Rating: 
Summary: Are we paying for Johnny LaRue's new crane?
Review: This isn't so much a review as a complaint. Yes, I agree that SCTV in its prime was one of the funniest shows ever (and these episodes are easily funnier than the earlier Harold Ramis ones). However, how can the studio justify $63 for it? Most other "Complete Season" DVD packages are half that price. The episodes themselves deserve 5 stars, but for this price gouging, I have to deduct 2 stars. I am peeved because I would LOVE having this set, but my principles won't allow me to be suckered into overpaying. I guess I'll just rent it frequently from Netflix. [Another complaint: for $63, they should have been able to acquire the rights to the original songs in the sketches (there will be quite a few edits/changes for this DVD because of lack of rights).]
Rating: 
Summary: The greatest!
Review: Understated, nuanced, intellectual, and character-driven in the extreme, SCTV was a show that many people didn't "get," and some people flat out didn't like.
But to me, it joins Monty Python, Saturday Night Live, and Your Show of Shows in the all-time greats of TV ensemble comedy. And where Saturday Night Live relied on the forceful personalities of stars like Eddie Murphy and Dan Akroyd for individual skits, SCTV created a whole world of characters that played out the drama of a small television station. At the same time, it also used the standard fare of comedy TV satire -- imitations of stars like Bob Hope, Woody Allen, Merv Griffin -- but integrated them into the show's wacky worldview in such an offbeat way as to leave one's mouth hanging open.
This volume seems to contain the first 90-min season's shows, the first few of which collect snippets from older shows. Some of these are among the classics: Merv Griffith, Night School H-Q, Polynesiantown, Play it Again Bob (which has to be one of the most subtle and best realized movie satires ever), and Sammy Maudlin (with Bobby Bitman's unforgettable interview for the Senate drug committee). The later episodes in the collection start the themed shows -- the PBS-style fundraiser with the Elephant Man (the punchline of which Saturday Night Live blatantly ripped off), and Lola Heatherton's breakdown during her TV special.
Especially wonderful on this set are the extras, which are worth the price of admission alone. These include terrific interviews with living cast members about the show, reminicences about John Candy, and interviews with the wardrobe and makeup people. From the interviews it is evident that the shows were created in the same spirit we fans perceived them -- as if the the cast and staff were totally invested in their characters and were trying like hell simply to make each other laugh. The producers of this set really knew where the fan's hearts were when they made this box! Just wonderful, and moving as well.
A drawback is that the box doesn't have an index or table of contents, so you have to skip among the discs to find your favorite episodes. A simple list would have been handy; but that's a minor complaint.
Rating:
Summary: Pirini Scleroso: English For Beginners And More Bad News
Review: Unlike many who have watched this set, I am a new convert to SCTV. This never aired where I lived when it was a first run show, so I had only heard of the understated Canadian brilliance that is SCTV until this set was released. Although expensive, this DVD set is one of the true gems in my collection, and I already have had my money's worth out of it.
The entire cast is great (although I am not much of a John Candy fan, he is generally excellent in SCTV, particularly doing impersonations such as Alfred Hitchcock), but I think the standouts are easily the two women, Andrea Martin and Catherine O'Hara, who never fail to make me laugh. In particular the recurrent character of non-English speaking Vice President of Program Coordination Pirini Scleroso (Martin) is the single funniest feature of the set. I especially enjoy the guest editorial by Pirini when crabby manager Guy Caballero is out of the room (at one point she answers the phone with "Sell forty shares!"), and her visit to the English for beginners classroom. Martin also excels in the musical "Indira" and with O'Hara in the hilarious episode of "Monster Chiller Horror Theatre" (another recurring favorite) featuring the "Ingmar Burgman" film "Whispers of the Wolf," which is a devastatingly accurate send-up of Bergman. The other Martin bit that I prize is "Mrs. Falbo's Tiny Town," which is the most surreal children's show ever conceptualized. Eugene Levy also proves excellent in virtually every sketch: watch for him as Gino Vanelli and as the host of "Mel's Rock Pile," which features the funniest presentation of "MacArthur Park" in history. I also love Joe Flaherty as Slim Whitman, who sings with everyone from Indira Gandhi to Barbra Streisand to great comedic effect.
