The record brush was a tribute to Canadian game shows that had a bad reputation of giving out the cheapest prizes. Like lawn chairs, patio lights, steak knives, dinner for two at some crappy restaurant, magazine subscriptions and yes even record brushes.
I loved him on SCTV! He was so frikkin funny and played an incredible straight man too! Would have loved to see him do more television and silver screen work!
He was my favorite on SCTV. I'll never understand it either, except maybe he was TOO versatile in the sense that he didn't really have that go-to schtick so many successful comics have.
I'm a 62 year old Canadian who watched this brilliant show every week. It remains,I think,far funnier than SNL,which has,with exeptions,aged poorly in comparison.
I love the one he did with Catherine O'Hara called Night School High Q where he starts screaming "Disconnect her buzzer!" when she randomly buzzes and gives nonsense answers before he reads the questions.
This brings back some good memories. Martin Short always cracked me up. I loved the bit he did with Harry Shearer about synchronized swimming. They were really all a bunch of comedic geniuses.
I’m rewatching my favorite SCTV skits in honor of Joe Flaherty. His character here, Arthur, is iconic, as are the rest of the brilliant cast of characters. Amazing show.
I rarely ever watched TV most of my working life. Imagine SCTV popping up in my feed the first week of my retirement. I'm literally laughing until I cry. Thank you dear person for getting these gems online.
We used to stay up to watch the show on VHF independent channels in the early 1980's. Suddenly, it was on cable TV !!! I graduated HS in 1980 and me and my room mate's would stay up howling to these!
Was funny as a teen in early 80's and still hilarious at 51!! I love Blanche ! She's been married since the wedding!!!😂😂 Andre Martin was my 1st love!!
Nice! Watched it as new and still funny today! Had one of our racing press guys go on a SCTV binge a few weeks ago! So much for doing race reports! When new was 1 of 3 very different students in high school. This was our common bond!!
SCTV just isn't the same chopped up. The show always had a story arc about the goings on at the network, these sketches were the programming and served a similar purpose to the cutaways in Family Guy.
They had some real advantages. They didn't have the pressure of a major US network presence, they were a Canadian show that could be quirky and silly and do spoofs like Monster Chiller Horror Theater and Guy Cabellero the shady owner of the fictional "SCTV network" - and Dave Thomas's characters, Rick Moranis's characters, and characters like Flaherty's Sammy Maudlin and Short's Jackie Rogers Junior and many others and I think the biggest difference, they had to maintain their inspiration and writing and performance for less than 10 years; 1976-1984 - with basically the same cast. SNL's original cast is often mentioned as its best, and they didn't last long. Belushi and Akroyd left at the end of the fourth season; Jane Curtin after the fifth; Gilda after the fifth. Just saying if SCTV had been on tv the last 38 years with different cast members every 5-10 years and none of the original cast on - we would probably be saying SCTV 1985-2022 sucked compared with SCTV 1976-1984 when the greats were in the cast. When you look at the cast of SCTV, so many of them have had long and/or notable careers. John Candy died too soon but is more remembered by the public for his movie work than hhis great work on SCTV. But Eugene Levy, Rick Moranis, Andrea Martin, Catherine O'Hara, Dave Thomas and Martin Short - all great. Now I've typed too much, time to go listen to some Happy Wanderers polka!
Sorry but a lot of people disagree with you. Not that it’s not funny, but when you start trying to make comparisons with outrageously high, unsubstantiated comparisons you are the one that comes across as funny, and not in the good way. There is a reason that SNL has had such a long run.
This show was always the funniest on tv, and at times rose to the level of comedic art. Each cast member was so versatile and the interplay between them was outstanding. Thanks for sharing this.
