SCTV: The Greatest Show You've Never Heard Of (2026) Movie Script

[director] What do you think it is
about this part of the world
Yeah.
that has spawned
this group of comedy legends?
Thank you for saying that.
Um
Is "legend" a good word?
[blues music plays]
I think "living" legend.
That's a compliment.
-Let's put "living" in front of it.
-[director] Yeah.
[blues music continues]
All these performers are the best.
Joe Flaherty, Rick Moranis,
Dave Thomas, Martin Short,
Andrea Martin, Catherine O'Hara,
Eugene Levy, and John Candy.
How do you even assemble
those people at one time
in Canada?
We'll see yous later, eh?
-Good day.
-Hey, take off. This is my shot.
[blues music continues]
[man 1] We all had
different senses of comedy,
but we found a way to make the show work
with seven different sensibilities.
Hey, people. Hoochie coochie.
[laughing]
SCTV was the high watermark
of my entire career.
Ow!
I'm Nureyev! I'm Nureyev!
[man 2] Edith Prickley
and Earl Camembert and Johnny LaRue,
Gerry Todd, The 5 Neat Guys.
High School High Q.
-Jerry Lewis.
-[man 3] Half Wits.
I'm looking for one culinary dish
from Italy.
Swedish meatballs.
I have watched those things,
I'm going to say, 122 times,
and I still laugh.
[inaudible]
[inaudible]
[man 4] We weren't hyped.
We had no promotion.
There was no marketing.
There was no advertising.
People discovered us.
Billy Sol and I, we just love
to see people blow up in films.
-Yeah, blow up good.
-Yeah. [laughs]
[sniffles, sobs]
[inhales]
Not with
Ronco's new Shower in a Briefcase.
[inaudible]
[screams]
Like, I had seen SNL, but SCTV,
it was like their cooler, older cousin
that was out
smoking cigarettes in the back.
[inaudible]
[O'Brien] I'll have to tell you
if someone tells me,
"Yeah, I watched SCTV,
and it wasn't for me. I didn't get it,"
I kind of don't want to know 'em.
Life's too short.
[music ends]
-[woman] Really nice wife too.
-[man 1] I did it just like now.
-[man 2] Where'd my microphone go?
-[woman] Whoa!
Oh, Christ, what happened?
I look back on those days and think,
you were all talented,
and I was just lucky being with everybody.
[man 2] We had all become friends
prior to this show.
-Now, what about Marty in the middle?
-[man 2] Of course.
Marty in the middle.
[man 1] Okay.
[woman] God bless you.
Who gets more attention
than Marty in the middle?
No one wants to see me. [laughs]
[gentle music playing]
[man 3] Back in the early '70s in Toronto,
it was a pretty exciting time.
There was a lot going on,
a vibrant theater community,
and everybody supporting everybody.
It was like a a field
of fabulous apple trees
that no one had picked.
It was this insanely rich world
of great people
that just hadn't been tapped yet.
Take that for a second, won't you?
How about this?
How about that?
Well, now it's like, "I'm wobbly."
Now, that's the worst idea ever,
the stupidest idea.
Sit on that, I'm telling you.
I'm not going to sit on that.
How about you sit on this?
[woman] No, you know
I'm going to look after you.
Get over here.
I was just in Bangkok.
-I know exactly how to do that.
-[laughing]
We all sort of converged on Toronto
because it was the biggest city,
and there were
a couple of things going on.
The ladies look beautiful.
-That's what
-[man 1] The men look
-Old.
-[woman 2] Handsome.
What's wrong?
I meant handsome. I meant handsome.
If it hadn't been for Godspell,
we probably would've gone straight to LA,
but Godspell was a kind of a tentpole
that pulled everybody together.
[woman] Eugene, Marty,
Dave was an understudy,
Gilda Radner,
we kind of all got our start in Toronto
with that show.
-There once was a king
-Yeah, yeah
Who decided to settle accounts
With the men who served him
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Outside of Godspell,
you had, hanging around that time,
Danny Aykroyd,
Lorne Michaels,
John Candy,
Joe Flaherty,
because he was now in town from Chicago
to start Second City in Toronto.
We're at the drive-in
Second City was
this legendary improv theater in Chicago.
[audience applauding]
[Levy] The show was created
through improvisation.
Performers would come out
and take suggestions from the audience.
"We'll take your suggestions."
"Give us ten minutes,
and we're gonna come back
with some scenes."
[audience laughing]
A lot of good names came out
of the Second City.
Wrote a letter to my honey
[Levy] Names like Harold Ramis
and John Belushi and Joe Flaherty.
In 1973, Second City expanded.
The Chicago producer sent
one of his actors to scout around
in, of all places, Toronto.
That actor was Joe Flaherty.
[man] We opened the Second City there,
and we looked at
some of the people who came in,
uh, Eugene Levy and, uh, Martin Short,
and just auditioning for our show,
and we were
It blew our minds.
[director] Was there a buzz
when everyone heard
that Second City is coming up
from Chicago?
Yes, everyone wanted it.
I thought, "Sure, I'll audition."
And I I don't know how I got the part.
I was so bad at improv.
[Thomas] Eugene called me and said,
"Get up here
because you want to be in Second City,
and there's an opening."
I was a waitress at Second City,
and I'd been for a couple of months there,
and I auditioned for the company,
and they were laughing at me, like,
"What are you doing here?
You're a waitress."
[reporter] In 1974, they moved here
to Toronto's Old City Fire Hall,
where the Canadian rights to Second City
were bought out
by a young Canadian producer
named Andrew Alexander.
My first cast was Dan Aykroyd,
Gilda Radner, uh, Eugene Levy.
And in those early days, it was difficult.
[audience applauding]
It was not an instant success.
[O'Hara] I would take
the, uh, streetcar to work
when I worked at Second City theater,
and I would just listen to,
you know, people on the streetcar,
and you'd get
some weird little bit of a conversation,
and you'd get to use it
that night in an improv.
Merv, something has got to be done.
I mean, we have left
We left a good life in Toronto.
It was such a lovely gift,
the most encouraging environment.
Does that does that
does that does that make your day?
[audience laughs]
-Does it?
-[spluttering] Yes.
[audience laughing]
Yes, it does!
[Levy] I threw a little party
at my, uh, little apartment
across the street from the theater,
and while we're at the party,
Dan Aykroyd was on the phone,
and he was saying, "Well, Lorne, Lorne, I
but I have to know whether I'm being used
or whether I'm not."
"I'm not a man who breaks my promises."
And that call, of course,
was about Saturday Night Live.
Live from New York, it's Saturday night!
[Thomas] Danny had got the news
of getting on SNL.
-Jane, you ignorant slut.
-[audience laughing]
[Thomas] And, uh, he goes to New York.
Gilda goes to New York to do SNL.
Welcome to Baba Wawa at Large.
I thought, oh my God, this cast I've got,
I'm gonna be out of business,
and somebody's gonna say, "Hey,
we're gonna try a new late-night show
and take your cast."
And that was a group waiting
for the moment.
The producer said, uh,
"Why don't we have our own show
so that our homegrown talent
can come into our show,
and we can reap some benefits?"
[man] And we were all eyeballing
the United States
and seeing what other work is down there,
and our producers figured
they had to move fast.
They said,
"Would you boys like to do a TV show?"
I said, "Yeah, all right."
A bunch of us got together to try
and brainstorm what this show could be.
And then we thought,
well, let's make it a television station,
an imaginary station.
Let's make it a broadcasting day.
And let's just write up a script
and see how that works out.
[announcer] Because the Second City
Television Network now begins
its programming day.
[static]
[announcer] There were six people
who loved to watch television,
but they didn't like what they saw,
so they decided to do something about it.
[Thomas] We thought TV sucked
and a new group of television warriors
were gonna change TV.
[announcer] Armed with determination
and a strong will
to change the course of television,
they wrote their own show.
[Thomas] We actually had
an apartment building
and threw TVs
out of an apartment building.
[announcer] Yes, SCTV was on the air!
Without proper supervision,
do you know what I mean?
We could've easily killed somebody
and been sued,
but this was all part
of the fun of the show.
[announcer] This is SCTV,
the pride of Melonville.
[upbeat music playing]
[Alexander] The concept of SCTV was
this small network in Melonville,
which was a, you know, little town
somewhere in Canada.
Fictional, all fictional.
The idea that a show would be based
on the programming day
of a little fledgling television station
worked really well for us.
"Cornabix," take three.
We could satirize television.
-I'm doing fine.
-[audience laughs]
[announcer] Statistics are right.
The average American family is
three and three-quarters people.
It afforded us great freedom
to parody films.
Oh! Hey, Mazola, cut that out!
Hey, it's not fair, Mazola!
[Martin] Commercials.
I don't know about you,
but the first thing I want
after a long, hard day's work
is a piece of gum.
[Martin] News reports.
There was a daring bank robbery
in downtown Melonville today
[Martin] Parody television shows.
Were you or were you not drunk?
