Canadian television sketch comedy show
Second City Television
|
---|
|
Also known as
|
- Second City TV
(1976?1981)
- SCTV Network 90
(1981?1983)
- SCTV Channel
(1983?1984)
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---|
Genre
| Sketch comedy
|
---|
Developed by
| |
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Starring
| |
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Country of origin
| Canada
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Original language
| English
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No.
of seasons
| 6
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No.
of episodes
| 135
(List of episodes)
|
---|
|
Running time
|
- 30 minutes (1976?1981)
- 90 minutes (1981?1983)
- 45 minutes (1983?1984)
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|
Network
| |
---|
Release
| September 21, 1976
(
1976-09-21
)
?
July 17, 1984
(
1984-07-17
)
|
---|
Second City Television
, commonly shortened to
SCTV
and later known as
SCTV Network
and
SCTV Channel
, is a Canadian television
sketch comedy
show that ran intermittently between 1976 and 1984. It was created as an offshoot from
Toronto
's
Second City
troupe. It is a rare example of a Canadian show that moved successfully to American television, where it aired on
NBC
from 1981 to 1983.
Premise
[
edit
]
The show's premise is the broadcast day of a fictitious TV station (later network) in the town of Melonville. Melonville's location is left unspecified; the earliest episodes imply it is in Canada, but most later episodes place it in the U.S.
A typical episode of
SCTV
presents a compendium of programming seen on the station throughout its broadcast day. A given episode could contain SCTV news broadcasts, sitcoms, dramas, movies, talk shows, children's shows, advertising send-ups hawking fictitious products, and game shows. Several "shows" are seen regularly on SCTV, including
SCTV News
;
soap opera
The Days of the Week
; late-night movie features
Monster Chiller Horror Theater
and
Dialing For Dollars
; and
Great White North
(a show centered around two Canadian '
hosers
'), among others. Many other SCTV shows are seen only once, such as the game show
Shoot at the Stars,
in which celebrities are literally shot at like
shooting gallery
targets, or full-blown movie spoofs such as
Play It Again, Bob,
in which
Woody Allen
(
Rick Moranis
) tries to get
Bob Hope
(
Dave Thomas
) to star in his next film. Episodes also feature a range of SCTV-produced promotions (for imaginary future shows) and commercials, such as spots for "Al Peck's Used Fruit" or "Shower in a Briefcase",
[1]
or a
public service announcement
that helpfully describes "Seven Signs You May Already Be Dead".
Also seen fairly frequently, particularly in later episodes, are behind-the-scenes plots focusing on life at the station/network. These often feature
Guy Caballero
(
Joe Flaherty
), SCTV's cheap, tyrannical owner and president who, despite being perfectly ambulatory, uses a wheelchair to earn "respect" (i.e., sympathy) from employees and viewers. Also seen regularly are weaselly, sweating station manager Maurice "Moe" Green (
Harold Ramis
), succeeded in the position by flamboyant, leopard-skin clad, foul-mouthed Mrs.
Edith Prickley
(
Andrea Martin
); vain variety star Johnny LaRue (
John Candy
); washed-up entertainers such as singer Lola Heatherton (
Catherine O'Hara
) and comedian Bobby Bittman (
Eugene Levy
); news anchors
Floyd Robertson
(Flaherty) and
Earl Camembert
(Levy), talk-show host Sammy Maudlin (Flaherty), cult-stardom-destined and beer-addled brothers
Bob and Doug McKenzie
(Moranis and Thomas), and many others.
The small cast, typically six to eight members at any given time, play a wide variety of other station roles ranging from program hosts to commercial spokespersons. They also impersonate numerous popular celebrities appearing on the station's programming.
History
[
edit
]
Show creation
[
edit
]
There is much dispute as to who actually created the
SCTV
series. The show itself bears no "created by" credit, although it gives "developed by" credits to
Bernard Sahlins
and
Andrew Alexander
.
In 1974, Andrew Alexander bought the Canadian rights to
The Second City
for one dollar,
[2]
and in 1976, he was the producer of Toronto's stage show, and was looking to expand his company into TV. 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 veterans
Harold Ramis
,
Sheldon Patinkin
, and
Del Close
, along with business partner Bernard Sahlins.
According to Dave Thomas's account in
SCTV: Behind The Scenes
, various ideas were batted around, then ? and here is 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 a 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 Alexander and Sahlins.
Alexander remained as producer and 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 and 2: 1976?79
[
edit
]
SCTV
was initially produced in 1976 at the studios of the
Global Television Network
in
Toronto
, 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 increased in frequency to biweekly. 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 was from the Toronto branch of The Second City theatre improvisation troupe; Ramis was a Second City veteran, 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 first four 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). Ramis and Flaherty also served as associate producers. Sahlins produced the show; Global staffer
Milad Bessada
produced and directed the first 13 episodes.
George Bloomfield
became director as of episode 14.
With the exception of Ramis, every cast member of SCTV worked as a regular performer on another Canadian TV show concurrently with the first year of SCTV. Several (Flaherty, Candy, Thomas, and Martin) also worked together as regulars on
The David Steinberg Show
, which premiered the same week as
SCTV
on the Canada-wide
CTV Television Network
and in U.S. syndication.
The David Steinberg Show
also featured future
SCTV
cast member Martin Short, but did not use any of the
SCTV
cast as writers. It folded after a single season. Martin, Flaherty, and Levy were also cast members of the short-lived comedy/variety series
The Sunshine Hour
, which finished its run less than a month before
SCTV
premiered (and while the first
SCTV
episode was being filmed).