In my NY area, SCTV was carried on one of the local, independent (non-national networks) channels at 11:30 on Saturday nights. It had higher ratings than SNL, so NBC bought it & aired it at 1AM so it couldn’t compete with SNL. I loved it. It was very topical, so I can understand that today’s young people wouldn’t get it. Nothing exists anymore, including independent tv channels. The stuff they spoof is gone - late night tv commercials for K-Tel music compilations, early morning educational tv, farmer’s shows, local channels’ dance shows (we had Clay Cole & Lloyd Thaxton), polka music, Lawrence Welk, etc. I used to watch the Schmenge Brother’s Christmas special every Yuletide on RU-vid, but they took it down. I laughed so hard when soviet tv took over SCTV airwaves & broadcast “Hey Giorgi!” & Soviet Wheel of Fortune. Very glad Katherine O’Hara walked out of SNL & refused to return when that dope Michael O'Donoghue treated her badly.
Answering a question without truly answering. it is a knack I’ve noticed a lot of women including my wife have. in fact Spock in Star Trek said “I have never understood the female capacity to avoid a direct answer to any question.”
The mannerisms of all of them are so spot on. We've all met someone exactly like one of these people. I've met all 4 of them at one point or another. XD
It was Eugene Levy. He wrote the sketch. When SNL did Celebrity Jeopardy years later the writers had to clear it with Eugene because they didn't want to be accused of plagiarism. The very first SNL Celebrity Jeopardy debuted when Martin Short came back to host. Eugene said it was OK. No problem.
I've had many conversations with friends over the years as to who was the best sketch comedy troupe and while SCTV didn't win every ranking, always in the top 2 or 3 of everyone I've ever asked. What an unbelievable cast of actors and writers.
Oh how my husband & I laughed, watching SCTV, it was on at 11:30 week nights, through out 1978 & 1979, in Northern California, where we lived then, and it was gut wrenchingly hilarious, must watch tv at our 1st house!! A wonderful introduction to Eugene Levy, Katherine O’Hara, Andrea Martin, Martin Short, John Candy, Rick Moranis and so many other fantastic comedians we continue to enjoy 🤣🤣!!
Alex to Blanche:, "Can we expect the pitter patter of little Ray-Kellogg feet in the future?" Blanche: "I don't understand Alex?" Alex: "Are you planning to have kids, children?" Blanche: No, I'm afraid not Alex, I'm going to concentrate on my career." Alex:..and what is that?" Blanche: "Housewife and hopefully mother." Omg, good! LOL!
He does sound like Trebek too. Oh late host must have laughed. But you know with what I hear about some contestants who don’t know their history, on Jeopardy. It’s not far off from truth. You havknowledgeable. Ev
My heart's warmed thinking about Norm calling Eugene up and asking if he could rip this off. The sketch deserved to continue! It's not like SCTV was usin it.
Best comedy show hands down. They weren't live, so to compare them to SNL, is unfair. They could do retakes until they got it right. But for sheer hilarity, this show was unbeatable.
I shit myself laughing when the board is flashing and they can't even pick a topic. I LOVED this show back in the day. As many have noted it blew SNL out of the water! It was so much funnier.
When "American Pie" came out, everyone was talking about how funny the guy playing Jim's dad was; while I knew Eugene Levy from watching this show on Nick at Nite a decade earlier. It was good to see him finally get some steady work in movies, and not just in the "American Pie" series (though he took advantage of that, appearing in every film in the franchise, even the straight-to-video spinoffs.) Except for John Candy, Rick Moranis, and Martin Short, the cast members of SCTV never seemed to become as well-known as their counterparts on SNL. Levy is an awesome comic talent.
Thanks to Charles Allard and CITV for bringing the SCTV cast to Edmonton. We were lucking to see them filming in the studio and on the streets many times. I will never forget Johnny LaRue just wanting a “crane shot”
I loved this skit since I was a kid! "Frank Lloyd Wright was not one of the Wright Brothers, he was an architect." "JUST CALL IT WHILE IT'S IN THE AIR!!" Eugene Levy losing his temper made me laugh.
