Rick Moranis opts out of cartoon take on iconic comic duo Bob and Doug
TORONTO - Canada's iconic comic duo Bob and Doug don't sound quite like they used to.
The beloved hosers, immortalized on "SCTV" by comedians Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis, are set to return next year in an animated series but only Thomas - who plays Doug - is lending his voice.
Moranis's character, Bob, will be voiced by former "Full House" star Dave Coulier.
Thomas says Moranis is staying behind the scenes as executive producer and just isn't interested in appearing on the show.
"You have to come in every two weeks or so and record and he just didn't want to do that so I said, 'All right, we'll get somebody else,' " Thomas said Monday from Los Angeles.
"I think at a certain age you have to allow people to do what they want."
It's been nearly 30 years since the beer-swilling duo debuted on the beloved sketch show "SCTV" with their tuques, lumberjack jackets and liberal use of the words "eh" and "hoser."
Thomas says the half-hour show will be updated with current cultural references to bring it into the new millennium and appeal to a new generation. But he understands that some fans might be upset that Coulier is voicing Moranis's role.
"There's got to be room to grow," insists Thomas, adding that he and Coulier have been friends for years since they worked together on "America's Funniest People." Coulier hosted and Thomas executive-produced.
"I can understand some real diehard fans going, 'Oh, man, that's an outrage!' But I think most people will look at it and judge it as it is and go, 'Is this funny? Does it work?' And I think it does and I think we'll get their blessing as a result of that."
"Bob and Doug" is set to air early next year on Global and talks are in the works for a U.S. broadcast via Fox.
Like the live version, the cartoon take will feature direct-to-camera addresses where the McKenzie brothers can wisecrack and banter in their unique lingo, but the expanded format will lift the veil on their personal lives. Upcoming storylines reveal the duo's friends, family and the town where Bob and Doug live - a fictional place called Maple Lake, located somewhere in Ontario near the United States border.
"It's sort of like Springfield in the Simpsons, you know," Thomas explains.
Turns out the boys work as garbage collectors and live in a much more culturally diverse world than their live action incarnations. Other characters include their boss, Dwight, who is black and drives the garbage truck, and their good friend Henry Chow, who runs a Chinese restaurant.
"I think you have a requirement to make a lot of changes that you wouldn't have done for the sort of purists and fans of Bob and Doug on the old two-minute shows on the Great White North set," Thomas says of the new elements.
The last time fans got an in-depth look at the boys was in the 1983 feature film, "Strange Brew," but Thomas says all the backstory developed for that film had to be abandoned for the cartoon because of rights issues.
"MGM will sue us," he says simply. "So we have to create new realities. So we have a dog and instead of calling it Hosehead as we did in 'Strange Brew,' we called the dog Buck. And we can't drink Elsinore beer because we don't own that, MGM does. And all these big companies are so litigious and so proprietary that you can't mess around with them."
Thomas, who runs the animation company behind the show - Animax Entertainment - says he is also working on a couple of pilot scripts as a writer, but is not interested in doing much acting these days.
"It has to be something, I think, where I sit down," says the funnyman, who turns 60 in May.
"Behind a desk.... I don't really like jumping all over the place. I don't have that youthful enthusiasm I used to have."
Moranis unsure of Bob & Doug Toon
TORONTO - The Fox network is eyeing the new Global-TV cartoon "The Animated Adventures of Bob and Doug McKenzie" - and Doug is ready to dump a reluctant Bob in order to continue with the show.
Dave Thomas says his McKenzie sibling, Rick Moranis, was a hesitant participant in the series, airing on Global this fall.
"He doesn't enjoy doing any showbiz stuff anymore," Thomas said Tuesday in an interview from Los Angeles, where he was busy working on scripts for the show.
"I can't even guarantee his involvement long term in this, but whatever ... if I have to drag a sound-alike in for his voice, I'll do that. I don't think anyone would care because it's a new product."
Thanks to Global's haste in green-lighting the show, Thomas says, Fox executives were immediately interested when he pitched it to them and asked to see scripts and the pilot.
"We submit the pilot in early August, and we'll hear after that. But I think they'll go for it - I think they like this show. Just to get them this close is good, and means we can probably get someone else interested if they're not."
The series is based on the lovable hosers from the SCTV show, but Thomas says the beer-swilling brothers find themselves in a whole different environment in the new series.
"They are in a world that they weren't in before, and they have some friends who are a little raunchier than they are," he says.
"But Bob and Doug are tolerant guys and they like everybody. That's why people like them - they're so good-natured. They don't hate anybody."
U.S. fans have long loved the iconic Canadian duo, Thomas adds, and there's been no push by Fox to have him Americanize the show in any way. The network has had runaway successes with its animated series, including "The Simpsons" and "American Dad."
"They've got thoughts on jokes and stuff like that but nothing that would make it any less Canadian," Thomas says.
"And Americans have been behind Bob and Doug from the get-go ... 'Strange Brew' is a perennial college, beer-drinking movie here in the States. Americans are looking for stuff to laugh at just like Canadians."
Thomas says he never dreamed that Bob and Doug would have such enduring appeal when he and Moranis dreamed up the concept almost 30 years ago as a raised middle finger to the CRTC's Canadian content regulations during SCTV's heyday.
Offended by the CBC's request to add some obvious Canadian content into the show to keep the CRTC happy, Moranis and Thomas came up with Bob and Doug, who embodied every possible Canadian stereotype - from their fondness for beer, toques and lumberjack jackets to their use of the word "eh" in almost every sentence.
"I thought it was a bit of a nightmare back then, when I thought of myself as a young artist, but now that I think of myself as an old hack, I'm glad I have Bob and Doug," Thomas says.
'The Second City' founder Paul Sills dies at 80
CHICAGO - Paul Sills, founder of Chicago's famed improvisational comedy group "The Second City," has died at age 80. His wife, Carol Sills, told the Chicago Tribune that Sills died early Monday at his home in Baileys Harbor, Wis., from complications from pneumonia.
The comedy troupe says in a statement on its Web site that Sills' influence on American theater "cannot be exaggerated" and "his work will certainly live on forever."
Sills helped start Second City in 1959. The humor mecca has turned out some of America's best-known comedians, including John Belushi, Bill Murray and Gilda Radner.
Sills' play, "Story Theatre," was nominated for a Tony Award in 1971.
Dan's Note: I didn't write this, but I agree with every word!!
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All the hits, as good as we remember
It was 1974 all over again, and thankfully so, as SCTV veterans did their thing
Richard Ouzounian - Toronto Star Theatre Critic
Anybody searching for the Fountain of Youth is advised to pay a visit to the Second City on Mercer St. where The Benefit of Laughter opened last night for a two-performance run.
The five cast members from the iconic series SCTV – Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Catherine O'Hara and Martin Short – hadn't appeared together on a stage in 24 years, but you'd never know it.
They showed us without a doubt that they had the talent, the panache and that inexpressible larger-than-life quality called stardom that still makes them unique.
Nothing could make that clearer than a moment in the first sketch they performed, where O'Hara played a teacher summoning the worst parents of her class. All was going fine and then suddenly, a door flung open and there was Martin, a.k.a. Edith Prickley, in her leopard-clothed glory.
It was like someone had pulled an electric switch on the stage. Everything seemed brighter, funnier and the audience cheered their approval. And the first time Martin uncorked that incredible cackle of hers, all of us felt like it was 1974 all over again ... and boy, were we glad it was.
Miracles like that were in plentiful supply last night. Let Levy's clueless Earl Camembert do his slow burn through a news report where stolid partner Floyd Robertson (Flaherty, the king of deadpan) got all the good headlines and you practically fell apart with glee waiting for the final eruption that you knew would come.
When Martin's twitching, preening Ed Grimley triumphed over a superior candidate at a job interview and went into a dance that looked like a cobra squirming through a sea of Vaseline, everything seemed right with the world.
By the time Act II began with an episode of the Sammy Maudlin Show, bliss reigned supreme.
Flaherty sleazed his way through the talk show host with vintage grease, Levy's Bobby Bittman hit new heights of self-promotional hilarity and then the Earth stopped on its axis as O'Hara's bleached blond and white-spangled Lola Heatherton slunk into view, offering to bear all our children.
The medley of Canadian songs she did with Levy hit new heights of hilarity, ending with his ad-libbed "I don't know those kookie, crazy Canadian clouds after all."
The hits kept on a comin', as they used to say, with Short stopping the show as the loathsome Jackie Rogers Jr. and a gossipy hairdresser who uncorks lines like, "John McCain is so old, the only time he doesn't have to pee is when he pees."
There was also first-rate work from the inventive Colin Mochrie and the daffy, delectable Women Fully Clothed, but this evening belonged to the gang from SCTV.