During the first season, Levy was also doing double duty; in addition to his work on SCTV, he was also a cast member of the CBC sketch comedy series
Stay Tuned
, which aired weekly from October 1976 through January 1977.
[3]
At the same time SCTV debuted, Candy and O'Hara became regular cast members of the CBC comedy series
Coming Up Rosie
. This gave Candy the distinction of appearing as a regular on
three
TV series simultaneously, on three different Canadian networks.
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 three of the second season, Ramis was no longer in the cast, but continued to receive credit as the show's head writer for most of the season.
Season 3: 1980?81
[
edit
]
In 1980, one year after the Toronto Global television station dropped SCTV due to high production costs,
[4]
[5]
show producer Andrew Alexander negotiated a deal to produce SCTV at CITV facilities, with
Edmonton
,
Alberta
broadcaster
Charles Allard
, owner of the independent station
CITV-TV
and the Allarcom studios.
[6]
[7]
Candy, O'Hara, and Ramis dropped out at this point, and Dave Thomas was promoted to head writer. Added to the cast (and writing room) were
Tony Rosato
,
Robin Duke
, and
Rick Moranis
. Moranis, a friend of Dave Thomas, then known as a radio personality in Canada, was the only cast member not to have come from the ranks of The Second City. John Blanchard became the series director.
This season of the show was seen in Canada on the
CBC
, and in scattered U.S. markets in syndication.
Seasons 4 and 5: 1981?83
[
edit
]
In May 1981,
NBC
picked up
SCTV
in a 90-minute format as a presumably inexpensive replacement for the canceled Friday music/variety show
The Midnight Special
, enabling the show to air nationwide in the United States. This occurred mainly because that network had practically no time to prepare and develop a new American-produced program in the light of
Midnight Special
producer
Dick Ebersol
's emergency return to
Saturday Night Live
,
which he co-created with
Lorne Michaels
in 1975, in an effort to save it from cancellation, an effort that was successful.
SCTV
thus functioned as a solution to a serious scheduling bind for NBC, but, as things turned out, it was a temporary fix that only lasted two years.
Less than two months after season three ended,
SCTV
was back on the air for season four, airing first as
SCTV Network 90
, then as simply
SCTV Network,
late Friday nights (early Saturday mornings), airing at 12:30 a.m./11:30 p.m. Central. For this iteration, Rosato and Duke dropped out (ending up as cast members of
SNL
during its rebuilding years following Jean Doumanian's stint as producer [see above]), and Candy and O'Hara returned. Because of the rush to generate material for the 90-minute format, several early season-four episodes consisted partially or entirely of sketches broadcast during seasons one to three. Ramis, Duke, and Rosato appeared in many of these sketches, uncredited, with the new American viewers not recognizing them.
Season four (25 episodes) was broadcast irregularly from May 1981 to July 1982. Beginning in January 1982, production of the series returned to Toronto for the remainder of its run, ending the year-and-a-half stay in Edmonton.
Writer/performer Martin Short joined the cast at the end of season four, taping three episodes before O'Hara, Thomas, and Moranis left; one of those episodes was aired as the season-four finale in July 1982; the other two were held for the start of season five (14 episodes), which began in October 1982. For the remaining 12 episodes of season five, the cast of Candy, Flaherty, Levy, Martin, and Short was augmented by supporting players
John Hemphill
and
Mary Charlotte Wilcox
, neither of whom became an official cast member. Also, during season five, Ramis and O'Hara returned for one episode each as guest stars.
The last original
SCTV
episode for NBC was broadcast in March 1983, with reruns continuing through June. For both seasons four and five, the show continued to air on the CBC in Canada as only an hour in length, edited down from the 90-minute NBC broadcasts.
The 90-minute NBC episodes were released in a series of DVD sets in 2004 and 2005, and selected skits are also available in 90-minute collections.
Season 6: 1983?84
[
edit
]
In the fall of 1983, NBC wanted the late Friday-night time slot for the new
Friday Night Videos
;
SCTV,
despite its unexpected popularity among younger U.S. audiences, was not a high priority with the network and essentially acted as a placeholder for two years while NBC reevaluated its late-night programming strategies.
SCTV
was offered a slot on early Sunday evenings by NBC (presumably 7 p.m./6 Central), but because the producers 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
's dominant
60 Minutes
(against which several NBC shows had failed since the 1981 cancellation of
The Wonderful World of Disney
), they declined.
Instead, for its final season, the show moved to the premium cable 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 on alternating weeks 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.
After the show went out of production, several
SCTV
characters continued to make appearances on Cinemax, with Flaherty reprising his roles as Count Floyd and Guy Caballero during free preview weekends in 1987 and 1988, and Bobby Bittman appearing in a standalone special chronicling his life and career under the
Cinemax Comedy Experiment
banner.
The Best of SCTV
1988
[
edit
]
On September 5, 1988,
ABC
aired a one-time special called
The Best of SCTV
. In the special, Flaherty and Martin returned as Caballero and Prickley. The two presented a look back at
SCTV
(using flashbacks) as they tried to convince the
FCC
to renew their license. A slightly different version aired in Canada, wherein the pair make their arguments to the
CRTC
; this necessitated a few changes to certain lines of dialogue and on-screen text, but the show content was otherwise identical. This special was ordered during the
1988 Writers Guild of America strike
and was not repeated.
Packaging into different lengths
[
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]
The earliest three seasons, in Canada, were 30 minutes. NBC broadcast two seasons of 90-minute programs, including at the beginning material from the Canadian seasons. Some of these 90-minute shows were abbreviated to 60 minutes for the Canadian market. After the end of the NBC seasons, the material was repackaged into 30-minute shows.