I've gotta know
before I go into that courtroom.
Oh, you know me better than that, Ted.
It takes more than four martinis
to get me drunk.
[Martin] Musicals.
I'm flying
[dishes clattering]
Anything you can imagine
on a television network,
we were able to do in an abbreviated way.
Time is money, but now talk is cheap with
the new Evelyn Woods Speed Talking School.
Yes! We'll teach you to speak faster
than you've dreamed possible.
I can talk over 60 words a minute.
Wouldn't you too?
We guarantee we cut down
[babbles rapidly]
And fun at parties too.
And also, it opened the door
to the behind-the-scenes reality
of the little television station,
which was the station characters.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
I'm Guy Caballero.
If you doubt me, just take a look there.
That's what it says, Guy Caballero.
Roll 'em!
Hello, Edith Prickley here,
station manager at SCTV.
I'm Floyd Robertson.
And I'm Earl Camembert.
And this is the SCTV News.
[Levy] In the first season,
we had no writers on the show.
We had no idea
what writing for television was.
We were coming out of
an improvisational theater.
Nobody knew what they were doing.
We, as writers and actors, didn't know
what we were doing,
and the producers didn't know
what they were doing,
but we did something great
and brought Harold Ramis in
as head writer.
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.
Change the channel.
See who's on Merv Griffin.
That's about your speed.
[Levy] The one thing we knew
we desperately wanted to do
was please Harold.
[announcer] He's Curtis Edgit,
Plainclothes Mountie.
[Levy] His sense of comedy was so acute.
If you could write a piece,
and if he laughed,
I mean,
it was the greatest feeling in the world.
The program is Extreme Close-Up,
and I'm your host, Dave Thomas.
My guest today on Extreme Close-Up is
actor, playwright, critic Maurice Green.
Welcome, Mr. Green.
[Maurice] Thanks, Dave.
It's a pleasure to be here.
[Short] But do you find
the early stuff funny?
-No.
-[O'Hara] Some of it.
-You don't?
-Some of it.
-You don't, Dave?
-Some of it.
But mostly, it
a lot of it seems old and dated to me.
-We were finding our way.
-[O'Hara] You know, we were
-And it was cheap-looking.
-[Thomas] Yeah.
-It was cheap--
-I think cheap-looking is a big effect.
Well, if you're calling
$7,000 a show "cheap,"
because that's what the budget was.
Everybody smile now.
[all screaming]
[Levy] We were working
with a budget of $7,000 an episode.
This is not per person.
The entire budget of the show was $7,000.
We were at a little studio
called Global Television,
and the only thing
they did at Global was news
Wanna dance?
-Yes.
-Gosh!
I thought you were someone else.
and lunchtime talk shows.
Here from Labrador is Johnny LaRue
with a special film report.
[Thomas] The sets were
just so cheap and horrible.
I'm standing here
on the snowy banks of Labrador
where each year
thousands of hunters slaughter baby seals.
Hey, cut that out! [grunts]
That was part of the charm
of this little cheesy television station
was that it was cheap
and looked like public-access television.
Saturday night, kids.
Time for
another Monster Chiller Horror Theatre.
[howling]
SCTV did a very smart thing.
They gave themselves a concept.
"We are riffing on TV."
Everything you see on our show
is going to be a parody.
[announcer] It's Leave It to Beaver,
the 25th Anniversary Party.
I was watching this thing, and it was
a takeoff on Leave It to Beaver,
and I had never seen anything like it.
Look at Wally.
Four divorces left him flat broke.
[Hanks] Ward was drunk,
and, you know, June was a nut.
Somebody was telling, uh, Beave
that Eddie Haskell was bothering him,
and said, "Well, why don't you kill him?"
Come on, Beaver.
[Hanks] I couldn't figure out
what was going on,
and then, like lightning,
it struck me that this is a sketch.
Boy, Beaver, you're gonna get it.
-Oh my!
-[audience laughing]
Beaver, I'm afraid
you're going to have to explain yourself.
And that just put it on the map
in my head.
When I was doing Bosom Buddies
with Peter Scolari,
the video cassette recorder
had just been invented,
so, for about $3,000,
we would record SCTV.
Someone in this room is a murderer.
Dun, dun, dun, dun.
And then,
we would show up on Monday at rehearsal
and parse out
every single moment and character
of Edith Prickley
and Earl Camembert and Johnny LaRue.
I like French bread. It's got a-- Whoa!
I think Peter and I were probably,
individually, looking at our VHSes
like this
"Ah, I see what he's doing."
"Oh wow."
[speaking Leutonian]
Studying like it was a comedic laboratory,
and we were trying to figure out
how many beakers
of certain chemicals they use
in order to create genius.
How do you do it, Denise?
I'm knocking my brains out nine to five
for $120 a week,
and you're living like a queen.
What's your secret?
It's simple, Rochelle, prostitution.
[Odenkirk] So I saw a very first iteration
that was on at, I think, 12:30,
maybe even 1:00 a.m.,
after SNL.
[announcer] Late night Saturday,
after Saturday Night Live,
the fun continues on Channel 5.
[man] I mean, it was on really late,
and something about SCTV,
with me and my friends,
was more like a secret code.
Like, it made us feel cool.
It was like, for me and my friends,
like loving punk rock or something.
It was like, "Oh okay, so you're"
"We're into the same thing.
We're going to the same shows."
Hi, my name's Phil,
and I've got a warehouse full of nails
that I have to sell
at big discount prices.
[O'Brien] It very much felt
like it's a speakeasy,
and we know the password.
Like, you knock on the door,
a little slit opens up,
and you just say, "Rutabaga."
And the slit closes, and you're let in
to this little, tiny society
of the funniest people in the world.
Oh, boss! Oh, I hope there's
lots of chicks on that plane, boss!
-Patoo! What?
-Oh, I love chicks, boss!
-Oh, boss!
-What are you doing?
I'm sorry, boss! I love chicks.
I've always thought of it as comedy from
the wrong the other side of the tracks,
the wrong side of the tracks.
There was something really scrappy
about it that I loved.
Like, something that felt like
my friends and I could do in our basement.
We did the comedy
to make each other laugh,
because we just basically assumed
no one else was laughing.
[upbeat music playing]
[Martin] The nature of SCTV was the group.
We needed each other
to keep that show going.
That's uplifting!
[Martin] We looked at every take we did
for each other.
There were monitors,
so we'd shoot a scene, a sketch.
We would then go to the monitors,
check it out.
We'd give feedback.
We lived for each other's feedback.
Why couldn't they do cuts there
and then go to a wide shot at the end
when we hug each other
to get the stage effect?
[O'Brien] There's no live studio audience
at SCTV.
Live audiences are great,
but they're also tyrannical.
If they don't like something,
things get cut or shortened,
and SCTV didn't need that.
"We don't need the approval
of a live studio audience
to tell us if this is good or not."
The genius of SCTV was
the criteria for what was funny
and what deserved to be on TV
was in the hands of the cast.
Everything that they were doing,
even early on, was so original
and so funny.
This script stinks!
[Short] It was a level
of eccentric freedom
that I'd never seen on television.
This man is a gem.
He's a giant in this industry, really.
Johnny LaRue.
[laughing]
[Thomas] LaRue was basically John,
and so rather than call him John Candy,
we called him Johnny LaRue.
I have decided to eat continuously
until there's lasting peace achieved
in the Middle East.
[Thomas] Because he had
larger-than-life appetites.
He had a grandiose image of himself.
[man] Here he is, the king himself,
the personification of success,
Johnny LaRue.
That's the essence of Johnny LaRue,
but it was also the essence of John Candy.
[Martin] Nobody has
a bad story about John Candy.
Who you thought John Candy was
is exactly who he was.
He was as friendly and loving
to somebody who just delivered the coffee
as he would be to President Obama.
[Thomas] When you walked out on stage
with John,
half your work was over
because the audience already liked you
because of this guy with this big,
chubby, lovable face standing beside you.
-Hi, we're the Two Goofs!
-Hi, we're the Two Goofs!
[Odenkirk] The thing about SCTV is
they had to do so much.
They were being relied upon
for a lot of material
with a very small staff.
And that's cool because you end up
using weird ideas because you have to.
You have to use
nearly everything people write.
[narrator] She became
the first nursery school teacher ever
to be raised by geese.
[honking]
[exhales sharply]
[Odenkirk] SCTV had that fringy,
dangerous, crazy, indulgent quality
Good morning. Welcome to Heavenly Bodies.
I'm Sister Mary Innocent.
that a person who loves comedy actually
loves more than a pristine sketch.
[laughs]
[announcer] Connie Franklin,
one of the most depressing singers
of your generation, will really bring you
down with 20 of her most maudlin hits
in a new album entitled
20 Depressing Hits by Connie Franklin.
[Hader] Andrea Martin, she one time did
the thing where she was [laughing]
[laughing] She was
I'm losing my hearing
I've lost sight in one eye
[Hader] She sings a song, and it was like
just all the songs are crazy depressing.
