I was rather surprised when I found out SCTV was a Canadian show. I had always assumed it was produced in Chicago – which is known as America’s “Second City” and is the home of the famous Second City comedy club. Why did they call the show that? Does anybody know?
Because the cast/writers were from the Toronto offshoot of the Second City troupe (which started in Chicago, but spread). As mentioned by Otto and Fishbicycle.
Out of curiosity, I checked the Second City website, and there are 5 cities with permanent SC theaters - Chicago (of course), Toronto, Detroit, Las Vegas, and LA.
Their SCTV page is fairly informative.
(stage whisper)
Kids in the Hall!
flees
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I seem to remember SCTV doing a “Canadian version” of the Wizard of Oz. “Follow the Yellow Line in the Snow?”
The one that sticks out from my memories (for no apparent reason) is the John Cougar show, where Ed Grimley took some sort of chemical potion and transformed into John Cougar. Was that SCTV as well?
“What’s your name?”
(background) “There’s a Cougar in the parking lot with its lights on!”
“Cougar.”
(background) “I gotta go to the john”
“John Cougar.”
I remember both of those.
Another memorable SCTV sketch: “Beauty and the Beets.” The princess is having dinner with the king and queen. While she relates a fairy-tale kind of story about her day, the queen says, “My dear! You haven’t touched your beets!” In obvious terror, with Jaws-style hearbeat-music playing in the background, she replies, “I don’t like beets, Mother . . . I’ve tried to like them . . .” And then the king orders her off to the dungeon to be tortured. This repeats several times, with different tortures vividly portrayed. Finally the princess (covered in fresh, bleeding wounds) is continuing her story with a dazed look on her face, while mechanically eating her beets . . . Queen: “My dear! You haven’t touched your brocolli!” . . . da- DUM . . . da-DUM . . . da-DUM . . .
And “Tibor’s Tractor”, which is the reincarnated ghost of Lenin, but decadent Uzbeks drank his battery acid.
Here’s something I never understood before about SCTV – the premise. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_City_Television:
What’s not to understand? Seems perfectly straighforward to me. And, as I noted in my first post, it gave SCTV an excuse to recycle their 1970s stuff as material for that channel.
Which makes it somewhat similar to the Weird Al Yankovic movie UHF (which, by the way, is the rebuttal to Mr. Blue Sky’s claim in Post #20).
I howled at SCTV, but only on occasion. The show seems to me to have fallen into that special rut reserved for good 70s sketch comedy, wherein you get successful enough that you and your writers begin buying a more serious grade of drugs and begin thinking it’s all about You and The Industry, and do entirely plot-driven half-hours like Python, or get all deadpan and insider and self-referential like Albert Brooks.
I can think of only two examples in Python: The “Pole of Africa” episode, and the one where all the English turn into Scots so they can’t beat the Blancmange from the planet Skyron at tennis. Are there any others?
“Pole of Africa”?! Doesn’t ring a bell. But other “plot-driven” Pythons are Cycling Tour and Buying an Ant.
Oh, and there was the horrible Mr Neutron episode, but I try not to dwell on it.
Actually, the Canadian version of “Wizard of Oz” was a SNL sketch. IIRC, it was called “The Incredible Man” and was sponsored by Mackenzie Paper Towels (with appropriate product placements). Gilda Radner played the “Dorothy” role, I think.Good to see some fans out there. How 'bout a quick trivia quiz? [ol]
[li]What was the name of Libby Wolfson’s one-woman stage show (NOT her TV show)?[/li][li]On the game show “Hi-Q”, who was the contestant who kept buzzing in early?[/li][li]What did Johnny La Rue want for Christmas?[/li][li]Which cast member’s sibling was a musical guest?[/li][li]What was the name of Jackie Rogers Jr.'s “tell-all” book?[/li][li]What is the full name of Tex and Edna’s souvenir shop?[/li][li]Why did Floyd the barber go to see the Godfather, Don Caballero?[/li][li]In “Zontar”, how did you know that someone was possessed by the aliens?[/li][li]What are Bobby and Skip Bittman’s real first names?[/li][li]What program was on the first time CCCP1 jammed their broadcast?[/li][/ol]
Dave Thomas’s brother.
A cabbage leaf on the back of their head.
I’m annoyed I can’t remember the others.
Both right (4 & 8).
I loved the Mr. Neutron character; but the sketch went on too long, and the bit about Teddy Salad was kind of dumb. When I first got online about 11 years ago, I often used Mr_Neutron for a handle.
I’m trying to remember without resorting to google…
[ol]
[li]Me? She? Her? [/li][li]a scotch? actually, all I can remember is the crane shot at the end[/li][li]Dave Thomas[/li][li]Jackie… We Hardly Knew Ye[/li][li]the kids were harrassing him[/li][li]cabbage[/li][li]Herschel and something[/li][li]probably something about Uzbeks[/li][/ol]
When answering the questions, please try to use the actual question numbers to avoid confusion, M’kay?I shall endeavor to straighten this out: [ul]
[li]1. Libby’s TV show was “You!”, but I’m going for the one-woman stage show she produced on one episode.[/li][li]2.The contestant on “Hi-Q” who always buzzed in early–still unanswered.[/li][li]3. Johnny’s Xmas present–I’ll give it to you–it was the crane shot![/li][li]4. Dave Thomas (correct, but already answered).[/li][li]5. Jackie Rogers’ book–nope! Your answer was the TV special.[/li][li]6. Tex and Edna’s souvenir shop–still unanswered[/li][li]7. Floyd the barber–but what did the kids specifically do to Floyd?[/li][li]8. “Zontar”–correct[/li][li]9. Bobby’s real first name is Herschel–what’s Skip’s?[/li][li]10. What program was running on SCTV when CCCP1 first broke in?[/li][/ul]
[QUOTE=want2know7. Floyd the barber–but what did the kids specifically do to Floyd?[/quote]
They messed with his barber pole.