Reception
[
edit
]
SCTV
received mostly positive reviews. Following the first episode, Margaret Daly of the
Toronto Star
wrote, "Global TV may have just pulled off the comedy coup of this season ... the concept is as clever as the loony company members."
[8]
During its first season, Dennis Braithwaite of the
Star
wrote that
SCTV
was "delightfully funny and inventive" and "the best satire seen regularly on North American television. No, I haven't forgotten NBC's
Saturday Night
."
[9]
After it premiered on network TV in the US,
Newsday
'
s
Marvin Kitman
wrote, "The premiere episode was quite simply the most superb half hour comedy…in a long time."
[10]
"
SCTV
is witty, grown-up, inventive and uproariously funny," Gary Deeb wrote in the
Chicago Sun-Times
.
[10]
SCTV
is far from perfect?there are too many meandering remarks addressed directly to the camera, and the musical interludes tend to turn mossy?but it's the only entertainment show on TV that matters, that goes beyond comedy to create a loopily affectionate world of its own.
- ?
James Wolcott
, January 10, 1983
[11]
[12]
Awards
[
edit
]
During its network run on NBC, the show garnered 15
Emmy
nominations (often with multiple episodes competing against each other).
[13]
In 1982, the episode "Moral Majority"
[13]
won an
Emmy Award
for
Writing for a Variety or Music Program
. During Joe Flaherty's acceptance speech, award presenter
Milton Berle
repeatedly interrupted with sarcastic retorts of "That's funny". Flaherty then turned to Berle and said, "Sorry, Uncle Miltie...go to sleep" (a parody of Berle's famous closing line to children at the end of his
Texaco Star Theater
programs, "Listen to your Uncle Miltie and go to bed"). A flustered Berle simply replied, "What?" The incident became comedy fodder for
SCTV
, as the next season contained a bit where Flaherty beats up a Berle lookalike while shouting, "You'll never ruin another acceptance speech, Uncle Miltie!"
[13]
In 1983, the episode "Sweeps Week" won the
award
again.
In 2002,
SCTV
was inducted into
Canada's Walk of Fame
.
Features
[
edit
]
SCTV
parody shows include a parody of the
Western
drama
The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams
,
retitled
Grizzly Abrams
, which depicts the burly wilderness hero as the owner of a wild
tortoise
that takes weeks to lead police to the skeletal remains of its master, trapped beneath a fallen log.
Battle of the PBS Stars
is a parody of ABC television's
Battle of the Network Stars
athletic competitions that pitted performers against each other in running and swimming events.
SCTV
's version features a team of public television stars captained by
William F. Buckley Jr.
(played by Flaherty) vs. a team led by
Carl Sagan
(played by Thomas), with confrontations that include
Fred Rogers
of
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
fame (played by Short) in a boxing match with chef
Julia Child
(played by Candy).
The People's Global Golden Choice Awards
sends up award shows in which the industry honours 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
chief Guy Caballero secretly having conspired to guarantee that every award goes to his own network's stars.
Some of
SCTV
's most memorable sketches involve parodies of low-budget late-night advertisements, such as "Al Peck's Used Fruit" (enticing viewers to visit by offering free tickets to
Circus Lupus
, the Circus of the Wolves; mocked-up photos depict wolves forming a pyramid and jumping through flaming hoops). Equally memorable are the faux-inept ads for local businesses such as "Phil's Nails", "Chet Vet the Dead Pet Remover", and "Tex and Edna Boil's Prairie Warehouse and Curio Emporium."
Sketches and characters
[
edit
]
Popular sketches and recurring characters include:
- Mailbag
,
SCTV
'
s take on a
vox populi
segment where near-apoplectic host Bill Needle (Thomas) answers viewer mail. The show's length is continually cut until Needle is down to mere seconds of airtime. Needle appears frequently in
SCTV
shows that were canceled after one episode.
- Farm Film Report
or
Farm Film Celebrity Blow-Up
: Two
hicks
named Big Jim McBob (Flaherty) and Billy Sol Hurok (Candy) (a spoof of
Billie Sol Estes
and
Sol Hurok
) interview celebrities and ultimately encourage them to blow up (creating the catch-phrase "blow'd up good, blow'd up
real
good!"). Exploding guests include
Dustin Hoffman
,
David Steinberg
(both played by Short),
Bernadette Peters
(Martin),
Meryl Streep
,
Brooke Shields
( both played by O'Hara), and a lispy
Neil Sedaka
(Levy).
- Polynesiantown
is a parody of modern-day film noir. In its attempt to emulate the movie
Chinatown
, this extended one-shot sketch ends with a crane shot that pushes the show so over budget that the sketch's producers get in trouble with the network. The show's writers incorporate this behind-the-scenes drama into the show's long-term continuity, sending the career of actor/producer/superstar Johnny LaRue (Candy) into a tailspin as a result of this budget mishap.
- The Sammy Maudlin Show
: Flaherty is the
Afro
-coiffed, knee-slapping, overly effusive host welcoming a panel of "stars" who do nothing but heap lavish praise on each other and applaud their pointless profundities. The sketch originated as a parody of
Sammy Davis Jr.