They subtly saluted their absent friend John Candy by saying how much they missed his William B. Williams character during the Maudlin show but otherwise, it was laughter all the way.
Were they great in the past? Undoubtedly. Were they great last night? Absolutely. Will they ever be that great in person again? Only God and Guy Caballero know for sure.
SCTVers reunite for charity event
TORONTO - For some, it was Catherine O'Hara's unhinged Lola Heatherton, for others it was Eugene Levy's impersonation of a near-comatose Perry Como, for still others it was Tex and Edna Boyle and their bizarre organ emporium.
Almost every Canadian has a favourite SCTV character, moment or routine - and so, too, do a litany of comics who have been paying tribute to the zany and groundbreaking troupe as some of its most famous members prepare to reunite next week in Toronto for two shows.
"It's tremendously uplifting and one of the greatest rewards, to hear your peers, and these really great comic minds, saying they look up to us," the U.S.-born Joe Flaherty, 66, said Wednesday from his home in Toronto, where he's lived since the early 1970s.
"It's the best you can do, to get those kinds of accolades."
Dave Foley, currently touring North America with the Kids in the Hall as they enjoy a reunion of their own, says he was an insanely devoted fan of "SCTV" as soon as it started airing on the CBC in 1976.
"When I was a kid we lived in Creemore, which is about an hour out of Toronto, and we only got two TV channels clearly," Foley recalled in a recent interview from Boston.
"We had this old antenna lying on the floor in our attic and I'd have to go up for about two hours of fiddling with this antenna so that we could watch 'SCTV' each week. I would be up there ... shouting out the window to my brother downstairs: 'Can you see anything?' We had to do that every single week because we loved that show so much right from its first airing."
SCTV, in fact, had a huge impact on "The Kids in the Hall" as Foley and the four other Kids decided where to take their TV show a decade later.
"They were a big part of why we don't do any parodies - because of how much we loved 'SCTV,"' he said. "'SCTV' just did it way better than we could ever do it."
Foley counts the SCTV spoof "The Grapes of Mud," Levy's imitation of an Alex Trebek type on "Half Wits" and any time the late John Candy showed up as the smarmy Johnny LaRue as among his favourite SCTV moments, but was quick to add that it was almost impossible to name favourites.
British-born comic Tracey Ullman recalls moving to the U.S. more than 20 years ago and immediately becoming enthralled with "SCTV" and the hysterical goings-on at the local TV station in the fictional town of Melonville.
"It was so cutting edge compared to anything else they were doing in the U.S. at the time - it was brilliant and really, it still is brilliant," Ullman said recently in a telephone interview from Los Angeles.
As a female comic, Ullman said she was particularly blown away by Catherine O'Hara - especially her portrayal of a kooky D-list entertainer who frequently appeared on the Sammy Maudlin talk show and shrieked: "I love you! I want to bear your children!"
"The impersonation of Lola Heatherton was just fabulous because Catherine O'Hara is such a great actress. It was more than an impersonation, it wasn't a surface impersonation - there was a lot of stuff underneath that was brilliant. She's the absolute funniest."
Brent Butt, star and creator of CTV's hit comedy "Corner Gas," said he still watches SCTV whenever he can and marvels at how sharp and funny the humour remains.
"It holds up better than a lot of shows and is still every bit as funny as it was then," Butt said from Vancouver.
"But the two who really stand out for me are Johnny LaRue and Bobby Bittman. Bobby Bittman because I always wanted to be a standup, and here was this guy who was this cartoonish stereotype of all the bad standups in the world - this guy was the guy not to be, but you were always pulling for him," he said. "Johnny LaRue was so pathetic, but so funny."
The jovial Flaherty, whose memorable "SCTV" characters included poker-faced news anchor Floyd Robertson and an alcoholic Hugh Beaumont in a "Leave It to Beaver" parody, said he's not nervous about taking to the stage next Monday and Tuesday nights in Toronto.
The shows - featuring him, O'Hara, Levy, Andrea Martin, Martin Short and Harold Ramis - are aimed at raising funds for veteran artistic and support personnel from "SCTV" and the Second City theatre troupe who are facing health or financial hardships.
No media have been accredited to cover the shows, and they were conceived simply as low-key affairs meant to raise charity money.
"We're only going to rehearse on Sunday," Flaherty said.
"We're doing some SCTV characters, we're doing some stage stuff that we all did on stage at Second City, and we're doing some improvisation. It should be interesting, that's for sure, but the best thing is that it's put us all in touch again."
Flaherty says age, however, has slowed everyone down slightly.
"Yes, we're all together and we're a lot older," he said with a laugh. "The more I look at it, the more I see why comedy works so well for the young."
SCTV reuniting for a good cause
Citizens of Melonville, SCTV is back!
Or at least, most of the players who made the late 1970s, early '80s TV comedy series so memorable, with characters like Guy Caballero, Bobby Bittman, Edith Prickley, Lola Hetherington, Ed Grimley, and Bob and Doug McKenzie.
The Star has learned that Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Catherine O'Hara, Martin Short and Dave Thomas will reunite as performers for the first time in 24 years on May 5 at The Second City's Toronto home on Mercer St.
Harold Ramis and Rick Moranis are trying to extricate themselves from previous engagements so they can join their colleagues.
"I only know one thing: it's going to be fun," said Short, in an interview from his home in Los Angeles.
He recalls his time on SCTV as "a miracle. It was the first time that I was tapping into the kind of work I would do for the rest of my career."
SCTV first went on the air as a half-hour show on Global TV in 1976 and wound up as a 90-minute program on CBC and NBC. Its final original year was on pay TV service Superchannel in 1984.
Short joined the series in 1982, near the end of its run, and says he found it "a daunting experience. I was being asked to join a show that was an Emmy-winning hit, the hippest thing in comedy.
"I really developed Ed Grimley there," he laughed, referring to the twitchy, cowlicked character that also appeared on Saturday Night Live and in his own animated series. "Up until then, Grimley had only been a character who would appear naked coming out of the shower to my wife."
The appearance in May is a fundraiser for The Alumni Fund, which raises money to help veteran artistic and support personnel from SCTV and The Second City comedy troupe who are facing health or financial hardship.
Also appearing that night are Colin Mochrie and the comedy group Women Fully Clothed (Kathryn Greenwood, Robin Duke, Debra McGrath, Jayne Eastwood and Teresa Pavlinek).
"I am thrilled to have this wonderful collection of Second City alums come home and support their colleagues and friends who may be experiencing some difficulties in their lives," said executive producer Andrew Alexander.
Updated Epcot Center film has Martin Short as voice of Canada
Disney is finally updating the film that presents the face of Canada at Epcot Center in Florida, and has chosen Hamilton-born comedian Martin Short to tell the story.
The SCTV and Saturday Night Live star will play a cowboy, a member of Cirque du Soleil and several other characters in the film that gives visitors an introduction to Canada.
It will be shown in the Canada Pavilion at Epcot, one of Walt Disney World's theme parks, beginning next month.
Canadians have been complaining for years about O Canada.
The footage of Canadian scenes and cities was shot in 1979 and has been criticized for its portrayal of Canadians as lumberjacks, fishermen and Mounties.
"I'd say that in the last 10 years … we got a lot of complaints from Canadians who said, 'I don't think this is reflective of Canada. We're not just about geese. We're not about flannel jackets and we're definitely not about just great, wide open landscapes,"'said Gisele Danis with the Canadian Tourism Commission.
"The letters just poured in."
The CTC has been lobbying for years to have the Disney-made film updated.
The agency that promotes Canadian tourism has played a role in creating the new version, and agreed with Disney on the choice of Short as narrator.
Film emphasizes Canadian star power
The entertainer said the new film will definitely give people a more realistic view of Canada, if a mildly humourous one.
"It's more of a comedic look … it's, shall we say, a lighthearted examination of Canada," he said. "It's little vignettes and things, and I narrate it as well."
In the last 25 years, Canadian comedians have emerged with a distinct sensibility in the minds of Americans, Short said.
The film makes the most of that reputation and points out other big stars with Canadian roots.
"There is a montage of all the kinds of, I guess, celebrity lights that have come from Canada 'cause it is an unusually disproportionate number when you think of it," Short said.
The film also features new music and vocals by last year's Canadian Idol, Eva Avula.
Delays continue for former SNL comedian jailed 2 years awaiting trial
Former SCTV and Saturday Night Live comedian Tony Rosato must wait until June to find out if he will get a bail hearing this summer after spending two years in jail without trial.
On Friday, lawyers involved in Rosato's case met in court in Kingston, Ont., but were unable to agree on moving up court proceedings to discuss his bail and the exceptional delay in his trial for charges of harassing his wife.
