SCTV Review: Broads Behind Bars (1-11) / The Taxidermist (1-12)

/

RATINGS SYSTEM:
***** - Classic
**** - Great
*** - Good/Average
** - Meh
* - Awful

“Broads Behind Bars” (season 1, episode 11, aired Apr. 21, 1977)

THREE MARINERS

  • Three old salts (Dave Thomas, Harold Ramis, Joe Flaherty) tell each other tales of the sea.

  • Another fakeout commercial parody, this time turning into a pitch for long distance (“Is there an old fisherman in your family? When was the last time you called them?”). The mariners’ tales have some funny details (Thomas saying he and Bennett Cerf were the only survivors, Ramis’s lack of change of underpants). Flaherty steals this sketch with his old man voice and makeup job, though, and it sounds a little like he was improvising his lines (“I had thighs…once…but I lost ‘em”).

  • Music: “Near You” by The Andrews Sisters

*** 1/2

SUNRISE SEMESTER: DO-IT-YOURSELF HOME DENTISTRY

  • Mort Finkel (Harold Ramis) demonstrates how to drill a cavity without Novocaine by using shots of rum instead.

  • Probably the funniest of the early Sunrise Semester sketches, thanks to a ridiculous subject and Ramis going all-in as he performs some very pained-sounding screams.

  • According to Ramis, the crew put real liquor in the bottle during this shoot; you can see him cast a few sideways glances as he takes the shots (fourth screencap above). I also likedthe callback where he drinks the blue liquid from his demonstration at the beginning of the lesson.

****

SCTV NEWS: HELSINKI TRIP

  • Earl Camembert (Eugene Levy) wastes coverage of his trip to cover a security conference in Helsinki with personal photos.

  • This felt a little too similar to the San Francisco earthquake one in show five (I used to get the two confused), but it features a rare instance of Earl getting one up on Floyd, when he shows a slide of him drunk at a party. Floyd Robertson’s drinking problem ends up becoming a running gag in the series.

  • This segment doesn’t have the usual SCTV News title sequence; it starts with Earl and Floyd introducing themselves at the beginning with the title appearing on Floyd’s ChromaKey screen. Earl also has a new jacket here.

***

DINING WITH LARUE: THE SCORCHED EARTH

  • Johnny LaRue (John Candy) clashes with patrons and staff when he reviews a vegetarian restaurant.

  • The third Dining with LaRue in four episodes, but this one gets some mileage from the inherent conflict between beef-and-booze loving Johnny and the hippie patrons at the vegetarian restaurant, including the hostile waitress (Andrea Martin) and bouncer Swami Bananananda (Harold Ramis).

  • I love the weak and overly-wordy threat from the Swami towards Johnny at the end.

  • The patrons at the table behind LaRue’s table are Tabby Johnson and Joe Flaherty’s now-ex wife Judith Dagley. Johnson’s brother Clark (best known for his work on Homicide: Life on the Street and The Wire) also made a small appearance on SCTV about five years later.

  • Music: “When The Ship Comes In” by Bob Dylan.

*** 1/2

BROADS BEHIND BARS

  • A joint shared with her boyfriend leads Cheryl (Catherine O’Hara) to prison, where lifer Kitty (Andrea Martin) toughens her up.

  • This hybrid of Reefer Madness and Caged! is notable for being first SCTV movie spoof to actually work, largely thanks to the performances of O’Hara, Martin, and John Candy (in drag as sadistic guard Schultzie). O’Hara shows off quite a bit of range here.

  • Eugene Levy only appears in the opening scene, but I really enjoyed his over-the-top performance as O’Hara’s boyfriend who convinces her to rob a gas station after only one puff from his joint.

  • Tabby Johnson and Judith Dagley have speaking roles as two of the other inmates (for which they earn “special appearance” credits in tonight’s end crawl); Robin Duke and Mary Margaret O’Hara (Catherine’s sister) also play inmates.