's short-lived talk show
Sammy and Company
. John Candy played the
Ed McMahon
-style
sidekick
/
sycophant
William B. Williams, named for the actual sidekick on
Sammy and Company
, radio personality
William B. Williams
. Eugene Levy portrayed egomaniacal funnyman Bobby Bittman, with his repeated catchphrase "How are ya?". Bittman's younger brother, Skip Bittman, played by Moranis, eventually appeared on
Maudlin
, as well. Andrea Martin parodied
Liza Minnelli
and
Lorna Luft
with "real terrific" combo-character Lorna Minnelli; Catherine O'Hara also portrayed a character that combined two personalities, Lola Heatherton, based on
Joey Heatherton
and
Lola Falana
.
- The Days of the Week
is a soap-opera spoof, with the continuing saga of terminally ill rock star Clay Collins (Moranis) trying to marry slutty fiancee Sue Ellen Alison (O'Hara) in the few days left to him by his tactless doctor Elliot Sabian (Levy). A second plot hatched by corrupt doctor Wainwright (Candy) has small-time criminal Rocco (Flaherty) conning the wealthy Violet McKay (O'Hara) into accepting him as her long-lost son Billy, though Rocco is so inept that he mistakes Mojo the maid (Martin) for his mother. A third story has the suave swindler Harrington (Thomas) trying to seduce the suicidally depressed May Matlock (Martin) out of the land she owns. It is the only recurring segment throughout the series without a laugh track. The title is a parody of the title of one of the most famous soap operas,
Days of Our Lives
.
- Mel's Rock Pile
is a knockoff of the
Citytv
dance show
Boogie
and closely resembles
American Bandstand
and
Don Kirshner's Rock Concert
. It is hosted by "Rockin' Mel" Slirrup (Levy), a nervous, bespectacled nerd who plays lame pop songs for surly in-studio teen guests. One memorable episode of
Mel's Rock Pile
features an appearance by
Sex Pistols
-type band
The Queen Haters
, featuring the entire Short-era cast in perfect '80s punk-band mode. Another features Thomas as
Richard Harris
, performing "
MacArthur Park
" live in the studio, complete with lengthy instrumental breaks. As Harris dances jerkily behind the microphone and his backing vocalist sits reading a book, Mel awkwardly tries to fill the otherwise-idle time in various ways such as talking with spectators and sending the show to a commercial. Once the song finally ends, a spectator throws a brick at Harris and hits him in the chest.
- Martin Short's Jackie Rogers Jr. is an earnestly smarmy
albino
Las Vegas
headliner with a grating, lisping laugh in a manner similar to Sammy Davis Jr. Rogers is partial to sequinned jumpsuits,
Jack Jones
-style song standards, and "eligible ladies". Later, Rogers runs for political office, but drops out of the race when he realizes it is cramping his showbiz lifestyle. His father, Jackie Rogers Sr., (also played by Short) was a vaudeville star who fell on hard times after a child welfare officer took away the children he used in his act (including his own son). After his agent finds him boxing and urges him to get back into singing, Rogers Sr. sets up a comeback special called
Jackie Rogers Sr.: Swinging With Nature
. Unfortunately, Rogers Sr. died when a cougar attacked him during one of his musical numbers. Jackie Rogers Jr., like Ed Grimley, was later seen on
Saturday Night Live
when Short was hired there as a cast member.
- Short's somewhat unclassifiable uber-nerd
Ed Grimley
(later featured on
Saturday Night Live
when Short became a regular) is an SCTV fixture, appearing on numerous assorted shows,
commercials
, promos, and "behind-the-scenes" dramas. His hair is styled using an upside-down funnel, and he plays the
triangle
, for which he took lessons. Grimley has an obsession with the game show
Wheel of Fortune
and host
Pat Sajak
. The
SNL
version of the character is the same, except the sketches have Grimley getting involved in weird situations: meeting a perpetually unlucky man (played by
Ringo Starr
), being targeted by the Devil (played by
Jon Lovitz
), and having a near-death experience where his guardian angel (played by special guest host Chevy Chase) will not let him go to Heaven because he needs to get a life. As of 2012, Grimley is the only
SNL
and
SCTV
character to have his own children's cartoon show:
The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley
from 1988.
- Half-Wits
and
High-Q
are parodies of quiz shows
College Bowl
and
Reach for the Top
hosted by a highly irritable
Alex Trebek
approximation named Alex Trebel (Levy). Over a decade later, Levy gave
Norm Macdonald
permission to borrow the basic premise for the
Celebrity Jeopardy!
sketches on
Saturday Night Live
;
Will Ferrell
likewise played an irritable, exasperated Trebek.
[14]
- The 5 Neat Guys
, an absurdly clean-cut, '50s-style
vocal group
(
a la
The Four Freshmen
), are portrayed by Candy, Flaherty (as the drunk one), Levy, Moranis, and Thomas. The "5" sing songs such as "I've Got a Hickey on My Shoulder", "Pimples and Pockmarks", and other unmemorable tunes. Several of their songs contrast with their squeaky-clean image, however, such as "She Does It", "Nancy Has the Largest Breasts in Town", and "Who Made the Egg Salad Sandwiches?".
- Connie Franklin is a caricature of
Connie Francis
portrayed by Andrea Martin. Franklin appears on the
Sammy Maudlin Show
and also in a parody of mail-order record commercials. Her 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, is a parody of real-life
Canadian
interviewer
Brian Linehan
. Linehan was famous for his meticulous interview preparation, often uncovering details that even his interview guests had forgotten about, which Short satirizes 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 is totally wrong, making for unhappy guests and a frustrated, uneasy host.
- Harry, the Guy with the Snake on his Face (Candy), runs Melonville's adult book and
X-rated
video stores.
