I just added a new item to my amazon wishlist (hint, hint)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/wishlist/397PPA7M0RDN5
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cpress/dvd_sctv
> First of four planned DVD boxed sets of classic SCTV to be
> released Tuesday
Like most sketch comedy, I find SCTV can be pretty hit or miss,
but some of it is hilarious.
> Wed Jun 2, 1:03 PM ET
> JOHN MCKAY
>
> TORONTO (CP) - Johnny LaRue, Edith Prickley, Bob and Doug,
> Guy Cabellero, Bobby Bittman, Lola Heatherton.
>
> Those memorable characters from the now-iconic SCTV comedy shows
> of the late 1970s and early '80s are coming to DVD, with the
> first of four boxed sets to be released Tuesday, and the
> remainder over the next year.
>
> SCTV began as a cheesy little syndicated comedy show in a cheesy
> little Global TV studio in Toronto. And then in 1981 it got
> picked up by NBC as a late-night companion to Saturday Night
> Live. But unlike SNL, the Canadian-based show developed more of a
> cult following, seen as absolutely brilliant by such future
> comics as a young Conan O'Brien, while network suits of the day
> scratched their heads in bewilderment.
>
> But over the years just about anyone who has ever watched
> television can recall a favourite SCTV sketch, whether it was the
> widely popular McKenzie Brothers or Count Floyd, or more obscure
> but inspired pop-culture cross-referencing fare like
> Polynesiantown, NASA's Mercury III players' version of Murder in
> the Cathedral or the cast performing a Chekhov play only to be
> interrupted by Star Trek's Chekov beaming onto the set.
>
> Who could ever forget the multi-layered content of the Merv
> Griffith Show Special Edition, a perverse combination of Merv
> Griffin, Andy Griffith and Close Encounters of the Third Kind? Or
> The Midnight Express Special, featuring Wolfman Jack in a blend
> of the drug-smuggling movie and the old TV music variety show?
>
> One of the first such sketches was a parody of Casablanca with
> John Candy and Catherine O'Hara in the Bogart-Bergman roles. But
> it soon morphed into a Bob Hope-Bing Crosby road movie with a
> dash of Fantasy Island thrown in (with Candy as the diminutive
> Tattoo!).
>
> Cast members recall the days when the whole production packed up
> and moved to Edmonton where they wrote and taped some of their
> most inspired material. The fact that they were in Alberta kept
> the suits away and allowed them to be creative.
I remember recognizing downtown Edmonton in various sketches...
> "No executives could really come up there to keep tabs on us
> because if they left their chairs in L.A. empty too long someone
> would take them," says Dave Thomas about the creative freedom
> they had.
>
> Thomas says NBC became furious at some of the material that got
> through because they were delivering the episodes at the very
> last minute with no time for screening. He recalls doing a parody
> of Al Pacino's Cruising in which he was a butch chef
> fist-stuffing a turkey that had its legs spread apart with
> chains. After that one, the network sent a censor to live
> full-time in Edmonton.
>
> "At first he was very standoffish and dictatorial, then
> ultimately he became one of the gang. And then he became a
> co-conspirator with us!"
>
> Joe Flaherty agrees that the location fuelled their creativity
> because there weren't as many distractions as in a larger city,
> leaving them more time to write and perform the sketches.
>
> "I still remember talking to someone down there about the show,
> somebody from NBC, and they were saying 'Now what coast is
> Edmonton on?' "
>
> Executive producer Andrew Alexander also recalls how being in
> Edmonton meant the cast members did their best work 24/7.
>
> "Yeah, there's no drugs, no managers, no agents, no outside
> temptations like you have in L.A. and New York."
>
> At the time, there was the perception of a long-running rivalry
> with Saturday Night Live. While both shows had strong Canadian
> roots and both dipped into the Second City theatre casts in
> Chicago and Toronto for talent, it's agreed now that there was a
> vast difference between the two.
>
> SNL was performed live with a studio audience and limited by the
> cramped facilities of NBC's famed Studio 8-H in New York. SCTV
> was taped single-camera-style, like a movie, was able to shoot
> exteriors and for the most part shied away from timely subject
> matter, a fortunate decision because most of the DVD material has
> not been outdated.
>
> "They did have a much more rigorous schedule," concedes Flaherty.
> "They had to get that show out every week live, and just in doing
> that you're not going to get a chance to get all the quality
> stuff in that you want to."
>
>
> Alexander says it was only in the last 10 years that it became
> apparent SCTV had found a special place in the annals of TV
> comedy, right up there with Monty Python. And he attributes that
> largely to its Canadian sensibility, because its cast members
> were not only intelligent but steeped in American pop culture by
> watching it from a distance across the border.
>
> "So there was never any sense of wanting to talk down to the
> audience," he says, despite frequent pressure from NBC to try and
> make the humour acceptable to a wider audience.
>
> Each DVD set includes five discs, the first set offering episodes
> of the 90-minute NBC shows that began in 1981. Earlier half-hour
> episodes will be released later. Also included are lookback
> interviews by the cast, a tribute to the late John Candy, the
> 1999 SCTV reunion event at the Aspen Comedy Arts Festival, plus
> commentaries and a 24-page photo booklet.
>
>
> Some quotes pertaining to the new 13-hour DVD release of nine
> SCTV Network 90 shows from SMV and Shout Factory:
>
> "When they wanted to syndicate the show, they cut the 90s into
> half-hours, and they did it with a meat cleaver, it was just
> butchered. So what these shows offer, is you get to see the
> 90-minute shows in the original form." - Dave Thomas on why the
> DVD sets will be a value despite the fact that for years SCTV has
> been in reruns on TV for free.
>
> "NBC was always kind of nudging us to include the audience a
> little bit more, they wanted the references to be less obscure.
> And of course we always just marched to our own drummer." - Joe
> Flaherty.
>
> "The first Emmys when the Perry Como sketch went up on the big
> screen and they were announcing the nominees and the audience
> just went crazy. And there was a recognition that 'Ohmigod, our
> peers like the show!' "- executive producer Andrew Alexander on
> when they first realized the show had become accepted in the U.S.
>
> "These may be the funniest DVDs you will ever own." - Conan O'Brien.
>
> Some factoids:
>
> - The original cast of SCTV: Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Rick
> Moranis, Andrea Martin, Catherine O'Hara, Dave Thomas and the
> late John Candy.
>
> - Other members: Harold Ramis, Martin Short, Robin Duke and Tony
> Rosato (the latter three also having been cast members of
> Saturday Night Live).
>
> - The show was named by TV Guide as one of the 50 best shows of
> all time.
>
> - The premise: a day in the life on the air and behind the scenes
> of the SCTV television network in Melonville (of the Tri-State
> area).
>
> - The show had a checkered career, beginning in 1976 at Global TV
> in Toronto (where a pilot was shot for $10,000), moving to
> Edmonton when it was picked up by NBC and finally airing in
> 45-minute versions in the U.S. on Cinemax, ending in 1986.
>
> - The original title Second City Television was dropped after the
> first season when Second City theatre co-founder and producer
> Bernie Sahlins left the project and took the name with him. For
> the rest of the 185 episodes, it was called just SCTV.
>
> - Although the Second City name was dropped, episodes continued to
> show, as a closing logo, a picture of the old Lombard Street
> firehall theatre in Toronto, for years the home of the Second
> City Toronto theatre troupe. The DVD set also uses the term
> Second City Television Network on the box art.
--
Gerald Oskoboiny <
[email protected]>
http://impressive.net/people/gerald/