SCTV

As a previous poster has said, SNL and SCTV were both comedy sketch shows, but that's where the resemblance ends. SNL far too often descended into juvenile, and sometimes even infantile, humor and its casts were way too uneven. It had the brilliant and manic John Belushi, but it also had the mediocre Garrett Morris, who really didn't do much of anything. It had the gifted Gilda Radner, who could do damn near anything, but it also had Laraine Newman, who didn't do all that much, either, and many of the cast members in its later shows really had no business being there. SNL's cast did various running characters, but, with few exceptions, each person's character wasn't really distinguishable from the actor himself. SCTV had no such problems. John Candy's Johnny LaRue, Josh Shmenge and Gil Fisher ("The Fishin' Musician") were about as different from each other and Candy himself as you could possibly get, as were Rick Moranis' Doug McKenzie and Rabbi Yitzhak Karlov, Andrea Martin's Edith Prickley and Mrs. Falbo, etc. Another big difference between the two shows was the writing. Virtually every episode of SCTV was as sharp, incisive and devastatingly funny as anything that ever came out of television; SNL on the other hand could go for weeks without having a decent show, and in fact went for several YEARS in the '80s without having any even HALFWAY decent shows. SCTV integrated all of its guest stars into the actual storyline of the episode itself, with often surprising results (musicians Dr. John, Tony Bennett and Fee Waybill of the Tubes, for example, turned out to be quite good). SNL put its guest hosts into some of the sketches--with many of them obviously reading their lines off of cue cards--and most didn't acquit themselves particularly well.

One of SCTV's main strengths was that it gave its audience credit for having the intelligence to understand what it was trying to say and do, which was something that SNL often lost sight of, especially in its later years. And how could anyone forget such brilliant pieces as "Abbott and Costello in a Turkish Prison"; "Dr. Tongue's 3-D House of Stewardesses"; the side-splitting parody of "Ocean's 11" with the monumentally untalented Vegas schlock comic Bobby Bittman and his even less talented idiot son Skip; the hapless Count Floyd of "Monster Chiller Horror Theater", who--no matter how pathetic the movie ("Tonight's film: 'Bloodsucking Monkeys from West Mifflin, Pennsylvania'!") he was showing--always stubbornly claimed, "Oooh, wasn't that scary, kids?"; "The Sammy Maudlin Show"; "Farm Film Report" ("They blowed up real good!"); the list goes on and on. Most of the sketches are so sharp, witty and clever that they don't date at all, even though they're almost 30 years old. SCTV set a high standard for sketch comedy, and so far no other show has measured up.

All of the user comments are great but they leave out some of the best contributions from SCTV - The McKenzie Brothers and the Redneck Movie Critics.

From the beginning of the opening credits where it was announced that "SCTV is on the air" followed by t.v. sets being thrown out of windows to crash on the sidewalks below, the laughs ensued.

I understand that Canadian Television had an extra two minutes more than U.S. television, so they asked Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis to come up with an extra two minutes of material that would air on Canadian Television. Their contribution? The Mackenzie Brothers, eh? It was all ad-lib. The Great White North sketch was eventually added to the American version.

Each week would be a different topic - "This week, our topic is how to stuff a mouse in a beer bottle, eh?" "Take off, eh?" "No, you take off, you hoser." "How do you like my new toque (rhymes with kook), eh?" "It's a beauty way to go, eh?" These guys were absolutely hilarious! They had the entire country doing Canadian-speak," eh?

The other guys I loved were the Red-neck movie reviewers. Dressed like Elmer Fudd on a wabbit-hunt, Joe Flaherty and John Candy rated movies based on whether they "blowed 'em up real good," or not. You guessed it - if the movie "blowed 'em up real good" (followed by lots of guffaws and yuks), it was a good movie. If there were no car crashes or explosions, well, it was a bad movie.

This was an extremely clever show and launched the careers of some powerful comic geniuses (Eugene Levy, Martin Short, Catherine O'Hara included among those already mentioned). It's definitely worth the late-night t.v. watch on T.V. Land.

Probably the best TV version of the many SCTV formats, even without Martin Short's Ed Grimley or Jackie Rogers Jr. A sharply focused parody of (mostly) television AND smalltown mid-western culture, both American and Canadian at the same time! A true world unto itself, filled with enough in-jokes and running gags to make your head spin.

I was born after SCTV ended, but I always remember seeing re-runs that I thought were extremely hilarious. One of the best things about SCTV is if you look at the cast, they are all classic actors who's names we all know. Even better was that all these great talents and names got together in a mid sized city (my city, Edmonton) to create this amazing show. They didn't need the glitz of New York or a new guest host every week (who on SNL now probly hosted like 3 weeks ago, and 3 weeks before that) to make something that was truely great. I will always remember how all these famous people once lived and worked in my city.

Weekly television is rarely this good. Originally aired very late on weekend nights. Skit and parody show centered on operation of cheesy television station. Where else can you see John Candy playing Babe Ruth or Harold Ramis Dialing For Dollars? As with SNL the first few years are the best (during Ramis' tenancy), some of the late stuff - like Thomas making fun of Bob Hope - is pretty grim.