- "Video
deejay
" Gerry Todd (Moranis) hosts an all-night "televised-radio" type of video show. Moranis's turtleneck-sporting, smooth-talking, radio-personality parody, complete with casually pronounced "vuddeeo", presages the first group of
MTV
VJs
.
- Mayor Tommy Shanks (Candy) is Melonville's "easygoing" (i.e., corrupt) mayor, a man prone to sudden fits of rage and physical violence who still gives regular
fireside chats
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, he succumbs to mental illness and is institutionalized. While still in the institution, he runs for reelection with the campaign slogan "Get me outta here!" and wins by a landslide. Some sources erroneously claim the character is named after Edmonton jazz musician (and future senator)
Tommy Banks
, but the character antedates
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 does not resemble Banks.
- SCTV News
(later
Nightline Melonville
), anchored by Flaherty as mostly professional (but
alcoholic
) newscaster
Floyd Robertson
and Levy as geeky, clueless
Earl Camembert
, a model of oblivious self-importance. The members of the SCTV news team are named after Canadian news anchors
Lloyd Robertson
and
Earl Cameron
, respectively, but otherwise bear no resemblance to their real-life counterparts (Camembert was in fact based on American newsman
Irv Weinstein
). Unlike the
Saturday Night Live
news parody
Weekend Update
, which typically uses actual news headlines as setups for more satirical humour,
SCTV News
uses more absurdist humour, with news stories often focusing on events in Melonville. Another source of humour for this segment is the contrast between the hapless Camembert (whose name is inexplicably pronounced "Canenbare") and the more respected Robertson, who usually ends up playing straight man to Camembert's antics. A running gag involves the news team's tendency to give the hard news items to Robertson (such as the latest earthquake to hit the tiny nation of
Togoland
) and the trivial or poorly prepared stories to his co-anchor (such as a fire at a
doily
factory).
- Monster Chiller Horror Theatre
: This fright-film showcase is hosted by Flaherty's character
Count Floyd
? a "vampire" who mysteriously howls like a wolf. Floyd is unable to pick genuinely scary movies, and at times has to introduce movies he has never seen, about whose content he has no clue. The show features laughably non-frightening
Z movies
like
Dr. Tongue's 3-D House of Stewardesses
,
3-D House of Beef
, and
Tip O'Neill
's 3-D House of Representatives
; 3-D movies are burlesqued. Many of the movies feature "mad scientist" Dr. Tongue (Candy) and his hunchback assistant Bruno, played by Woody Tobias Jr. (Levy). As revealed in his first appearance, Count Floyd is actually
SCTV News
anchorman Floyd Robertson working a second job. This character note was then ignored for several years before being picked up again as a plot thread toward the end of the show's run. Floyd's double duty is a comic homage to the early days of television, where the kiddie-show hosts at smaller TV stations were often members of the local news staff in costume.
- Mrs. Falbo's Tiny Town
is an educational television show parody. Wanda Falbo (Martin) talks to the children viewers about different things as her visit to Melonville Maximum Security Prison and even introduced the kids to
G. Gordon Liddy
(Thomas). She is assisted by Mr. Messenger (Candy). Wanda Falbo was later featured in segments of
Sesame Street
from 1989 to 2000, where she worked as the Word Fairy.
[15]
- The Shmenge Brothers (Candy and Levy) are the leaders of a
polka
band from the fictional Eastern European country of Leutonia, called The Happy Wanderers. Based upon
Czechoslovakian
-born,
Edmonton
-based polka cable show host Gaby Haas, the Shmenges appear during seasons three and four. Like
Bob and Doug McKenzie
, the Shmenges were
breakout characters
and their popularity resulted in the
HBO
special
The Last Polka
(a parody of
Martin Scorsese
's
The Last Waltz
). In one episode, the Shmenges perform a memorable tribute to composer
John Williams
. The band's name is based on the Friedrich-Wilhelm Moller song "
The Happy Wanderer
", which is frequently performed by polka artists. The hosts make a point of thanking the hostesses, in each episode, for the cabbage rolls and coffee provided. Later, Candy played another polka clarinetist in
Home Alone
, which also starred O'Hara.
- Harvey K-Tel is portrayed by Thomas. K-Tel, a parody of rapid-fire, mail-order commercial announcers, speaks in a rapid patter both on and off the air. The character's name is derived both from Canadian mail-order commercial company
K-tel
and actor
Harvey Keitel
.
- The famous CCCP1-Russian television episode has SCTV taken over by Soviet programming. At first, nothing seems out of the ordinary at the station; on the air, Levy plays
Perry Como
in a promo for
Still Alive
, a TV special in which Como's trademark relaxed style is taken to ludicrous extremes as the singer performs most of the
disco
-inspired set lying down (at one point performing "
I Love the Nightlife
" curled up in bed). Then, after
The Great White North
, and during a live broadcast of
Caesar
featuring Bobby Bittman, SCTV experiences a
broadcast signal intrusion
as a Soviet propaganda channel's signal overtakes SCTV's. The station calls itself "three-C-P-one", referring to the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which is abbreviated USSR in English, but CCCP in
Cyrillic
. The "shows" are Russian-themed spoofs:
Tibor's Tractor
, a
situation comedy
about a talking tractor similar to
My Mother the Car
?only with the voice of
Nikita Khrushchev
; a game show,
What Fits into Russia?
