Companion: SCTV Appreciation Thread

[GirlinContempt]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_City_Television


WHAT a fucking cast that show had...
John Candy
Joe Flaherty
Rick Moranis
Eugene Levy
Andrea Martin
Martin Short
Catherine O'Hara
Harold Ramis
Dave Thomas

HILARIOUS.
I miss Ed Grimley and Alex Trebel and Harry The Guy With The Snake On His Face and Tommy Shanks and Monster Chiller Horror Theater and Count Floyd and drunken Floyd Robertson.

My favorite episode (as outlined by Wikipedia)
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, Eugene 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. 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 laying 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, is referred to as "three CP one". From there, all the "shows" are Russian-related spoofs (a situation comedy about a talking tractor similar to My Mother the Car, a game-show called What Fits into Russia? which celebrates the USSR's massive size, etc.), and "Hey, Giorgy", "everybody's favorite Cossack" with the memorable line "Uzbeks drank my battery fluid", uttered when Rick Moranis's Lada won't start outside an alehouse; popping the hood reveals the battery's six old-style cells sporting bendy straws.

"This is Harold Ramis speaking for the management of Second City Television. SCTV recognizes its responsibility to the community, and condemns the excessive use of explicit sexual material in television today. We do, however, love violence, so parental discretion _is_ advised in viewing the following program. Viewers will note, however, that the attitudes and opinions reflected in this program do not reflect the views of the management of this station, the producers of this program, the writers, the actors, or indeed, anyone in the audience. So if you're thinking of suing or phoning in complaints, don't bother. This program is produced in Argentina and then dubbed into English. Besides, if you're all that sensitive, you just don't have to watch the program! I mean you've got arms, why don't you get up and change the channel? See who's on Merv Griffin, that's about your speed, isn't it? Nothing offensive about old Merv! Take your parental disc..."

[BarenakedLady]

1. I loved that show

:thumbsup:

[GirlinContempt]

2. I miss it.

It kind of aches a little :D

[Fire Walk With Me]

3. One of my favorite puns they did was Edith Prickley in "Prickley Heat".

After the then-current "Body Heat".

Love that show and those folks.

[GirlinContempt]

5. It was incredibly clever an incredible proportion of the time

[begin_within]

4. Joni Mitchell for Dogs

[GirlinContempt]

6. The Last time I Saw Rover!

[begin_within]

10. Muzzle Tov

[Fuzz]

7. Blow 'em up. Blow 'em up real good.

With the Plasmatics!

[GirlinContempt]

19. CCCP1!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_39B2YJMa9g

[billyoc]

8. Cooking with LaRue!

:rofl:

[GirlinContempt]

16. Words to live by!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZI-ne-IESM

[Fuzz]

9. Battle of the PBS stars!

[GirlinContempt]

18. The idea is to get a baby mouse that you can like put in the beer bottle ad feed it in the bottle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H5hKZznc14

[Darth_Kitten]

21. One of my favs!

:D

[MrSlayer]

30. Mr. Rogers beating Julia Child down with the King Friday puppet is priceless.

Lots of gold in that episode.

[Va Lefty]

11. 5 Neat Guys

"She does it. She does it. The whole town knows she does it."

[FloridaJudy]

12. OMFG: John Candy as Mr. Science!

Mr. Science: "Do you know why water boils?"
Donald: "No".
Mr. Science: "Because it's hot".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XDOjltE-1g

That and the "Ben Hur" Parody. Unfortunately I couldn't find that on YouTube.

Actually it's "Ben Hur, Parts I through IV" and it dominates this classic episode. John Candy "channels" Curly Howard of The Three Stooges in his portrayal of Ben Hur, with Harold Ramis as Hur's treacherous childhood friend Mazzola, and Catherine O'Hara and Andrea Martin as the hero's mother and sister, who are transformed into lepers -- or is it leopards? And don't forget the Son of God, who quenches the thirst of the enslaved Ben Hur with a dry martini. Before this elongated movie parody reaches its incongruous climax with "The Ballad of Davy Crockett," the viewer is treated to a commercial for the new Bill and Mike dolls (They've just come out of the closet for you!), and the wacky celebrity quiz show "Masquerade Funeral." ~ All Movie Guide

[GirlinContempt]

14. Shmenges Polka!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmTiGS8YGjw&mode=related&search=

[Fire Walk With Me]

13. The "Dante's Inferno" game show.

"Demons, rend his flesh!"

