie Francis Connie Francis is an American pop singer of Italian heritage and the top-charting female vocalist of the 1950s and 1960s. Although her chart success waned in the second half of the 1960s, Francis remained a top concert draw... Bernadette Peters Bernadette Peters Bernadette Peters is an American actress, singer and children's book author from Ozone Park, Queens, New York. Over the course of a career that has spanned five decades, she has starred in musical theatre, films and television, as well as performing in solo concerts and recordings... Ethel Merman Ethel Merman Ethel Merman was an American actress and singer. Known primarily for her powerful voice and roles in musical theatre, she has been called "the undisputed First Lady of the musical comedy stage." Among the many standards introduced by Merman in Broadway musicals are "I Got Rhythm", "Everything's... Karen Black Karen Black Karen Black is an American actress, screenwriter, singer, and songwriter. She is noted for appearing in such films as Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, The Great Gatsby, Rhinoceros, The Day of the Locust, Nashville, Airport 1975, and Alfred Hitchcock's final film, Family Plot... Patti Duke Marsha Mason Marsha Mason Marsha Mason is an American actress and television director.She received four Academy Award nominations as Best Actress for her performances in Cinderella Liberty, The Goodbye Girl, Chapter Two, and Only When I Laugh. She is also known for starring in the 1986 film Heartbreak Ridge.-Life:Mason was... Brenda Vaccaro Brenda Vaccaro Brenda Buell Vaccaro is an American stage, television and film actress.-Early life:Vaccaro was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Italian American parents Christine M. and Mario A. Vaccaro , both of whom were pioneers in Italian cuisine... Charo Charo María del Rosario Pilar Martínez Molina Gutiérrez de los Perales Santa Ana Romanguera y de la Hinojosa Rasten , better known as Charo, is a Spanish-American actress, comedienne, and flamenco guitarist, best known for her flamboyant stage presence, her provocative outfits, and her trademark phrase... Mother Teresa Mother Teresa Mother Teresa , born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu , was a Roman Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, in 1950... Sophia Loren Sophia Loren Sophia Loren, OMRI is an Italian actress.In 1962, Loren won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Two Women, along with 21 awards, becoming the first actress to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance... |
| Rick Moranis | Merv Griffin Merv Griffin Mervyn Edward "Merv" Griffin, Jr. was an American television host, musician, actor, and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer who went on to appear in movies and on Broadway. From 1965 to 1986 Griffin hosted his own talk show, The Merv Griffin Show on Group W Broadcasting... Woody Allen Woody Allen Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema... Gordon Lightfoot Gordon Lightfoot Gordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr. is a Canadian singer-songwriter who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music, and has been credited for helping define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s... Ringo Starr Ringo Starr Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in... Dick Cavett Dick Cavett Richard Alva "Dick" Cavett is a former American television talk show host known for his conversational style and in-depth discussion of issues... Phil Silvers Phil Silvers Phil Silvers was an American entertainer and comedy actor, known as "The King of Chutzpah." He is best known for starring in The Phil Silvers Show, a 1950s sitcom set on a U.S... George Carlin George Carlin George Denis Patrick Carlin was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, actor and author, who won five Grammy Awards for his comedy albums.... Brent Musburger Brent Musburger Brent Woody Musburger is an American sportscaster for the ESPN and ABC television networks. Formerly with CBS Sports and one of the original members of their legendary program The NFL Today, Musburger has covered NASCAR, NBA, MLB, NCAA football and basketball games. Musburger has also served as a... Michael McDonald Michael McDonald (singer) Michael McDonald is a five-time Grammy Award winning American singer and songwriter. McDonald is known for a soulful baritone singing style and a multi-octave range. He began his career singing back-up vocals with Steely Dan... Al Waxman Al Waxman Albert Samuel Waxman, CM, O.Ont was a Canadian actor and director of over 1000 productions on radio, television, film, and stage... David Brinkley David Brinkley David McClure Brinkley was an American newscaster for NBC and ABC in a career lasting from 1943 to 1997.... James Stewart James Stewart (actor) James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime... Elton John Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor... Richard Dreyfuss Richard Dreyfuss Richard Stephen Dreyfuss is an American actor best known for starring in a number of film, television, and theater roles since the late 1960s, including the films American Graffiti, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Goodbye Girl, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, Stakeout, Always, What About... Neil Young Neil Young Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation... |
| Catherine O'Hara | Katharine Hepburn Katharine Hepburn Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies... Morgan Fairchild Morgan Fairchild Morgan Fairchild is an American actress. She achieved prominence during the late 1970s and early 1980s with continuing roles in several television series, in which she usually conveyed a glamorous image. Fairchild has also performed in live theater and played guest roles in television comedies... Jane Fonda Jane Fonda Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an... Dorothy Killgallen Mary Tyler Moore Mary Tyler Moore Mary Tyler Moore is an American actress, primarily known for her roles in television sitcoms. Moore is best known for The Mary Tyler Moore Show , in which she starred as Mary Richards, a 30-something single woman who worked as a local news producer in Minneapolis, and for her earlier role as... Elizabeth Taylor Elizabeth Taylor Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age... Maggie Smith Maggie Smith Dame Margaret Natalie Smith, DBE , better known as Maggie Smith, is an English film, stage, and television actress who made her stage debut in 1952 and is still performing after 59 years... Lucille Ball Lucille Ball Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy... Tammy Faye Bakker Brooke Shields Brooke Shields Brooke Christa Shields is an American actress and model. Some of her better-known movies include Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon, as well as TV shows such as Suddenly Susan, That '70s Show and Lipstick Jungle.... |
| Tony Rosato | Lou Costello Lou Costello Louis Francis "Lou" Costello was an American actor and comedian best known as half of the comedy team of Abbott and Costello, with Bud Abbott... Ella Fitzgerald Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist... Lou Ferrigno Lou Ferrigno Louis Jude "Lou" Ferrigno is an American actor, fitness trainer/consultant, and retired professional bodybuilder. As a bodybuilder, Ferrigno won an IFBB Mr. America title and two consecutive IFBB Mr. Universe titles, and appeared in the bodybuilding documentary Pumping Iron... Edward Asner Tony Orlando Tony Orlando Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis , better known as Tony Orlando, is an American show business professional, best known as the lead singer of the group Tony Orlando and Dawn in the early 1970s. Discovered by producer Don Kirshner, Orlando had songs on the charts in 1961 when he was 16, "Halfway to... |
