Shark Bytes

When they let Martin Short appear in front of the camera. Martin Short is the anti-comedy: anything he touches turns unfunny.

I remember seeing the original syndicated shows back in the '76 era, and it blew me away! I was flipping through channels one night and the first moment I ever saw of SCTV was Heraldo Rivera interviewing Johnny LaRue from the bed (with wine cellar) on Good-Bye America. I thought it was so weird! and didn't get that it was supposed to be funny right away, but then I finally got the humor, and TV has never been the same for me after SCTV! I do think that they nearly jumped when they brought musical guests onto the show, but the storylines of that period were classics. I also enjoyed the addition of Martin Short and also the Cinemax run. This show was never very popular, and really always had only cult status, so if it never really "peaked", can it really be said that this show was capable of a jump?? I say no!

Great White North was probably the worst of all the SCTV sketches and yet they got recognized most for it. It was a one off time filler that got out of control. They even parodied this themselves with a Great White North Special.

Dave and Rick thought they were going to become big hollywood stars but they left too early. I can only think how great SCTV would have been with Martin Short and the original cast. That would have been something to see!

SCTV never jumped the shark. It DID lose a lot of talent after Bob & Doug left (like the last poster stated), however, it was still great..

Thank god that all of the 90 min NBC episodes are now available on DVD, because the edited, 30 min syndi versions left out some great stuff...such as

1. The Doorway To Hell sketch that is a parody of the old Anthony Hopkins flick "magic"
2. The "Star Is Born" parody starring Crystal Gayle in which Joe flaherty does a BRUTAL Kris Kristopherson..
3. The Fishin' Musician with Carl Perkins...watching Candy getting drunk is GREAT

Good Stuff...

SCTV JTS when there was no more Bob & Doug McKenzie and "Great White North". Who could forget that unique call that began every segment of GWN?

Other SCTV highlights included Joyce DeWitt being parodied as well as the ad satires, which were nearly as good as the ones on MAD-TV or SNL.

Speaking of which, it's time FOX brought back SCTV and ditch Spike Ferenstein, the show that follows MAD-TV on Saturday overnights. While "SCTV Lives" may not be quite as funny as the original, anything is better than watching Spike, infomercials or even the dreadful modern SNL without Tina Fey or Rachel Dratch.

Maudlin's Eleven ruled!

SCTV came on after Fridays down here in Texas, around 1980-83. Funny stuff, indeed! I loved all the John Candy skits, like "Hey Yorgi!", and when he played Beaver Cleaver. Bobby Bittman was great too.

This show was hilarious, just absolutely brilliant sketck comedy and satire, even better than the early SNL during their golden age. As Topper mentioned, I'm also surprised that some one the cast members didn't make it bigger in their post-SCTV movie careers, most notably Joe Flaherty, who I personally thought may have been the best of a superb cast. And aside from the wonderful impersonations of all the great and not so great cheesy celebs on the 70's the did, here's to the great mythical SCTV characters, coming to you from Melonville, courtesy of program manager Guy Caballero: Johnie LaRue, Lola Heatherton, Edith Prickley, Bill Needle, Sammy Maudlin, Count Floyd, Dr. Tongue, the 5 Neat Guys, Mayor Tommy Shanks, the crack news team of Floyd Robertson and Earl Cannonbear, the McKenzie Brothers, Sid Dithers...good god, this was funny stuff!!!

Never jumped....even when it was not always funny it was STILL good..

I just watched the Poltergeist parody the other night, and that episode alone contains some very BRUTAL impersionations of Linda Lavin, Jamie Farr, and the guy that played the captain on the Love Boat...

Hell, they even found a way to make fun of Bonnie Franklin in that episode...

I loved this show in its CBC-produced run... back then.

But no longer, somehow.

This is the kind of stuff that's hard to take after 30. Whenever I've seen it in the last ten years or so, I've always been left with a bad taste in my mouth.

Edgy biting satire only gets you so far. And there's nothing underneath.

the best years of SCTV were when Rick Moranis joined the show and it was shot in a studio in edmonton, alberta. It seemed a bit of a hicktown for the Toronto kids (not to mention cold!) so all they did was hunker down and write.
"play it again bob" with Moranis as Woody Allen and Dave Thomas's great, great Bob Hope take.
plus Moranis as David Brinkley and Thomas's Walter Cronkite.
brilliant stuff.

To "get" SCTV, one has to get the cultural references, many of which are now quite dated (and belatedly beloved to those of us who remember them). No, this show never jumped the shark--not even in the slightly disappointing, but sporadically brilliant Cinemax run.

But why-oh-why were Joe Flaherty, Andrea Martin, and Dave Thomas (not to mention as Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara, both of whom fared a little better) not destined for comedy superstardom? For my money, they were at least as good as John Candy and Martin Short (and yes, Howard Ramis), who nonetheless deserved their later successes.

I think that the problem is that all of these people are actors, not comedians. They had no chance on the stand-up comedy club circuit. There are only so many comedy-actor slots available at any given time. Miss out and you are passed over in favor for the next generation. But who determines the winners and losers--and on what basis?

One more observation: I showed my Harry-Potter fixated daughter "The Man Who Would be King of the Popes" with Dave Thomas' dead-on impersonation of Richard Harris. She said, "that's not Dumbledore!"

There is no way in hell that this show ever came close to jumping the shark. It was funny as hell and if you get a chance to watch the DVD's then one can see that this show is still damn funny. BTW, I am surprised that not a lot of people here have mentioned that the SNL rip off Fridays was on at the same time for awhile...I used to switch over to Fridays just to catch the musical guests who were always good on that unfunny show....however...I used to think that Michael Richards Frank Zappa impersonation was funny as hell...

I used to watch SCTV around 1979-81. For a time it was on right after Fridays. I thought Fridays was the better show by far. The show was consistant, I will give you that. And it outlasted Fridays. But I just never thought that it was all that great. Mildly humerous at best.

This is great! I was in my late 20's/early 30's when this stuff was broadcast on KHJ-TV channel 9 in L.A., then went on to NBC.

Does anyone remember "The Fish Police." Stop! Or I'll Cast!

No shark jump! It was great right up to the satirical end!