They kinda got to these very dark topics.
[narrator] He's the biggest coward
in the West.
He's Yellowbelly.
[child] Hey, Mommy, that's Yellowbelly.
[horse trotting]
-[gun fires]
-[horse neighing]
We were watching it with my sister,
and when it happened, we both were like,
"Oh!" [laughs]
Like, what the fuck?
Oh, you can do that?
That's wild.
-You shot my child!
-[whimpers]
-You yellowbelly!
-[Yellowbelly whimpers]
Help! Help!
That Yellowbelly-- [screams]
Yellow, Yellowbelly
[Hader] It's a promo for the show.
They're trying to sell
this show, Yellowbelly,
and they sat in a room and said,
"You know what I think
would sell this show the best?"
"That scene where he shoots the kid
in the back." [laughs]
I mean, it's just the insanity
and, like, how horrible it is,
but [spluttering]
even as a kid, it was just so shocking.
Let's see
how the big man can handle Wonder Woman.
-Come on, baby.
-Let go of me.
[Odenkirk] The only reason that show works
is the performances.
I loved Edith Prickley.
Oh, hello.
Edith Prickley, your station manager.
Well
I loved Guy Caballero,
the sitting in the wheelchair,
the getting up from the wheelchair.
Coincidentally, I've been getting
some mail saying,
"Guy, why do you use that wheelchair?"
"We see you walk around."
Well, I'll tell you why.
-It's for respect.
-[audience laughing]
[Odenkirk] It's just fucking brilliant.
And those performances,
you're happy to sit there
and just go, "Just keep doing it."
[host] What is the one thing you do
that really bugs your husband?
I pick my nose in bed.
That's right
[Odenkirk] They had a joy about them.
Queen Elizabeth II has just won $250.
[Odenkirk] It really teaches you
that lesson that you need to learn
as a young comedy writer,
which is you can write
scathing characters and scenes.
Welcome to Family Crisis,
the game show that lets you forget
about your family problems
and get a good laugh
out of somebody else's.
But in its presentation, it should be
positive and upbeat and excited.
[announcer] It's The Sammy Maudlin Show
starring Sammy Maudlin.
[Odenkirk] Sammy Maudlin is
a great example.
What happens in The Sammy Maudlin Show
happens on every talk show.
You have to be upbeat.
You have to be friendly.
You have to compliment each other.
Fantastic, Sammy.
You're the greatest. You're the greatest.
That was beautiful. Well done.
To be quite honest now, to be honest,
it's only great, it's only fantastic
because I have fantastic guests
on the show.
[Odenkirk] I've done lots of talk shows
and interviews,
and there's a truth
to The Sammy Maudlin Show.
Believe me, ladies and gentlemen,
this man is a god.
Sammy Maudlin.
[Odenkirk] Everybody is laughing
way too hard at each other.
I love you, Sammy Maudlin. I really do.
[audience applauding]
[Odenkirk] And they're
complimenting each other way too much.
And you hear yourself in interviews,
and you're like
[whispering] "This is
The Sammy Maudlin Show."
"I'm doing it right now in real life."
And it's gross, but it's fucking funny.
I want you to give a big, warm welcome
to funny man Bobby Bittman.
[Odenkirk] Bobby Bittman was
a shitty, shitty Vegas-y stand-up comic.
Hello.
[Odenkirk] Nobody beats Bobby Bittman's
shitty, empty, nothing catchphrase.
How are you?
[all laughing]
How are you? [laughing]
How are you?!
And everyone laughs.
What?
It's not funny.
Like even saying it, I can't believe
that somehow that "works."
We've been trying
to get you on this show for weeks,
but you're so busy,
you just don't seem to have a minute.
-That's right, touch wood. [laughs]
-[drum sting]
[Levy] The idea of playing a character
that is not only
not the sharpest pencil in the drawer,
which a lot of us kind of gravitated to
because it's fun to play,
but characters who think
they are quite amazing at what they do,
and they're really the total opposite.
We comedians are
a very strange lot, Orson.
We we care about other people
more than we do ourselves.
[Levy] Bittman was one of them,
a guy who thought he was the cat's ass
when it came to comedy,
but he was the worst comedian
in the world.
I'm not, uh, saying
this was a heavy-duty bar,
but when I walked in there,
I thought there was some guy tap dancing
behind the bar.
-Turned out there were termites this big.
-[drum sting]
[Short] Is that your hair?
-[laughing] Well, sadly, yes it was.
-No. [laughs]
-Can you believe that's Eugene's hair?
-No.
Oh yeah, that was my hair.
[Short] That is insane.
Hi, I'm Alex Trebel.
Welcome to High Q,
the game of academic achievement.
Competing today are students
from Parkdale High.
Margaret Meehan
[Levy] High Q is a piece
Catherine had written,
a quiz show for high school students,
which was an actual show that was on
the Canadian Broadcasting Network.
I played Margaret Meehan from Parkdale.
My mother is Margaret Meehan
from Parkdale Collegiate. [laughing]
Now let's start the game.
The first question worth 20 points,
and the subject is authors.
-[buzzing]
-Margaret Meehan, Parkdale.
Henry Miller.
I'm sorry, Margaret.
Let me please finish the question first,
all right?
What famous--
[buzzing]
Margaret Meehan, Parkdale.
Victor Hugo.
[Hader] That character she plays,
it's like I know that girl,
that know-it-all girl.
Just really just wants to get it right,
you know, and be right.
No points on that. Next question.
-[crowd booing]
-The topic, music.
[buzzing]
[audience laughing]
Margaret Meehan, Parkdale.
The Beatles.
[audience laughing]
Margaret, I will have to ask you to keep
your grubby fingers off the buzzer.
High Q, when I know it's even gonna start,
I start laughing.
-That's fun, a good one.
-It was so inspired.
Nothing makes me laugh more than,
like out of nowhere,
I'll just think, "The Beatles?"
-[laughing]
-Then I'll start laughing.
-That's it. No points.
-Wait!
Catherine O'Hara was really like,
you know, she's one of my heroes.
Join me every weekday morning
for Bath Talk,
the most informal, informative,
and interesting talk show on the air.
[Hader] Just the way
she embodies the characters,
and she's a really incredibly good actor.
Join me, won't you?
[announcer] Saturday at 10:00,
In Concert presents
the beautiful, dynamic,
multi-talented Miss Lola Heatherton.
We're so glad to be here
We just love you all
Gonna give you everything we got
We're gonna have a ball
You've got Lola Heatherton,
who is just an idiot and funny
and based on Joey Heatherton.
Whoa!
Yeah!
Fake, uh, overly "sexy."
I love you. [laughs]
Join me this Sunday at 8:00
for the first special
in my five-part special series,
Way to Go, Woman!
This week, join me in India
as I rough it with Mother Teresa.
And then you say,
let's put her next to Mother Teresa
and have her do her fake sincerity
next to this person
who's, you know,
a representation of real selflessness
and real feelings,
and the fraudulence
will just be magnified.
[laughing]
Mother Teresa,
what do you get out of this?
I am happy they are strong and capable.
Yeah, but don't you feel like
just sometimes saying,
"Oh, get it together, will you?"
"And stop coming to me
for all the answers."
We were having a lot of fun
doing the show,
but we didn't think anybody was watching.
We didn't actually realize that until
after the show had gone into syndication.
[intriguing music playing]
And we started reading reviews.
Oh my God,
they're watching the show in Texas?
Wow.
We went down to California,
to Bel Air, for writing
because Harold Ramis had to be down there
for another job.
So Andrew flew us all down
to work with Harold in Los Angeles,
and they got a house.
[Alexander] It was
a great bonding experience for them.
They were all living together.
You know, they had bunk beds,
and, you know, it was like going to camp.
There was one special night
where John actually had a lot
John Candy had a lot to do with this.
He organized the party because John was,
you know, Johnny LaRue.
I mean, he pulled together a party,
and we ended up
with people like Steven Spielberg,
uh, Chevy Chase.
I remember
John had Chevy in a, uh, headlock
for about an hour, hour and a half
walking around the party.
The house was just wall-to-wall people
outside, inside,
and Steven Spielberg was there.
And I had had a couple of drinks,
people were coming over to me going,
"Steven Spielberg is here.
He wants to see you."
Like, "Yeah, okay, right,"
you know, "Thank you."
"Excuse me, I've got a drink to get here."
Thinking, you know, it was a joke,
I went over, and there he was.
Uh, he was just surrounded
by a lot of people,
and he says,
"John, John, I really like your work."
And I'm [breath trembling]
[Levy] I think, at that point,
we realized that not only did people know
about the show and know what it was,
if they didn't care for the show
and didn't like it,
they wouldn't be at the party.
It seemed like an event they had to be at
because there was an element of,
you know, hipness attached to it.
And then at the end of season two,
we ran into some financial problems
putting the show together in Toronto,
and, uh, that was it.
The show went down.