| Martin Short | Jerry Lewis Jerry Lewis Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis... Pierre Elliott Trudeau Dustin Hoffman Dustin Hoffman Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters.... David Steinberg David Steinberg David Steinberg is a Canadian comedian, actor, writer, director, and author. At the height of his popularity, during the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was one of the best-known stand-up comics in the United States... Robin Williams Robin Williams Robin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance... Fred Rogers Kenneth D. Taylor Paul Anka Paul Anka Paul Albert Anka, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and actor.Anka first became famous as a teen idol in the late 1950s and 1960s with hit songs like "Diana'", "Lonely Boy", and "Put Your Head on My Shoulder"... Hoyt Pollard Deliverance Deliverance is a 1972 American thriller film produced and directed by John Boorman. Principal cast members include Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ronny Cox and Ned Beatty in his film debut. The film is based on a 1970 novel of the same name by American author James Dickey, who has a small role in the... Jamie Farr Jamie Farr Jamie Farr is an American television, film, and theater actor. He is best known for having played the role of cross-dressing Corporal Maxwell Q. Klinger in the television sitcom M*A*S*H.-Early life:... Scott Baio Scott Baio Scott Vincent James Baio is an American actor and television director, best known for his roles as Chachi Arcola on the sitcom Happy Days and its spin-off, Joanie Loves Chachi, and as the title character on the sitcom Charles in Charge.... Deney Terrio Deney Terrio Denis George Mahan , better known as Deney Terrio, is an American choreographer, former film actor and one-time host of the television musical variety series Dance Fever from 1979 to 1985... Howie Mandel Howie Mandel Howard Michael "Howie" Mandel is a Canadian stand-up comedian, television host, and actor. He is well known as host of the NBC game show Deal or No Deal, as well as the show's daytime and Canadian-English counterparts. Before his career as a game show host, Mandel was best known for his role on... Howie Meeker Howie Meeker Howard William Meeker, C.M. is a former right winger in the National Hockey League, youth coach and educator in ice hockey and television sports announcer as well as a former Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament... Tony Sandler Tony Sandler Tony Sandler, is a singer, entertainer and performer... Tom Hayden Tom Hayden Thomas Emmet "Tom" Hayden is an American social and political activist and politician, known for his involvement in the animal rights, and the anti-war and civil rights movements of the 1960s. He is the former husband of actress Jane Fonda and the father of actor Troy Garity.-Life and... Gore Vidal Gore Vidal Gore Vidal is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar , outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality... Brian Linehan Brian Linehan Brian Richard Linehan was a Canadian television host from Hamilton, Ontario. Linehan was best known for his celebrity interviews. Linehan was one of seven children... |
| Dave Thomas | Bob Hope Bob Hope Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel... Richard Harris Richard Harris Richard St John Harris was an Irish actor, singer-songwriter, theatrical producer, film director and writer.... DeForest Kelly Liberace Liberace Wladziu Valentino Liberace , best known simply as Liberace, was a famous American pianist and vocalist.In a career that spanned four decades of concerts, recordings, motion pictures, television and endorsements, Liberace became world-renowned... Bennett Cerf Bennett Cerf Bennett Alfred Cerf was a publisher and co-founder of Random House. Cerf was also known for his own compilations of jokes and puns, for regular personal appearances lecturing across the United States, and for his television appearances in the panel game show What's My Line?.-Biography:Bennett Cerf... Michael Caine Michael Caine Sir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules .... G. Gordon Liddy G. Gordon Liddy George Gordon Liddy was the chief operative for the White House Plumbers unit that existed from July–September 1971, during Richard Nixon's presidency. Separately, along with E. Howard Hunt, Liddy organized and directed the Watergate burglaries of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in... Roger Ebert Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The... Neil Simon Neil Simon Neil Simon is an American playwright and screenwriter. He has written numerous Broadway plays, including Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and The Odd Couple. He won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Lost In Yonkers. He has written the screenplays for several of his plays that... Lee Iacocca Lee Iacocca Lido Anthony "Lee" Iacocca is an American businessman known for engineering the Mustang, the unsuccessful Ford Pinto, being fired from Ford Motor Company, and his revival of the Chrysler Corporation in the 1980s... Carl Sagan Carl Sagan Carl Edward Sagan was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science popularizer and science communicator in astronomy and natural sciences. He published more than 600 scientific papers and articles and was author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books... John Ritter John Ritter Jonathan Southworth "John" Ritter was an American actor, voice over artist and comedian perhaps best known for having played Jack Tripper and Paul Hennessy in the ABC sitcoms Three's Company and 8 Simple Rules, respectively... Walter Cronkite Walter Cronkite Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. was an American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years . During the heyday of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll... Fred Travalena Fred Travalena Frederick Albert "Fred" Travalena III was an American entertainer, specializing in comedy and impersonations.-Early life:... |
Sketches and characters
Popular sketches and recurring characters include:- Mailbag, SCTVs take on a vox populiVox populiVox populi , a Latin phrase that literally means voice of the people, is a term often used in broadcasting for interviews with members of the "general public".-Vox pop, the man on the street:...
segment where near-apoplectic host Bill Needle (Thomas) would answer viewer mail. The show's length was continually cut, however, until Needle was down to mere seconds of airtime. - Farm Film Report aka Farm Film Celebrity Blow-Up: Two hickYokelYokel is a derogatory term referring to the stereotype of unsophisticated country people.-Stereotype:In the US, it is used to describe someone living in rural areas...
s named Big Jim McBob (Flaherty) and Billy Sol Hurok (Candy) (a spoof of Billie Sol EstesBillie Sol EstesBillie Sol Estes is an American former financier best known for his association with U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson. Mr. Estes currently lives in Granbury, Texas.-Fraud charges:...
and Sol HurokSol HurokSol Hurok was a world-famous 20th century American impresario.-Biography:...
) interview celebrities and ultimately encourage them to blow up (creating the catch-phrase "blow'd up good, blow'd up real good!"). Exploding guests included Dustin HoffmanDustin HoffmanDustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
, David SteinbergDavid SteinbergDavid Steinberg is a Canadian comedian, actor, writer, director, and author. At the height of his popularity, during the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was one of the best-known stand-up comics in the United States...
(both played by Short), Bernadette PetersBernadette PetersBernadette Peters is an American actress, singer and children's book author from Ozone Park, Queens, New York. Over the course of a career that has spanned five decades, she has starred in musical theatre, films and television, as well as performing in solo concerts and recordings...
(Martin), Meryl StreepMeryl StreepMary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
(O'Hara), and a lispy Neil SedakaNeil SedakaNeil Sedaka is an American pop/rock singer, pianist, and composer. His career has spanned nearly 55 years, during which time he has sold millions of records as an artist and has written or co-written over 500 songs for himself and other artists, collaborating mostly with lyricists Howard...
(Levy). - Polynesiantown: a parody of modern-day film noir. In its attempt to emulate the movie ChinatownChinatownA Chinatown is an ethnic enclave of overseas Chinese people, although it is often generalized to include various Southeast Asian people. Chinatowns exist throughout the world, including East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Americas, Australasia, and Europe. Binondo's Chinatown located in Manila,...
, this extended one-shot sketch ended with a crane shot that pushed the show so over budget that the sketch's producers got in trouble with the network. The show's writers incorporated this behind-the-scenes drama into the show's long-term continuity, sending the career of John Candy's fictional actor/producer/superstar Johnny LaRue into a tailspin as a result of this budget mishap. - The Sammy Maudlin Show: Flaherty is the afroAfroAfro, sometimes shortened to fro and also known as a "natural", is a hairstyle worn naturally by people with lengthy kinky hair texture or specifically styled in such a fashion by individuals with naturally curly or straight hair...