, in which the host mocks other countries by comparing them to
USSR
's massive size;
Upo-
Scrabblenyk
, a crossword game show where ridiculously long words are considered abbreviations; and
Hey, Giorgy
, a sitcom about "everybody's favorite Cossack" modeled on the Canadian TV series
King of Kensington
, with the memorable line "Uzbeks drank my battery fluid!", uttered when Moranis's
Lada
will not start outside an alehouse. (Popping the hood reveals the old-style battery's six cells sporting bendy straws.) The CCCP1 episode is shot with a "new Soviet mini-cam", a massive electronic device the size of a small car that has to be dragged around by three technicians, and burns up early in the show. The piece makes it clear on several occasions that CCCP's enemy is the
Uzbeks
, a reflection of the Soviet Union's ongoing struggle with Uzbek nationalism. At one point, Guy Caballero attempts to get parent network NBC to address the intrusion, only for
Fred Silverman
to inquire if the Soviet programs are ratings hits.
- A
Jazz Singer
parody reverses the story by having musical guest
Al Jarreau
play a popular jazz singer who wants to become a cantor (
hazzan
). His father is a disapproving pop-music impresario played by Levy's befuddled Sid Dithers. Dithers, four feet tall and cross-eyed behind Coke-bottle glasses, speaks with a thick early
vaudeville
-style
Yiddish
accent ("San Fransishky? So how did you came: did you drove, or did you flew?"). The payoff of this parody makes for a classic SCTV moment: Jarreau has become a
synagogue
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 Boil's Organ Emporium
(or "Prairie Warehouse and Curio Emporium") is 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 wares.
- Thursday Night Live
is an atrociously low-budget ripoff of
Fridays
and
Saturday Night Live
created by Guy Caballero, who wants to go hip by making this show. It is a long collage of uncontrollable laughter and hooting from the rowdy audience, and many unconvincing samplings of profanity and corny drug jokes. The guest host is Earl Camembert, who during the monologue, does a bad impression of Steve Martin, saying, "Well, I beg your pardon!"
- Towering Inferno
is a satire of the 1974
Irwin Allen
film, with each cast member playing multiple roles, trying to escape "the world's thinnest, tallest building" after it catches on fire. Martin is at this point the only female cast member, so they are forced to use doubles when two women appear in the same shot. As Dr. Tongue, Candy actually says, "You take the Edith Prickley double and I'll take the other girl and get out of here", acknowledging the fake as a wink to the audience. Also a nuclear reactor is on the top of the building, with a spinning restaurant above it.
- Doorway to Hell
with
Lin Ye Tang
(Dave Thomas) is a program similar to
The Twilight Zone
.
Bob and Doug McKenzie
[
edit
]
Ironically, the most popular sketch in the program's eight-year history was intended as throw-away filler.
Bob and Doug McKenzie
, the dim-witted, beer-chugging, and
back bacon
-eating brothers in a recurring Canadian-themed sketch called
Great White North
, were initially developed by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas as a sardonic response to the CBC network's request that the show feature two minutes of "identifiably
Canadian content
" in every episode. The two-minute length reflects the fact that American shows were two minutes shorter than Canadian ones (to allow more
commercials
), leaving two minutes needing content for the Canadian market. The Bob and Doug McKenzie segments first appeared in 1980 at the start of season three and continued in every episode until Thomas and Moranis left the series.
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 popularize the stereotypical Canadian trait of adding "
eh
" to the end of sentences, a facet of Canadian life 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 envious and bitter at the immense financial and popular success of the Bob and Doug McKenzie albums, ultimately leading to Thomas and Moranis leaving the show in 1982.
[16]
Flaherty and Candy accused Thomas of using his position as head writer to increase the visibility of Bob and Doug, though the original segments were largely unscripted.
[17]
An
SCTV
episode even poked fun at the duo's popularity. Guy Caballero declared that they had become SCTV's top celebrities, supplanting Johnny LaRue. This led to the pair being given a Bob and Doug "special" with
Tony Bennett
as their guest, which wound up being a disaster.
[18]
[19]
[20]
[21]
[22]
[23]
[24]
[25]
[26]
[27]
[28]
[29]
[30]
[31]
[32]
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".
[33]
Previously, Rush used Flaherty as Count Floyd 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
The Great White North
by Bob and Doug McKenzie. On March 27, 1982, "Take Off" reached number 16 on the
Billboard Hot 100
. It is the highest-charting single of Lee's career; Lee was an elementary-school classmate of Moranis as a child.
Special guests and musical guests
[
edit
]
Sir John Gielgud and Sir Ralph Richardson were the show's first guest stars.
[34]
[35]
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, but they soon discovered that by 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
became a featured player in the movie "Polynesiantown",
John Mellencamp
(at the time, known as John Cougar) was Mister Hyde to
Ed Grimley
's Doctor Jekyll in "The Nutty Lab Assistant",
Natalie Cole
was transformed into a zombie by a glowing 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".
James Ingram
appeared on
3-D House of Beef
, and violinist
Eugene Fodor
in
New York Rhapsody
.
Hall & Oates
appeared on a "Sammy Maudlin Show" segment promoting a new film called
Chariots of Eggs
, a parody of both
Chariots of Fire
and
Personal Best
, and showed 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", hosted by Gil Fisher (Candy).
This, along with
SCTV'
s
cult
status, led to the show's celebrity fans clamouring to appear.
Tony Bennett
credited his appearance on
Bob and Doug McKenzie
's variety-show debacle "The Great White North Palace" for triggering a significant career comeback.
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 the same episode, he 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 whenever possible), and
Joe DiMaggio
in a commercial for DiMaggio's restaurant, where he offered a free meal to anyone who could strike him out. (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.
