Dick Blasucci Movies

In this release offering highlights from three seasons of the popular weekly sketch comedy series Mad TV, the whole cast comes together to offer some of the funniest sketches from seasons Eight through Ten. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A darkly comic and surreal contemporization of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, this effects-heavy Bill Murray holiday vehicle from 1988 sees the former SNL funnyman assuming the role of television executive Frank Cross, the meanest and most depraved man on earth. Cross will stoop to unheard of levels to increase his network's ratings -- even if it means mounting outrageous programs to retain an audience, such as "Robert Goulet's Cajun Christmas" and Lee Majors in "The Night the Reindeer Died," with an AK-47-toting Santa. Cross plots his foulest move, however, for the Christmas holiday, when he will force his office staff to mount a live production of A Christmas Carol on national television -- and thus work through Christmas Eve. Cross's life is turned upside down with visits from three ghosts: a craggy-faced cabbie known as The Ghost of Christmas Past (David Johansen); the sugar-plum fairy Ghost of Christmas Present (Carol Kane) (who gets her jollies by bonking Frank across the face with a toaster oven); and, eventually, the caped, headless Ghost of Christmas Future, who will send Frank sliding into a crematory oven -- just before he gives the sleazoid one last chance to redeem himself. Along the way, the spirits carry Frank to scenes from his past, present, and future (per Scrooge) and impart a glimpse of how he became so thoroughly rotten. The radiant Karen Allen co-stars as Frank's girlfriend, Claire Phillips, and the film packs in cameos from countless celebrities -- among them, Mary Lou Retton, John Houseman, Jamie Farr, and, in a truly grisly and tasteless bit, John Forsythe. Richard Donner directs, from a script credited to the late Michael O'Donoghue and Mitch Glazer. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

