Monday, July 7, 2025

Essential SCTV sketches (Seasons 1 & 2)

 I’ve mentioned it a few times in my reviews, but I’m a big fan of the Canadian sketch comedy show SCTV. Featuring members of the Toronto branch of Second City, the show ran from 1976-1984, and during that time produced 135 episodes (later edited to 185 for syndication) of great sketches. Unfortunately, apart from Bronwyn Douwsma’s excellent series of ongoing reviews of the show, I’ve never been able to find any in-depth articles telling you which sketches to watch. So, I decided to create my own!

A quick disclaimer before we begin: The show has never been released in its entirety on DVD, and those that have been released are edited to remove copyrighted music. So, for my reviews, I will be going by a mix of syndicated and DVD versions of episodes.


SEASON 1 (1976-1977)

The first season aired on Global TV in Canada, and as such only aired in Toronto and a couple of other cities. It was syndicated to America a year later by Filmways (later renamed Rhodes Television). The cast in this season features John Candy, Joe Flaherty (credited by his real name of “Joseph O’Flaherty” in the first few episodes), Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas, Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy, and Harold Ramis. 

These early episodes look really really cheap. Dave Thomas has gone on to admit that the director of the early shows (Milad Bessada) was a foreigner who didn’t understand North American comedy. About halfway through the season, a new director named George Bloomfield takes over, and the show starts to look a little better.

But enough history, let’s get into some sketches!


The Johnny LaRue Show: Exercise 

This sketch from the first episode is a great way to introduce us to Candy’s most iconic character, the sleazy Johnny LaRue. While on the surface just a simple fat joke (as are many Candy sketches), he rises above the material and manages to make such a despicable character lovable. We also learn about the rumors that he’s gay, something he will continuously deny in his later appearances, often bringing it up for no apparent reason.


SCTV News Today: Alternate Perspectives

This is admittedly a hard sketch to watch now, given that Dave Thomas’ character is wearing Al Jolson-style blackface, but the fact of the matter is that his character is clearly depicted as being in the wrong for doing so. When even a dullard like Floyd Robertson is calling you out, you know you’ve screwed up. Special mention must also be given to Eugene Levy in drag, which is something I never knew I needed in my life.


An Evening With Col. Sanders

Basically a short promo, this one features character actor James Whitmore playing Col. Sanders in a one-man show. Thomas’ impression is perfect, and it’s inherently hilarious to hear Col. Sanders talking about how Adolf Hitler apparently disliked chicken.


Welcome Back, President Kotter

One thing SCTV loves to do is combine various dissimilar things and mine comedy out of it. There are funnier examples later on in the series, but a great early example is this one where Gabe Kaplan as Mr. Kotter is now the President, and his cabinet is made up of rowdy assholes that make life difficult for him.


20 Depressing Hits by Connie Franklin

Another favorite target of SCTV was record ads. This one features a depressing album of hits as sung by Connie Franklin (Andrea Martin), with such songs as “Stop Slapping My Face” and “I’ve Got One Week To Live”. Martin’s performance is stellar, and perfectly parodies a lot of the schmaltz that was popular at the time.


Leave It To Beaver 25th Anniversary Party

As someone who loves Leave It To Beaver, this sketch is already a treat for me, but all of the little details make this one a highlight of the first season. For example, there’s the fact that Ward Cleaver is shown to be intoxicated throughout, Eddie Haskell embracing his newfound homosexuality, and, of course, John Candy’s amazing performance as Beaver. My personal favorite part is Ward telling his son that he thought he was killed in Vietnam, a reference to those inexplicably popular rumors in the 70’s.


The Uncle Earl Show

Incompetent news anchor Earl Camembert (Levy) has been a staple since the first episode, but this sketch establishes that the news isn’t the only thing he sucks at. Here, he tries (and fails) to host a children’s show, which is cancelled while he’s on the air, and they have to drag him off the set. The reason you should watch this one is simple…it involves Eugene Levy attempting ventriloquism.


The Babe Ruth Story

A parody of the infamous biopic of Babe Ruth (Candy). In this version, when Babe makes his promise to the young boy (played by Candy’s nephew Donald Cowper) that he’s going to hit a home run, the boy keeps asking him to do even more ridiculous favors, such as eating 50 hot dogs. This drives Babe crazy to the point that he tries strangling the kid! What makes this sketch even funnier comes later on at the end of the main story of this episode, in which Toulouse Lautrec hallucinates Babe Ruth along with the other people in his life.


SEASON 2 (1978-1979)

By this point, Harold Ramis was in Hollywood writing Animal House, and he only appears in the first and third episodes of this season. He was able to write scripts for a good chunk of the season, though. Despite all that, the rest of the cast still does a great job without him, and the show looks a lot less cheap this time around.

As was the case with the first season, this aired on Global TV in Canada, and in syndication in America.


Lola Heatherton In Concert

Here, we meet Catherine O’Hara’s most iconic character, Lola Heatherton, a vapid, showbiz starlet who is starring in her own variety special where she (poorly) sings today’s hits. What’s remarkable is that, despite never playing her before, O’Hara already has this character nailed down.


SCTV News: Kidnapping of Moe Green

This sketch was written to explain the departure of Harold Ramis, in which his weaselly Moe Green character has been kidnapped by “Leutonians”. Earl and Floyd have little to no sympathy for his plight, despite the fact that he is clearly heard being tortured on an audiotape released by the kidnappers, and has been forced to change his name to “Bruce Feinstein”.

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