[intriguing music playing]
[Thomas] I was at SNL visiting Dan,
who was my friend,
and it was just so different than SCTV.
Even the drug use on the show
was different.
Everything was bigger.
[audience applauding]
It was Rockefeller Center.
It was New York City.
And I felt so small visiting there.
I found it to be very dark
compared to SCTV
because SCTV was warmer.
It was more of a family.
[director] Knowing
how dark a place that was
and knowing that SCTV was the right fit,
why did you still want to audition for it?
I think we all wanted to audition for it
because it was the big time
and it was this cultural icon.
[host] John, was there ever a time
when you spoke with Lorne Michaels
or there was the possibility of
you joining the Saturday Night Live group?
-Mm-hmm.
-What happened? Why didn't you?
Um, it was
a very strange meeting [laughs]
that we had with Lorne in Toronto.
Uh, he auditioned Dave Thomas,
Joe Flaherty, and myself.
Lorne came up and demanded
that we audition at the theater,
which meant we had to go to Andrew.
[Alexander] I dedicated myself
to try and find a way
to keep the show on the air,
and having Lorne come in
and sort of pick two or three of people,
particularly somebody like John,
you know,
I had a few sleepless nights prior to that
knowing that we're coming up,
that this could be the end of it.
[Thomas] And it was a disaster.
The desperation was so thick
it was palpable.
After this horrible set,
we went to Lorne's table.
He didn't say anything.
I think he had something wrong
with his throat 'cause he couldn't talk.
Either that or he was very rude. [laughs]
It was one or the other.
[Alexander] And Lorne said,
"Don't give up your day job."
And John never got over that.
John was stung deeply by that.
Then we get word
that the show's starting up again
in Edmonton.
[upbeat music playing]
I found a TV station
out in Edmonton of all places.
It was owned by a doctor.
A wealthy doctor, billionaire,
who happened to own
his own television studio.
He'll fund the show,
but we have to work in his studio.
I didn't know
they shot two years in Edmonton.
First of all, if you're in Winnipeg,
you're like, "Oh, I'm really in Canada."
Edmonton is further north.
It's so Canadian.
That's something I envy
is picking a city like that
where you could really focus
on doing the show.
[Alexander] There was
sort of a bunker mentality.
Actually, the studio was below ground,
and the sun would go down
around two o'clock in the afternoon.
There was nothing really to do.
Uh, so everybody worked.
The focus 24-7 was on the show
because there was nothing to do.
So when we weren't working,
we would end up visiting each other
and end up writing.
We had an off day, nothing to do.
I went to John's apartment.
We ended up watching television,
and there was a local polka show.
It's polka time, ladies and gentlemen.
[polka music playing]
And I said, "Boy,
there's a couple of Shmenges, John."
And we talked about,
what if we did a polka show?
Hello, I'm Yosh Shmenge.
And I'm Stan Shmenge.
-And we are The Happy Wanderers.
-And we are The Happy Wanderers.
-[audience applauding]
-[polka music playing]
[Levy] We were from
a country called Leutonia.
You didn't quite know where it was,
but it was like, "All right, I guess."
Stan, you look like
one of Mrs. Vilve Yachke's cabbage rolls,
and the shark is hungry.
-No! No! Oh no!
-Dun, dun, dun, dun.
What can be said about Linsk Minyk
that hasn't already been said?
Ladies and gentlemen,
Leutonia's own Linsk Minyk.
Thank you.
[man] When Dave asked me to do the show,
I joined in the third season.
It was 26 half hours,
and I figured, why not?
The only hook was
that we were gonna shoot in Edmonton,
and I'd never been there.
[Thomas] I knew Rick was funny
the minute I saw him.
I did some improv stuff with him,
and he was so fast and so funny
and he could do impersonations.
And I went to Andrew Alexander,
and I said,
"You gotta bring this guy into the show."
[Moranis] I was the only person
that did not come out of
The Second City theater.
And so, I think I brought
a different energy and a different pace.
I'd worked in radio
for a decade before that.
[Moranis on radio]
Ten Ruby Shoes locations,
including Fairview Mall,
Toronto Dominion Centre, and 90
[Moranis] Everything moved fast
on the radio,
and that was the gear that I was in.
When he came into that writing room
and, you know,
you face those the wall of blank cards,
26 shows and they've all gotta be filled.
And Moranis just starts going [humming]
Just starts firing the stuff out.
And he was like a machine.
He was so fast and so prolific,
and it was exactly what we needed
that season.
I thought what Rick brought was
a different sensibility for sure.
He knew how to be funny
in ways that we hadn't experimented with.
Clay Collins to see Dr. Sabian.
-I just love your music.
-Thank you.
It's good to know
my music turns on pretty girls like you.
Are you really Clay Collins?
You look as dreamy as you sound.
It's good to know
my music turns on pretty girls like you.
[Martin] He's a great impersonator.
-[announcer] Mr. George Carlin.
-[applause]
How you doing?
Why does everyone always say,
"How you doing?"
How you doing, man?
How you doing, man? Got any dope?
Really, really smart.
What are you doing on television?
-What a wonderful question.
-Thank you. Am I blushing?
I'm actually feeling
an awkward kind of embarrassment.
And I think made SCTV better.
The other thing I brought was
a lot of music.
You know, I did a lot of musical stuff
wherever I could.
And, you know,
suddenly you've got The 5 Neat Guys.
I got a hickey on my shoulder
[announcer] It's 5 Neat Guys Gold,
new from K-Tel.
I didn't sleep a wink
All night
Let's have a party in my rec room
And then The Recess Monkeys.
-[phone ringing]
-Hi, welcome back to the telethon.
It's after midnight, and I'm still awake.
-This is excellent.
-[ringing continues]
-Is it light out yet?
-[man] No.
[Levy] Pre-teen World was a piece
that we had done a few times,
and it was like
teenagers that have their own show.
And on this one show,
three of these teens had
their little rock group,
and it was called Recess Monkeys.
With their band, The Recess Monkeys!
Yay!
Gone, gone, gone
You've been gone so long
-Been gone so long
-[laughing]
Gone, gone, gone
She's been gone so long
She been gone, gone, gone so long
Gone, gone, gone
She's been gone so long
She's been gone, gone, gone so long
Candy kept breaking me up in this thing.
Why?
Because he swallows
in the middle of his lines.
Oh, I see.
Gone, gone, gone
She's been gone so long
Gone so long
[Levy] I couldn't keep a straight face,
so for a lot of the song, my head is down
because I'm laughing my ass off.
My girl
My girl
-Oh, Eugene!
-[Short laughing]
[on TV] My girl
My girl
[scattered applause]
And a good, good morning to you.
Welcome back to The Gerry Todd Show
here in the wee small ones
of a Saturday morning.
[Odenkirk] I love any Gerry Todd.
It's genius.
It was identifying
a certain voice of the time
that was like a tech guy
who was way too excited
about nonsense, technical shit.
Gerry Todd
[laughs] How are you?
[Odenkirk] All the wipes,
all the star wipes and the screen wipes.
And he was grooving on that.
That mattered more to him
than the substance
of whatever he was showing you.
I think it's the weather's up
and it's a blue.
So he, like, adjusts the Gerry Todd thing.
He changes the color to red.
And he doesn't explain why.
The Gerry Todd Show.
It's just That's a little better.
[Hader] He has the confidence.
That's what's funny about it
is watching this guy kind of play
with this new toy. [laughs]
Join me for The Gerry Todd Show next time.
Meantime, we've got more video for you.
This time from a Grammy winner himself.
Is this when he does
Mike McDonald in the studio?
-Yeah, yeah.
-So good.
So good.
It's called "Ride Like the Wind."
Thanks for being with us.
It is the night
My body's weak
I'm on the run
No time to sleep
One of the things
that was fascinating about SCTV is
that they would get a concept
and then make it happen.
So the idea that, gee, do you ever notice
that Michael McDonald's on
every song you hear?
I've got to ride, ride like the wind
[Short] So Rick Moranis does
Michael McDonald
racing from studio to studio to jump in.
And I've got such a long way to go
-Such a long way to go
-To make it to the border of Mexico
It's the last song in the world that needs
another distinctive voice on it.
Like the wind
Ride like the wind
[Moranis] And suddenly there's Mike.
And I've got such a long way to go
-Such a long way to go
-To make it to the border of Mexico
I just thought this is out of control.
Something must be done here.
Ride like the wind
And I've got such a long way to go
-Such a long way to go
-To make it to the border of Mexico
So I ride like the wind
Ride like the wind
And I've got a long way to go
-Such a long way to go
-To make it to the border of Mexico
So I ride
[Short] That idea is so not commercial
that most shows would say,
"I don't know about that."
[music ends]
Thanks a lot.
I'll probably need you next week.
-I'll give you a call.
-Okay, see ya.
[music resumes]
[Armisen] I really did want to become
something like Rick Moranis.
I loved them all,
but there was something
about Rick Moranis that I was like,
"He disappeared into characters."
