This is all about Toronto. Crazy Joe's and Gerry Todd being a valium addled DJ for CHFI, the radio staion for White people that don't want to see ANYTHING real and don't wan't to admit they are boring and old.
Most of them are broad parodies of the kind of bad to mediocre TV that was popular in the 1970s into the 1980s. You might as well stop watching TV for the rest of your life.
Crazy Hy's was based on Crazy Joe's, a textile chain in Toronto. Their 1970s commercials were exactly depicted in Crazy Hy's only it was fabric...two men of Jewish decent where one is doing the talking with the other in the back ground motioning with his hand to show the size of the store. Classic, funny and brilliant comedy.
Thanks for the history (I also grew up in TO back in the day). Here is one of the originals - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-hiUBOopyJcE.html
At least you do not have to watch a 15-30 second ad, prior to every SCTV sketch. 15-30 fewer suicide committing Actors and/or Actresses, on SCTV, too, or, also.
@John M Smythe Yes, they were. But the humor became more one sided against the right when Tina the Fey became head writer, and the show has remained there since.
Phil Hartman years at SNL were brilliant. The Belushi Aykroyd Radnor years have aged horribly. Saying that Saturday Night Live is more liberal now than it was at the beginning is like utterly ridiculous Fake news ding dong
@@charlesandrews2360 It's sad that Fox News and other conservative talking heads have brainwashed their listeners so much that anything NOT constantly Conservative is Liberal...and now socialist. I wonder what will be next?
I love the overall concept of Gerry Todd. It's hard to describe why If you didn't grow up in the Eighties... Imagine a cheesy hipster Easy Listening AM or FM radio station from the Seventies, only re-envisioned in the hot new format of consumer video, in a world where we all carried tiny TVs or had them strapped to our heads like oversized Google Glasses, instead of carrying ghetto blasters or wearing Walkmans. And in this era, LP-sized videodiscs were the ultimate medium, and ruled the landscape long before CD/DVD/PVR/VOD. (I had a friend who was like Gerry Todd in his undying love for those huge old videodiscs, and he forever touted their advantages, even when DVD finally emerged.)
sean: Yea, It was before MTV, so the video was still a pretty new medium. Punks, mostly art punks, were the only ones making music videos. They were cutting edge hip. It was a different world.
Now forgotten trivia, but Rick Moranis was actually a Top 40 rock deejay in the late '70s in Toronto. (I've heard aircheck recordings, and he plays it 100% straight, using this Gerry Todd voice.)
Gerry Todd is one of the weirdest concepts Moranis ever came up with. The conceit was a radio DJ with the addition of video, so instead of just a station jingle sung by anonymous performers we get anonymous disembodied heads singing the jingles.
Because SCTV and Rick didn't release an album. It would have sold in Canada for sure (unsure about the states but who knows, Blues Brothers released albums).
Yeah, he was vastly underrated as an artist. Sure, he didn't write his own songs -- but then, neither did Elvis or Frank Sinatra, and Tom's right up there with both of them.
@MorbidManMusic he's still alive; he left show business to raise his kids, after his wife sadly passed away from cancer. However, he has done some voice acting. His kids are basically young adults now, so he may return to onscreen work.
I had a friend who used to pronounce "VUdeo" just like Gerry. He never even saw SCTV (and he was a video fanatic like GT). Every time I watched Rick Moranis do GT, I laughed extra hard because I actually experienced something like him in real life!
Great memories of watching SCTV late Saturday nights when I was around 14 years old. I would do my best impressions of Andrea Martin's characters for my high school classmates to try and make friends. And, it worked because I got pretty good at it. I expanded my repertoire to include other cast members. It became a favorite game among my family members at gatherings, and to this day we still perform our favorite skits. Thanks for the post; it elicits the warmest memories.
As an early teen in southern Ontario me and my brother came across this on the just-new Global TV network, before the Bob and Doug days. Bill Murray even appeared before his SNL turn.
The so talented Rick Moranis is also an admirable man - how many at the height of a film career would, upon becoming a widower - walk away to raise his children?
This brings back memories. Great way to end the week late night on Friday. When MTV came along with its VJ format, The Gerry Todd Show immediately came to mind. It's like a parody of MTV, but it actually aired before MTV launched. Great to see again.