In a rare acting role, singer
Crystal Gayle
guest-starred in a January 1983 episode in the sketch "
A Star is Born
", a spoof of the 1976 film version of the movie, playing an up-and-coming singer trying to make it big under the tutelage of her boyfriend and mentor
Kris Kristofferson
(played by Flaherty).
Canadian actors, including
Jayne Eastwood
, Dara Forward, 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.
Laugh track
[
edit
]
The laugh track used in early episodes was recorded using audience reactions during live performances in the Second City theatre.
[36]
Syndication and music rights
[
edit
]
SCTV had a 90-minute format, unique for a dramatic or comedy series, but more common on talk shows. Such shows are typically hard to fit into an ordinary commercial television schedule, and the market was limited. The original 90-minute shows were never rebroadcast in their entirety.
Instead, in 1984, after production on the series ended, the
Second City Television
syndicated half-hour episodes and
SCTV Network
90-minute episodes were reedited into half-hour shows by
Blair Entertainment
(formerly Rhodes Productions, which distributed
SCTV
in the U.S. during its original run) for a revised syndicated package, which consisted of 156 reedited 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 U.S. 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 reedited
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. By this time, distribution rights had passed to
WIC Entertainment
, which bought Allarcom in the late 1980s (WIC also distributed
SCTV
in the U.S. after Blair Entertainment shut down in 1992); distribution subsequently passed to
Fireworks Entertainment
after its then-parent company,
CanWest
, purchased WIC's television stations and production/distribution assets in 1999.
The syndication package was picked up by NBC following the cancellation of its late-night talk show
Later
on January 18, 2001, but to retain continuity with the latter, it was aired with an introduction voiced by
Friday Night
and occasional
Later
substitute host
Rita Sever
and was known as
Later Presents: SCTV
. It aired until
Last Call with Carson Daly
took over the time slot on January 4, 2002, from Monday to Thursday;
Late Friday
(which also had a title change the same week
SCTV
was picked up) aired on Fridays. Once again, as had been the case during the 1981?83 run,
SCTV
amounted to placeholding schedule filler.
For years,
SCTV
was unavailable on videotape or DVD (apart from one compilation,
The Best of John Candy on SCTV
), or in any form except these reedited half-hour programs. Due to difficulty obtaining music rights for DVD releases,
Shout! Factory
edited music in certain sketches or even left out sketches like "
Stairways to Heaven
."
[37]
Dave Thomas
acknowledged: "We were true guerrilla TV in that when we wanted background music we just lifted it from wherever we wanted. Consequently, today, to release the shows on home video, it would cost millions to clear the music."
[38]
Home media
[
edit
]
Shout! Factory
has released some of
SCTV
on DVD in
Region 1
. All episodes from Season 4 and 5 (which aired on
NBC
) have been released in 4 volumes, and a "best-of" DVD features episodes from Seasons 2 and 3.
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
(Two Christmas-themed episodes from 1981 and 1982)
- SCTV ? Best of The Early Years
:
Released October 24, 2006
(15 selected episodes from Seasons 2 and 3)
Stage reunions
[
edit
]
On May 5 and 6, 2008 most of the cast reunited for a charity event, 'The Benefit of Laughter', at the Second City Theatre in Toronto.
[39]
Eugene Levy
,
Martin Short
,
Andrea Martin
,
Catherine O'Hara
,
Robin Duke
, and
Joe Flaherty
took part; Dave Thomas reportedly bowed out due to illness. The event was a fundraiser for The Alumni Fund, which helps support former Second City cast and crew members facing health or financial difficulties. The performances have not been released.
In 2017, several members of the troupe, alongside members of
The Kids in the Hall
, performed at a benefit show for Spinal Cord Injury Ontario, after Jake Thomas, the son of Dave Thomas's brother
Ian
, was injured in a snowmobiling accident.
[40]
SCTV Golden Classics
2010
[
edit
]
To honor the 50th anniversary of The Second City,
SCTV Golden Classics
aired nationwide in the United States on public television stations beginning March 2010
[41]
featuring some memorable skits from the comedy television series.
Film
[
edit
]
Although
SCTV
was never directly adapted as a film, the characters of Bob and Doug McKenzie, popularized on the series, were featured in their own film, 1983's
Strange Brew
. A sequel was planned in the late 1990s but never produced.
Reunion special
[
edit
]
In April 2018,
Netflix
announced that
Martin Scorsese
would direct an original comedy special exploring the legacy of the show.
[42]
In May 2018, it was announced the special would be titled
An Afternoon with SCTV
and air on CTV in Canada and Netflix worldwide.
[43]
As of November 2023, the reunion special still has not aired, seemingly due to Scorsese's many commitments.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Thomas, Dave (1996),
SCTV: Behind the Scenes
, McFarland & Stewart,
ISBN
978-0-771-08568-0
- Thomas, Mike (2009),
The Second City Unscripted: Revolution and Revelation at the World-Famous Comedy Theater
, Villard,
ISBN
978-0-345-51422-6
- Robbins, Jeff (2007),
Second City Television: A History and Episode Guide
, McFarland & Co,
ISBN
978-0-7864-3191-5
- Martin, Andrea (2014),
Lady Parts
, Harper Collins,
ISBN
978-0-062-38728-8
- Short, Martin (2014),
I Must Say: My Life As a Humble Comedy Legend
, Harper Collins,
ISBN
978-0-062-30954-9
References
[
edit
]
- ^
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTHvF2aAi50
- ^
https://www.cbc.ca/arts/andrew-alexander-bought-the-canadian-second-city-rights-for-1-and-changed-comedy-with-sctv-1.4685602
- ^
"CBC Television Series 1952 to 1982, Sta-Swi"
. Archived from
the original
on 11 March 2014.