They will be discussing the issue again in June, said Rosato's lawyer Daniel Brodsky.
If Rosato is granted bail, he will be released to a psychiatric hospital, Brodsky said.
Rosato, 53, has been in jail since May 2005.
He was charged with harassment after he complained to police that his wife Leah Rosato and their daughter had gone missing and had been replaced by imposters.
On Friday, the Superior Court of Justice offered to move Rosato's hearing on bail and court delays from November to July, but the lawyer for Rosato's wife said she was not available.
"Tony is shocked that he may have to wait until November to accommodate the complainant's lawyer," Brodsky said in an e-mail. "I'm appalled."
Lawyer wants charges dropped
Brodsky is arguing that charges against Rosato should be dropped because of an unreasonable delay in his trial.
That delay has prompted Karl Pruner, the president of Rosato's union, to speak to Ontario's attorney general about the case.
"From what I can find out about the case, nobody's done anything wrong. There's no malice here," said Pruner, head of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists. "It's just this guy has wedged himself into a crack and we need to get him out."
A spokesperson for Ontario's Attorney General's Office told CBC that the Crown has taken steps to have Rosato's case moved forward "judiciously and expeditiously" and to have Rosato held in a psychiatric facility instead of jail.
Rosato was born in Italy, grew up in Ottawa, and rose to fame after he joined Second City in Toronto. He was on SCTV and Saturday Night Live in the '80s and went on to star on other TV shows and in movies through the '90s.
CBC to honour McKenzie brothers
TORONTO (CP) - The Trailer Park Boys may be Canada's latest low-rent darlings, but beer-swilling hosers Bob and Doug McKenzie were blazing a proud trail of loserdom when Ricky, Julian and Bubbles were mere children.
And so CBC-TV is celebrating the SCTV favourites, portrayed by comics Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis, this Sunday with its so-called "Two-Four Anniversary Special."
The title is an homage to three beloved Canadianisms: the country's May 24th holiday weekend, the beverage of choice for Bob and Doug - an ice-cold case of 24 beer, colloquially known as a 2-4 - and the 24th anniversary of the Bob and Doug movie, "Strange Brew," a film that became something of a campus cult classic in the U.S. upon its release in 1983.
"Someone was saying to me recently that if you did a montage of all of Canada's best-known symbols, there wouldn't be too many of them, but Bob and Doug would definitely be on there," Thomas said Thursday on the line from Los Angeles, where he's lived for more than 20 years.
"We are certainly icons."
The special - airing on Thomas's 58th birthday - features a long list of personalities paying tribute to Bob and Doug, including Canadians Martin Short, Tom Green, Paul Shaffer and Dave Foley. But there are also some longtime American fans like "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening and actor Ben Stiller, who remembers lining up with his mother for hours at a New York City record store as a child to get Bob and Doug's autographs.
One of the funniest parts of the special, Thomas says, is former prime minister Paul Martin's deadpan appearance as he pleads for Canadians to reject the Bob and Doug stereotype once and for all. At one point, Martin sadly recalls: "I'll never forget the four-year-old girl in Buenos Aires who looked up at me with her pretty eyes and asked, 'Where's your beer, you knob?"'
"He absolutely nailed it," Thomas says incredulously. "I couldn't believe how hilarious he was."
In honour of the 24th anniversary, even beer-makers are getting in on the party - Red Cap Ale has created a limited-edition range of six Bob and Doug collectible stubbies available in Ontario all summer long.
In every 12 pack of Red Cap stubbies, beer fans in Ontario will find one of the six anniversary edition clear stubby bottles, showcasing some of Bob and Doug's finer moments.
Thomas loves Bob and Doug - characters created as a sort of raised finger to the CRTC's strict Canadian content regulations when SCTV was one the country's biggest television hits - but he admits to having frequently thrown out the Bob and Doug costume of toques and parkas in the past. He figured he and Moranis, one of his closest pals, had closed the door on the characters for good.
"And every time, here we go again - I have to get another parka and another toque," he says with a laugh. When told he should hang on to the costume this time because they'll likely be expected to resurrect Bob and Doug again on the 50th anniversary, Thomas is rueful.
"If I'm still alive, that is."
He may be approaching 60, but Thomas doesn't appear to be slowing down. He makes the odd television appearance, playing Charlize Theron's uncle on an "Arrested Development" episode ("Who would turn that down?" he asked). And he's currently working on a movie about Canadian bandleader Guy Lombardo, and awaiting word on two television pilots - one a sitcom set in a hospital.
Thomas admits he misses Canada, even though he sold his cottage on Ontario's Lake Simcoe years ago.
"My wife caught me hurling rocks at our motorboat in anger and frustration and she said: 'You know, maybe you're just not a cottage person,"' he recalls. "And she was right. It was a hassle maintaining that cottage."
But he marvels every time he returns to Toronto, saying he's astonished at how bustling and vibrant the city is now compared to how it was in the 1970s and '80s, when he was launching his comedy career.
"I sometimes wonder if Toronto was the city it is now when I was starting out, if I would have even needed to leave it," he said. "It is really such a great, vital place now."
Hoser mania is back, eh?
HOLLYWOOD -- Coo Roo Coo Coo Coo Coo Coo Coo!
It's been quite a while since we've heard the immortal call of the "Great White North," but that's about to change as Bob and Doug McKenzie get ready to celebrate a significant anniversary.
True, their movie, Strange Brew was released in 1983, but why wait until 2008 to commemorate 25 years when there's a perfectly good two-four sitting in front of them right now.
Refusing to let that, uh, Golden opportunity slip away, Toronto-based producer Jane Welowszky has been in Hollywood doing interviews for Bob & Doug's Two-Four Anniversary, a one-hour special slated to air on CBC this summer in which Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas reunite to play the beloved McKenzie Brothers for what could be the very last time.
Among those Welowszky has filmed so far, sharing their fondest Bob & Doug memories, are Ben Stiller, Martin Short, Jason Priestly, Paul Dooley (who was one of the Strange Brew cast members), The Simpsons creator Matt Groening, Dave Foley, Tom Green, Mad TV's Will Sasso and hockey great Mark Napier.
"Ben Stiller had lined up with his mother, Anne Meara, when he was just a kid, waiting three hours to get their autograph at Sam Goody Records at Rockefeller Center," says Welowszky, who heads up a production company called Me Jane Films.
"Everyone has a story or an anecdote since the McKenzies really touched a lot of lives."
She's hoping one of those willing to share will also include Demi Moore who had actually auditioned for Strange Brew but ended up losing the role (of Pam Elsinore) to Canadian actress Lynne Griffin.
In the course of her travels, Welowszky is also looking to snag some of the politicians who at the time felt that Bob and Doug were harmful to the Canadian image.
While a firm date has yet to be locked in, Welowszky anticipates CBC will agree to May 19, the kick-off to the Victoria Day long weekend, which also happens to be the unofficial start of two-four season.
A special edition Strange Brew DVD is slated to come out in the fall, which will also likely contain some of the recently shot footage.
As aficionados will tell you, "Great White North" took off back in 1980 when SCTV was mandated by the government to fill two minutes of each program with what would be considered strictly Canadian content.
The ensuing Hosermania had become a bit of a mixed blessing for Moranis and Thomas over the years, but absence has clearly made their hearts grow fonder. Their toques have been recreated for the occasion as has the memorable GWN set.
"When Bob and Doug left SCTV the original set was basically thrown out," says Welowszky.
"We found a guy who used to work for the show and he rescued it from the dumpster and now it's in his basement in Toronto so he and his buddies can sit around drinking beer in front of the "Great White North" set."
Among plans to promote the upcoming special is an on-line Canadian Hoser competition ("like Canadian Idol but really different, eh?").
Beyond the big Two-Four, development continues on the long-in-gestation The Animated Adventures of Bob & Doug, a half-hour series that would air in the Simpsons/King of the Hill time slot.
"As Dave says, he looks better animated now," says Welowszky.
"He'll have a long shelf-life that way."
Beauty, eh?
Calling All Hosers
From the producers of the upcoming McKenzie Brothers documentary:
Me Jane Films is currently producing a special one hour documentary for CBC called "The Two-Four Anniversary of Strange Brew." That's right, Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas will be reuniting as Bob and Doug McKenzie for what may be their last show from the Great White North...and we want to hear from you!
We are looking for the best, most entertaining home video footage, photographs, collections of memorabilia, and Hoser stories. Do you have an entire room in your house dedicated to Bob and Doug? Do you or someone you know consider toques and parkas as wardrobe essentials? Have you ever tried to stuff a mouse inside a beer bottle...and videotaped it? Are your children named Bob and Doug...and they are both daughters?
You get the picture. We want to see how those original Hosers - and their comedy classic, "Strange Brew" - have impacted your lives.