Every time I hear a radio package intro with male & female voices harmonizing the name of a radio show, I picture these disembodied heads from Gerry Todd
Glad I was around when this came out originally. We loved the old SNL original cast then watched The Midnight Special every Saturday night. How lucky were we boomers for laughter and great music...
Years ago I had to do my imitation of Jerry Todd saying “turning Japanese” for my friend and coworker at least once a day coincidentally he was Japanese, great memories.
The request line with a young Catherine O'hara....5 easy pieces, The Gerry Todd "singers" and all the Gerry Todd videos...CLASSIC..thanks for posting these all together
This was shot in Edmonton you can tell because it looks a bit dismal and grey just like Edmonton, I did some acting work at the ITV studio and other places around Edmonton in the early and mid 80s my father was in the film and video business In Edmonton, I think he did some camera work on this show but didn't tell me what he worked on, if you were watching TV in Canada in the 80s and 90s you saw my Fathers work on commercials every day, he passed away but this was our favorite show we always watched it together he was amused by my impressions of Ed Grimley
I think they got the idea of Tom Monroe from Von Monroe a great singer before the war that my Dad used to like a lot but yes that Rick Moranis was one heck of a comedian and singer too if he wanted to be.
I meant Vaugh Monroe. He was a giant in the 40's. Tom Monroe sounds like the successful name of a superstar. A group called the Vapors did a song called "Turning Japenese" back in the early 1980's when SCTV recorded this show.
No, I think that it is a reference to the great Vaughn Monroe a very popular singer in the 30's and 40's. He sang the song "There I've said it again" a song that someone in the 60's did over again, but my Dad reminded me that it was Vaughn Monroe that did that song before WW2.
Best advice I ever got as a young DJ was don't try to be a DJ be yourself I was very close to being fired because I was trying to be a DJ and they told me that and I made the change and the rest is history sort of they were like we wouldn't have hired you if you didn't have something naturally that we like in you so quit trying to be a jock
And the funny thing is most people got me they understood that I was a little bit off center and a bit Goofy but it served me well and I would not approach it any other way if I had to do it againThere's only one thing that I know how to do well And I've often been told that you only can do What you know how to do well And that's be you, Be what you're like, Be like yourself,
Tom "Tinker" Monroe was really great and his hit song "Turning Japanese" was so popular here in Americus, GA. I was lucky to catch Tom's show at the Vacation Motor Inn just 6 miles East of Fernwood, OH, on Hwy 91. Tom played his great hits like "I'll Respect You in the Morning," "Handling Morning Wood," "Swallow Me," "I'm in the Mood for Spluge," "Eat Me," "Pants Party," "Take My Wadd," and "Helping Handful of Love." His show was great and I was able to get Louise the Barmaid to follow me back to my bungalow to Frost her Muffin. I'm planning to go back for the New Year's Day Show in February.
I bought my satellite receiver dish from Crazy Hy's at 4650 Landsdown. I also picked up a deal on that 17 foot tv screen. The thing was, the commercials featuring Crazy Hy never really gave you a proper idea of how loose and, well, crazy he was in person. But when it came to bargains, this guy wasn't talking schmegegge.
Rick Moranis actually worked at a Toronto radio station as a DJ for a periord of time in the 70's (CHUM radio)--I think his inspiration for Gerry Todd came from that job. Would love if I could see the clip of how Gerry Todd found his wife ('Priscilla"--played by Andrea Martin)-on a video service--and the hassles she had to put up with during the early part of their marriage---that was a hilarious spoof!!! LOL
There has been no comedy that has ever been able to meet the bar that was set by SCTV. These people were brilliant and each one still holds the standard for hilarity.🤩🤣
So brilliant and ahead of its time. A complete and accurate prediction of what was just ahead in the next decade for music and music video. Rick Moranis, what happened to you? You used to bring the funny like nobody's business.....
Does anyone recall which episode of SCTV had not only the CCCP 1 take over transmission but then some Japanese guy takes over that transmission? I've been trying to find it like crazy.
My favorite SCTV original character, Gerry Todd! I love to watch this again and again, thanks! BTW, Crazy Hy is selling 19" TVs for $19, lol. I used to sell at a bait and switch place in the late 80s that advertised 20" for $199! I would have to switch them to a 19" for $239, OMG. Memories.