Imagine meeting someone at your tailor.
It's like It's like
It's better than a blind date.
It's incredible.
Wait a second, what am I saying?
That Woody Allen. It is Woody Allen. It
These impressions were just
They were those people.
That was true
of Catherine O'Hara's Kate Hepburn.
He suggested using the living room set
right on the stage,
but I feel the stage should be reserved
for performing,
and a performance was
hardly what I had in mind.
So we used my dressing room.
Catherine O'Hara's Katharine Hepburn
is shocking.
It's like more Katharine Hepburn
than Katharine Hepburn.
And to top it off, they're bad actors.
They're they're indicating.
They're generalizing.
-They're telegraphing.
-Wow.
-[Short] Look at that. Look at the foot.
-Look at your foot. I can't.
For years, we've been demanding
more government support for the arts.
Okay, it's literally
like Katharine Hepburn.
-I know, but the foot is
-Oh, it was amazing.
When I was younger,
a man wouldn't dare cut me off
until I was finished with him.
We have to explain
who all these people are.
-Of course.
-[O'Hara] Who are any of those references?
-[Short] Like when you're doing Hepburn
-[O'Hara] Mm-hmm.
it's just a great character.
I don't think
we need to know Katharine Hepburn.
You have to explain to viewers
who Bob Hope is these days.
Yeah.
Today, I mean,
you've gotta be, you know, 94 and up
to actually understand
who these people were
and what we're doing.
Ladies and gentlemen, in case
you don't know who this is, Mr. Bob Hope!
[laughing]
Hi, ladies and gentlemen.
No, I'll tell you, I was just walking
down the hall and saw the studio light on.
What a surprise.
I thought this show had been canceled.
[all laughing]
I wasn't necessarily great
at doing impressions.
I could never do impressions
when the show started.
I always felt bad about that.
I learned to develop it
with the help of hair and makeup.
Because a lot of times,
I wouldn't have a clue
how to impersonate a character
until they started working on me
and I could see
the character develop on my face.
And I will lay me down
Perry Como was this amazing singer,
but very laid back,
and then Eugene Levy played him.
[announcer] Yes,
Perry Como is still alive!
[Hader] To the point
where it was like comatose.
Celebrate good times, come on
[laughing] The thing I love is
he's laying on the ground
and a microphone's just laying
next to his face
and just the one finger going up and down.
The sweetness
[laughing] Like, he's barely
He barely has a pulse.
[announcer] Gene Shalit,
America's Critic at Large
in his first variety special.
It's a beautiful day
In the neighborhood
[Hader] Gene Shalit having this, like,
kind of variety show with all the critics.
[announcer] The Gene Shalit
Critics' Special.
[Hader] Towards the end of the sketch,
where it just does a hard cut to him
singing "Sailing."
Sailing takes me away
[laughing] And he's wearing this white
just him going, "Sailing!"
as Gene Shalit.
[laughing] Just the cut to him singing
made me laugh so hard.
[harmonizing]
[announcer] The Gene Shalit
Critics' Special.
Thursday night at 9:00 on SCTV.
The production value
which Edmonton gave us totally shocked me.
And the look of the show changed.
There wouldn't be an SCTV
without Juul Haalmeyer,
the costume designer,
Bev Schechtman, who was my makeup artist,
Christine Hart,
and Judi Cooper-Sealy.
Uh, Judi, eight hours ago,
we were sitting in the chair.
Well, Bev, Judi and Juul
transformed the show.
[intriguing music playing]
[Moranis] Juul, Catherine,
how lovely to see you again.
[laughing]
-Is my costume in my dressing room?
-Which one are you looking for, dear?
The makeup department was
like the kitchen of the show.
It was where a lot of things developed,
a lot of ideas would emerge.
It's where characters would get
kind of cooked and finished.
Beverley winds up getting hold
of an 8x10 of Dick Cavett,
tapes it to my chest,
and turns me into Dick Cavett.
Good evening.
[Moranis] And what it gave me
once I saw how much I looked like him,
that I was able
to develop the physicality,
and I think that happened
with a lot of people
and a lot of characters.
Well, my God, what they did
in terms of look and wardrobe,
it was miraculous, you know?
Anything in wardrobe, any prop,
anything I wanted to do, I was able to do.
So we were very lucky children.
We now had to write
to the look that we were being given.
[Merv Griffin] An inside look
at the fascinating world of terrorism.
Yasser Arafat is with us.
[O'Brien] One of the things
that SCTV was so brilliant at
was just taking the wrong people
who should never be
in the same room together
and mashing them up.
That's a marvelous, marvelous hat
you've got on.
[O'Brien] Merv Griffin gets Yasser Arafat
to show the lining of his coat,
and you can see at first,
Yasser Arafat's confused,
and he's saying, "You're a terrorist,
but I wanna see the lining of that."
"Ooh, I wanna see the lining."
[audience laughing]
And then Liberace comes.
Lee, show us your lining.
-Ready?
-Do you wanna see that? Huh?
[O'Brien] He gets Liberace to show
the lining of his coat.
"Ooh, look at that, ooh."
Ooh!
[O'Brien] And in the background,
Yasser Arafat's now into it.
And he's trying to see Liberace's lining.
Well, I don't have a silver,
but I hope one day
to get the fabulous blue.
Speaking of which
[Moranis] Dave and I really
hit it off immediately,
and we just started creating
so much stuff together.
Well, I don't have people hitting on me
because I'm short, Jewish, or neurotic.
-I'm a normal guy.
-Normal guy?
You have to fend off liberals
attacking you for your politics.
Hey, listen, that was just a bad decade.
I'd like to forget about that.
Bad? I can't believe this. A bad decade.
Do you believe what he's saying?
-You talking to the camera?
-I'm doing a voice thing.
I know where the camera is.
It's over there.
I'm doing a voice, so I--
-Hi, ladies and gentlemen, how you doing?
-I can pull it in in editing.
Doesn't matter to me.
-I can do it now or later.
-Not without talking to my agent.
And we start doing Bob Hope, Woody Allen,
Walter Cronkite and David Brinkley.
Teenagers wasting themselves away
on booze.
That that burns me up, David.
I'd like to do something about it
if I was a
[piano playing]
[Moranis] It's hard
to find partners like that,
but when you find them, they're treasures.
[piano continues]
Good day. Um, I'm Bob McKenzie.
-This is my brother, Doug.
-How's it going, eh?
[Alexander] The CBC came to me
because we were on the CBC,
the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation,
and they said,
"We want more Canadian content,"
which really made no sense at all
because it was a Canadian-produced show.
It was mostly Canadian performers.
I went crazy.
I said,
"Everything we're doing is Canadian."
"What do you want us to do?"
"You want us to sit in front of a map,
put on a tuque and parka
and fry back bacon
and drink beer and talk like hosers?"
He said, "Yeah, okay."
Good day, this is the Great White North.
I'm Bob McKenzie.
This is my brother, Doug.
How's it going, eh?
[Moranis] Dave and I thought,
well, we'll do a few.
Good day, how's it going?
I'm Bob McKenzie.
-This is my brother, Doug.
-How's it going, eh?
We'll fill two minutes.
We'll improvise them.
[man] Good luck, guys.
Take off.
Good luck. We don't know
what we're gonna talk about.
[Thomas] And we'd get
the floor director to count us in.
Five, four, three, two, one.
Oh, I'll do the intro this time.
He's chugalugging a beer.
-No, that's my job.
-Hi, welcome to Great White North.
I'm Doug McKenzie.
This is my brother, Bob, eh?
-Real good, eh? Real good.
-You're supposed to say, "How's it going?"
-How's it going?
-That's my
I did that, coo-loo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo.
Coo-loo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo.
Coo-loo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo.
I did that as a stall.
Do it.
Coo-loo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo.
[Thomas] Because we didn't have topics.
We didn't know what we were gonna say.
-Okay, today we're gonna talk about--
-When when does it start?
-What, the show?
-Yeah.
-It did already.
-[chuckles]
And that gave us
a little more time to think.
Today we're gonna talk about our topic.
Today's topic is What, is it over?
Like, why is there
no back bacon-flavored gum?
-That'd be great, eh?
-Mmm.
[Moranis] The next thing we hear is
that somebody in Regina wants us
to fly out there to make an appearance.
And we go, and they're, like, waiting
at the airport for us
and screaming for us.
And we go to this club,
and we didn't have an act,
but we sort of do
this improvisational performance.
Our topics are, oh, my brother's finger.
-I was picking my nose and we hit a car.
-Yeah.
[audience laughing]
[Thomas] What we didn't count on was
that it would catch on.
That our stupid in-jokes,
that it would actually catch on
and that people would find it funny.
-All right!
-[crowd cheering]
Sometimes government regulations
can pay off, you know?
-[host] Not very often, but occasionally.
-[laughs]
After we finished that third season,
the show goes down again.
It was a constant battle
because we were fighting, you know,
a very slim budget still, uh,
a cast that had gotten, uh,
more sophisticated management
and, uh, agents.