E-mail us at info@mejanefilms.com and let us know if there's anything you'd like us to consider using in the show. Be sure to include your phone number because when we receive your submission we may need to contact you for more information.
Depending on the nature of your submission, we may request that an item be sent to us, such as a DVD or photo - or even better, you may be asked to participate in an on-camera interview! Payment may be available for some types of footage.
So put down that bottle of beer and jelly doughnut because here's your chance to show the rest of Canada (maybe even the world, eh!) just how much these two unforgettable Canadian Hosers mean to you.
Looking forward to hearing from you, eh!
Dave Thomas still has his eh game
Hosers Bob & Doug McKenzie refuse to die, or even retire. Not now, not just yet.
Why, eh? “Well,” muses Great White North co-creator and comic Dave Thomas, “all I can give you is my theories, because I don’t really have a definite answer.”
We are talking by phone from his base in Los Angeles. The conversation is initiated because Thomas and pal Rick Moranis did a return gig as the hoser moose in Brother Bear 2, after scoring great reviews for their whimsical work in the 2003 original.
Brother Bear 2, one of Disney’s direct-to-DVD sequels, arrived in stores on Tuesday. It has the McKenzie-like moose, Rutt (Moranis) and Tuke (Thomas), falling in moosifer love with two fine females (fellow Canadians Andrea Martin and Catherine O’Hara).
“We actually liked it,” the 57-year-old Thomas says of working in Brother Bear 2 with the now reclusive Moranis. “Rick is not a big fan of acting any more because of going into the trailer and sitting around for 10 hours for every one hour that you work. But doing voice-overs is quick and clean. And you can do the whole thing in the morning. You can go home and you’re done for the day.
“Plus they let us improvise, which was fun because that’s how we do those characters and they (animators at Walt Disney Studios) recognize that.”
Same thing for the hosers. “As long as the McKenzie Brothers can improvise, Rick and I are comfortable because, when we lock ourselves into a script, it gets uncomfortable. We’ve never found anyone who we think can write for those characters ... except us.”
That brings us back to the why question: Why do Bob & Doug still have a cachet nearly three decades after they were created as Canadian content for SCTV. Why are they so recognizable even when disguised as animated moose in a Disney children’s film?
“I always thought,” says the amiable Thomas, “that in television, when you do direct address to camera, you’re a step ahead of any of the dramatic stuff, when people are turned sideways and talking to each other.
“These characters are like Muppets. They are very non-threatening and very stupid. And stupid characters play really well and travel well in comedy. Smart comedians play to a very small audience, I’ve found.
“And I think the beer definitely made them perennial with college kids.” Specifically, the Bob & Doug movie, Strange Brew, became “a youth college cult film,” Thomas says of their only big-screen effort.
As reported here Aug. 15, CBC-TV is backing a one-hour 24th anniversary Strange Brew special next May. The show will include unseen clips, fresh McKenzie Brothers improv and interviews with cast members, as well as with Demi Moore, who auditioned for the female lead but who was rejected. “So that’s always been a joke with her,” Thomas says.
Thomas and Moranis are also trying to get Warner Home Video, which owns the Strange Brew DVD rights, to wait until next May to put out a planned special edition. “I told them we wanted to synch up in a meaningful way; otherwise we weren’t going to give them any bonus material at all.”
Thomas’ animation company has also signed a development deal with Global TV to produce a flash animation series featuring the McKenzie Brothers, Thomas says.
Meanwhile, there is the Brother Bear movies. And it is no accident that the characters are named Rutt and Tuke, not Bob & Doug.
“We wouldn’t give Disney the McKenzie Brothers,” Thomas says. “We said: ‘Our voices sound similar to the McKenzie Brothers, so you’ll get what you want. But we don’t want the words McKenzie Brothers appearing anywhere in the Disney contract, or otherwise you’ll own it. We own the characters and we didn’t want to give them away. So they couldn’t use, ‘Take off,’ or any of our catch phrases.”
Thomas and Moranis are aware of how rigorously Disney lawyers protect their alleged character rights. The Winnie the Pooh lawsuits are a good lesson.
“If you give a big company like Disney a legal toehold to the characters at all, they’ve got you,” Thomas says.
Regardless, the Disney filmmakers and much of the audience for the Brother Bear series know who Thomas and Moranis are channeling into their characters. And that has kept the McKenzie Brothers from fading away.
“The weird thing about it is that, every time Rick and I thought these characters were dead, somebody else would want to do it and keep them alive.”
Bob & Doug brew up CBC special
Hosers Bob & Doug McKenzie are coming back for a last hurrah, co-creator Dave Thomas said Monday.
Thomas and collaborator Rick Moranis have sold the idea of a comedy special to CBC-TV, Thomas told the Sun from L.A. The one-hour show is tentatively scheduled for May of 2007. It will mark the 24th anniversary of their hoser flick Strange Brew, which still boasts a cult following.
"There will be original footage of us as the hosers," Thomas said of the special, which will also include vintage clips and fresh interviews with other Brew stars, as well as with Demi Moore, who auditioned but was rejected for a role.
As for reprising the McKenzie Brothers, "It will probably be our last time to do this, too," Thomas said. Then they'll take off, eh!
Go Back To SCTV's Early Years With The Next DVD Release From Shout!
After last September's release of SCTV Network 90 - Volume 4 ("Season 5"), fans of the show have been wondering when Shout! Factory will next release more SCTV goodness. Well, we've gotten word that Shout! will release SCTV - The Best of the Early Years on October 24th, at a cost of $39.95 SRP.
This will be the first, original version of Second City TV with the earliest appearances of the show's cast (outside of their appearances on the upcoming Best of the David Steinberg Show DVD!). We'll have more details for you, plus cover art, as soon as Shout! gets this release more firmed up and finalized. Stay tuned!
Rick Moranis channels his inner 'Cowboy'
NEW YORK (Billboard) - Anyone who came of age in the 1980s is well-versed in the filmography of Rick Moranis, thanks to such memorable roles as the accountant/nerd extraordinaire in both "Ghostbusters" films, the evil/clueless overlord in "Spaceballs," the windsurfing tourist in "Club Paradise" and the bumbling inventor in "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids."
But the 52-year-old Toronto native also frequently demonstrated his musical talents, most notably as doomed florist Seymour Krelborn in the 1986 film version of the musical "Little Shop of Horrors." He also made an art out of satirizing pop music during his stint with famed Canadian sketch comedy show SCTV, impersonating everybody from Elton John to Michael McDonald and Gordon Lightfoot.
Having phased out his acting career in the late '90s while raising his children in New York, Moranis is now garnering acclaim for an album of humorous country songs, "The Agoraphobic Cowboy," which he released last fall via his Web site (http://www.rickmoranis.com). It will vie for a Grammy Award next month in the comedy album category.
Moranis recently inked deals for wider distribution of "Cowboy," which was made available via online retailers on Monday and in stores on February 7.
Moranis recently filled Billboard.com in on his musical roots and his inspirations for the material on "The Agoraphobic Cowboy."
DID YOU SING OR PERFORM AT THE BEGINNING OF YOUR PROFESSIONAL CAREER?
Well, the very first thing I did professionally was working with a partner, a guy I'd gone to summer camp with. We wrote an act and played the improv clubs in Toronto in 1975. I'd already been in radio for awhile, but when we wrote our act and performed live, I used my guitar in that act. We split and I started doing standup, and carried my guitar for a year doing standup. It was before I'd seen Steve Martin, but somebody said, 'You should see him. He does what you do, but with a banjo.' I was doing similar, non sequitur kinds of musical bits. I don't know if I have any of them recorded. Some of them were parodies of rock music. You know that Boz Scaggs song, 'Lowdown?' It has that slap bass sound. That was a hugely popular song in 1976, and I would do the entire song just playing this one note. Or, I would say, 'I need a volunteer from the audience, somebody tall.' Somebody would come up and I'd play the opening few lines of (Simon & Garfunkel's) 'Sounds of Silence"' Then, I'd turn to him and go, 'Come on, Art. What's going on?' I'd get into a fight with him and split up with him.
THEN YOU JOINED SCTV, WHICH FEATURED SO MANY HYSTERICAL MUSICAL-THEMED BITS.
When I first got onto SCTV, we were working in a vacuum. We had no idea there was an audience. We were just making each other laugh. I had done, for example, a parody of Canadian Content where I'd re-written a song of Gordon Lightfoot's. (Cast member) Dave (Thomas) did all these bogus K-Tel commercials, so we came up with the sketch 'Gordon Lightfoot Sings Every Song Ever Written.' Then, they had the budget to get a local country-sounding band in Edmonton to do a few bars from every single one of these songs I wanted. When I read that at the table, it was very clear what it was. It was a bit everybody could understand. That's the way things happened, doing a post-production show like that.
