John T. Ryan
FROM a most humble beginning in a storefront converted into a "Cabaret" in Chicago's Old Town Neighborhood on North Wells Street, THE SECOND CITY Theater has long been known for its Avant-Garde spirit and irreverent satire of just about everything. The group became a hot bed for outrageous comedy and a fertile spawning ground for a seemingly endless array of acting talent.OWING its title of THE SECOND CITY to the sort of collective feelings of inadequacy felt by Chicago's being the second largest city, next to New York. The urban inferiority complex continues with the application of the old nicknames. Whereas NYC has long been "Bagdad on the Trolley" (from O. Henry) to the modern moniker of "the Big Apple", all names seemed to imply power, class and the place to be. Chicago's reputations on the other hand seem to have reflected the negative. Gangster Land, Hog-Butcher to the World and (my personal favourite) the Stacker of Wheat all cover the urban atmosphere that is thriving on the Southwest shoreline of Lake Michigan.RESORTING to a sort of "Mental Jiu-Jitsu", the founders of the off-beat theatre group used the otherwise diminutive term to give a figurative "finger" to the World and just be themselves. The lack of superlatives gave notice that there would certainly be neither pretensions nor any pseudo-intellectual attitudes. Basically, what you see is what you get.ABOUT twenty years after the founding of the Chicago Group, an international movement led to exportation of the Theatre North, to Canada. The targeted City was Toronto, Ontario; which sits on the same huge grouping of inland fresh water lakes as does Chicago; Toronto being on Lake Ontario, Chicago situated on Lake Michigan. There are many other similarities between the two; so the choice seemed perfect and tuned out pretty well.AFTER a shaky start (including a bankruptcy and a padlocked cabaret), the Northern Campaign was a success. Infusion of new capital and management allowed the talents of the likes of Harold Ramis, Joe Flaherty, Gene Levy, Andrea Martin, Catherine O'Hare, Rick Romanis, John Candy, Tony Rosado and Dave Thomas (as the 'Beaver') to create some of the best and most original comic routines and reviews imaginable. Making use of the existence of both the Chicago and Toronto groups, personnel were sometimes shuttled back and forth for stays in the other facility.SOMRTIME around 1975, the idea of branching out to the TV tube was hatched and the genesis for SECOND CITY TV was successful in bringing the group and the name to Television and familiarity to millions of North American households.PERHAPS the movement toward the electronic medium was boosted by the success of NBC's Saturday NIGHT, which premièred in the Fall Season in 1975. The show was designed as a 90 minute, weekly comedy review type show, featuring rotating Guest Hosts and Special Appearances by popular Musical Acts. Furthermore, the cast of the show was made up of writer-performers Michael O'Donahue (from The National Lampoon) and a highly talented group of improvisational performers such as: Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Dan Akroyd, Lorraine Newman, Garrett Morris and Jane Curtain. All but O'Donahue, Chase and Morris were SECOND CITY Vets and the show naturally took on the same sort of look as a SC Review; although sans any of the "Social Relevance" or Satire that characterized the live stage performances always flaunted.SO, on a shoe-string budget and using the central theme of spoofing what may well go on behind the scenes of a local Television Station, SECOND CITY TV burst on the scene in September of 1977. At first, it was done in a syndicated manner; although it appears that many of the stations owned and affiliated with the NBC Television Network picked it up.WE well remember how it snuck up on our household that fateful Saturday night. It was directly following Saturday NIGHT LIVE on NBC in our market in Chicago; as our local, wholly-owned NBC affiliate & subsidiary, WMAQ TV Channel 5 had signed it on-board as a late nite Saturday feature. Being slated locally to follow SNL, it would seem that SCTV would be put at a disadvantage.NOTHING could be further from the truth as the obviously frivolously budgeted Canadian Product shined and stood out by comparison with the slickly done New York Production of SNL. SCTV took just a 30 minute slot and managed to make use of every on air minute sandwiched in between the late night commercials, with a plethora of fresh and genuinely funny material; all performed by a whole "New" and unheralded curfew of top notch, soon to be "Stars" cast.CONTRARY to what our original expectations had dictated, SECOND CITY TV trumped NBC's Saturday NIGHT LIVE. Instead of being a sort of Late Night afterthought, it proved to be Saturday Night's Main Event, at least in our town.ALL of that changed when the 30 minute, small budget show morphed into the hour and a half SCTV 90; but that's another story (and review) for another day. .POODLE SCHNITZ!!