Meanwhile, Brandon Tartikoff is trying
to put together
a 90-minute version of the show.
[announcer] Ladies and gentlemen,
our boss, Brandon Tartikoff!
[Alexander] Brandon Tartikoff was
head of programming for NBC.
In fact, he had the title, I think,
of president of the network.
So, this little half-hour show has
the attention of the President of NBC.
They were trying to develop it
on a Friday night
to be sort of, like, a rival
to Saturday Night Live.
And there was a lot of lying going on
on my part.
You know, I'd say to NBC, "No problem,
the cast would love to do it."
Well, in fact,
the cast weren't crazy about coming back.
Dave and Rick were not sold
on doing the show.
We'd been apart for too long,
and this is a show
that's been a failure for so long.
To suddenly now have a shot
at the big time, we're not going to do it.
We can't pull it off.
And the same with Catherine.
I joined the cast of Saturday Night Live,
you know, in the summertime, something.
So we found out
she was at Saturday Night Live,
and we just begged her to come. [laughs]
We said,
"We're gonna be on network too, Cat."
-You're a lean, mean fighting machine!
-Fighting machine!
I'll do it!
[Moranis] The big change was
that people started to get invitations
to do other things, to get poached
and to get tempted into doing movies
and other shows and things like that.
Who wants an orange whip? Orange whip?
Orange whip?
[Alexander] And I was telling them,
"Don't worry, I've got the cast."
"No problem, no problem."
[announcer] There once were seven people
who started their own network,
but every network has its day,
and theirs was over.
Or so they thought.
They were sick of doing comedy,
but not that sick.
One by one
[Alexander] Eventually, I was able
to pull the cast together, we got it done,
and NBC, we agreed to the amount of money,
which was probably way too low,
because we'd go back every other week
asking for more money
once we got up and running.
[announcer] Summoned by a force
that none of them were able to resist.
They were sent to New York City,
the entertainment capital of the world,
where they were treated royally
and showered with adulation
[Moranis] We didn't really hit a stride
until a few episodes
into the first NBC season,
and we started to hear feedback,
and suddenly, we were becoming something
that people were aware of.
When you're alone
And life is making you lonely
You can always go
Downtown
This incredible piece of film, which shows
Henry Kissinger on a drunken rampage
at a posh Washington restaurant.
[audience laughing]
Let go of me.
I don't
[indistinct grumbling]
What in your mind today
is the biggest problem
that women face today?
Some are overweight and some are anorexic.
I would kill to be anorexic for one week.
Can I tell you that?
Anyway, continue.
[Martin] Got better looking, the show.
-Oh, yes. Yes.
-Yes. That's a 90-minute show.
And everything just
you know, just relaxed
into a smarter, richer comedy, that's all.
[man 1] Four, three, two
[man 2] I know
this is gonna sound like a clich,
but this man just saved my life.
[reporter] This is a parody
within a dream,
within a parody of a Neil Simon movie,
within a Neil Simon play,
or something like that.
-See, it happened again.
-That's right.
-Darling, is that someone at the door?
-Yes, it is, my sweet.
But we haven't been introduced.
[reporter] Just days later,
this ambitious item
was seen by millions of viewers.
Darling, is that someone at the door?
Yes, it is, my sweet,
but we haven't been introduced.
Your Highness, where are your manners?
Oh, I must have left them
in my other suit.
Everyone had grown up watching
a lot of television
and a lot of movies.
They would put jokes in there
that, if you were paying attention
and you got them,
you thought
you had touched the face of God, like,
"Oh my God,
no one else is going to get that but me."
I never thought it would come to this,
network war.
[screaming]
They created this whole world
where all these characters
get mashed into different movies.
There's story arcs.
You just marvel
at the intricacy of all of it.
[tires squeal]
Ah!
[guns firing]
Officials are gearing up
for the thing they fear most,
a total network war.
-What the hell's going on here?
-[sirens wailing]
Sonny got mad and hit PBS.
[Hader] Each time, there's so many levels
and so many details.
Sonny, you just hit PBS!
-What do you want to hit 'em again for?
-I hate that egghead network!
It ended up being
almost like a comedic novel
that we read every night,
as opposed to a show
that we watched and made us laugh.
Ha, ha.
Come on, you wanna fight? Let's go!
-Yeah, okay, Greek, come on!
-Come on!
-Anytime.
-Come on, let's go. Me and you.
-Greek, it's a hit!
-[grunts]
[gun firing]
[gun firing]
[man] They're obligated to bring
their positive responsibility
for professionalism and reasoned judgment
in the development, production,
and selection of programs.
That's not supposed to happen in a
I don't even What do you call SCTV?
It's not a spoof. It's not a
It's some other brand
of a comedic enterprise.
We would do a reference
that would normally be combed out
by network,
that they'd go, "People don't know
what that is. Take that out."
[announcer] The critically acclaimed
Benny Hill Street Blues.
[The Benny Hill Show theme playing]
[Thomas] On SCTV, we'd leave it in
because no, no, that's funny.
The reason for it is that it's funny.
That's why we're gonna do that reference.
[all laughing]
Well, if you can't take murder seriously,
you can all just shove off!
You know, we had the guy
who did the voice of Dave in 2001
as our voice of the supercomputer
in the Merv Griffin parody.
What if
Merv Griffin is in the 2001 spaceship?
What if he's talking to Orson Welles?
What if What?
What are you talking about?
-Hal, what are we going to do?
-[Hal beeping]
[Hal] I suggest
you bring out your next guest.
[electronic host] Finally, author
and man of many careers,
George Plimpton will join us.
George
But will they get it in Des Moines?
Will they notice that?
I don't know.
He's a bad guest.
He's so boring and long-winded,
not like Zsa Zsa.
She's long-winded, but she's interesting.
He's bad, isn't he?
[Thomas] My job was
to talk to the executives from NBC,
and they had 12 things
that they wanted us to do,
and they were stupid things
like no drug things before midnight
and stuff like that.
And then I came to the cast
with this list,
and people went,
"No, we're not going to do that."
"No, we're not going to do that."
-Yeah.
-And then they said, "We're the network."
"We we decide what you do. You don't."
And I said, "Well, if you force them to do
what they don't want to do, they'll quit."
So then there will be no cast,
and that's what they had to deal with.
[intriguing music playing]
[fans] Coo-loo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo.
[all] Coo-loo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo.
-Coo-loo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo.
-Coo-loo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo.
Coo-loo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo.
[Alexander] With Bob and Doug McKenzie,
it was a big parade in Toronto,
and it was huge.
I mean, in Toronto, that street was jammed
with people looking like
Bob and Doug McKenzie.
-[cheering]
-[horns honking]
Good day, eh?
-They're coming closer! Oh no.
-Oh, jeez.
I had no idea what was going on,
but having always wanted to be a Beatle,
this was starting to feel
like Beatlemania.
[news anchor] Tonight
we feature the McKenzie brothers,
the biggest stars
of the biggest TV comedy success
to come out of the Great White North.
[host] Longest River in Canada
or the SCTV brothers.
Richard.
-What are the McKenzie?
-[host] Yes.
And then I get a phone call
from an old friend of mine
who worked at a record company,
and he says,
"You guys should do an album."
Okay, I'm plugging our album, okay?
Why not?
-Show 'em the newspaper.
-Yeah, the newspaper's inside.
It's called, like, The Daily Hoser, eh?
Zoom in, zoom in.
And the thing just went through the roof.
Everybody's here to find out
about Bob and Doug McKenzie's newest album
that they've recorded
with Geddy Lee of Rush.
Take off, eh?
Coo-loo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo
Oh, beauty, go!
Coo-loo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo
Okay.
Take off to the Great White North
Take off
It's a beauty way to go
[Thomas] Take off.
Song was called
"Take Off to the Great White North."
Take off.
It's a beauty way to go.
[crowd] Take off, eh? Take off, eh?
[crowd cheering]
They were on David Letterman.
They hosted Saturday Night Live,
which was extraordinary.
[announcer] The McKenzie brothers!
[Martin] Good for them!
Did I work with them?
Please welcome
the McKenzie brothers, Bob and Doug.
[audience cheering]
[Moranis] And sort of
this weird kind of double edge
where there were all these other pieces
that we worked on
that we wrote and slaved over
and really put thought into,
and this little throwaway thing
that was just improvised
wound up catching on.
To this day, I don't know why.
[melancholy music playing]
[Thomas] The media was pointing
at Bob and Doug more than at the show,
and it was unfair
because the show was smart,
and Bob and Doug were stupid.
It says "SCTV's Best Joke"
on the cover of Rolling Stone,
and we weren't the best joke.
That was an uncomfortable kind of thing,
you know, to read.
You can't do much about it,
and it's not the guys that are saying it.
It's it's the press.
NBC kept trying to send people
to kind of oversee what we were doing.
Somebody started talking about TVQ,
your rating, your audience rating.