-coiffed, knee-slapping, overly-effusive host welcoming a panel of "stars" who did nothing but heap lavish praise on each other and applaud their pointless profundities. Originally a parody of Sammy Davis, Jr.Sammy Davis, Jr.Samuel George "Sammy" Davis Jr. was an American entertainer and was also known for his impersonations of actors and other celebrities....
's short-lived gab-fest, Maudlin (the word means overly sentimental, treacly) evolved into a late-night universe all its own. Levy is "a comic in all seriousness" as egomaniacal funnyman Bobby Bittman, with his repeated catch-phrase "how are ya?" Bittman's younger brother Skip Bittman, played by Moranis, eventually appeared on Maudlin as well, with disastrous results. Martin skewered Liza MinnelliLiza MinnelliLiza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli....
and Lorna LuftLorna LuftLorna Luft is an American television, stage, and film actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and Sid Luft, and the half-sister of singer and actress Liza Minnelli.-Biography:...
with "real terrific" combo-character Lorna Minnelli (in one wickedly funny skit, she accepts an award telling the audience "If my mother were here tonight" and is then interrupted by a drunken Johnny LaRue who finishes, "you wouldn't be"); O'Hara inhabited pill-popping boozer Lola HeathertonLola HeathertonLola Heatherton was a fictional character on the late '70s/early '80s comedy program SCTV, portrayed by Catherine O'Hara and based largely on Joey Heatherton and Lola Falana...
, a Joey HeathertonJoey HeathertonJoey Heatherton is an American actress, dancer, and singer.-Early life:Christened Davenie Johanna Heatherton and nicknamed "Joey," she was raised in Rockville Centre, New York, a suburb of New York City. There she attended St. Agnes Cathedral School, a Catholic grade and high school...
-Lola FalanaLola FalanaLola Falana is an American singer, dancer, and actress of Cuban and African American descent. Falana's father left Cuba to become a welder in the United States, where he met his wife...
amalgam who greeted fans with her trademark shriek, "I love you! I wanna bear your children!"; John Candy portrayed constantly-chuckling Ed McMahonEd McMahonEdward Peter "Ed" McMahon, Jr. was an American comedian, game show host and announcer. He is most famous for his work on television as Johnny Carson's sidekick and announcer on The Tonight Show from 1962 to 1992. He also hosted the original version of the talent show Star Search from 1983 to 1995...
-style sidekickSidekickA sidekick is a close companion who is generally regarded as subordinate to the one he accompanies. Some well-known fictional sidekicks are Don Quixote's Sancho Panza, Sherlock Holmes' Doctor Watson, The Lone Ranger's Tonto, The Green Hornet's Kato and Batman's Robin.-Origins:The origin of the...
/sycophantSycophantSycophancy means:# Obsequious flattery; servility.# The character or characteristic of a sycophant.Alternative phrases are often used such as:-Etymology:...
William B. Williams, who often wound up kneeling on the floor as guests came out and the couch filled up. The Maudlin regulars would later appear together in the Rat PackRat PackThe Rat Pack was a group of actors originally centered on Humphrey Bogart. In the mid-1960s it was the name used by the press and the general public to refer to a later variation of the group, after Bogart's death, that called itself "the summit" or "the clan," featuring Frank Sinatra, Dean...
movie parody Maudlin's Eleven. - The Days of the Week was a soap-opera spoof, with the continuing saga of terminally ill rock star Clay Collins (Moranis) trying to marry slutty fiancee Sue Ellen (O'Hara) in the few days left to him by his tactless doctor Sabian (Levy). A second plot hatched by corrupt doctor Wainwright (Candy) has small-time criminal Rocco (Flaherty) con the wealthy Violet McKay (O'Hara) into accepting him as her long-lost son Billy, even though Rocco is so inept that he mistakes Mojo the maid (Martin) for his mother. A third story has the suave swindler Harrington (Thomas) try to seduce the suicidally depressed May Madlock (Martin) out of the land she owns.
- Mel's Rock Pile was a knockoff of the CitytvCitytvCitytv is a Canadian English language television system owned and operated by Rogers Communications under its Rogers Broadcasting Ltd. division...
dance show Boogie and closely resembled American BandstandAmerican BandstandAmerican Bandstand is an American music-performance show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989 and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer...
. Hosted by "Rockin' Mel" Slirrup (Levy), a nervous, bespectacled nerd who played lame pop songs for surly in-studio teen guests. One memorable episode of Mel's Rock Pile featured an appearance by Sex PistolsSex PistolsThe Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
-type band The Queen Haters, featuring the entire Short-era cast in perfect '80s punk-band mode. Another featured Thomas as Richard HarrisRichard HarrisRichard St John Harris was an Irish actor, singer-songwriter, theatrical producer, film director and writer....
, performing MacArthur ParkMacArthur Park (song)"MacArthur Park" is a song by Jimmy Webb, originally composed as part of an intended cantata. The song was initially rejected by The Association. Richard Harris was the first to record it, in 1968; the song was subsequently covered by numerous artists. Among the best-known covers are Donna Summer's...
live in the studio—complete with lengthy instrumental breaks. This caused an uncomfortable Mel to try and fill the otherwise "dead" air. Harris dances endlessly in total agony during the elongated orchestral stretches, while the show moves on to other skits. The song finally ends when an audience member hurls a brick at his chest. - Martin Short's Jackie Rogers, Jr. was an earnestly smarmy albino Las VegasLas Vegas metropolitan areaThe Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
headliner with a grating, lisping laugh in a manner similar to Sammy Davis, Jr.Sammy Davis, Jr.Samuel George "Sammy" Davis Jr. was an American entertainer and was also known for his impersonations of actors and other celebrities....
Rogers was partial to sequined jumpsuits, Jack JonesJack Jones (singer)John Allan "Jack" Jones is an American jazz and pop singer. He was one of the most popular vocalists of the 1960s.-Overview:...
-style song standards, and "eligible ladies". Later, Rogers would run for political office but drop out of the race when he realizes it's cramping his show-biz lifestyle. - Short's somewhat-unclassifiable uber-nerd Ed GrimleyEd GrimleyEdward Mayhoff 'Ed' Grimley is a fictional character created and portrayed by Martin Short. Developed amongst The Second City improv comedy troupe, Grimley made his television debut the sketch comedy show SCTV in 1982, leading to popular success for both Short and the persona continued on Saturday...
(later featured on Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
when Short became a regular) was an SCTV fixture, appearing on numerous assorted shows, commercials, promos, and "behind-the-scenes" dramas. Grimley had an obsession for the game show Wheel of FortuneWheel of Fortune (U.S. game show)Wheel of Fortune is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin, which premiered in 1975. Contestants compete to solve word puzzles, similar to those used in Hangman, to win cash and prizes determined by spinning a large wheel. The title refers to the show's giant carnival wheel that...
and host Pat SajakPat SajakPat Sajak is a television personality, former weatherman, actor and talk show host, best known as the host of the American television game show Wheel of Fortune.-Early life:...