  • Music: includes “Streetcar” by Ray Heindorf, “Rock Around The Clock” by Bill Haley and his Comets, “The Informer” by Max Steiner, “Belle Reve” by Ray Heindorf

****

PROMO: AN EVENING WITH COL. SANDERS

  • James Whitmore (Dave Thomas) plays the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken in his new one-man show.

  • Dave Thomas debuts his Col. Sanders impression here in a parody of Whitmore’s successful one-man shows about Will Rogers and Harry Truman (both of whom mentioned in the Colonel’s stories).

  • The version of this sketch in the Rhodes syndication package is edited significantly; besides cutting a lot of the anecdotes, there is also some different music used (Bernard Hermann’s Overture from Citizen Kane instead of Edmundo Ros’s version of “My Old Kentucky Home”, as well as material that doesn’t appear in the original Canadian edit (“Gene Krupa used to like drumsticks!”). The Rhodes version is tighter but loses the Truman story as well as the Colonel’s reminiscence of Hitler’s dislike for chicken (“Mark my words, that’s a man that will start a holocaust!”).

*** 1/2

Final thoughts: A strong show and a rebound in quality after two comparatively uneven or subpar episodes. A great “Sunrise Semester” boosts the early half of the show, while the ambitious “Broads Behind Bars” takes up quite a bit of the running time but manages to succeed where the show’s earlier movie parodies floundered.

MVP:

  • (tie) Catherine O’Hara/John Candy

Rhodes version differences:

  • Removed: Three Mariners (moved to 1-10), Sunrise Semester: Do-It-Yourself Home Dentistry (moved to 1-5), SCTV News: Helsinki trip (moved to 1-9), Broads Behind Bars (moved to 2-25).

  • Edited: An Evening with Col. Sanders.

  • Added: Pocket Belt (from 1-20), Sunrise Semester: Beekeeping (US Only), It’s An Unusual World Isn’t It (from 1-5, redone voiceover), SCTV AM News Today: Taped music (from 1-9), Hal Holbrook plays James Whitmore (from 1-21), Alistair Cook’s Armenia (from 1-12), Painfree and Staybrite (from 1-10), Feedback (from 1-9).

Blair version differences:

  • Removed: SCTV News: Helsinki trip.

  • Edited: An Evening with Col. Sanders (with new Robert Corness v/o).

  • Added: Silver Bullet Suppositories (from 1-10), new syndication promo for The Taxidermist (Robert Corness v/o).

Additional screen captures from this episode are available here.

“The Taxidermist” (season 1, episode 12, aired May 5, 1977)

NUCLEAR SIZED BAGGYS

  • Mutant Man (Dave Thomas) touts the bags strong enough to handle radioactive power plant waste.

  • Kind of a forgettable concept, but the visuals of Thomas with the green wig, Candy with three arms and Ramis with two heads were funny.

***

FARM REPORT

  • Big Jim McBob (Joe Flaherty) gives the morning commodity prices; Mr. Hayes (Dave Thomas) from the Department of Agriculture discusses the problem of unscrupulous travelling salesmen and farmers’ daughters.

  • First appearance of Joe Flaherty’s Big Jim McBob; though he would later be known as one half of the explosion-loving team of film buffs with John Candy’s Billy Sol Hurok, in this sketch, he gives commodity prices for pork parts, stereotypical farmer accoutrements, and other quick-fire jokes (“Domestic marijuana remains very poor, you just can’t give that stuff away.”). The sketch is funny but it’s short, and not as iconic as the later ones with Big Jim and Billy Sol blowing up celebrities.

***

WELCOME BACK PRESIDENT KOTTER

  • President Kotter’s (Eugene Levy) cabinet is full of immature Sweathogs.

  • A particularly brutal parody of the real Welcome Back, Kotter, with Eugene Levy doing a great Gabe Kaplan. The best part is the end, with first lady Julie (Catherine O’Hara) enduring yet another pointless anecdote about his relatives.

  • Music: “Welcome Back” by Ray Conniff.

*** 1/2

PROMO: THE GLASS MENAGERIE

  • Laura (Andrea Martin) shows her clumsy gentleman caller (Harold Ramis) her collection in a scene from Tennessee Williams’ play.