Well, you know, which characters they
wanted to see more of,
which, you know,
stuff that you don't ever want to hear.
[Moranis] A look at this threatening sky
here at Melonville Stadium.
The clouds are rolling in
from the Rocky Mountains.
[Moranis] I was an outsider somewhat
because I came in late to the show,
but I felt I had really nice relationships
with everybody in the cast.
I was working with everybody.
I'd write with Eugene,
wrote with Andrea a couple of times,
and I did not pick up on any friction
or any resentment
or any problems that anybody had with it.
-We gotta get some more film.
-Y'all come back now, hear?
-Bye-bye.
-Bye-bye now.
[Levy] I think
the word "resented" is a little strong.
[spluttering] I Perhaps envy
at the success they were having
as these two characters,
and, um, insensitivity on their part
in terms of
how they were dealing with their success.
Okay, our topic today
[Thomas] We could've been a little better
with the way we handled it.
When Rick and I I bought a Mercedes,
and he bought a BMW,
that sort of, like, is
a signal to the cast
that we're making more money than you,
and we shouldn't have done that.
An agent or a manager or lawyer or someone
will get in between the two guys
and leverage one guy against another.
-Divide and conquer.
-Yep.
That's what happened on SCTV with, uh
Oh, jeez,
did I open a can of worms? [laughs]
[Alexander] Dave was acting like a jerk,
and, um, it didn't help.
You know,
I think that it created more tension,
and, you know,
the fact that he'd been head writer
and had that kind of conflict.
John thought that
somehow I was using the McKenzie brothers
to positioning it in the show
using my job as head writer.
I was asked to step down as head writer.
It hurt my feelings a little bit
because I knew it came from the cast
that they wanted me out.
But, um And I didn't feel
that there was any good reason.
I can remember
Dave, actually, in one meeting,
and he was wearing sunglasses,
and he had a pen,
and he just kept flicking the pen
up into the ceiling,
you know, into the foam ceiling,
just kind of arrogantly.
Yeah, it wasn't a great time.
[rock music playing]
[Moranis] It just seemed like a natural
for one of the studios,
because we had a hit record,
to do a low-budget movie with us.
And we just jumped on the opportunity.
We found this mouse
in a bottle of Elsinore beer
[mouse squeaking]
that we bought at your beer store, eh?
And we heard, like, when that happens,
that, uh, you get your beer free.
It's in the Canadian criminal code, eh?
[Moranis] When Dave is unhappy
with something,
that's when he gets the funniest, for me.
And we were in between
the 15th and 16th interview of the day,
and he just looked at me, and he said,
"I'm so sick of you.
I'm so sick of your answers."
He was struggling himself, I think,
in terms of wanting to leave the show
and not wanting to leave.
[director] Did you have a moment
where it was like, "Wow, this is it?"
[inhales] Yes.
They see the sausages, son, did they?
[man] Yes, they did, Charlie.
We held on it for the whole opening.
That frighten you, son?
Showing the sausages?
Is that not
what the writers wanted to open with?
Duh duh writers.
Peter Calabrese from NBC comes up to me,
and he says,
"Well, who is supposed to relate to that?"
And I said, "I don't really give a shit
who relates to it."
And he said, "It needs to be cut down."
I said, "Have at it.
I don't care. Do what you want."
Because I really didn't care.
And I was gone. I was already gone.
What the hell is wrong with me?
After what feels like an eternity
of reporting and commentary,
I fear that I've been mistaking
sporadic fits of depression
for an overwhelming state of boredom.
I think I was finished. I think
I had said everything I wanted to say.
Dave and Rick, uh, decided
they didn't want to come back
for another for another season.
Sorry to be so offensive,
but I don't care if I get bad ratings,
and besides, it excites me.
[Alexander] What we're trying to do is
to hopefully start integrating
some new people from the stage show,
uh, which we've got a couple people in now
that are starting to learn the ropes.
I wanted to do I've always been
a big fan of Second City,
my friends have done it
for years and years,
and I always was very attracted to it.
I mean, I always worked. I wasn't worried
about never working as much as,
gee, what they're doing just seems
so fresh and exciting and right now.
And what I'm doing is
wondering if there's
a new Cole Porter revue coming up soon.
[announcer] The Battle of the PBS Stars.
The crowd is
literally buzzing with excitement
as Mr. Rogers, representing
Bill Buckley's team, enters the ring.
Oh, look out there, Fred.
Tonight, he prepares to face
the heavily-favored Julia Child,
the French chef, if you will.
[O'Hara] Julia Child and Mr. Rogers.
-He's so pretty as Julian Child.
-Yeah.
-[bell rings]
-And there's the bell starting round one.
But there! He rocked Julia Child
with a devastating left,
and the French chef is visibly shaken.
[Short laughing]
[Martin] We'd known each other
since Godspell, right?
So when Marty joined,
it was just like family.
It really was family.
Ladies and gentlemen, The Queen Haters.
[rock music playing]
Energy, has good spirits, high spirits.
You know, that's that's Marty.
[music ends]
Just what we needed at the time.
And good evening, everybody.
Welcome to Half Wits,
the game show that's fun,
and at times, extremely trying.
Lawrence, you were telling us
you're still in school.
Righto, Alex.
[Alex] Postgraduate work?
No, high school.
I'm having some degree of difficulty
getting through high school.
I'm having
a considerable bit of difficulty
getting through high school.
High school.
Because I have certain goals in life
I feel compelled to complete.
[Alex] Very, very good.
One of which is becoming
a circuit court judge.
Good to have ambitions.
And the second is perhaps
playing professional hockey.
Good to have you here, Lawrence
Everything's going my way
[Hahn] When I think of Martin Short
in SCTV, I think of Ed Grimley.
They are so intertwined in my mind
that I feel like
sometimes I see Ed Grimley
before I see Martin Short now,
if that makes sense.
When I see him on anything,
it's like I can't.
It's like he is doing
It's like Ed Grimley is doing
a performance of a guy named Martin Short.
[whimsical music playing]
This has gotta be the most exciting
evening of the whole year.
-[Thomas] Here we go.
-Christmas Eve, I must say.
I can't believe it.
I couldn't be more excited.
I wish it were here now, you know.
Everything about Ed was still thrilled
by the excitement of life.
So he was a grown man,
but with the enthusiasm of a 12-year-old.
Oh, this is insane.
It's like I can't sleep one minute,
you know, because I just
It was a combination of a few people
I knew, you know, in high school.
There was a guy I knew
who used to just, uh
He was into photography,
and his voice went up.
He'd say, you know,
"I took a lot of slides in the weekend."
"But, like, I didn't develop them
because I kind of know what they are
because I took them."
All righty.
This is a very, very good story
about a little fella who
[O'Hara] Marty's scenes rarely worked
at the table read.
-I don't know if his scenes got
-You have to give benefit of the doubt.
[Martin] Because he didn't really write
group scenes. [laughs]
They're mostly Marty in them.
So who are we kidding?
[announcer] Yes, Lewis is back,
and France has got him.
Does anyone mind if I smoke?
The broad in the front row
with the French bread, do you mind?
[laughing]
[Odenkirk] Best Jerry Lewis impersonation.
Wow!
And the most dimensional
Jerry Lewis impersonation.
And the point is,
they're terrified of a perfectionist.
And if a Jerry Lewis ain't gonna get
a distribution deal
because of some ferkakte 12-year-old
with the pimples on his face
who's head of the studio this week,
who doesn't know from Hardly Working
or The Errand Boy or Cinderfella,
who only knows from Eva Braun
with the big fahoyvens
or the airplane smashing into the thing.
This is scary.
[Levy laughing]
It's too accurate.
[Short] I was fans of these people.
That's how I learned their voices
to begin with.
Gotta get my old tuxedo
Now it's time to satirize Jerry,
and I know
that voice is from my childhood.
[narrator] He's been called
the greatest genius in American films
by Les Cahiers du Cinma.
[Hader] He played Jerry Lewis
in an Ingmar Bergman movie.
[Short imitating Jerry Lewis]
I am a writer.
My life used to be marvelous.
Now I've never felt such depression.
Marty is Jerry Lewis
in this, like, quiet, austere setting
and then doing big physical gags
in the middle of it.
[typewriter clacking]
[classical music playing]
[typewriting clacking]
[Martin] Classic, classic.
-[exclaims]
-[all laughing]
[Martin] Yeah, that's good!
I tended to enjoy characters
that were self-absorbed
and certainly
kind of a bit of an asshole.
Animal crackers in my soup
Animal crackers, loop-de-loop
Gosh, oh gee
But I have fun eating animal crackers
One by
Cut. Wait.
That was close.
[laughing] Look at the director
down there
This guy Jackie Rogers had been killed
shooting a special,
Old Mother Nature, She Loves Me.
But I never done this
With a real live squirrel
[roars]
[Short] Then you cut over
and see a lurking cougar,
and that's how he dies.
I miss my old man. I hope you don't.