[GirlinContempt]

15. PMS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPmaG0oGS_8

[Richardo]

17. Dave Thomas did the best Bob Hope impression ever

:rofl:

[Va Lefty]

31. Agreed

Remember the skit were Moranis was playing Woody Allen and was talking to Hope with the help of Bing Crosby's ghost played by Flaherty? A classic

[Darth_Kitten]

20. I absolutely loved SCTV!!!!

I like the spoof with "Cujo"....it's the dog in the car with the man.....the look on the dog's face when the rabid wife showed up. :rofl:

Monster Chiller Horror Theatre......Farm Film Celebrity Blowup.....the spoof on Leave it to Beaver, when the kids are all grown up and the Beav has to go away for a long time.....

What else off the top of my head? Battle of the PBS stars, when Mr. Rodgers of Mr.Rodgers neighbourhood knocks out Julia Child in the boxing ring. The spoof of "To Sir with Love" with the Boomtown Rats.

Dr. Tongue.
The Schmenge brothers.
etc, etc, etc.

They were all great!

[Darth_Kitten]

22. Dialing for Dollars...........

when Walter Cronkite is threatened by a caller who will put his head in a vise and twist it until his moustache pops off if he doesn't do what he says......

[Fire Walk With Me]

23. John Candy as Babe Ruth. "I'll it a home run for ya, kid!"

To the dying child in the hospital bed, who keeps asking for more and more and more... That's what John Candy was good at; being the nice guy whose niceness gets him into increasingly ludicrous situations. He was wasted as an annoying guy, as in "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles".

[FloridaJudy]

24. Let us not forget Count Floyd

And "Monster Chiller Horror Theater". Scarrrrrrry stuff, kiddies! :scared:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ninFjxj_DQ

[Bunny]

25. Hi! Edith Prickley here.

Great show!

[Missy Vixen]

26. I loved SCTV

I want the DVD's, but they're prohibitively expensive.

In the meantime, can I tell everyone here how much I miss Lola Heatherton, and the sex therapist played by Andrea Martin? "Make me a woman, big boy. Make me a woman."

Julie

[GirlinContempt]

27. I am very pleased to see so much fine appreciation!

[ghostsofgiants]

28. Such a good show.

Their Godfather spoof was one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

[MrSlayer]

29. I have all the DVDs.

One of the best shows ever. I liked it better than SNL and that was when it was in it's heyday.

The Queenhaters was an outstanding bit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwqmB3Jocmw

[Blue_Tires]

32. the 'godfather' episode was pretty good as well

great great series

[MrSlayer]

34. "This cat is dead, someone get me a new cat".

Excellent.

[Lisa]

33. to my fellow hosers out there ...

This is one of those rare times when I actually do have a celebrity connection. My dad went to college with Dave Thomas's dad (who ended up becoming a respected professor of philosophy and medical ethics). In fact, when my parents were married in 1961, Dr. Thomas performed the ceremony! (He must have really pulled out all the stops, because my folks are still hitched.) I'm sorry to report that Dr. Thomas passed away a decade ago -- my parents said Dave delivered an amazing eulogy. By the way, Dave has a graduate degree in English, and was reportedly amazed that people would actually line up to see him NOT using it, as one of the McKenzie brothers.

There is some suspicion around town that Dave based some of the "Great White North" routine on people he knew there, in high school and college. This may very well be true -- I can vouch that there were (and still are) residents who dress that way. And Hamilton's doughnut/beer obsession is legendary -- it was the home of the very first "Timmy's" (Tim Hortons). When they filmed the "Strange Brew" movie, they used locations a couple of blocks from my folks' house ...