This is just some random excellence I came across the other day. I've been moving through the fantastic (and extremely overdue) DVD sets of SCTV episodes from the early 1980s. SCTV was arguably the greatest sketch comedy/variety show ever. It was one of my favorite TV shows at the time (and I had a small coterie of high school friends who were as into it as I was; one of them actually recorded the audio of the show onto cassette tapes he distributed, since this was in the days before everybody had a VCR.) "Dr. X" is an eight-minute genre-parody sketch I'd never seen before, featuring Dave Thomas as a noir detective with uncanny powers and John Candy as the hapless police chief who's constantly calling him in to help with mysterious cases. The sketch is very funny, but also very atmospheric and well done (it's shot in black-and-white). I was struck by this beautiful title card (above) and thought you guys might like it too.
11 comments:
Octo and I used to watch SCTV all the time - I'm delighted to hear that the show holds up (it was always better than SNL). What a fantastic cast. I need to start Netflixing these episodes.
"one of them actually recorded the audio of the show onto cassette tapes" Wow, that takes me back. I used to record movies off of television on cassette and I'd listen to them over and over (I wore my recording of Animal House out) . I managed to tape The Empire Strikes Back (early bootlegging!) and it was my pride and joy.
I remember that! Your cousin had it on video and you audiotaped it. I recall you pointing out one particular blaster sound effect during the Bespin battle.
SCTV was like SNL except it didn't get worse and worse towards the end of the show. As far as I can tell, SNL is still like that.
SCTV is my favorite of those shows for many reasons. Basically, they combined the best elements of Saturday Night Live (Chicago improv actors, celebrity impressions, recurring characters, political/social commentary) with the best elements of Monty Python (assembled from recorded/filmed pieces rather than live; surrealism; erudite literary/academic references) and the best elements of The Muppet Show ("backstage narrative" structure, featuring a fictional small-city television station rather than a vaudville/variety show as its permanent locale).
For example, I just watched a sketch about the "NASA Production of Murder in the Cathedral," in which:
1) Walter Cronkite (Dave Thomas) starts a special broadcast about the "Mercury 3 Theatre" (play on Orson Welles Mercury Players) are putting on a Broadway production of T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral starring Apollo astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Alan Shepard and Rusty Schwickart (who show up in spacesuits)
2) Flight Director Christopher Craft (John Candy) is shown at Houston Mission Control, "lifting off" the curtains
3) Cronkite cuts to remote correspondent David Brinkley (Rick Moranis) in front of the theater on Broadway as the astronauts arrive -- but the camera keeps catching Brinkley getting pulled into a three-card-monte game
4) The play begins, with Aldrin reciting the opening monologue in a flat monotone over the radio (with every line preceded by "Huston..."), but the cathedral doors fail to open; Houston's technicians attempt to remedy the problem, cannot, and recommend an EVA
5) In the theater's bar/lounge, the camera catches Brinkley hitting on a model; when surprised by the camera, he starts interviewing audience-members Katherine Hepburn (Catherine O'Hara) who hates the play, since the actors are terrible ("They're indicating") and Tom Wolfe (Joe Flaherty) who thinks it's fantastic and goes on at great length praising the actors for bringing "the spirit of Chuck Yaeger" to Broadway
6) Cronkite gets bored and starts critiquing the play itself, referring to a paperback copy and lambasting T. S. Eliot's questionable dramatic skills
7) Following the snafu with the cathedral doors not opening, NASA is forced to abort the third act
8) Brinkley shows up at Cronkite's desk with the model and her friend (another model) and the four of them agree to go out for Chinese food, leaving the set
I mean, come on; there's no other show that would come close to attempting anything like that. (And all the impressions are dead-on.) The most amazing comedy show ever!
mr. ac and i are currently working our way through kids in the hall; sounds like sctv should be on deck.
I love Kids in the Hall too :)
There's a new Kids in the Hall series with the original cast starting soon! The movie was awful though.
The movie was great! Are you kidding? I loved it!
The "Kids" loved it too, rumors to the contrary notwithstanding. Viacom fucked up the marketing, which everyone has acknowledged since. There were rumors that Dave Foley wasn't interested and was in a tiff with the others, but it's totally not true (he just had time commitments because of News Radio).
I've started to conclude that if I like something Jordan hates it and if I dislike something Jordan loves it. I think I'm getting a complex.
It's only true 0.001% of the time.
Are we talking about Brain Candy? Not my fave. Thought it had a few killer moments but nowhere near as funny as the show tended to be.
Yeah, it didn't live up to the show, but it wasn't bad.
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