, both of which "made him quite mental, I must say," as he frequently insisted. - Half-Wits and High-Q were parodies of quiz shows College BowlCollege BowlCollege Bowl was a format of college-level quizbowl run and operated by College Bowl Company, Incorporated. It had a format similar to the current NAQT format. College Bowl first aired on US radio stations in 1953, and aired on US television from 1959 to 1970...
and Reach For The TopReach for the TopReach for the Top is a Canadian game show in which teams of high school students participate in local, provincial and eventually national trivia tournaments...
hosted by a highly-irritable Alex TrebekAlex TrebekGeorge Alexander "Alex" Trebek is a Canadian American game show host who has been the host of the game show Jeopardy! since 1984, and prior to that, he hosted game shows such as Pitfall and High Rollers. He has appeared in numerous television series, usually as himself...
approximation named Alex Trebel (Levy), a thinly-veiled riffRIFFThe Resource Interchange File Format is a generic file container format for storing data in tagged chunks. It is primarily used to store multimedia such as sound and video, though it may also be used to store any arbitrary data....
on the real-life Jeopardy!Jeopardy!Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories...
host. - The 5 Neat Guys, an absurdly clean-cut, '50s style vocal group (á la The Four FreshmenThe Four FreshmenThe Four Freshmen is a multiple Grammy-nominated American male vocal band quartet that blends open-harmony jazz arrangements with the big band vocal group sounds of The Modernaires , The Pied Pipers , and The Mel-Tones , founded in the barbershop tradition...
), were portrayed by Candy, Flaherty (as the drunk one), Levy, Moranis, and Thomas. The "5" sang songs like "I've Got a Hickey on My Shoulder", "Pimples and Pockmarks" and other memorable tunes. Several of their songs contrasted with their squeaky-clean image, however, such as "She Does It", "Patsy Has the Largest Breasts In Town", and "Who Brought the Egg Salad Sandwiches". - Connie Franklin, a caricature of Connie FrancisConnie FrancisConnie Francis is an American pop singer of Italian heritage and the top-charting female vocalist of the 1950s and 1960s. Although her chart success waned in the second half of the 1960s, Francis remained a top concert draw...
portrayed by Andrea Martin. Franklin appeared on the Sammy Maudlin Show but also appeared in a parody of mail-order record commercials. Franklin's songs are universally depressing; one contains the lyrics, "I'm losing my hearing, I've lost sight in one eye. I'm sorry, I didn't hear you, did you really say goodbye?" - Another Martin Short character, talk-show host Brock Linehan was a parody of real-life Canadian interviewer, the late Brian LinehanBrian LinehanBrian Richard Linehan was a Canadian television host from Hamilton, Ontario. Linehan was best known for his celebrity interviews. Linehan was one of seven children...
. Linehan was famous for his overpreparation, which Short satirized by going in the opposite direction: on SCTV's version of the Linehan show, called Stars in One, all the research compiled about any particular episode's guest was totally and completely wrong, making for some unhappy guests and one frustrated, uneasy host. - Harry, the Guy with the Snake on his Face (Candy). Harry ran Melonville's adult book and X-ratedX-ratedIn some countries, X is or has been a motion picture rating reserved for the most explicit films. Films rated X are intended only for viewing by adults, usually legally defined as people over the age of 17.-United Kingdom:...
video stores. - "Video deejayDeejayA deejay is a reggae or dancehall musician who sings and toasts to an instrumental riddim .Deejays are not to be confused with disc jockeys from other music genres like hip-hop, where they select and play music. Dancehall/reggae DJs who select riddims to play are called selectors...
" Gerry Todd (Moranis) hosted an all-night "televised-radio" type of video show. Moranis' turtleneck-sporting, smooth-talking radio-personality parody was perfectly pitched—complete with casually-pronounced "vuddeeo"--and eerily presaged the first group of MTVMTVMTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
VJs. - Mayor Tommy Shanks (Candy) is Melonville's "easygoing" (corrupt) mayor who is prone to sudden fits of rage and physical violence, yet gives regular fireside chatsFireside chatsThe fireside chats were a series of thirty evening radio addresses given by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt between 1933 and 1944.-Origin of radio address:...
on SCTV while feeding treats to a stuffed dog that sits motionless by his side. Throwing out one non-sequitur after another, Shanks manages to convey absolutely nothing of relevance during his broadcasts. Eventually, Shanks succumbs to mental illness and is institutionalized. While still in the institution, he runs for re-election with the campaign slogan "Get me outta here!" and wins by a landslide. Some sources erroneously claim the character was named after Edmonton jazz musician (and future Senator) Tommy BanksTommy BanksThomas Benjamin "Tommy" Banks, OC, AOE is a Canadian pianist, conductor, arranger, composer, television personality and Senator....
. However the character pre-dates SCTV's move to Edmonton by two years (first being referenced in the Toronto-shot episode 2.8 "The Mirthmakers/Happy Endings", aired 4 November 1978) and furthermore does not resemble Banks in any way. - SCTV News (later Nightline Melonville), anchored by Flaherty as mostly professional (but alcoholicAlcoholismAlcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
) newscaster Floyd RobertsonFloyd RobertsonFloyd Robertson is a fictional news anchor and reporter, portrayed by Joe Flaherty on the Canadian sketch comedy series SCTV in the 1970s and 1980s. He was a co-anchor, with Earl Camembert , of the SCTV News...
and Levy as geeky, clueless Earl CamembertEarl CamembertEarl Camembert is a fictional news reporter and anchorman portrayed by Eugene Levy on the Canadian sketch comedy show SCTV, which aired in the 1970s and 1980s.-Career:...
, a model of oblivious self-importance. The members of the SCTV news-team were named after Canadian news anchors Lloyd RobertsonLloyd RobertsonLloyd Robertson, OC is the currently the co-host of CTV's weekly magazine series, W5. Robertson previously served as the chief anchor and senior editor of CTV's national evening newscast, CTV News with Lloyd Robertson, until September, 2011, when he retired from the CTV National News...
and Earl CameronEarl Cameron (Canadian broadcaster)Earl Cameron was a Canadian broadcaster and was anchor of CBC's The National from 1959 to 1966.Cameron was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and, as a student, found a summer job at a local radio station, CHAB...
respectively, but otherwise bore no resemblance to their real-life counterparts (Camembert was in fact based on American newsman Irv WeinsteinIrv WeinsteinIrwin "Irv" Weinstein is a retired local television news anchor. He hosted WKBW-TV's Eyewitness News in Buffalo, New York, for 34 years, from 1964 to 1998, becoming an iconic broadcaster well known in both the Buffalo area and in Southern Ontario, which was within WKBW's broadcast area. Weinstein...