SO HOW DID THIS PROJECT START TO TAKE SHAPE? WERE ANY OF THESE SONGS THINGS YOU HAD LYING AROUND PREVIOUSLY?
Well, what happened was, around two years ago, I had been doing more sort of op-ed piece kind of writing and essay writing. I pretty much pulled out of shooting anything in the mid to late '90s, because I couldn't stand the travel anymore. I'm a single parent and my kids were young, so I just needed to take a break. After I started spending more time at home, I realized I didn't miss what I was doing. I hadn't enjoyed the last few years of what's called acting. I'm really not an actor. The reason we performed was because we'd written the material. I never studied acting. When I was acting in other people's things, I knew how to enjoy myself. It was lucrative and it fit into life. But I wasn't enjoying the work. After I stopped, I really wasn't missing it.
My kids, particularly my daughter, started listening to a lot of alternative country, jam bands and some bluegrass. I had played that stuff to them when they were little kids. They'd play me something I knew the original of, so I'd tell them, 'So and so did this a long time ago.' It got under my skin. On any given day, if I would hear a turn of phrase or get a funny idea or something, instead of trying to write a piece I could sell to the New York Times, I started writing a song. I wrote one, and then another one. I was singing them to a couple of friends, and they'd be relatively amused. After I had a few, they said I should do something with them. That's really how I wound up having that many songs. I just kept doing it. When I got to the point where I had enough to do a whole album, I stopped writing and started pursuing recording them. Once the recording process started, I wrote another couple of things.
WOULD YOU SAY THAT IF SOMEONE ASKED, 'WHAT HAS RICK BEEN DOING LATELY?', THIS ALBUM PROVIDES THE ANSWERS, LIKE GOLFING, HANGING OUT AND ENJOYING LIFE?
(Laughs). There's a bunch of golf references in there. I couldn't resist. People are hearing different things in this. Some have heard a theme. Some have heard a lot of self-deprecation. A lot of technology. It's very much me. I'm writing what I know and what I'm feeling, but beyond that, I leave it to you guys to figure out where it fits.
I NOTICED A DONALD FAGEN THANK-YOU ON THE CD. DID YOU EVER PONDER COLLABORATING WITH HIM?
Initially, I was working on a screenplay a long, long time ago that never got produced. I wanted him to do the music for it, and that's how we started talking. We just stayed in touch. Whenever Steely Dan would perform I'd go see them. As I was writing this stuff, I knew he'd get a kick out of it. He really encouraged me a lot to do something with this.
SINCE YOU FINISHED THE ALBUM, HAVE YOU KEPT WRITING MUSIC?
Yeah. I've written a couple of jazz songs that I guess could be arranged as bluegrass songs, and I've gone back to writing the kinds of songs I was writing before this album. Those are a bit more rock-ish, and not as on the nose lyrically as these are, and not as comedic. The jazz ones are comedic like this, but the other ones are a different kind of thing. I'm not good at making plans, because I never have been. I never do things with an idea of where they may wind up.
SCTV Network 90 - 4th Volume (5th Season) Cover Art & Complete Details
Coming September 13th release!!
Here is the press release and the info on the back of the box:
SCTV'S INCREDIBLE 5TH SEASON (Yes, that's Volume 4) finds the show renewed on NBC and still in the 90-minute format. Three cast members have departed, Dave Thomas, Rick Moranis and Catherine O'Hara-although Catherine makes a memorable return in "The Christmas Show," but Martin Short's star rose in their absence. His inimitable character Ed Grimley finds his way into many of the sketches. The Shmenges are back and John Candy introduces Mr. Mambo.
The Volume 4 box set features four Emmy-nominated shows ("Towering Inferno," "Christmas Special," "Midnight Cowboy" and "Sweeps Week"), plus Robin Williams as a guest in the "Jane Eyrehead" episode; it also includes musical guests John Mellencamp, Joe Walsh, and Crystal Gayle.
Includes an extra DVD with 3 extra episodes-12 episodes total- 33% more content at the same price as the first 3 volumes! Also includes a collectible set of character trading cards.
(From the back cover)
The Complete Fifth Season - 12 Full Episodes
SCTV IS ON THE AIR!
SCTV's incredible fifth season finds them renewed and back on NBC.
Martin Short explodes in this season with his characters Ed Grimley, Jackie Rogers, Jr., and Brock Linehan. Plus, the Shmenges are back and John Candy does Divine doing Peter Pan.
Robin Williams guest stars in the "Jane Eyrehead" episode, and later in the season Martin Short does a fabulous send-up of him doing a "Taing" commercial. Also guesting and performing are Joe Walsh, John Cougar Mellencamp, Harold Ramis, Fred Willard, America and more. And Catherine O'Hara returns for a special guest appearance in the "Christmas" episode.
Look for Vic Arpeggio, Private Investigator and parodies of Midnight Cowbay (John Candy as Joe Buck), The Towering Inferno, A Star Is Born and What Ever Happened To Baby Jane (Ed)? - more proof that these shows just kept getting better.
Never Available On Video Or DVD - Until Now.
Total Running Time +/- 14 Hours
Bonus Features
SCTV Remembers: Interview with Martin Short
SCTV At Play - Home movies of cast and crew
Sammy Maudlin At Second City
SCTV - The Producers
Canadian TV references revealed
SCTV's fifth season comes with 33% more content!
SCTV's fifth season (Volume 4) finds the show renewed on NBC and still in the 90-minute format. Three cast members have departed, Dave Thomas, Rick Moranis and Catherine O'Hara-although Catherine makes a memorable return in "The Christmas Show," but Martin Short's star rose in their absence.
His inimitable character Ed Grimley finds his way into many of the sketches.
The Shmenges are back and John Candy introduces Mr. Mambo.
The Volume 4 box set features four Emmy-nominated shows ("Towering Inferno," "Christmas Special," "Midnight Cowboy" and "Sweeps Week") plus Robin Williams as a guest in the "Jane Eyrehead" episode; it also includes musical guests John Mellencamp, Joe Walsh, and Crystal Gayle.
The DVD set will include an extra DVD with three extra episodes, bringing the DVD set total up to 12 episodes - 33% more content at the same price as the first 3 volumes! The set will also come with a collectible set of character trading cards.
As extras, the release will offer Commentary Tracks with Martin Short and Catherine O’Hara, a new Martin Short Interview and a selection of Featurettes called “The Producers: Part 2,” “The Firehall” and “Sammy Maudlin Today.”
The Shout! Factory will release SCTV Volume 4 on September 13.
Don't Take Off Yet ... Eh? SCTV Only Gets Funnier!
On SCTV: Volume 3 Martin Short Joins The Cast In This Third Volume Of Nine 90-Minute Episodes, also Starring John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Rick Moranis, Catherine O'Hara And Dave Thomas, Plus Bonus Material Galore!
IN STORES MARCH 1ST
"Now 'SCTV' has come to DVD. That is reason enough for the technology to exist." -- Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES, CA - Welcome back to Melonville as Shout! Factory announces the release of the final nine 90-minute episodes from "SCTV"'s acclaimed first season on NBC. Originally airing during the 1982-83 television season, the episodes in Volume 3 contain some of the funniest and most memorable "SCTV" skits and guest musical performances. "The self-contained comedy universe was, simply put, the most creative, surreal, and inspired TV comedy of its decade" (IMDB). With the addition of comic genius Martin Short to the last three shows, the five discs of Volume 3 showcase the star-studded cast -- Short, John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Rick Moranis, Catherine O'Hara and Dave Thomas -- at the top of their game. SCTV: Volume 3 also includes an abundance of bonus material, with two new documentaries, two audio commentaries, an interview segment with John Candy, Museum of Television and Radio Festival cast interview, and more. SCTV: Volume 3 will be available on March 1st for $89.98 (suggested retail price).
Volume 3 features some of the most unforgettable SCTV programming: Bob & Doug McKenzie finally get their own television special, "The Great White North Palace," the station gives back to the community with a "Pre-Teen World Telethon," William Shakespeare and Francis Bacon are brought together in "The Adventures of Shake 'n' Bake," and the station debuts a new soap opera, "Days of the Week." Also in Volume 3 , Jimmy Buffet debuts as "The Fishin' Musician," Hall & Oates make an appearance on "The Sammy Maudlin Show," and the station includes "sports" programming with "Battle of the PBS Stars."
Cast members Short and O'Hara sat down recently to reminisce for "SCTV Remembers," and producers Andrew Alexander and Patrick Whitley share behind the scenes stories in "The Producers" - both documentaries created exclusively for this DVD set. In addition, SCTV: Volume 3 includes some rare footage of Candy at home with his young family, as well as a special photo gallery with rare and never-before-seen photos of the brilliant comedian taken by his wife, Rose. Bonus material also includes footage from an SCTV alumni panel which took place at the Museum of Television & Radio's William S. Paley Television Festival in 1997.
