Not at all. Cavett saw himself as an entertainer. He was constantly grasping for one-liners. The intellectualism was incidental, and if anything made him less effective as a comedian, which a lot of people find endearing about him. He was never the performer he wanted to be, and he was no journalist- he ended up being something aggressively in-between.
This a great sketch. Shouting "Action" into her face as the tense, romantic scene begins is hilarious and certainly illustrates the problems that arise when the same person is both director and leading man and imbecile.
I watched that part 5 or 6 times, and laughed hard each time. Bittmans one of my favorite sctv characters. If you haven’t seen it, check out the one where Bittman retires, and becomes a farmer.
That "honesty" you're referring to is really just an insecure yet smug fella who happened to hit it big in the seventies out of sheer luck. Dollars to donuts Maudlin is more fondly revered as a treasure than Cavett. I can tell you where Sammy is now, but nobody knows who or where Dick is.
@@erikthorsen240 Uh, you do realize that Dick Cavett is a real person and Sammy Maudlin was fictional or at most a parody of a real person? Also, what was Cavett's "sheer luck"? You seem a bit hostile towards him.
@@frankfrank7921 Cavett came into public television when it was relatively new. They took more chances back then. Their idea of a talk show was to make it mature and urbane. He was lucky for that break, and secondly lucky for the guests he could attract. They were big names, but not current celebrities. They didn't have to have a film coming out to get on TV, and the format wasn't rushed. Maudlin had a briefer run here in New Jersey, although it was a Canadian show. I liked it because it featured actors and people whom I was not that familiar with. It was like a Canadian show that was trying to be an American show, and it always felt kind of friendly. I felt that Sammy and William B. were really trying, and it was hard to not root for them.
Terry Gross once interviewed Eugene Levy and complimented him on his Bobby Bittman character, especially that outrageous wig. Levy said, “Terry, that was no wig. That was all me”.
SCTV was comedy gold. Everyone took on so many personas it was hard to believe that they could go from A to Z in the blink of an eye. Levy is so into his Bittman character--it's easy to hate him. Moranis does Cavett perfectly, capturing his somewhat pedantic, intellectual, pseudo-comedic personality perfectly. His passive-aggressive approach is brilliant. Great show!
@@jillmeredith2012 I found SCTV from being a fan of his work on Schitt's Creek & looking up what else he's done. So glad I did, this show is hilarious 😄
My God. The comedians on this show really went above and beyond in their portrayals of real life celebrities. The realism adds so much to the comedy, it makes the cast of sctv the best of any sketch show.
I absolutely fell over laughing (2:59) when Bobby is explaining why he directed "Funny Stuff" and Cavett says "Oh please tell us"-Bittman finally caught on that Cavett was being condescending to him--brilliant comedy
Bobby Bittman and Sammy Maudlin have got to be the most convincing characters to ever grace a comedy skit. Nothing tops what SCTV did as far as fictional comedy personalities are concerned.
Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara are still going strong. Have you checked out their Series Schitt's Creek? Levy's son Daniel stars as well as writes the scripts. Stunning cast includes Levy's daughter as well.
I love how Bobby Bittman always looks at the camera when she says, "What you do is FUNNY STUFF." as if to say, hey, we worked the title into the script.
She was/is! And she had quite the surprisingly superb rack back then too! Check her out as Bernadette Peters in another SCTV sketch or her dancing over the end credits of the Kubrick/2001 parody in one of the later-season episodes for other examples of young Andrea Martin’s sweet, sweet décolletage.
Gee, I wonder if it's just a coincidence that Jerry Lewis' book is titled "The Total Filmmaker" and Bobby Bittman's book is titled "The Complete Filmmaker."
Lewis obviously was ripping off the far more original Bittman, just like he did when he tried to hop on the bandwagon and make his clown in a concentration camp movie.
Wow. Eugene Levy and Andrea Martin ' in the zone'. Brilliant. I do not laugh loudly as I watch...a half smile across my face feeling the funny vibes of two very funny people,
Andrea Martin might be one of the most giving comedic performers of all time. As brilliant as she is in her own right, she elevates everyone else around her like few performers I have ever witnessed. What an amazing, hilarious woman!
oh my god, I just discovered that Dick Cavett was a real person (always thought he was an original SCTV character). Saw the ep of him hosting SNL and ...wow, he really was like that. Rick nailed it.
What's scary is that Levy's outfit is an EXACT representation of the time period. Maybe the rings and chains are exaggerated, but that suit is how people really dressed back then.
Moranis is so spot on with his Cavett impression in the first few seconds, in his looking around, looking down...so careful a read of Cavett's body language and implicit communication.