  • A very silly spoof of Tennessee Williams’ breakthrough play with some good slapstick and sound-effects work (particularly the sound of crunching glass as Martin and Ramis dance).

  • Music: “Theme For Two Lovers” by Kenny Bosworth

***

ALISTAIR COOK’S ARMENIA

  • Alistair Cook (Joe Flaherty) examines the culture and floor coverings of Armenia.

  • A parody of the real Alistair Cooke’s 1972-73 docu-series America: A Personal History of the United States; it’s mostly one joke but I enjoyed it, particularly the cheapness of the whole production (particularly the “wind” scene).

  • There are a few subtle jokes in the names given in Cook’s stories: the inventor of the rug is Blesto Fallujian (BLESTO is the NFL scouting organization that was headquarted in Flaherty’s native Pittsburgh, PA), while the person who figured out how to perfect the carpet is Aram Avakian, a director and editor.

  • Suzian Tarpuzian, the Armenian peasant played by Andrea Martin, looks a lot like PIrini Scleroso. Martin is also of Armenian descent.

  • Another reference to Togo(land) at the very end.

***

SCTV MYSTERY MOVIE OF THE WEEK: THE TAXIDERMIST

  • Walt (John Candy) celebrates graduating from taxidermy school, but girlfriend Eugenie (Catherine O’Hara) makes an unsettling discovery about how he uses his skills.

  • An underrated (and slightly disturbing) early sketch, and another example of the show getting better at extended movie parodies. John Candy is very good at playing menacing, but this is Catherine O’Hara’s sketch; if “Broads Behind Bars” showed her range, “The Taxidermist” shows how effective she is with her non-verbal acting.

  • The scenes with Candy bringing out his stuffed parents and the police officer are particularly funny because the actors had to play lifeless and frozen. I wonder if this was a sketch that originated on the stage back in the 70’s; O’Hara’s character name Eugenie makes me think this was something done back at Second City Chicago with Eugenie Ross-Leming, who was in the cast with Ramis, Flaherty and John Belushi.

  • Music: Henry Mancini’s theme for the NBC Mystery Movie, as performed by Ray Conniff.

**** 1/2

20 DEPRESSING HITS BY CONNIE FRANKLIN

  • All the most maudlin and downbeat songs you remember are collected on one album by weepy singer Connie Franklin (Andrea Martin).

  • This is another sketch I’ve always enjoyed, particularly the over-the-top depressing lyrics (“I’m losing my hearing/I’ve lost sight in one eye/I’m sorry, I can’t hear you/Did you really say goodbye?”), Dave Thomas’s frantic Harvey K-Tel narration, and the not especially cheerier “Lighter Side” album.

  • Music during the scene where Connie speaks: “Tears On My Pillow” by Little Anthony and the Imperials.

****

SCTV NEWS: EARL’S COUGHING FIT

  • Earl Camembert (Eugene Levy) is unable to stop coughing long enough to give his items, and interrupts Floyd Robertson’s (Joe Flaherty) stories as well.

  • The premise may not look like much on paper, but Levy and Flaherty sell the hell out of it. Bonus points for some funny details in the news items (the heavy fighting in Albania having no casualties, another Togo earthquake, a new ice age).

*** 1/2

Final thoughts: Another solid outing, with the show operating in a comfortable rhythm, able to parody highbrow and lowbrow television. The second half of the show is especially good, particularly “The Taxidermist”, an overlooked classic, and “Connie Franklin’s Greatest Hits”

MVP:

  • (tie) Andrea Martin / Catherine O’Hara

Rhodes version differences:

  • Removed: Alistair Cook’s Armenia (moved to 1-11), SCTV News: Earl’s coughing fit (moved to 1-8)

  • Added: Celebrity Tattletales (from 1-26), SCTV AM News Today: News service writers’ strike (from 1-2), Margot Fontaine at the Russian National Circus (from 1-8)

Blair version differences:

  • Removed: SCTV News: Earl’s coughing fit

  • Added: New syndication promo for Ben-Hur (Robert Corness v/o)

Additional screen captures from this episode are available here.