SCTV (an acronym for Second City Television), began in 1976 as a simple show featuring comedic performers from the famed, improv-oriented Second City Theatre in Toronto. Unbelievable as it seems today, SCTV was the first television show based entirely upon the concept of satirizing the medium of television itself, which enabled the writers and performers - whose on-screen ranks included at various points Harold Ramis, Robin Duke, Tony Rosato and Martin Short - to skewer everything from feature films, promos and commercials to such familiar local television staples as late-night horror movie hosts and the backstage goings-on at the fictional SCTV station itself. Originally created for syndication as a 30 minute show, SCTV was picked up five years later by NBC and ran for two seasons of 90 minute episodes, then moved to Cinemax for a last season of 45 minute episodes.
SCTV Network/90: Volume Three (1981)
For SCTV fanatics, the fun continues with this newest DVD release. As with the first two sets, this five-disc package focuses on the 90-minute NBC shows that initially aired in the early Eighties. Referred to as SCTV Network/90, we get nine of those programs from their third cycle.
DVD ONE:
When I mention SCTV to non-fans, the easiest way to get them to remember it is to mention Bob and Doug McKenzie. Those characters gave the show its greatest fame, a subject at the heart of Great White North Palace (aired October 11, 1981). Rather than simply exploit their popularity, SCTV chose to mock the phenomenon.
Many of the “Network/90” shows featured “runners”. These were ongoing themes or stories that were told sporadically throughout the episode. “Palace” presents possibly the most dominant of the runners, as very little addition material appears. We get a couple of advertisement spoofs plus hilarious episodes of “You! With Libby Wolfson” and “Nightline: Melonville”, but otherwise it’s all connected to the McKenzie craze.
That’s a daring choice, and one that succeeds terrifically in this fine episode. We get a deft look at the crass exploitation of a fad, and the use of the station regulars works well. I always like the episodes that focus on the alleged “behind the scenes” operations of SCTV, and this one fares particularly well as owner Guy Caballero (Joe Flaherty) ruthlessly uses the McKenzies for all they’re worth. It’s a strong show and a good start to this cycle.
One reason SCTV worked so well was because its creators rarely pandered to the audience. They made shows that amused themselves; if anyone else liked it, that was gravy. Unfortunately, this led to a few examples of self-indulgent sketches, a problem that mars Pre-Teen World Telethon (aired April 23, 1982).
One of the more mediocre episodes, this one lacks any great pieces. Its runner offers some laughs, as we see the youngsters behind a kiddie show run the “First Annual Pre-Teen World Telethon For Pre-Teen World” when they lose government funding. I always liked “Pre-Teen World” concept, so although this one doesn’t ever soar, it presents a fair number of good moments.
However, it also demonstrates my idea that this episode suffers from self-indulgence. At one point, we get a musical performance from the “Recess Monkeys”, a band of alleged pre-teens played by Rick Moranis, John Candy and Eugene Levy. Though they sing in character and muck up the instrumentation a bit, they actually sound pretty decent – much better than we’d expect from kids, and the song itself is catchy. The sequence is cute but feels like an attempt by those involved to get themselves a spot in which to play.
Another sketch suffers from indulgence: Maudlin’s Eleven. This parody of the original Ocean’s Eleven is a fun concept, and it has some good moments. However, it goes on too long and is just too obscure for something this extended. (I will applaud the amazing production design. It’s amazing what the show did on a regular basis, and here we get cool elements like Bobby Bittman’s car and even a Hofner bass for a stripper’s band!)
Overall, “Pre-Teen” remains mediocre. “The Adventures of Shake ‘n’ Bake” exists mostly for its title, as the sketch mostly flops. A newscast that deals with Earl Camembert’s (Levy) hyping of a possible kidnapping is funny, and the trailer for “Prickley Heat” also works. It’s not a bad episode, but it fails to maintain any consistency.
DVD TWO:
In early 1982, unknown Pia Zadora won a Golden Globe award for “New Star in a Motion Picture” over talent like Kathleen Turner and Elizabeth McGovern. This bizarre choice caused an uproar; folks questioned the veracity of the awards as some thought the fix was in for Zadora. That incident allowed for the set-up to the runner in The People’s Global Golden Choice Awards (aired May 1, 1982). We watch SCTV’s inferior programming win scads of prizes over better choices It’s an inspired concept that fares nicely, partially because we get to see so many of the “station regulars” interact with each other and with impersonated celebrities like Bob Hope (Dave Thomas) and Elizabeth Taylor (Catherine O’Hara).
Much of the rest of the show rebounds from the mediocrity of “Telethon” with a number of good sketches. We get one of the better “Fishin’ Musician” sketches, as we meet Gil Fisher’s (Candy) wife Whitey (O’Hara) and they take reggae band Third World antique hunting. In a fun continuation of the cycle’s first episode, we see the fallout of the “GWN Palace” flop; here, the McKenzies get back their show, but with only half the airtime.
If forced to pick a dud, I’d go with “The Merv Griffin Show – the Extended Edition”. Reworked versions of films were a novelty in 1982, so this one makes fun of Spielberg’s longer cut of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Like the film’s reissue, this one goes on too long and beats a good concept into the ground. Despite that misfire, “Globe” stands as a solid show.
SCTV never emphasized topical humor, but it involved enough then-current subjects to mean that the comedy’s occasionally difficult to understand for anyone not around during its era. That problem affects 3D Stake From the Heart (aired May 14, 1982), a show that focuses on Francis Coppola’s largely-forgotten bomb One from the Heart. The program’s main sketch includes enough funny stuff with Dr. Tongue and Bruno to offer some entertainment, but it relies too much on Heart-related issues to become sufficiently universal.
”Stake” suffers from another negative distinction: it marks the debut of SCTV’s running soap opera, “The Days of the Week”. Had “Days” existed as a one-off sketch, it might have been a decent little spoof. However, it kept going… and going… and going. Granted, that became part of the gag; it acted as an ongoing parody of the genre. However, “Days” consistently provided little return for all the time invested into it. Don’t get me wrong - it did have its amusing moments, and I know it has some fans who adore it. Nonetheless, I’ve long considered “Days” to be SCTV’s biggest flop due to its over-extended run.
Possibly the oddest – and most entertaining – part of “Heart” comes from a sketch called “Just for Fun”. Its premise involves a talk show with many very notable names, but the host (Thomas) only wants to discuss babes. Here he chats with Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Aaron Copland, and Betty Friedan. It’s a one-joke sketch, but it’s a good one.
We also see the end of the marriage between Tex (Thomas) and Edna Boil (Andrea Martin), as he leaves her in the middle of a commercial. This leads Edna to search for a replacement, with amusing results. Despite that winner, “Heart” is one of the less exciting episodes.
DVD THREE:
We can tell that no really prominent runner shows up in Pet Peeves/The Happy Wanderers (aired May 21, 1982) since it presents two titles. “Pet Peeves of the Stars” indeed acts as a runner in that those spots pop up occasionally throughout the show; we hear the petty annoyances of Morgan Fairchild, Luciano Pavarotti, Bob Hope, and Elizabeth Taylor. It’s a good bit but not anything amazing.
We do find the debut “The Happy Wanderers”, the polka show led by Yosh (Candy) and Stan Schmenge (Levy). It’s a funny concept brought out successfully.
Indeed, this episode comes chock full of good sketches, though not many great ones. On the negative side, we get more “Days of the Week”. Actually, that series will continue through the rest of the cycle, so I’ll stop griping now. Otherwise, we get a nice “Donahue” spoof in which he looks at porn, and the wonderful “Second Nose Job”. One of the better newscasts comes from a “Nightline: Melonville” in which a drunken Floyd Robertson (Joe Flaherty) angers Mayor Tommy Shanks (Candy). Outside of “Days”, nothing here flops.
Due to their usual refusal to license their songs, Led Zeppelin significantly mar this episode. It’s four or five minutes shorter than normal because some bits had to be removed. We lose the musical performance by Linsk Minyk (Rick Moranis) on the “Wanderers” since he played “Stairway to Heaven”, and an entire ad called “Stairways to Heaven” – in which many different acts play that classic – also gets the boot. It’s too bad the DVD can’t include this stuff, but if they don’t have the rights, there’s not much they can do.
