Second City Television
| SCTV Second City Television |
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|---|---|
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| Also known as | Second City TV (1976–1981) SCTV Network 90 (1981–1983) SCTV Channel (1983–1984) |
| Genre | Sketch comedy |
| Developed by | |
| Starring |
John Candy Robin Duke Joe Flaherty Eugene Levy Andrea Martin Rick Moranis Catherine O'Hara Harold Ramis Tony Rosato Martin Short Dave Thomas |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 6 (over an 8-year period) |
| No. of episodes | 135 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes (1976-1981) 90 minutes (1981-1983) 45 minutes (1983-1984) |
| Release | |
| Original network |
Global (1976-1979) CBC (1980-1983) NBC (US, 1981-1983) Superchannel (1983-1984) Cinemax (US, 1983-1984) |
| Picture format | NTSC (480i) |
| Original release | September 21, 1976 – July 17, 1984 |
SCTV (Second City Television) is a Canadian television sketch comedy show offshoot from Toronto's Second City troupe that ran between 1976 and 1984.
Through multiple changes to format and casting the series maintained a consistent reputation as a spotlight on some of the best up and coming talent in Canadian and US comedy. Its general feeling of working within a budget of space, time and money is closer to that of attending a live stage show than in most televised sketch comedy work that came before or since.
The premise of the show is the broadcast day of a fictitious TV station (later network) in the town of Melonville. The location of Melonville is left unspecified; the very earliest episodes imply it's somewhere in Canada, though most later episodes place it in the US.
A typical episode of SCTV presents a compendium of programming seen on the station throughout its broadcast day. A given episode could contain everything from SCTV news broadcasts to sitcoms, dramas, movies, talk shows, kid shows, commercial send-ups hawking non-existent products, and/or game shows. Several "shows" are seen regularly on SCTV, including "SCTV News"; soap opera "The Days of the Week"; late night movie features "Monster Chiller Horror Theater" and "Dialing For Dollars"; and "Great White North" (a show centered around two Canadian 'hosers'), among others. Many other SCTV shows are seen only once, such as game shows like "Shoot at the Stars" in which celebrities are literally shot at like targets, or full-blown movie spoofs like "Play It Again, Bob" in which Woody Allen (Rick Moranis) tries to get Bob Hope (Dave Thomas) to star in his next film. Episodes also feature a range of SCTV-produced promos (for imaginary future shows) and commercials, such as spots for "Al Peck's Used Fruit" or "Shower in a Briefcase", or a PSA which helpfully describes "Seven Signs You May Already Be Dead".
Also seen fairly frequently, particularly in later episodes, are behind-the-scenes plots focusing on life at the station. These often feature Guy Caballero (Joe Flaherty), the cheap, tyrannical owner and president of SCTV, who, despite being perfectly ambulatory, is seated in a wheelchair to earn "respect" (i.e., sympathy) from employees and viewers. Also seen regularly are weaselly, sweating station manager Maurice "Moe" Green (Harold Ramis), succeeded in the position by flamboyant, leopard-skin clad, foul-mouthed Mrs. Edith Prickley (Andrea Martin); vain variety star Johnny LaRue (John Candy); washed-up entertainers such as singer Lola Heatherton (Catherine O'Hara) and comedian Bobby Bittman (Eugene Levy); news anchors Floyd Robertson (Flaherty) and Earl Camembert (Levy), talk-show host Sammy Maudlin (Flaherty), cult-stardom-destined and beer-addled brothers Bob and Doug McKenzie (Moranis and Thomas), and many others.
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