Ok, so this may not be THE greatest SCTV clip of all time, given the uncommonly high quality of the entire series, but I’m of the mind that this clip represents Peak Levy, and is probably the most masterful single sketch comedy performance in the history of the form. The physical comedy subtlety Mr. Levy displays in the embedded bit(tman) with the criminally underrated Andrea Martin especially is worth paying close attention to upon repeated viewings. The entire “Bittman as auteur” conceit itself is just so brilliant a skewering of Hollywood egotism that it’s bitingly satirical hilarity can almost serve to draw attention away from the little things Levy is doing with his Groucho eyebrows and hangdog mugging, but watch closely and see a master of this form at the height of his comedic powers. And of course I can’t forget to mention Rick Moranis and his uncanny take on Cavett, which captured the clever WASP-y elitism he embodied perhaps even better than the man himself (“appallingly crude” indeed, sir!). So the strength of Moranis and Martin’s supporting performances serve to elevate an already superlative multi-layered Levy vehicle here, to such a degree that I defy anyone to name a single sketch comedy performance by any actor ever that can equal this absolute apex of the Peak Levy’s golden age. Late ‘70s Gilda Radner on SNL may come close a few times, but no one will ever accuse the great Gilda’s genius of subtlety. I’m open to other suggestions, but until I’m convinced otherwise, I insist that single sketch comedy performances simply do not get any better than this one. (And, for what it’s worth, Pennywise the Clown in any of his incarnations ain’t half as terrifying as Levy as Bittman the Auteur as Funny Stuff Clown when he bursts with rage on set to his crew at the end of embedded clip...Pennywise never had the ultimate terrifying power of final cut, after all.)
Find the first ‘You’re on you’re’ on with Max Lansky. Levy’s subtle take on a shallow, local politician is just masterful. And he’s the only one on screen. Brilliant.
In the mid 90s, when I was watching reruns of SCTV, I didn't really understand the references or impressions. This was the days before the internet. Now that I can look up what they were spoofing I have to say SCTV was actually very brilliant.
Eugene Levy, John Candy, Catherine Ohara and the whole cast, just performing fearlessly, brilliantly. You see their range of talent. Levy became more understated later on but brilliant.
It's not as awesome seeing it stand-alone like this. The fact that it was supposed to be airing as part of an episode of Monster Chiller Horror Theatre just makes it all the more brilliant.
Agreed. The extended version of this sketch (Funny Stuff embedded in the Cavett Show served up as Monster Chiller Horror clip by Count Floyd, that is) is basically a chinese box of comedic brilliance.
Just a couple of genius at work when they were kids. You must watch Schitt's Creek with Eugene, Catharine, Annie Murphy, Chris Elliot, and Daniel Levy- to see today's comic brilliance.
I always thought Rick Moranis was incredibly underated on SCTV--I think there was some reservations about his enormous talent as he didn't come up through "Second City" like the other actors but was essentially discovered by his friend Dave Thomas--I believe Moranis was actually a DJ on CHUM radio in Toronto (he actually parodied his DJ work when he portrayed "Gerry Todd")
The whole Cast of SCTV were awesome, some of the best comedians of the 80's that's for sure...."now here's a new one from Tom Munroe ~ Turning Japaneeese"
Gerry Todd and his “vud-eo” obsession predated the MTV revolution by a couple years at least. An incredibly prescient and brilliant comedic concept by an enormously talented performer.
The cast of SCTV were so in tune to the world around them . Be it entertainment, politics or history the nuances evident in every episode are indicative of how well read and intelligent these writers and actors are. The best of the best.
This is amazing stuff, not merely "funny stuff." Cavett was a great interviewer, but he could also be a supercilious asshole, overfond of his own wit. Moranis protrays this beautifully, but what's even more remarkable is the level of dignity Levy brings to the Bittman character: The character is a Borscht Belt Burlesque, and when he appears on "The Sammy Maudlin" show he epitomizes what Maudlin & Co. think of as "cool..." ...but here, on a non-SCTV interview show (at this point, Cavett had a 30-minute weekday show on PBS), he's come on to hawk his book and movie, and to meet Cavett halfway, and Cavett's effete snobbery will not allow for that. When he walks off, he does so with dignity (and the writers have, in effect, made a reference to the Cavett ABC broadcast of 12/18/70, where Lester Maddox did the same thing, for the same reason). A big laugh is partially omitted at the very beginning: The Cavett show being on PBS would start with a hushed, earnest voice saying, "The Dick Cavett Show is made possible by a grant from the Chubb Corporation." This parody, in its entirety, starts with, "The Dick Cavett Show is made possible by a chubb from the Grant Corporation." (Rick Moranis, who is acidly brilliant here as Dick Cavett, also did a brilliant, dead-on Woody Allen, and those two have been close friends for 50 years or more... How I would love to see him do a split-screen bit with him playing both of them.)
Thanks for the context, I’ve been meaning to watch that Lester Maddox interview. I know DC only from watching his interviews with artists and comedians he admires, so the snobbish side of him never really came up. I still think he’s really funny, but it sounds like I missed an aspect of his shows.
Rick Moranis captured Dick Cavett perfectly during the period when Cavett clearly lost interest in his show and with many of his guests, often going through the motions and getting in a dig against some of them. I guess everyone can't be as interesting and compelling as Katherine Hepburn, Orson Welles and Robert Mitchum.
PositiveLastAction Ever caught Jack Carter's act? If there's one performer Levy is referencing in his pastiche of bad comedians, it's got to be Carter. He had it all. He was crass, ignorant, abrasive, politically reactionary, totally unfunny and brimming with unmerited confidence. He sang badly, danced worse, and his monologues were dead on arrival. And you know what? He stuck around for fifty years, made a ton of money, and is fondly remembered as a marvelous entertainer by his many admirers. Go figure.
tom: OK, but there was also a TV comic named "Bobby Vinton" or Bobby Vincent? Anyway, he did all that kind of thing, told corny jokes, sang corny songs, and had a similar kind of look, too.
They were always the best .The whole thing is really made of 'Funny Stuff and I can't wait to see the movie.And yes,Andrea Martin was really beautiful and they were all brilliant and talented.