Musical guest stars became a prominent part of SCTV when they moved to NBC, but none of their efforts ever worked as well as Chariots of Eggs (aired June 5, 1982). Hall and Oates show up here to play “Did It In a Minute” and also chat on “The Sammy Maudlin Show”. There they interact with director Bobby Bittman (Levy) as they promote their new flick, “Chariots of Eggs”. This leads to a deft parody of both Chariots of Fire and now-forgotten semi-lesbian movie Personal Best. It’s an inspired affair across the board.
On the negative side, we get one of the series’ odder – and more misbegotten – sketches with “Murder in the Cathedral”. This purports to be a NASA production of the TS Eliot work. I guess that’s an intriguing concept, but in reality, the sketch drags miserably and never goes anywhere.
The remaining aspects of “Eggs” all fall solidly in the “mediocre” category. The episode of “Mrs. Falbo’s Tiny Town” in prison is pretty decent, and the “Revenge” TV show gets some laughs. Otherwise, there’s not much that stands out here.
DVD FOUR:
Although SCTV went through a number of cast changes over the years, it stayed stable for its first 24 “Network/90” episodes. That’s no longer the case once we get to Battle of the PBS Stars (aired July 16, 1982), as it brings in Martin Short to the group. “Stars” finds Short tossed into the mix actively from the very start, as he pops up in many of the show’s sketches.
Rather than ease Short into the show, he gets a lead character for “I Was a Teenage Communist”. A wonderful spoof of both the Fifties’ Red Scare as well as the era’s cheesy horror flicks, this one neatly integrates musical guest Dave Edmunds. (Trivia: the song he plays doesn’t come from the Fifties, though it might sound like an oldie. It was a then-new composition from a Mr. B. Springsteen of New Jersey.) Short shows no signs of intimidation and blends with the cast immediately.
Unusually, “Stars” includes additional guests, as Pittsburgh Steelers Joe Greene and Rocky Bleier appear in a couple of sketches. First they spoof enormous meals with the “Big Dude TV Dinner” sketch; that’s an odd one since no SCTV cast members appear in it. Then we get “The Big Dude and the Kid”, a spoof of “The Pittsburgh Steeler and the Kid”, a TV movie spun off from Greene’s hit Coke commercial. Greene and Bleier couldn’t act well, but the regular cast – with Short in another prominent part – make it amusing.
Add “The Battle of the PBS Stars” to the list of successful sketches. Back in the Seventies, we got a series called “Battle of the Network Stars”; TV actors would compete in various fluffy activities. “PBS” deftly mocks that series and gives us indelible moments like a boxing match between Mr. Rogers and Julia Child.
It’s good stuff, and it illustrates the generally high quality of this episode. A couple of the sketches meander a bit; “Wok on the Wild Side” isn’t a classic by any stretch. Still, the show stays positive most of the time.
Unfortunately, we head back to self-indulgence with Rome, Italian Style (aired October 15, 1982). The title sketch is a lot like “Maudlin’s Eleven”: it offers a great concept but not much else. This parody of Italian flicks rambles badly and feels more like a triumph of production design than anything else. The participants make it look like an old Italian flick, but it usually ain’t funny.
A few elements elevate this episode, though. It’s a one-joke sketch, but “Mr. Know-It-All: The Life of Nostradamus” is consistently funny due to an obnoxious performance from Dave Thomas. It’s also amusingly self-referential, as it actually discusses its one-joke nature.
We get our first taste of Short’s Jerry Lewis in “Martin Scorsese’s Jerry Lewis Live on the Champs Elysees”. Slightly mean-spirited, it’s still damned funny, especially when Lewis berates his musical director (Thomas). Another slam of a personality comes via a look at photographer “Norton Sheeff”. This parodies Norman Seeff, a shutterbug who shot the cast for Life magazine – and apparently didn’t endear himself to them. This is an obscure reference, but it’ll make much more sense for fans who watched the extras from the Volume Two set of DVDs.
Overall, “Italian” is a spotty episode. The major elements like the title sketch are weak, and the smattering of successes aren’t quite enough to make it a good program. There’s some good stuff here, but not a lot. DVD FIVE:
Finally, we head to The Days of the Week/Street Beef (aired October 22, 1982). Unusually, this one includes no musical guest. However, we get a kindred spirit on board, as Bill Murray guests in many of the sketches. He starts with a winner via an ad for “DiMaggio’s on the Wharf”, a San Francisco restaurant run by Joltin’ Joe; strike him out and win a free dinner.
Murray also makes a Graduate-style turn in this episode’s “Days of the Week” and plays a major part in the show’s main runner: Caballero’s programming changes and the “Street Beef” program with Johnny LaRue (Candy). LaRue meets hoodlum Donny (Murray) at a bar and picks him up as a bodyguard. It’s fun to see LaRue finally turn the tables on Caballero, and it creates a true sense of continuity throughout the episode.
Otherwise, this is a pretty average show. On the positive side, there’s an ambitious and clever spoof of movie serials that takes some cues from Raiders of the Lost Ark but goes down strange alleys. “Carl’s Cuts” presents a great spoof of Deliverance, and “How Nosy the Short-Haired Terrier Dog Got His Name” is a weird but hilarious “Afterschool Special” parody. A couple of the sketches fall flat, and not much of it really soars, but it’s a generally decent show.
Fans didn’t know it at the time, but the end of Cycle Three would mark the end of an era. After “Days/Beef”, three cast members formally left: Moranis, O’Hara and Thomas. O’Hara did a couple of return appearances as a guest, but I don’t think Moranis or Thomas ever returned to the show in any capacity.
But all of that’s an issue for the next set of DVDs. Volume Three presents a high level of good comedy. I must admit it’s not quite up to the standards of the first two sets, as a few more duds creep into the mix here. Nonetheless, average SCTV beats the best work done by almost everybody else, and there’s a lot to enjoy in this package.
The DVD Grades: Picture C+/ Audio C-/ Bonus B-
SCTV Network/90 appears in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 on these single-sided, double-layered DVDs; due to those dimensions, the image has not been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. Don’t expect any revelations, as picture quality remained consistent with the prior two sets.
Consistently erratic, I should say. At times, the sketches could look absolutely terrific. Witness some of the bright and vibrant outdoors shots from the “Carl’s Cuts” Deliverance parody. On the other hand, matters occasionally became really fuzzy and muddy, such as during parts of “Maudlin’s Eleven”. Volume One was erratic partially because it includes a lot of older footage, but that’s not the case here. Variable production values caused the mix of problems.
For the most part, the shows remained somewhat loose and indistinct much of the time, especially in wider shots. They usually were acceptably defined, despite some really blurry moments like “Eleven”. Some moiré effects and jagged edges cropped up at times, and some edge enhancement marred parts of the production. Source flaws appeared as well, mainly through some occasional video interference and pixelization. A few examples of specks also popped up for filmed footage. However, these stayed minor and infrequent.
Colors varied but seemed fairly solid. At times the hues came across as surprisingly vibrant and dynamic, though these elements didn’t appear consistent. Sometimes the tones became a bit muddy and flat. Overall, though, the colors provided some of the transfer’s best elements. Black levels actually came across acceptably well, as they looked moderately deep, but shadow detail was somewhat thick and excessively opaque. Ultimately, SCTV provided a pretty spotty image, but given the source material, I thought the DVD replicated the show in an acceptable manner.
I felt the same about the monaural soundtrack of SCTV. Actually, the whole thing didn’t present single-channel audio, as some brief moments blossomed into stereo. This occurred for the music at the very end of “Fishin’ Musician” sketches. I believe this occurred due to rights issues; I think the stereo music represented pieces replaced from the original shows. Otherwise, I noticed no signs of sound from the side speakers.
Intentional sound, at least, as I sometimes heard bleed-through to the sides. Speech and other information occasionally spread unnaturally to the right or left speakers. This clearly wasn’t meant to work that way. In addition, some audio interference created a few pops and noises that appeared in the sides and created distractions.
Nonetheless, the audio remained acceptable for an older show like this. Dialogue appeared acceptably distinct and accurate; occasional examples of edginess occurred, but no problems related to intelligibility happened. Effects were similarly flat and insubstantial, but they didn’t suffer from any distortion and they appeared perfectly adequate.
The music offered erratic quality. The shows used a mix of cues that sometimes sounded pretty robust and lively, but on other occasions they came across as somewhat tinny and lackluster, but occasionally the tunes appeared more robust and full. Somewhat surprisingly, a few of the numbers from musical guests sounded blah. Prior discs presented reasonably dynamic tunes, but here they were a bit on the dull side. Some hiss appeared in addition to the various pops and interference I already mentioned. The audio was decent given its age and source, but I thought the distractions and weaker music meant Volume Three offered slightly inferior audio than on the prior set.
This package includes a mix of extras spread across its five platters. Two episodes present audio commentary. For “Pre-Teen World Telethon”, we hear from cast member Joe Flaherty plus writers Dick Blasucci and Paul Flaherty, while “Rome, Italian Style” includes remarks from Blasucci and writer Mike Short. For their respective pieces, the participants all sit together and provide running, screen-specific remarks.