My favorite sketches include the Guy Caballero and Pirini Scleroso dialogues, "Monster Chiller Horror Theatre" ("Doctor Tongue's 3-D House of Stewardesses" and "Whispers of the Wolf"), the Edith Prickley monologues, "The Larry Siegel Show," "The Great White North," "Farm Film Report," "Mrs. Falbo's Tiny Town," "Spray-On Socks," "High-Q," and "The Brooke Shields Show."
Of course along with the winners come a few clunkers. My least favorite storyline was the "Polynesiantown" spectacle, which was never really all that funny and was extremely long. I found the "Leave It to Beaver 25th Anniversary" sketch to be boring and not especially entertaining, either. The only recurring character I disliked was that of Bobby Bittman, which is surprising because I generally like Levy so much. I just think it is repetitive and falls flat quickly.
In summary, I am delighted that I have finally been introduced to SCTV. It is brilliant, far funnier than Saturday Night Live, and is now available to comedy lovers everywhere. Buy this set if you want to laugh for a long time.
Rating:
Summary: America: I'm amazed you get it
Review: When SCTV was originally done on TV in the mid-70's it was intended as a cheap "Canadian content" filler program on the rather inaccurately named Global TV Network. The network was actually at that time broadcast only in Ontario, Canada. Those first two seasons were done on the incredibly cheap, but with extraordinary results. They were the seasons when Harold Ramis appeared on screen, but before Rick Moranis joined. Many of the satires were of Canadian TV and celebrities. "Floyd Robertson" and "Earl Camenbert" were parodies of newscasters Lloyd Robertson and Earl Cameron. Lloyd still hosts the most-watched national newscast in Canada. "Halfwits" was a parody of a Toronto High school quiz (hosted by Alex trebec in pre-Jeopardy days!) called "Reach For The Top".After 2 years, Global dropped the show, but it was picked up a year later by another (& bigger) Canadian network - the CBC. But by this time several of the bigger names, particularly John Candy & Catherine O'Hara, had gone on to other things, so the cast was supplemented by Moranis, Tony Rosato & Robin Duke. Rosato & Duke moved to SNL at about the same time NBC started showing "SCTV90" on Fridays at 1 am. The McKenzie Brothers skits, originally just filler material to fulfill the CBC's demand that the show be "more Canadian", were, remarkably among the most popular skits. By the time SCTV moved to NBC, the budgets got larger, and the original cast, including Candy & O'Hara, were reunited. Because so much of the original Second City ran below the radar, they were able to get away with a lot of things. Not censorship problems - copyright problems. They just never bothered to get clearance for a lot of the tunes they played or performed on the show. Sir John Gilguid & Sir Ralph Richardson appeared without salary or residuals. That's why the NBC shows are coming out before the originals.
Rating:
Summary: Revolutionary television comedy
Review: While Saturday Night Live added a hip-edge to the television variety show, it was in many ways more of a return to TV's live performance roots than a revolution in comedy. SCTV, "the little show from Canada that could," was the late '70s and early '80s real innovator.
A comparison between SNL and SCTV is in some ways akin to comparing McDonald's and Burger King: each had a unique premise that shaped everything they did. Burger King (in its day) was a slave to the pace of a flame-broiler, while McDonald's pre-cooked. Likewise, SNL wrote, staged, and performed a show in 6 days. They worked in front of a live audience and were beholden to the pace (i.e., waiting out laughs) that such an arrangement dictated. SCTV was performed for cameras, and had time to write, edit, digest, reduce, and re-use in a way SNL never could.
The result is that SNL pushed towards catch-lines and easily identifiable, repeatable characters. SCTV, on the other hand, evolved into an ever more complex tapestry of comedy, irony and parody that wrapped around and glided through their sketches. Further, the isolation of their Canadian studio location (particularly the Edmonton years) kept the cast a true ensemble. Unlike the ego wars of SNL, SCTV remained largely devoid of breakout stars through its entire run.
At the heart of SCTV's success is the concept (or conceit) that the program was day-in-the-life of a low-end television network. The programs present a seamless intertwining of the "SCTV Network" programming and the characters and traumas which fictionally produced it. Even the musical guests (which in this set include Dr. John, The Tubes, Roy Orbison, and Robert Gordon) have their performances (both musical and acting) woven into the sketches. Real-world production incidents, such as the "Polynesian Town" budget overrun, are worked into the characters' lives, and the show develops continuity from week to week, rather than resetting the characters' history each time they appear in a new sketch.