- ^
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/sctv-documentary-dave-thomas-1.4623290
- ^
https://sctvguide.ca/features/citizen_article.htm
- ^
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sctv
- ^
https://www.sctvguide.ca/characters/sctvproducers.htm
- ^
Daly, Margaret, "Second City, rah, rah!",
The Toronto Star
, September 22, 1976, page G1.
- ^
Braithwaite, Dennis, "Here's to fun and Global's Second City",
The Toronto Star
, October 7, 1977, page D7.
- ^
a
b
Hirschberg, Lynn (15 September 1983).
"Catherine O'Hara Needs a Rest: The 'SCTV' star believes if you snooze, you don't lose"
.
Rolling Stone
. No. 494.
- ^
Dyess-Nugent, Phil (January 30, 2013).
"Ten Episodes that Make the Argument for SCTV as one of TV's all-time greats"
. Onion A.V. Club.
- ^
James Wolcott
(January 10, 1983). "Little Big Man".
New York
– via Google Books.
- ^
a
b
c
SCTV ARCHIVE (17 October 2014).
"SCTV Wins 1982 Emmy For Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program"
.
Archived
from the original on 2021-12-11 – via YouTube.
- ^
Izahi, Elade (September 7, 2018).
"Burt Reynolds is part of the reason SNL's Celebrity Jeopardy! sketch exists"
.
The Washington Post
. Retrieved
September 10,
2018
.
- ^
Mrs. Falbo's Tiny Town on SCTV
- ^
Thomas, Dave.
SCTV: Behind the Scenes.
New York: McClelland & Stewart, 1996.
- ^
"Take off, eh?" Review of
Two-Four Anniversary
special at www.macleans.ca
"Macleans.ca ? Canada's national current affairs and news magazine since 1905"
. Archived from
the original
on 2009-02-14
. Retrieved
2008-11-01
.
- ^
Plume, Kenneth. "Interview with Dave Thomas (Part 1 of 5)", February 10, 2000
- ^
Plume, Kenneth (10 February 2000).
"Interview with Dave Thomas (Part 1 of 5)"
.
- ^
"FROM THE VAULT: Dave Thomas Interview 1"
.
asitecalledfred.com
.
- ^
"FROM THE VAULT: Dave Thomas Interview 2"
.
asitecalledfred.com
.
- ^
"FROM THE VAULT: Dave Thomas Interview 3"
.
asitecalledfred.com
.
- ^
"FROM THE VAULT: Dave Thomas Interview 4"
.
asitecalledfred.com
.
- ^
"FROM THE VAULT: Dave Thomas Interview 5"
.
asitecalledfred.com
.
- ^
"FROM THE VAULT: Dave Thomas Interview 6"
.
asitecalledfred.com
.
- ^
"FROM THE VAULT: Dave Thomas Interview 7"
.
asitecalledfred.com
.
- ^
"FROM THE VAULT: Dave Thomas Interview 8"
.
asitecalledfred.com
.
- ^
"FROM THE VAULT: Dave Thomas Interview 9"
.
asitecalledfred.com
.
- ^
Plume, Kenneth (10 February 2000).
"Interview with Dave Thomas (Part 2 of 5)"
.
- ^
Plume, Kenneth (10 February 2000).
"Interview with Dave Thomas (Part 3 of 5)"
.
- ^
Plume, Kenneth (10 February 2000).
"Interview with Dave Thomas (Part 4 of 5)"
.
- ^
"Movie Reviews, Trailers, Interviews, Wikis & Posters for Movies ? IGN"
. Archived from
the original
on February 15, 2003.
- ^
"Rush out for latest Rush Concert DVD Snakes & Arrows." Review at www.epinions.com on December 5, 2008.
- ^
Welowsky, Jane (15 July 2017).
"The Toronto house where SCTV ideas were hatched"
.
Toronto Star
.
- ^
"SCTV ? S01E04 ? Crosswords SCTV (sketch by Harold Ramis with Sir John Gielgud and Sir Ralph Richardson)"
.
video.supernerdland.com
.
- ^
Replica, Modern (27 February 2014).
"God Is in the Details: John Candy, Rick Moranis, Catherine O'Hara, Harold Ramis, and The Rise and Fall of 'SCTV'
"
.
pajiba.com
.
- ^
Robbins, Jeff (2009),
Second City Television: A History and Episode Guide
, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, p. 258,
ISBN
978-0786455331
- ^
"FAQ"
.
SCTVGuide.ca
. Retrieved
July 29,
2018
.
- ^
Ouzounian, Richard (May 6, 2008).
"All the hits, as good as we remember"
.
The Star
. Toronto
. Retrieved
May 23,
2010
.
- ^
Adam Carter,
"Star-studded SCTV reunion raises funds for Ian Thomas's son"
.
CBC Hamilton
, June 4, 2017.
- ^
"SCTV Golden Classics | WLIW21 Productions"
. Wliw.org. 1959-12-16. Archived from
the original
on 2011-01-09
. Retrieved
2011-03-02
.
- ^
"Martin Scorsese To Direct Untitled Netflix Comedy About Sketch Comedy Show SCTV"
. Deadline. 2018-04-12
. Retrieved
2018-04-12
.
- ^
"Rick Moranis Joins 'SCTV' Reunion Documentary for Netflix"
.
The Hollywood Reporter
. 10 May 2018.
External links
[
edit
]