Saturday nights at 9:00 on SCTV.
[announcer] The incomparable
Jackie Rogers Jr.
There'll be sun
[Short] He was albino because I saw
a picture of Mickey Rooney Jr.
who looked like he was albino.
Albino, so I made him albino,
and that was that.
Is your name Jackie Rogers Jr.?
-Si, seor. [laughing]
-[audience laughing]
[Short] The laugh comes from
Andrew Alexander.
Andrew has a laugh that goes [laughing]
[laughing]
And that was Jackie Rogers, you know,
I mean, that was
[whimsical music playing]
I don't know if I was being flattered
by it or not back then,
but you know, now I'm flattered.
[laughs]
Oh That Rusty! remains the most popular
situation comedy on television today,
and it's star,
Rusty Van Reddick, now in his 40s.
[Hader] Oh, That Rusty!?
[director] It was
Martin Short playing a child actor
who had done, like, 40 seasons of it.
[laughing]
[Hader] I don't remember this.
Wait, what is it?
[director] He's smoking cigarettes,
and he's ripping on the writers.
-He's just an asshole.
-[laughing]
[snorts, laughs]
Uh, we we thought, Rusty,
that the little girl
[bleep] the little girl.
Who are you? Who is he?
He's a new writer, Rusty.
[Rusty] Yeah, he's fired. Out.
[O'Brien] Let's not look
at the marketplace.
Let's just make ourselves infinitely happy
with the weirdest ideas
we can come up with
that really make us cry laughing.
All righty!
[audience laughing]
This fan will help
[O'Brien] Let's do that,
and if it works, great,
and if it doesn't,
it sure beats digging a ditch.
Those of us who are SCTV fans were
even more thrilled to hear
that that late-night comedy show is up
for seven Emmy Awards.
Huge success,
and everybody was rightfully rewarded
with many, many Emmy nominations,
and congratulations on that.
[Emmy Awards theme music playing]
For Outstanding Writing
in a Variety or Musical Program,
these are the nominees.
[woman] SCTV Network.
[announcer] This Friday night
at the Civic Arena,
Perry Como makes a triumphant return
to the concert stage
in a dazzling
[Levy] I do remember
the sketch they played on the broadcast,
and it was, uh, "Perry Como: Still Alive."
I'm gonna live forever
And I remember the piece got huge laughs.
I love the nightlife
I love to boogie
[Martin] We had never heard laughter at
all except from each other or the crew,
and they played the scenes,
and people laughed, and
Why is that so moving?
Um, it was I don't know. Um
And the winner is SCTV Network.
[upbeat music playing]
[Martin] Thinking about those days,
and Joe was alive,
and John was alive, um,
Harold was alive.
Uh, and then being all together
and hearing laughter for the first time.
Everybody involved in Edmonton,
our producers, Andrew Alexander,
and, uh, everybody
[reporter] In an ironic twist,
Emmys also went to SCTV and Taxi,
series that have been, well, canceled
by NBC.
-She blowed up. Yeah.
-Blowed up real good.
[host] With us this morning,
Brandon Tartikoff.
He's the man responsible
for programming at NBC.
[Alexander] We were on
for two seasons on NBC,
and then, um, you get hints, right,
from Business Affairs,
you just get a vibe
that things are coming to a close.
The ratings were not not great.
Well, ratings aren't everything,
but you would hope to live in a world
where you could get both, but
[Alexander] Brandon called me and said,
"We want to move the show
to seven o'clock on Sunday nights."
"Let's bring everybody in,
and let's have a big meeting in New York."
Tartikoff was saying,
"We can put you on Sunday night
at seven o'clock,
right opposite 60 Minutes,
and it has to be more family-oriented."
Brandon said, you know,
"Bobby Bittman, you know,
what if he had a son or a nephew?"
And I think
I was the only guy in the room who said,
"No, I don't think so.
That's not going to work for me."
Eugene goes, "No!"
[laughs] Just like that.
[chuckles] Well, maybe I
maybe I maybe I just said, "No."
Um
[laughing]
And that was it.
[melancholy music playing]
Brandon Tartikoff was pissed off
at Eugene.
That was the end of it.
[indistinct chatter]
[Levy] SCTV, the last day.
Well, this is the last taping day of SCTV.
[Short] Righto, Alex!
Don't you care about the people
here on the news floor?
The last day was a telethon,
and that was the idea,
because SCTV is going out of business.
We need your money.
Pick up the phone, make a pledge,
get SCTV back on its feet again!
She is in trouble,
and she needs your support.
Catherine came back and did Lola.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Lola Heatherton right here.
You know, I grew up, really, with
these people, coming out of high school,
then getting to work with these amazing,
beautiful, talented, fun, funny people,
uh, you know, for my formative years.
It's a man's world
[O'Hara] That kind of comedy is
just perfect when you're in your 20s,
because you're cocky at that age.
And at Second City, you have a place
to express it in a funny way,
and you've been told
you're funny enough to be here.
[indistinct chatter]
Did you order coffee?
It's crazy.
It's the only footage
that we have behind the scenes.
It's on a timer,
so you run down the ladder
and then you stand in the picture.
[man on TV] Well, that's it.
Pledge Night was a failure.
How could you do this to us?
Don't you care?
Don't you care that we worked and slaved
to bring you
the finest programming available?
Nope! They don't care.
It sort of ended as I was
my life was changing anyway.
A friend that I knew in high school,
and then I just, you know,
carried my friend with me.
Many of your finer nudie films
come from Sweden.
Well, after you see them four or five
To be honest, I've just noticed that
everybody started popping up in movies,
so I think I just thought, like,
"Oh, I guess the show just disintegrated
because now
Catherine O'Hara's in Beetlejuice.
If you don't let me gut out this house
[Hader] I mean, as an SCTV fan,
even as a kid,
it was cool seeing Home Alone
and seeing her and John Candy
when he, like, comes up behind her
in the airport.
Excuse me. Can you excuse us for a second?
We got a crisis ourselves. [laughs]
[Levy] People still talk about the show.
People on the street will come up to you
and talk about SCTV, you know,
and these are the people
who just got everything about it.
For so many years, it felt like
SNL was the only possible stage
for this kind of comedy,
for this kind of performer,
and SCTV just went,
"Hey, uh, yeah, just as good,
maybe better at times, over here."
-Oh, Saturday Night Live!
-[Saturday Night Live theme music playing]
[Hanks] Which one of those shows had
the greatest impact
on the art form itself?
SNL, Saturday Night Live, impacted society
and created stars.
SCTV impacted the art form of telling
a comedic story over any amount of time.
We're now going back into our room,
and don't even think
about opening that door.
Are you serious?
SCTV were such a bunch of weirdos,
beautiful weirdos.
Hi, I'm Harry,
the guy with a snake on his face.
We'll be doing a little music
and doing a little talking
to some of the kids
on the dance floor here.
Whoo!
And because they allowed each other
and themselves to be such weirdos,
I felt safe to be that as well.
I felt safe enough
to be able to find my tribe of weirdos
and make dumb shit with them
and make that okay.
Just as a human,
I think we should stop this.
Yeah, honey,
you need to just go to an urgent care
And not only okay,
exactly what I should be doing.
If the one thing in your life you can do
is to make people laugh,
that's such a good thing.
Our show wasn't highly rated,
but even a low-rated show is going to be
making, like, a million people laugh.
And when you think of a million people
all in a group laughing, you go,
"Oh my God, what a wonderful thing
that we did in our lives."
[director] What are you personally
most proud of when you look back on SCTV?
Our lasting friendship.
That's what I'm the most proud of.
[director] So not a performance,
not a character.
You're proud that you're still friends
with all these people 50 years later.
Yeah, I'm grateful.
So so Juul Haalmeyer was
our extraordinary costume designer,
and he passed away, sadly,
and I went to visit him.
And all he wanted to do
was talk about SCTV.
And he handed me these photos,
and he said,
"If you see everybody in the cast,
would you give them?"
And then he handed me
a little pair of leopard shoes,
and he said,
"This is for your granddaughter."
So when you talk about legacy or SCTV,
my hope is that my granddaughter,
who's going to be brought up
with AI and everything,
will know
when she looks at these leopard shoes
that there was a time
when people connected
they failed,
they succeeded,
and they remained close and family.
Ah!
[Levy] I think the work
we all did on SCTV was
the best work we have ever done.
Sven Gleitenden.
[Levy] The work stands up to this day.
This is like 50 years later,
and those pieces are as funny now
as they were then.
And that's a tribute
to everybody who was on the show.
[inspirational music playing]
[inaudible]
[inaudible]
[inaudible]
[inaudible]
[inaudible]
[inaudible]
[O'Hara] Bye, Eugene.
Yep.
-That's it.
-[woman] See you later, skater.
Jeez, I feel like Durante.
There's another reference
we can use in the show.
[man laughing]
-Wow. Thanks, guys.
-[woman] Thanks, Eugene.
[upbeat music playing]
[music ends]