). Unlike Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
's similar news parody Weekend Update, which typically uses actual news headlines as set-ups for more satirical humour, SCTV News used more absurdist humor, with its news stories often focusing on events happening within the Melonville continuity. Another source of humour for this segment was the contrast between the hapless Camembert (whose name is inexpicably pronounced "Canenbare") and the more respected Robertson, who usually ended up playing straight man to Camembert's antics. A running gag involved the news team's tendency to give the hard news items to Robertson (such as the latest earthquake to hit the tiny nation of TogoTogoTogo, officially the Togolese Republic , is a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, on which the capital Lomé is located. Togo covers an area of approximately with a population of approximately...
land) and the trivial or poorly-prepared stories to his co-anchor (such as a fire at a doilyDoilyA doily is an ornamental mat, originally the name of a fabric made by Doiley, a 17th-century London draper. Doily earlier meant "genteel, affordable woolens", evidently from the same source....
factory). - Monster Chiller Horror Theatre: This fright-film showcase featured laughably non-frightening z-movies like Dr. Tongue's 3-D House of Stewardesses and Tip O'Neill's 3-D House of Representatives. Dr. Tongue was played by Candy and Monster Chiller Horror Theatre was hosted by Flaherty's character Count FloydCount FloydCount Floyd is a fictional character featured in television and played by comic actor Joe Flaherty. He is a fictional horror host in the tradition of TV hosts on local television in the United States and Canada....
-- a vampire who mysteriously howled like a wolf. Count Floyd was revealed in a later episode to be SCTV News anchorman Floyd Robertson working a second job. This was a comic homage to the early days of television, where the kiddie show hosts at smaller TV stations were often actually members of the local news staff in costume. - The Shmenge Brothers (Candy and Levy) and their polkaPolkaThe polka is a Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia...
band, The Happy Wanderers, based upon CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
n-born EdmontonEdmontonEdmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...
-based polka cable show host Gaby Haas. Like Bob and Doug McKenzieBob and Doug McKenzieBob and Doug McKenzie are a pair of fictional Canadian brothers who hosted "Great White North", a sketch which was introduced on SCTV for the show's third season when it moved to CBC Television in 1980. Bob is played by Rick Moranis and Doug is played by Dave Thomas...
, the Shmenges were breakout characterBreakout characterA breakout character is a fictional character in different episodes, books or other media that becomes the most popular, talked about, and imitated. Most often a breakout character in a television series captures the audience's imagination and helps to popularize the show, sometimes inadvertently...
s and their popularity resulted in the HBO special The Last Polka (a parody of Martin ScorseseMartin ScorseseMartin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
's The Last WaltzThe Last WaltzThe Last Waltz was a concert by the rock group The Band, held on American Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976, at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco...
). (Candy would go on to play another polka clarinetist in Home AloneHome AloneHome Alone is a 1990 American Christmas comedy film written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus. The film stars Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, an eight-year-old boy, who is mistakenly left behind when his family flies to Paris for their Christmas vacation...
, which also starred O'Hara). In one episode, the Shmenges performed a memorable tribute to composer John WilliamsJohn WilliamsJohn Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T...
. The band's name is based on the Friedrich-Wilhelm Möller song "The Happy WandererThe Happy Wanderer"The Happy Wanderer" is a popular song by Friedrich-Wilhelm Möller written shortly after World War II. It is often mistaken for a German folk song, but it is actually an original composition...
," which was frequently performed by polka artists. - Harvey K-Tel, portrayed by Thomas. K-Tel, a parody of rapid-fire mail-order commercial announcers, spoke in a rapid patter both on and off the air. The character's name is derived both from the Canadian mail-order commercial company K-telK-telK-tel International is an "As-Seen-On-TV" company, which is most noted for its compilation music albums, such as "The Super Hits" series, "The Dynamic Hits" series and "The Number One Hits" series...
and the actor Harvey KeitelHarvey KeitelHarvey Keitel is an American actor. Some of his most notable starring roles were in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, Ridley Scott's The Duellists and Thelma and Louise, Ettore Scola's That Night in Varennes, Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Jane Campion's The...
. - The famous CCCP1-Russian television episode in which SCTV is taken over by Soviet programming. At first, nothing seems out of the ordinary at the station: on the air, Levy plays Perry ComoPerry ComoPierino Ronald "Perry" Como was an American singer and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with them in 1943. "Mr...
in a promo for Still Alive, a TV-special in which Como's trademark relaxed style is taken to ludicrous extremes. The nearly-comatose Como sings one song while propped up against a dancer, another swaddled in bed with the covers pulled up to his chin, and performs a third number sprawled face-down and almost-motionless on the floor, mic lying next to his mouth, one finger moving to the beat. But SCTV is suddenly knocked off the air, replaced by an illegal signal from the Soviet television network. Throughout, the old Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which is abbreviated USSR in English but CCCP in Russian (the Cyrillic for "SSSR"), is referred to as "three-C-P-one". From there, all the "shows" are Russian-themed spoofs: Tibor's Tractor, a situation comedySituation comedyA situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
about a talking tractor similar to My Mother the CarMy Mother the CarMy Mother the Car is an American fantasy sitcom which aired for a single season on NBC between September 14, 1965 and September 6, 1966. A total of thirty episodes were produced by United Artists Television....
--only with the voice of Nikita KhrushchevNikita KhrushchevNikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
; a game-show, What Fits into Mother Russia?, which celebrates the USSR's massive size; Upo-Scrabblenyk; and Hey, Giorgy--"everybody's favourite Cossack"--with the memorable line "Uzbeks drank my battery fluid!", uttered when Moranis's LadaLadaLada is a trademark of AvtoVAZ, a Russian car manufacturer in Tolyatti, Samara Oblast. All AvtoVAZ vehicles are currently sold under the Lada brand, though this was not always so; Lada was originally AvtoVAZ's export brand for models it sold under the Zhiguli name in the domestic Soviet market...
won't start outside an alehouse. (Popping the hood reveals the old-style battery's six cells sporting bendy straws.) The CCCP1 episode was shot with "new Russian mini-cam," a massive electronic device the size of a small car that had to be dragged around by three technicians. - A Jazz Singer parody which reversed the story by having musical guest Al JarreauAl JarreauAlwin "Al" Lopez Jarreau is a seven-time Grammy Award winning jazz singer.- Background :Jarreau was born in Milwaukee, the fifth of six children. His web site refers to Reservoir, Inc., the name of the street where he lived. His father was a Seventh-Day Adventist Church minister and singer, and...
play a popular jazz singer who wants to become a cantor (hazzanHazzanA hazzan or chazzan is a Jewish cantor, a musician trained in the vocal arts who helps lead the congregation in songful prayer.There are many rules relating to how a cantor should lead services, but the idea of a cantor as a paid professional does not exist in classical rabbinic sources...
). His father is a disapproving pop-music impresario played by Levy's befuddled Sid Dithers. Hasidic Dithers, four feet tall and cross-eyed behind Coke-bottle glasses, spoke with a thick early vaudevilleVaudevilleVaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
-style Yiddish accent ("San Fransishky? So how did you came: did you drove, or did you flew?"). The payoff of this parody made for a classic SCTV moment: Jarreau has become a synagogueSynagogueA synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
cantor, fulfilling his dream against his father's wishes, and he wonders if his father will ever speak to him again – until, during the service, he is interrupted by a disco-clad Dithers standing in the doorway in dancing shoes, spangled jacket, and corn-rowed hair. - Tex & Edna's Organ Emporium a series of parodies of local car dealer TV ads with Tex and Edna (Thomas and Martin) imploring viewers to "Come on down!" to buy their organs.