The Flaherty/Blasucci/Flaherty conversation is a major disappointment. Very little information pops up along the way. The most interesting note connects to “Pre-Teen World”, which Joe states he didn’t like; he thought it was too weird to play young kids at their age. Otherwise, the useful material pops up exceedingly infrequently. Instead, mostly the track consists of dead air and laughter. It’s not a good commentary and is barely worth the effort even for die-hard fans like me.
In the Blasucci/Short chat, we don’t get a great discussion, but it’s easily the better of the pair. They provide general anecdotes about their experiences and also let us know a few details connected to this episode’s sketches. Mostly we hear non-specific remarks, though, as they talk about cast changes and working with the different participants. They repeat a fair amount of information that we’ve heard on previous sets, but they make this a reasonably useful piece.
The rest of the extras spread across the various discs. On DVD One, we find SCTV - The Producers, a 29-minute and nine-second featurette. It includes comments from executive producer Andrew Alexander and supervising producer Patrick Whitley, both of whom were interviewed separately. They discuss the series’ origins, early challenges and evolution of characters and situations, monetary problems and issues finding airtime, the show’s time in Edmonton, the eventual move to NBC and related concerns, difficulties holding things together with the changes, and various forms of politics. Inevitably, we hear material related elsewhere, but they present an alternate perspective. That makes the producers’ comments intriguing and informative.
Next we go to DVD Two’s That’s Life with John Candy. The six-minute and 36-second clip comes from the early Eighties and spotlights Candy’s career to that point. He chats with an interviewer about his success, his characters, and his family. We also get a look at Candy’s rural home and see him there. The piece doesn’t provide tons of information, but it’s a decent little archival slice.
DVD Three includes only a John Candy Photo Gallery. This presents 52 stills and combines shots from sketches with some behind the scenes snaps. At the end, it focuses on “Vikings and Beekeepers”; that area features shots without Candy in them, which makes them odd additions.
Over on DVD Four, we discover SCTV Remembers, a 24-minute and 57-second program. It includes comments from Catherine O’Hara and Martin Short as they sit and chat together with occasional prompting from an off-screen interviewer. They discuss their long history together as well as some of their work and characters. A good amount of information pops up, but even when we don’t learn anything, the pair have so much fun together that they make this piece a joy to watch. It’s consistently amusing and entertaining and stands as the highlight of the DVD’s extras.
Lastly, DVD Five includes a program called SCTV at the Museum of Television and Radio. An event that took place March 4, 1997, this 69-minute and 59-second piece collects a mix of show personnel for a panel. We see Alexander, Martin Short, O’Hara, Dave Thomas, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Robin Duke, Andrea Martin, Rick Moranis, and producers Del Close and Bernie Sahlins. They cover the usual mix of subjects like the show’s roots, characters, sketches, and general anecdotes. A lot of funny material pops up, but the main attraction comes simply from the presence of so many cast members all in one place. The show remains consistently fun to watch.
Volume Three of SCTV marked some personnel changes, but for the most part, the show still offered the same high-caliber of comedy. Inevitably, a few duds appeared, and the introduction of the much-maligned – by me, at least – “Days of the Week” causes problems, but we continue to find a lot of truly inspired material. The DVDs present picture and audio that can only be described as mediocre, but there’s little than could be done; the problems result from old, cheap source footage. We get a fairly good collection of extras despite one bad audio commentary. Ultimately, I think there’s a lot to love about Volume Three and I definitely recommend it.
SCTV is on the air again
Shout! Factory has a second volume of Canadian Sketch Comedy on the way with SCTV: Volume 2 arriving in October.
SCTV Volume 2 picks up where the first volume left off, presenting nine more 90-minute shows from SCTV's memorable fourth season. Originally broadcast on NBC in 1981 and 1982, this set contains several of the episodes widely considered to be SCTV's best. Eugene Levy in "The Jazz Singer" or John Candy as the village idiot in the Russian TV show "Hey Giorgy!" are just two examples of the level of excellence the series achieved throughout this season. "CCCP 1," "The Godfather," "Zontar" and "Teacher's Pet" are some of the inspired wraparounds for these memorable shows.
Several featurettes are on the set including Larger Than Life: The Norman Seeff Photo Sessions, SCTV Remembers, The SCTV Writers and The Juul Haalmeyer Dancers. Also included are photo galleries.
It all arrives on October 19th!
Woo hoo!!!
SCTV on DVD set for release
Johnny LaRue, Edith Prickley, Bob and Doug, Guy Cabellero, Bobby Bittman, Lola Heatherton.
Those memorable characters from the now-iconic SCTV comedy shows of the late 1970s and early '80s are coming to DVD, with the first of four boxed sets to be released Tuesday, and the remainder over the next year.
SCTV began as a cheesy little syndicated comedy show in a cheesy little Global TV studio in Toronto. And then in 1981 it got picked up by NBC as a late-night companion to Saturday Night Live. But unlike SNL, the Canadian-based show developed more of a cult following, seen as absolutely brilliant by such future comics as a young Conan O'Brien, while network suits of the day scratched their heads in bewilderment.
But over the years just about anyone who has ever watched television can recall a favourite SCTV sketch, whether it was the widely popular McKenzie Brothers or Count Floyd, or more obscure but inspired pop-culture cross-referencing fare like Polynesiantown, NASA's Mercury III players' version of Murder in the Cathedral or the cast performing a Chekhov play only to be interrupted by Star Trek's Chekov beaming onto the set.
Who could ever forget the multi-layered content of the Merv Griffith Show Special Edition, a perverse combination of Merv Griffin, Andy Griffith and Close Encounters of the Third Kind? Or The Midnight Express Special, featuring Wolfman Jack in a blend of the drug-smuggling movie and the old TV music variety show?
One of the first such sketches was a parody of Casablanca with John Candy and Catherine O'Hara in the Bogart-Bergman roles. But it soon morphed into a Bob Hope-Bing Crosby road movie with a dash of Fantasy Island thrown in (with Candy as the diminutive Tattoo!).
Cast members recall the days when the whole production packed up and moved to Edmonton where they wrote and taped some of their most inspired material. The fact that they were in Alberta kept the suits away and allowed them to be creative.
"No executives could really come up there to keep tabs on us because if they left their chairs in L.A. empty too long someone would take them," says Dave Thomas about the creative freedom they had.
Thomas says NBC became furious at some of the material that got through because they were delivering the episodes at the very last minute with no time for screening. He recalls doing a parody of Al Pacino's Cruising in which he was a butch chef fist-stuffing a turkey that had its legs spread apart with chains. After that one, the network sent a censor to live full-time in Edmonton.
"At first he was very standoffish and dictatorial, then ultimately he became one of the gang. And then he became a co-conspirator with us!"
Joe Flaherty agrees that the location fuelled their creativity because there weren't as many distractions as in a larger city, leaving them more time to write and perform the sketches.
"I still remember talking to someone down there about the show, somebody from NBC, and they were saying `Now what coast is Edmonton on?'"
Executive producer Andrew Alexander also recalls how being in Edmonton meant the cast members did their best work 24/7.
"Yeah, there's no drugs, no managers, no agents, no outside temptations like you have in L.A. and New York."
At the time, there was the perception of a long-running rivalry with Saturday Night Live. While both shows had strong Canadian roots and both dipped into the Second City theatre casts in Chicago and Toronto for talent, it's agreed now that there was a vast difference between the two.
SNL was performed live with a studio audience and limited by the cramped facilities of NBC's famed Studio 8-H in New York. SCTV was taped single-camera-style, like a movie, was able to shoot exteriors and for the most part shied away from timely subject matter, a fortunate decision because most of the DVD material has not been outdated.
"They did have a much more rigorous schedule," concedes Flaherty. "They had to get that show out every week live, and just in doing that you're not going to get a chance to get all the quality stuff in that you want to."
Alexander says it was only in the last 10 years that it became apparent SCTV had found a special place in the annals of TV comedy, right up there with Monty Python. And he attributes that largely to its Canadian sensibility, because its cast members were not only intelligent but steeped in American pop culture by watching it from a distance across the border.
"So there was never any sense of wanting to talk down to the audience," he says, despite frequent pressure from NBC to try and make the humour acceptable to a wider audience.
Each DVD set includes five discs, the first set offering episodes of the 90-minute NBC shows that began in 1981. Earlier half-hour episodes will be released later. Also included are look-back interviews by the cast, a tribute to the late John Candy, the 1999 SCTV reunion event at the Aspen Comedy Arts Festival, plus commentaries and a 24-page photo booklet.