I was too young for SCTV and I’m not even sure it was ever on TV in Australia, but I had no idea ‘Bob’ (John Hemphill) from ‘Schitt’s Creek’ was part of the troupe, let alone here as Wesley! Incredible 👏😂
vagabond Here in the USA SCTV was always shown in the hours AFTER SNL usually around 1:30-2:00am Eastern Time on Sunday morning! I remember watching these earlier episodes and they were always far more hilarious and gut busting than almost anything that SNL ever did even the best years. Best SCTV episodes are the earlier years before the show was actually picked up by NBC in the USA. These earlier episodes did air on NBC for the first time in the USA many years after they were actually produced and aired in Canada.
I remember as a kid when I watched those repeats of the show on The Comedy Network Canada right after school and yes, Half Wits is my all-time favourite SCTV "show". Childhood memory!
Being born in the mid-'70s I didn't see SCTV until Nick at Nite started showing it in the mid- to late-'80s. Ironically, it was shown right after a half-hour syndicated version of SNL (i.e. "The Best of Saturday Night.")
John Candy was Yosh Schmenge. Gene Levy was Stan Schmenge. And yes as I type those names in my head I hear them saying them in the Leutonian accents. 😁
I had forgotten just how many comedians got there start in this show. Loved it as a kid even though I didn't really understand a lot of the jokes back then.
So many got stoned to watch SCTV, not me, I actually straightened out because I didn't want to miss one second of the absolutely funniest show ever presented in any format. First time I saw Perini Scleroso or Candy with Mrs Falbo, I thought I would croke from laughing so hard, Catherine O'Hara who was utterly gorgeous had to work hard to look plain like Margret Mehan on the game show, brilliant comedian as is the unbelievable Andrea Martin, Indira, Mrs Falbo, Edith Prickly, and O'Hara, Milk of Amnesia, Lola Heatherton, it's endless, two funniest women I've ever seen maybe Gilda and John would have been great on the show but Count Floyd, Sid Dithers, Alex Tremel, Scmenge Bros, Candy as a Detective or Mr. Messenger, how bout Jerry Todd, light years ahead of the digital revolution, how did he know? it's truly endless what they created and it made SNL really boring...thank you all the cast and crew of SCTV, for the funniest show ever broadcast...love you all..Tristan, a lifelong fan..
This show was pure entertainment! The premise of a small TV station where few people played many roles was exactly like the one station my family got when I was growing up.
Characters are played by: Alex Trebel - Eugene Levy Wesley Wilks - John Hemphill Blanche Ray Kellogg - Andrea Martin Arthur Andrew-Leggett - Joe Flaherty Lawrence Orbach - Martin Short
Oh yea, that's Bob from Schitt's Creek. The glasses he's wearing in this skit makes it hard to recognize him, but the voice is still the same even after 36 years!
I remember this being aired on Turkey Television, the predecessor to The Comedy Channel which became Comedy Central. It aired Laugh In and MST3K. It was the first time I saw it. This was shown on some American PBS stations as well late at night, along with other Canadian programs like Red Green. KidsIn The Hall was on late onHBO. Being in Montana I may have seen more Canadian tv than other people but I always find them just sillier and funnier, more absurdist like Monty Python.
Oddly, even though he appeared on many SCTV skits during the Martin Short years, including played a lead character for the Happy Hour segment, he was never credited in the intro as part of the cast.
Whoever wrote the dialogue for Blanche is a genius! lol! They are all so funny and talented and this obviously was the inspiration for Celebrity Jeopardy on SNL.
My favorite show of all time. When they did spoofs on the Andy Griffith Show all of the characters talked like Floyd the barber but then I think they started talking like Merv Griffin. Or something like that. SCTV was geared for folks who were raised on TV. Many laughs were on the subtleties of television viewing. BTW, do yourselves a favor and dig up RU-vid footage of football coach/TV commentator John Madden and tell me that he and John Candy were not the same person. LOL. Their voices are even almost identical. Crazy.