- Thursday Night Live, an atrociously low-budget ripoff of Fridays and Saturday Night Live created by Guy Caballero who wanted to go hip by making this show, however, it is nothing more than a long collage of uncontrollable laughter and hooting from the rowdy audience and many uncovincing samplings of profanity and corny drug jokes. The guest host was Earl Camembert, who during the monologue, does a bad impression of Steve Martin by going "Well, I beg your pardon!".
- Towering Inferno, a satire of the 1974 Irwin AllenIrwin AllenIrwin Allen was a television and film director and producer nicknamed "The Master of Disaster" for his work in the disaster film genre. He was also notable for creating a number of television series.- Biography :...
film, with each cast member playing multiple roles, trying to escape "the world's thinnest, tallest building" that catches on fire. Martin was at this point the only female cast member, so they were forced to use doubles when two women appeared in the same shot. Candy actually says, "you take the Edith Prickley double and I'll take the other girl and get out of here," deliberately acknowledging the fake as a wink to the audience. There is also a nuclear reactor on the top of the building, with a spinning restaurant above it.
Bob & Doug McKenzie
Ironically, the most popular sketch was intended as throwaway filler. Bob & Doug McKenzie, the dim-witted, beer-chugging brothers in a recurring Canadian-themed sketch called Great White North, were initially developed by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas (Bob & Doug, respectively) as a sardonic response to the CBC network's request that the show feature two minutes of "identifiably Canadian contentCanadian content
Canadian content refers to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission requirements that radio and television broadcasters must air a certain percentage of content that was at least partly written, produced, presented, or otherwise contributed to by persons from...
" in every episode.
The characters ultimately became icons of the very Canadian culture
Culture of Canada
Canadian culture is a term that explains the artistic, musical, literary, culinary, political and social elements that are representative of Canada and Canadians, not only to its own population, but people all over the world. Canada's culture has historically been influenced by European culture and...
they parodied, spinning off albums, a feature film (Strange Brew
Strange Brew
The Adventures of Bob & Doug McKenzie: Strange Brew is a 1983 Canadian comedy film starring the popular SCTV characters Bob and Doug McKenzie, played by Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis, who also served as co-directors. Max von Sydow co-stars....
), commercials, and numerous TV and film cameos. Bob and Doug helped to popularize the stereotypical Canadian trait of adding "eh" to the end of sentences, a facet of Canadian life that is often gently ridiculed in American shows featuring Canadian characters. Lines from the sketch, such as "take off, you hoser!", became part of North American popular culture. Thomas later revealed in his 1996 book SCTV: Behind the Scenes that the other members of the cast grew bitter at the immense financial and popular success he and Moranis received from their Bob & Doug McKenzie albums, ultimately leading to their departing the show. Joe Flaherty and John Candy accused Thomas of using his position as head writer to increase the visibility of Bob & Doug, even though the original segments were largely unscripted. An SCTV episode even poked fun at the duo's popularity. Station manager Guy Caballero declared that they had become SCTV's top celebrities, supplanting Johnny LaRue. This led to the pair being given a Bob & Doug "special" with Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz....
as their guest, which wound up being a disaster.
Recently, Moranis and Thomas recreated Bob and Doug in the form of a pair of moose in the animated feature Brother Bear
Brother Bear
Brother Bear is a 2003 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures, the forty-fourth animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics. In the film, an Inuit boy pursues a bear in revenge for a battle that he provoked in which...
from Disney
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
. During Canadian rock band Rush
Rush (band)
Rush is a Canadian rock band formed in August 1968, in the Willowdale neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario. The band is composed of bassist, keyboardist, and lead vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer and lyricist Neil Peart...
's 2007 Snakes And Arrows tour, Moranis and Thomas reprised their Bob and Doug Mackenzie roles in an introductory clip projected on the rear screen for the song "The Larger Bowl". Previously, Rush used Joe Flaherty in his Count Floyd persona to introduce their song "The Weapon" during their 1984 Grace Under Pressure Tour. Rush vocalist Geddy Lee sang the chorus on the hit single "Take Off" from the 1982 Mercury Records album Great White North by Bob and Doug McKenzie. That chorus was aired in a 2002 episode of The Simpsons which depicted the Simpson family visiting Toronto.
Special guests and musical guests
The show's NBC years brought with them a network edict to include musical guests (in part because of their use on Saturday Night Live, which NBC executives considered the model for SCTV, despite their being very different shows). At first, the SCTV cast, writers, and producers resisted special guests, on the theory that famous people wouldn't just "drop into" the Melonville studios. However, they soon discovered that by actually working these guests into different shows-within-shows, they could keep the premise going while also giving guest stars something more to do than show up and sing a song.As a result, Dr. John
Dr. John
Malcolm John "Mac" Rebennack, Jr. , better known by the stage name Dr. John , is an American singer-songwriter, pianist and guitarist, whose music combines blues, pop, jazz as well as Zydeco, boogie woogie and rock and roll.Active as a session musician since the late 1950s, he came to wider...
became a featured player in the movie "Polynesiantown", John Mellencamp
John Mellencamp
John Mellencamp, previously known by the stage names Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, and John Cougar Mellencamp, is an American rock singer-songwriter, musician, painter and occasional actor known for his catchy, populist brand of heartland rock that eschews synthesizers and other artificial sounds...
(no longer known as Johnny Cougar) was Mister Hyde to Ed Grimley
Ed Grimley
Edward Mayhoff 'Ed' Grimley is a fictional character created and portrayed by Martin Short. Developed amongst The Second City improv comedy troupe, Grimley made his television debut the sketch comedy show SCTV in 1982, leading to popular success for both Short and the persona continued on Saturday...
's Doctor Jekyll in "The Nutty Lab Assistant", Natalie Cole
Natalie Cole
Natalie Maria Cole , is an American singer, songwriter and performer. The daughter of jazz legend Nat King Cole, Cole rode to musical success in the mid-1970s as an R&B artist with the hits "This Will Be ", "Inseparable" and "Our Love"...
was made into a zombie by a cabbage in "Zontar", and the Boomtown Rats
The Boomtown Rats
The Boomtown Rats were an Irish punk rock band that had a series of Irish and UK hits between 1977 and 1985. They were led by vocalist Bob Geldof.-Biography:All six members were originally from Dún Laoghaire, Ireland...
were both blown up on "Farm Film Celebrity Blow Up" and starred in the To Sir, with Love
To Sir, with Love
To Sir, With Love is a 1967 British drama film starring Sidney Poitier that deals with social and racial issues in an inner city school. James Clavell both directed and wrote the film's screenplay, based on the semi-autobiographical novel of the same name by E. R. Braithwaite.The film's title song...
parody "Teacher's Pet". It reached a point where Hall & Oates
Hall & Oates
Hall & Oates are an American musical duo composed of Daryl Hall and John Oates. They achieved their greatest fame in the late 1970s and early to mid-1980s. Both sing and play instruments. They specialized in a fusion of rock and roll and rhythm and blues styles, which they dubbed "rock and soul."...
appeared on a "Sammy Maudlin Show" segment, promoting a new film called "Chariots of Eggs", which was a parody of both Chariots of Fire
Chariots of Fire
Chariots of Fire is a 1981 British film. It tells the fact-based story of two athletes in the 1924 Olympics: Eric Liddell, a devout Scottish Christian who runs for the glory of God, and Harold Abrahams, an English Jew who runs to overcome prejudice....
and Personal Best, only to show scenes from the faux movie as clips. Canadian singer-songwriter Ian Thomas
Ian Thomas (Canadian musician)
Ian Thomas is a singer, songwriter, actor and author. He is younger brother to famed comedian and actor Dave Thomas.-Career:...
