Michael Short

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

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