These 90-minute shows created for NBC (following the show's original 30 minute syndicated version) include fantastic wrapper material that stiches the sketches together. Lola Heatherton's cancelled special, Johnny LaRue's budget problems and subsequent demotion, and the McKenzie Brother's off-set hunt for a topic all provide the sort of mind-bending transitions from foreground to background wrought by films like "A Face in the Crowd."
SCTV's writers are geniuses of hybridizing their influences. They'll spin a Fantasy Island parody through a Hope & Crosby road picture, Casablanca, and The Wizard of Oz, cross Merv Griffin with Andy Griffith, or feature Bing Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. At its peak SCTV reaches the level of surreal layering that Firesign Theater pioneered on LP. Personal favorites include Gil "The Fishin' Musician" Fisher, Sammy Maudlin, Lola Heatherton, Bobby Bittman, Hollywood producer Larry Siegel, Mel's Rockpile, Gerry "Good Video" Todd (and the Todd Monroe videos and Crazy Hy's commercials that he shows), and periodic skewerings of Woody Allen and Bob Hope.
That said, one must also admit that these shows don't provide the same rush they did when first broadcast, though perhaps it's unfair to expect them to do so. Twenty-five years of comedy inspired by these originals can't help but change the context in which these are now viewed. The clubby nature of being an SCTV fan was part of its charm, as were late-night viewing hours, the social setting against which these shows were viewed, and the ephemeral nature of TV-before-DVD. There is some terrific material here, but viewers are likely to find themselves skipping and picking. A few of the characters (such as Andrea Martin's European cleaning lady) get tiresome, and the canned laughter can be truly annoying.
Most of the extras are skippable. Eugene Levy and Joe Flaherty's commentary, as well as a short piece on John Candy, shed little light. The one truly worthwhile piece is a 1990 cast reunion with Conan O'Brien as the interviewer. Overall this is a great reminder of what a towering invention SCTV was, and 25 years later on, what a huge impact it made on comedy.
Rating:
Summary: How can it be 5 stars without it even being out?
Review: Words cannot express my gratitude. I have been waiting for these classics for years -- I kicked myself for years for not having taped this series. Why? Because these guys and gals were given the opportunity to produce some of the best out-there sort of creative comedy that Lorne Michaels either prevented or was pressured by the network not to do, in favor of being more "mainstream". Buy 'em, rent 'em, do whatever it takes to check these babies out. The younger folks may have a problem with the topical references of the early 80's, but maybe someone can fill them in. This is the real stuff, boys and girls.
Rating:
Summary: Let's go down to the dance floor & talk to some of the kids.
Review: You can't imagine how long we've waited for this. I had about 4 hours of SCTV bits on VHS, and stupidly lent it to a coworker and haven't seen it since. The funniest sketch comedy show ever, blows SNL out of the water.
Everyone with a love of SCTV needs to buy this to help insure they come out with further volumes.
Can't wait to see "Monster Chiller Horror Theater", CCCP1 (3CP1, Russian television), "Days of the Week" (It's good to know my music turns on pretty girls like you), "The Fishin' Musician", "Pre-Teen World", "The Sammy Maudlin Show" (Bobby Bittman, I want to bear your children!), "Mel's Rock Pile" (You're barking up the wrong tree, Mel!) and all the classics again.
One correction-Bittman's tag line was "As a COMIC, in all seriousness..."
Bring on Volume 2!!!
Rating:
Summary: From LaRue to You
Review: zzzzzzzzzz....what? I SWEAR...SHE TOLD ME SHE WAS 18 OFFICER... oh right. sorry. You know, people say to me Johnny, what's your secret? How did you make it so big? Well, I worked hard..cuz I got plenty of nothin', and nothin's plenty for me..I got the sun in the mornin' and the moon at night..Luv a good Negro spiritual.. While I appreciate the love of all the American fans, as a Canadian (expatriate) in all seriousness, you can NEVER know the love we hosers have for this show and its cast. I was blessed to have seen almost all the cast members live growing up in Toronto (including A Night With John Candy at University of Toronto in 1980) and this group of performers was--withooot a doooot--the greatest array of comedic genius on television..EVER. Although we will, sadly, never get to see Dr. Tongue--The Movie: This Time It's French"--we are all lucky to have on film the comedic brilliance of SCTV.
Put down your LaRue Cat Chow and BUY THIS NOW! Love, Norman Gorman p.s. Dont forget to vote for Tex & Edna Boil for President in 04! They'll put the budgie in your heart and the organ in your home!
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