After wrapping production on the weekly, 90-minute NBC comedy-variety series SCTV Network, six members of the Canadian "Second City TV" comedy troupe reassembled for this cable-TV effort, which premiered November 22, 1983 on Cinemax. Seen in a weekly 45-minute slot, SCTV Channel proved an excellent workout for the comic skills of SCTV "veterans" Andrea Martin, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, and Martin Short, as well as comparative newcomers Mary Charlotte Wilcox and Jim Hemphill. Although the absence of former SCTVers John Candy, Dave Thomas, and Catherine O'Hara was sorely felt, all three of these performers were adequately represented via guest appearances.
No longer obliged to use musical guest stars as they had during the NBC run, the producers of SCTV Channel were able to focus exclusively on comedy. As in its previous incarnations, the show specialized in devastatingly on-target satires of contemporary television programs and genres, with each episode representing a "typical" broadcast day at Channel 109, the SCTV network's flagship station in Melonville. Many of the recurring characters had already been established in SCTV's previous syndicated and network shows, notably crooked station owner Guy Caballero (Flaherty), obnoxious station manager Edith Prickley (Martin), burned-out horror show host Count Floyd (Flaherty), pompous news anchor Earl Camembert (Levy), nerdish SCTV janitor Ed Grimley (Short), oily talk show MC Sammy Maudlin (Flaherty), unfunny funnyman Bobby Bittman (Levy), and smarmy Australian superstar Jackie Rogers Jr. (Short), among others. The one significant "new" character was created by Jim Hemphill; lachrymose, heavy-drinking kiddie show host Happy Marsden, who presided over his daily TV series from his favorite tavern, and who featured highlights (?) from the interminable black-and-white movie serial Six Gun Justice. As for Mary Charlotte Wilcox, her main character of note was fatuous "famous for being famous" local celebrity Idella Voudry. Although at its best SCTV Channel was every bit as good as the late, lamented SCTV and SCTV: Network 90, the series' writers tended to stretch and attenuate its material at times; also, the show seemed to run out of gas toward the end, as witnessed by its heavy reliance upon "coming attractions" consisting of vintage clips from earlier SCTV efforts. Even so, the 18-episode SCTV Channel was a worthy swan song for one of the most consistently funny and inventive sketch series in television history. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Co-produced by SCTV and the supermarket tabloid "The Midnight Star," "The People's Global Golden Choice Awards" gets off to a good start, with ersatz cameo appearances by A-list celebrities. Alas, the festivities are tarnished when it becomes painfully obvious that all of the awards have been "fixed" for the mediocre SCTV program lineup. (Sammy Maudlin beating out Phil Donahue? Or worse yet, funnyman Skip Bittman beating out Sheena Easton?) As a bonus, the SCTVers manage to insult every celebrity guest within a 3,000 mile radius. In other highlights, a "special edition" of The Merv Griffin Show morphs into a variation of Close Encounters of the Third Kind; the McKenzie Brothers (Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas) race against the clock to discuss 15-pin bowling; and musical guests Third World perform "Try La Jove" on "The Fishin' Magician." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Expanding from 30 to 90 minutes per week in the process of "graduating" from Canada's Global Television Network to America's NBC, the popular sketch comedy series SCTV also boasts an expanded title -- SCTV: Network 90 -- as it launches its first NBC season. The "new" series' format is primarily the same as the "old" one, with each episode chronicling a typical broadcast day on SCTV's flagship station, Channel 109 in Melonville. Returning from the earlier series are John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas, and Rick Moranis; beginning with the 25th episode of season one, Martin Short joins the cast, adding his own unique comedy characterizations to the cast of "regulars" already established by his colleagues.
Among the recurring segments introduced during the shakedown season of SCTV: Network 90 are "Farm Film Report," with bucolic emcees Billy Sol (John Candy) and Jim Bob (Joe Flaherty) exhorting various ersatz celebrities to "blow up reeeal good"; "The Happy Wanderers," featuring Leutonian polka kings Stan and Yosh Schmenge (John Candy, Eugene Levy); "One on the Town," a fatuous investigative reporting series hosted by news anchor Earl Camembert (Levy); "Street Beef," the cheesy man-on-the-street interview show to which SCTV personality Johnny LaRue (Candy) is exiled after the failure of his first starring movie "Polynesiantown"; and "The Gerry Todd Show," a lampoonish music video disc jockey program that predated the debut of MTV by four months! Many of the sketches seen during SCTV: Network 90's first season are reruns, culled from three seasons' worth of the original SCTV (some of these, however, had not previously been seen on U.S. television). Of the new sketches, several are standouts, including "CCCP1," in which the SCTV satellite is hijacked by the Soviet Union; "Zontar," an extended parody of Invasion of the Body Snatchers; "The People's Golden Choice Awards," arguably the single most crooked awards show in TV history; and the hilariously self-explanatory "PBS Battle of the Network Stars." On orders from NBC, SCTV: Network 90 was obliged to accommodate musical guest stars, but for the most part these performers were smoothly integrated into the comic action. This season's crop of guests includes Levon Helm, Dr. John, Natalie Cole, Al Jarreau, The Tubes, Tony Bennett, Talking Heads, Roy Orbison, and even classical violinist Eugene Fodor and Johnny Puleo and His Harmonica Gang. Mention should also be made of non-musical guest Bill Murray, who -- to no one's surprise -- melded beautifully with the series' general zaniness. (DVD alert: Most of the aforementioned guest star turns have been removed from the half-hour syndicated versions of the individual SCTV Network episodes.) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Virtually every character created by the SCTV cast makes a guest appearance in this episode, which is given coherence by an ongoing (and seemingly never-ending) staff party. Among the highlights: John Candy recreates Orson Welles' famously profane commercial-outtake tape, as part of "Liberace's Musical Tribute to the Holidays." Raunchy entertainer Dusty Towne (Catherine O'Hara) duets with Divine (John Candy) on her own "Sexy Holiday Special." And SCTV Cable and Ugazzo Home Vision combine forces to present "Neil Simon's Nutcracker Suite," starring a lachrymose Marsha Mason (Andrea Martin), an intrusive Richard Dreyfuss (Rick Moranis), a wisecracking Judd Hirsch (Eugene Levy), and Alan Alda (Joe Flaherty) as The Nutcracker Prince. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Talk show host Libby Wolfson (Andrea Martin) and her dear friend Sue Bopper (Catherine O'Hara) stage their new feminist musical at a dingy dinner theater. It hardly needs saying that the show is a fiasco, with male co-star Seth Dick III (Joe Flaherty), cast in the pivotal role of "Sexist Pig," getting all the best reviews. Other classic bits: The Plasmatics sing and show footage of the most recent safari into the treacherous Melonville forest on "The Fishin' Magician"; the deathless Canadian hockey movie "Power Play" ("On the ice -- no one can hear you scream!"), featuring William Shatner (Dave Thomas), Helen Shaver (Catherine O'Hara), and (with his customary special billing) Al Waxman (Rick Moranis); potty-mouthed female comic Dusty Towne (O'Hara) -- a takeoff of "party record" favorite Rusty Warren -- performs at Lucifer's Arena, and Michael Caine (Dave Thomas) screams and shouts his way through the psychological thriller "My Bloody Hand." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This episode features SCTV's new "hip, relevant" comedy show "Thursday Night Live," broadcast direct from glamorous Edmonton and guest-hosted by news anchor Earl Camembert (Eugene Levy). Alas, Doug McKenzie (Dave Thomas) misses the show because he's wearing earmuffs, as he explains ruefully to brother Bob (Rick Moranis) on "Kanadian Korner." Other episode highlights: "Bittman Does Dallas," spotlighting funnyman Bobby Bittman (Levy); Harvey K-Tel (Thomas) hosts a two-minute "fast talking" adaptation of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf with K-Tel himself as George, Barbara Streisand (Andrea Martin) as Martha, Broderick Crawford (Joe Flaherty) as Nick and Sandy Duncan (actually Robin Duke) as Honey; and Joyce DeHalfwit (Martin) pitches for Half Legs Hosiery. ~ All Movie Guide

Although former stalwarts John Candy, Catherine O'Hara, and Harold Ramis are no longer part of the action, the third season of SCTV still boasts some of the Canadian-based sketch comedy series' best material. For starters, the season opener offers a special presentation of My Fair Lady...that is, a special presentation of the promotional trailer for My Fair Lady. This is just a warm-up for the first appearance of the beer-guzzling McKenzie Brothers (Dave Thomas and new series regular Rick Moranis), fulfilling Canadian broadcast requirements by hosting the free-form chat fest "Great White North" ("How's it going, eh, you hoser?"). With several minutes still to go in the opener, we're treated to "The Lee Iacocca Rock Concert." In later season three offerings, Harvey K-Tel presents a "fast talking" version of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (But wait! There's more!); Molly Earle (Robin Duke) revises her celebrated series "Crazy Crafts" after a 15-year absence, by no popular demand whatsoever; Guy Caballero (Joe Flaherty) emcees a live production of Death of a Salesman starring Ricardo Montalban (Eugene Levy) , Margaret Hamilton (Andrea Martin), George Carlin (Rick Moranis), and DeForest Kelley (Dave Thomas); "Monster Chiller Horror Theater" presents "Death Motel" with Woody Tobias Jr. (Eugene Levy) and plenty of scary 3-D effects; and "The Lone Ranger Show" finds the masked man (Rick Moranis) and Tonto (Joe Flaherty) welcoming Wishbone from Rawhide and arresting Kip Addotta for violating the Code of the West by doing a bad standup routine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide