Best of SCTV

Bob & Doug were always a favorite, mostly because I know guys like them.

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I read somewhere that The Great White North sketches were SCTV’s way of satisfying Cancon requirements (basically, everything made in Canada has to have some percentage of Canadian content).

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I think it’s in one of the bonus features on the SCTV DVD sets where they say that they came up with the sketch as a way to mock the idea, as in “well, what can be more Canadian than these awful stereotypes?” and for some reason the suits were like “yeah, that works.” Rick and Dave were as surprised as anyone.

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Dave Thomas put together a good overview of Second City Toronto and SCTV.

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I’m a proud owner of that book! That and SCTV Guide are awesome.

There’s also an unofficial episode guide I bought on Kindle a few years ago that is surprisingly detailed:

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The founder of Wendy’s?!

(Yes, I know…)

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I think SCTV itself counts since that rule is about what’s being shown on TV as a whole.

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In the third season the original show was syndicated in the U.S., and they needed a couple minutes more for the Canadian version (no commercials). Thomas and Moranis came up with the bros. as a parody of Canadian content, and something they were sure the U.S. audience would never get anyway.

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They were incorrect, at least around here.

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The had a song play on the Doctor Demento show.

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“Take Off” was in rotation on our local album rock stations. Ten bucks is ten bucks, eh?

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The Monty Python guys were sure the U.S. would never get them, either.

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In the late '70s I kept seeing TV Guide listings for something called “Second City Television”, but on stations too far away to come in. I needed to find out what that was. Finally, the other NBC affiliate that came in locally had the show on after SNL. It was more or less what I thought it was, and I loved it! So, there we had what I would come to call “The Big 3” (though MST3K’s my 2nd favorite-ever TV show behind SNL), same night.

There was Cleese era Monty Python (back from a 2-year hiatus on the channel) on PBS at 11PM, then, at 11:30, live original era SNL on NBC, then, on the other NBC at 1AM, Ramis-era SCTV, all for the bulk of early 1979.

Loved the a-day-of-TV format. Also loved the behind-the-scenes addition of the Network 90 era. Probably my favorite episode of all is the Godfather parody.

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scaddy

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I found a CD of “Canadian Hits” a couple years back and bought it purely on the fact it had Take Off on it.

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Close. The regulation is that all networks broadcasting in Canada (I think news channels are exempt) must meet a certain percentage of Canadian content in their programming.

The good side of this is that some shows even made for America but picked up on Canadian networks get small nods here and there. A joke about Saskatoon can go a long way.

The bad side is specialty channels will get Canadian shows rammed into their programming to meet regulation, in some bad ways. As an example BBC Canada would have blocks of Canadian made home improvement shows all the time.

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On the one hand I get that they want to promote Canadian-made media and support native entertainment…on the other hand it sounds like such a silly concept :joy:

But either way, I think Americans find it just as funny. Especially if you live near the border and actually *get some of the jokes haha

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“CANCON” was a requirement up until the 80s. The gov’t shifted to generous grant programs instead.

I know SCTV was mostly filmed out of Toronto but they also filmed out of Edmonton (my home town). Some of the best sketches happened out here

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