(the real-life brother of cast member Dave Thomas) was the "topic" on a "Great White North" sketch. Carl Perkins, Jimmy Buffett, Joe Walsh, The Tubes
The Tubes
The Tubes are a San Francisco-based rock band, whose 1975 debut album included the hit single, "White Punks on Dope". During its first fifteen years or so, the band's live performances combined quasi-pornography with wild satires of media, consumerism, and politics...
, and Plasmatics
Plasmatics
The Plasmatics were an American heavy metal and punk band formed by Yale University art school graduate Rod Swenson with Wendy O. Williams. The band was a controversial group known for wild live shows that broke countless taboos...
also appeared on the "Fishin' Musician".
This, along with SCTVs cult status, led to the show's celebrity fans clamoring to appear. Later on, Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz....
credited his appearance on Bob and Doug McKenzie's variety-show debacle "The Great White North
The Great White North
The Great White North is a Canadian comedy album by the fictional television characters Bob and Doug McKenzie , released in 1981 by Anthem Records and distributed in the United States by Mercury Records...
Palace" as triggering a significant career comeback. Sketch comedy giant Carol Burnett
Carol Burnett
Carol Creighton Burnett is an American actress, comedian, singer, dancer and writer. Burnett started her career in New York. After becoming a hit on Broadway, she made her television debut...
did an ad for the show in which an alarm clock goes off next to her bed, she rises up suddenly and advises those who couldn't stay up late enough (the NBC version aired from 12:30 to 2 a.m.) to go to bed, get some sleep, then wake up to watch the show. Burnett later briefly appeared in a climactic "courtroom" episode of "The Days of the Week".
Former Chicago Second City player, Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
cast member and film actor Bill Murray
Bill Murray
William James "Bill" Murray is an American actor and comedian. He first gained national exposure on Saturday Night Live in which he earned an Emmy Award and later went on to star in a number of critically and commercially successful comedic films, including Caddyshack , Ghostbusters , and...
also guest-starred on a "Days of the Week" installment, as a photography buff scrambling to make it to the wedding of singer-songwriter Clay Collins (Rick Moranis
Rick Moranis
Frederick Allan "Rick" Moranis is a Canadian comedian, actor, musician, and a magician. Moranis came to prominence in the late 1970s on the sketch comedy show Second City Television, and later appeared in several Hollywood films including Strange Brew; Ghostbusters; Spaceballs; Little Shop of...
) and town slut Sue-Ellen Allison (Catherine O'Hara
Catherine O'Hara
Catherine Anne O'Hara is a Canadian-American actress and comedienne. She is well known for her comedy work on SCTV, and her roles in the films After Hours, Beetlejuice, Home Alone, and The Nightmare Before Christmas, and also in the mockumentary films written and directed by Christopher Guest...
) in time to take pictures of the event. In that same episode, he also played two other roles: Johnny LaRue's biggest fan who is subsequently hired to be LaRue's bodyguard (and who pushes his homemade LaRue t-shirts when possible); and he also appeared as Joe DiMaggio
Joe DiMaggio
Joseph Paul "Joe" DiMaggio , nicknamed "Joltin' Joe" and "The Yankee Clipper," was an American Major League Baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career for the New York Yankees. He is perhaps best known for his 56-game hitting streak , a record that still stands...
in a commercial for DiMaggio's restaurant, where he promised anyone who could strike him out a free meal (the strikeout challenges then took place in the middle of the dining room, with many patrons injured by speeding baseballs).
Robin Williams
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...
guest-starred in a sketch called Bowery Boys in the Band, in which his Leo Gorcey
Leo Gorcey
Leo Bernard Gorcey was an American stage and movie actor who became famous for portraying on film the leader of the group of young hooligans known variously as the Dead End Kids, The East Side Kids and The Bowery Boys. Always the most pugnacious member of the gangs he participated in, young Leo...
-like character tries to hide a gay lifestyle from his Huntz Hall
Huntz Hall
Henry Richard "Huntz" Hall was an American radio, theatrical, and motion picture performer noted primarily for his roles in the "Dead End Kids" movies, such as Angels with Dirty Faces , which gave way to the "The Bowery Boys" movie franchise, a prolific and highly successful series of comedies in...
-inspired pal (played by Short). Williams also mimicked actor John Houseman
John Houseman
John Houseman was a Romanian-born British-American actor and film producer who became known for his highly publicized collaboration with director Orson Welles from their days in the Federal Theatre Project through to the production of Citizen Kane...
eloquently reading the Melonville telephone book.
Canadian actors including Jayne Eastwood
Jayne Eastwood
Jayne Eastwood , also credited as Jane Easton or Jane Eastwood, is a Canadian actress most famous for appearing in the 2002 film Chicago. She was one of the original cast members of the Toronto branch of The Second City, and was a semi-regular on SCTV...
, Monica Parker, and Peter Wildman
Peter Wildman
Peter Wildman is a Canadian actor, voice actor, musician, writer and member of the Frantics comedy troupe. He voiced Buzz Sherwood on The Red Green Show, Mojo on the X-Men Animated Series and Sergeant Murphy in the series The Busy World of Richard Scarry....
appeared on the show occasionally as guests. Catherine O'Hara's sister, singer-songwriter Mary Margaret O'Hara
Mary Margaret O'Hara
Mary Margaret O'Hara is a Canadian singer-songwriter and actress, who has been hailed as one of the greatest cult heroines in rock music despite having released very few of her own recordings. She is best known for the critically acclaimed album Miss America, released in 1988.-Early stages:O'Hara...
, also appeared in a bit part in the episode "Broads Behind Bars". William B. Davis
William B. Davis
William Bruce Davis is a Canadian actor, known for his role as The Smoking Man on The X-Files. He has also appeared in Stargate SG-1 as Damaris, a Prior of the Ori and as Mayor Tate on Smallville...
, still a decade away from his signature role as The X-Files
The X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
' "Smoking Man" also has a bit role in one 1983 episode.