BigSkyMax
I was lucky enough to have experienced SCTV the first time around. Thirty years later, it's nice to hear that others of a new generation still find it as funny. It wasn't just the cheap weed after all. There were too many high points to list exhaustively: Dr Tongue's 3-D House of Stewardesses, the best movie satire ever made (The famous Godfather), the Schmenges, etc., etc. Read Dave Thomas's book for a great behind-the-scenes story. Between bootlegs dating back to the 70s, the 2001 NBC rebroadcasts and the TVLand broadcasts in 2003-4, I may have most of the original shows. The Rhino DVDs are good, but woefully incomplete. Their best contribution is the commentary. MAD-TV, with director John Blanchard and writer Paul Flaherty comes closest to the same spirit as SCTV. Still, despite some good skits and some actors, that show's weakness is having a live audience: like SNL, it dictates shtick. SCTV's greatness came from its isolation from critics and audience. That and the isolation of Edmonton. All the actor/writers had left was the purity of the show. Post-SCTV, like the Beatles, the parts never equaled the whole. Still a great hallmark of comedy! And Dave Thomas should sue Bill O'Reilly for stealing his Bill Needle character!
Cassy_Rose
SCTV is now on the air! and I LOVE IT!! I'm only 18 yrs old, so naturally, I was born after the show ended, but I've been watching reruns for quite a while now, and I have to say that I know the show pretty well. There's so much to say about it. Like most of the other posters stated, SCTV surpassed SNL in every aspect. I'm not much of a fan of SNL just because I find it's humour too simple, too forced. I like the wit. For example, this may seem to be stupid, but when you think about it, it's very ingenious: The Days of Our Lives becomes The Heys of Our Lives and everyone says "hey" all the time!! I mean, it's corny, yes, but it works! Oh, I love of the actors so much! They're so awesome at what they do! John Candy's sleazy Johnny LaRue, Joe Flaherty's equally sleazy and money-hungry Guy Caballero, Eugene Levy's funnyman Bobby "How are ya?!" Bittman, Andrea Martin's loud-mouthed, cackling Edith Prickley, Rick Moranis's super (as in the supers on his show) crazy Gerry Todd, Catherine O'Hara's spoiled, man-crazed performer, Lola "I want to bear your children! HA!haha!" Heatherton and Dave Thomas's opinionated Bill Needle. Yes, SCTV had it all, and all the actors had caliber. There are so many more characters and impersonations worth naming and remembering: Floyd Robertson, Count Floyd, Earl Camembert, Bob and Doug McKenzie, Dr. Tongue, Woody Tobias,Jr. aka Bruno, Alex Trebel, "Rockin'" Mel Slirrup, Mrs. Falbo, Big Jim McBob and Billy Sol Hurok, Yosh and Stan Shmenge, Harvey K-Tel, Lin Ye Tang, Richard Harris, Bob Hope, Rabbi Karlov, Crazy Hy, Ricardo Montalban, Don Strom, Sid Dithers, Moe Green, Ed Grimley, Jackie Rogers,Jr., Pierre Trudeau, Hugh Betcha, Alistair Cook, Larry Siegel, Merv Griffin, Sammy Maudlin, Lou Jaffe, William B. Williams, Brock Linehan, Harry (The Guy with a snake on his face), Skip Bittman, David Brinkley, Lorna Minelli, Barbra Streisand, Divine, Brian Johns, Mayor Tommy Shanks, William F. Buckley, Mother Theresa, Angus Crock, the 5 Neat Guys, Brooke Shields, Raoul Wilson, Joyce DeHalfWitt, Jack Klugman, Tex and Edna Boil, Liberace, G. Gordon Liddy, Gus Gustofferson, Al Peck... oh! there are SOOOOOO MANY!!! All of them memorable. One of my favourite skits is when Richard Harris (Dave Thomas, of course) guest stars on Mel's Rock Pile and sings a re-mix of MacArthur's Park. Actually, anything with Dave Thomas as Richard Harris is hilarious. There are so many sketches I could name, but I won't, because it would literally take me a full day, if not two. How can anyone NOT enjoy this show? I mean, if you've seen it at least once, be you Canadian or American, there had at least one sketch that made you chuckle! I am glad that it never became as popular and widely known as SNL... and that it didn't as long. For those who knew and loved SCTV, they know that it was never bad comedy and that it went out with dignity... and humour! This show is a timeless classic and I hope that it's memory will live on with the DVD box sets. I am glad to have stumbled upon this treasure... it's too bad that more people don't appreciated the comedic talent of these fine, fine actors.