Laugh track
One other point of contention between SCTV and several different networks they were on was the use of laugh trackLaugh track
A laugh track is a separate soundtrack invented by Charles "Charley" Douglass, with the artificial sound of audience laughter, made to be inserted into television programming of comedy shows and sitcoms.The term "laugh track" does not apply to the genuine audience laughter on shows that shoot in...
s. As SCTV wasn't a live show, it paced its comedy accordingly, and several pieces were more outré than standard network fare. The use of a laugh track often stepped clumsily on the punchlines as a result, and there are some reports that the laugh track editor admitted to not getting SCTVs humour and just threw laughs in wherever they would fit.
The laugh track used in early episodes was actually recorded using audience reactions during live performances in the Second City theatre.
Syndication and music rights
In 1984, after production on the series finally ended, the Second City Television syndicated half-hour episodes and SCTV Network 90-minute episodes were re-edited into half-hour shows for a revised syndicated package, which consisted of 156 re-edited half-hours. In 1990, a separate package of 26 half-hours (edited from the pay-TV SCTV Channel episodes) aired on The Comedy Channel (and later Comedy Central) in the United States. Like the original syndicated series, the US and Canadian versions of the 1984 package differed, with the Canadian half-hours a couple of minutes longer; the running order of episodes also differed between the two countries. By the late 1990s, the re-edited SCTV Channel episodes were added to the regular SCTV syndicated package; three additional half-hours (all from the 1980-1981 season) were restored to the package, knocking the episode count up to 185 half-hours.The syndicated series re-aired on NBC in from 1999 through early 2001, in the 185 half-hour format. This shows were presented under the banner of Later
Later (talk show)
Later was a nightly half hour-long talk show that ran on NBC from 1988 until 2001. Later typically aired for half an hour at 1:30 a.m. following Late Night with David Letterman from 1988 to 1993, and Late Night with Conan O'Brien from 1993 to 2001...
presents SCTV -- "Later" was a recently cancelled Cynthia Garrett-hosted talk show, which SCTV essentially replaced. For some reason, NBC still wanted to keep the "Later" brand alive, so the shows opened with a unique introduction featuring the Later logo below the SCTV logo, and a brief voice-over by host Rita Sever
Rita Sever
Rita Sever is an American television hostess. Sever, who is the youngest of seven children, was born on November 7, 1963 in San Francisco, California. She is best known as the host of the NBC late-night series Friday Night Videos from 1994 to the show's end in 2000. She has also appeared as a host...
. The repeats ended in 2001 with the launch of Last Call with Carson Daly
Last Call with Carson Daly
Last Call with Carson Daly is an American late night talk show that is broadcast on NBC. The show is hosted by Carson Daly, the half-hour show featuring celebrity interviews, documentary-style coverage of a topic, and musical performances. Last Call airs weeknights at 1:35 a.m. Eastern / 12:35 a.m....
.
For years, SCTV was unavailable on video tape (apart from one compilation, The Best of John Candy on SCTV), or in any form except these re-edited half hour programs. Originally, the producers and editors putting the original shows together never bothered to get clearance to use copyrighted music — for example, the "Fishin' Musician" show ended with Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
singing "Gone Fishin'
Gone Fishin' (song)
Gone Fishin' is a song written by Nick and Charles Kenny and recorded by Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong in 1951.The song was later recorded by Pat Boone, Gene Autrey, The Manhattan Transfer and Arthur Godfrey with the Cherry Sisters....
", even though SCTV never obtained the clearance rights to use copyrighted music recordings.
It has been sometimes believed that the sole reason for SCTV not appearing on DVD before, is that the series did not originally get clearance for the numerous music cues used throughout the six seasons that SCTV was produced. Although the producers did neglect to clear the music for SCTV during production, this has no legal bearing on the use of the music for the DVD releases. However, this could indeed have had a detrimental effect on how smoothly those rights were granted for the use of music on the DVD releases. The ease of obtaining music clearance rights for a given music cue may depend upon the context in which that music cue is used, as well as the willingness of the copyright holder to allow the use of their music in any shape or form.
The shows couldn't be reproduced on DVD or video tape until after the laborious rights issues were resolved and clearances were received. In some cases (as with the aforementioned Crosby song) clearances couldn't be secured after the fact and new music had to be edited in its place for the 2005 DVD releases of the 90-minute shows. In a few cases where the music is intrinsic to the premise of the sketch (such as the sketches "Stairways to Heaven", "The Canadian National Anthem" and "Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr. is a Canadian singer-songwriter who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music, and has been credited for helping define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s...
Sings Every Song Ever Written") and rights could not be obtained, sketches have been dropped from the DVDs.
DVD releases
Shout! FactoryShout! Factory
Shout! Factory is an entertainment company founded in 2003 that was started by Richard Foos , Bob Emmer and Garson Foos initially as a specialty music label...
has released SCTV on DVD in Region 1. To date, all episodes from Season 4 & 5 (which aired on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
) have been released in 4 Volumes and a Best-of DVD has been released which features episodes from Seasons 2 & 3. It is not known if the remaining episodes (Seasons 1-3,6) will be released at some point.
| DVD Name | # of Ep | Release Date | Additional Information |
|---|---|---|---|
| SCTV- Vol 1: Network 90 | 9 | June 8, 2004 | |
| SCTV- Vol 2 | 9 | October 19, 2004 | |
| SCTV- Vol 3 | 9 | March 1, 2005 | |
| SCTV- Vol 4 | 12 | September 13, 2005 |
Other Releases
- Christmas With SCTV: Released October 4, 2005
- SCTV- Best of The Early Years: Released October 24, 2006
2008 on-stage reunion
On May 5 & 6, 2008 most of the cast reunited for a charity event 'The Benefit of Laughter' at the Second City Theatre in Toronto. Eugene LevyEugene Levy
Eugene Levy, CM is a Canadian actor, comedian, television director, producer, musician, and writer. He is known for his work in Canadian television series, American movies, and television movies. He is the only actor to have appeared in all eight of the American Pie films, as Noah Levenstein...
, Martin Short
Martin Short
Martin Hayter Short, CM is a Canadian actor, comedian, writer, singer and producer. He is best-known for his comedy work, particularly on the TV programs SCTV and Saturday Night Live...
, Andrea Martin
Andrea Martin
Andrea Louise Martin is an American and Canadian actress and comedienne. She has appeared in films such as My Big Fat Greek Wedding, on stage in productions such as My Favorite Year, Fiddler on the Roof and Candide, and in the television series, SCTV.-Personal life:Martin, the oldest of three...
, Catherine O'Hara
Catherine O'Hara
Catherine Anne O'Hara is a Canadian-American actress and comedienne. She is well known for her comedy work on SCTV, and her roles in the films After Hours, Beetlejuice, Home Alone, and The Nightmare Before Christmas, and also in the mockumentary films written and directed by Christopher Guest...
, and Joe Flaherty
Joe Flaherty
Joe Flaherty is an American-Canadian actor and comedian. He is best known for his work on the Canadian sketch comedy SCTV, from 1976 to 1984, and as Harold Weir on Freaks and Geeks...
took part. The event was a fundraiser for The Alumni Fund, which helps support former Second City cast and crew members facing health or financial difficulties. There is no word yet if the performances will be released.
The initial press release for this event also included Dave Thomas, but he reportedly bowed out due to illness.