SCTV Review: Arabs (2-7) / Happy Endings (2-8)

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

“Arabs” (season 2, episode 7; originally aired Oct. 28, 1978)

MESSAGE FROM GUY

  • In a statement of policy, SCTV president Guy Caballero (Joe Flaherty) encourages oil rich Arabs to invest in his station.

  • The character looks older than normal here, and he still has the more gruff voice of his early appearences, but this is the point where Guy Caballero becomes his normal oily but charming self.

  • This also includes a bit of back-and-forth between Guy and the announcer, which is a running gag in season 3.

  • Funny outro with Caballero being announced as yet another show that airs “Thursdays at nine”.

****

FARM FILM REPORT

  • Big Jim McBob (Joe Flaherty) looks at current box office receipts; guest critic Billy Sol Hurok (John Candy) reviews a Russian film, The Red Hat, and expresses fondness for seeing people get “blow’d up”.

  • The idea to make this into a movie review show was pretty inspired, and this is the first appearance of Billy Sol Hurok, who would become Big Jim’s co-host, but as much as the key elements are there, they still haven’t completely found the characters’ rhythm yet.

*** 1/2

CUP ‘N SOUP (repeat from 2-3)

  • This airing has a music soundtrack added, which is mixed distractingly loud.

THE MILLIONAIRE

  • Tapped-out John Beresford Tipton (Joe Flaherty) only has $50 to give away, until a mysterious stranger (Eugene Levy) arrives.

  • A parody of the late 50’s CBS series of the same name; this has a good premise, and John Candy carries this as Tipton’s increasingly-disgruntled secretary.

  • Another Dave Thomas-Catherine O’Hara two-hander bit, this time as the feuding couple who gets the paltry gift. I see a little of Bill Needle in Thomas’s character here.

  • I like the detail of the Arab businessman offering to meet with the secretary over an Irish coffee.

****

FALCONS AND OYSTERS

  • Bob Bond (Dave Thomas) conscripts two audience members (Joe Flaherty and Catherine O’Hara) to dramatize a myth about the enmity between falcons and oysters.

  • Completely random, and basically an excuse for Dave Thomas to make sound effects, but I enjoyed it, particularly the confusion of the two audience members. I wonder how this idea came about.

  • I love the myth for the next show: oysters climb cliffs to steal baby falcons from their nests.

****

SPEAKING OF TALK WITH LOU JAFFE

  • Lou Jaffe (Eugene Levy) interviews commercial announcer Harvey K-Tel (Dave Thomas).

  • A clever way to bring back Harvey K-Tel as a character as opposed to an offscreen announcer, and there some pretty impressive rapid-fire readings from Levy and especially Thomas here.

  • John Candy is wearing the same Hawaiian shirt he wore in the Restless Doctors sketch two shows earlier.

****

GREASE FROM LARUE ENTERPRISES

  • Johnny LaRue (John Candy) shows housewives how to get those greasy stains out of their laundry…for a price.

  • Johnny LaRue’s a little more of a creep here than usual, though as Jeff Robbins argues in Second City Television, this commercial seems to exist mainly for LaRue to refute the rumours of his homosexuality, and of course, LaRue is such a sleaze that it’s not out of character at all. It’s a testament to John Candy that he can play such an awful person and still have him be somewhat endearing as a character.

  • The yellow jug of bleach seen at the beginning is No Name brand, the generic line from Loblaws supermarkets in Canada, which was introduced that year.

*** 1/2

HOW THE MIDDLE EAST WAS WON

  • Three titanic figures of the British stage portray three giants of British history.

  • A combination of Lawrence of Arabia and The Wind and the Lion, and a sequel to last season’s The Man Who Would Be King Of The Popes; this actually manages to raise that one with the inclusion of Eugene Levy’s Shawn [sic] Connery and Catherine O’Hara’s brutal take on Candice Burgen [sic].

  • The soundtrack is mixed a little too loud in this one as well; it’s particularly noticeable in the tent scenes.

  • Dave Thomas screeching “MUFTI!” never fails to make me laugh.

*****

FARM FILM REPORT - PART II

  • Billy Sol (John Candy) and Big Jim (Joe Flaherty) want to see How The Middle East Is One.

  • I won’t rate this, but this is a solid callback to Farm Film Report, and another sign that the show has found something with this pairing.

Final thoughts: A very strong back-to-basics show that makes good use of established characters and impressions, in many cases improving on them. No duds in this varied batch of sketches either; it’s a nice cross-section of what SCTV is all about.

MVP:

  • (tie) Joe Flaherty / Dave Thomas

Rhodes version differences:

  • Removed: Falcons and Oysters (moved to 2-8)

Blair version differences:

  • Removed: Farm Film Report - Part II

Additional screencaps from this episode are available here.

“Happy Endings” (season 2, episode 8; originally aired Nov. 4, 1978)

THE MIRTHMAKERS WITH ORSAN WELLES - PART I

  • Orsan Welles (John Candy) introduces tonight’s examination of comedians.

  • No rating as this is just an introduction segment, though Candy does get to do a bit with Welles imitating the comedians whose pictures he walks past.

  • This is an example of a segment made a little more awkward with the Canadian syndication version’s break structure. We get this introduction, then it throws to a commercial break before returning for the commercial parody that runs in between the two segments.

MAX LAX (repeat from 2-4)

THE MIRTHMAKERS WITH ORSAN WELLES - PART II

  • Orsan Welles (John Candy) interviews Bobby Bittman (Eugene Levy) and Dr. Cheryl Kinsey (Andrea Martin) about the comedian’s role in civiliation.

  • Eugene Levy gets the best material as Bobby Bittman (particularly his owning a station wagon among his other expensive cars “in case I have a large family”), but his egotistical and self-important opining feels wasted here in this dull sketch; having Welles treating comedy as a serious subject could have been mined more for laughs.

  • The Cheryl Kinsey segment has some good lines, but the character feels a little shoehorned in, and doesn’t really fit with her other appearances as the twitchy, repressed sexologist.

** 1/2

SCTV NEWS

  • Earl Camembert (Eugene Levy) bugs Floyd Robertson (Joe Flaherty) by finding the bright side of stories about a house’s destruction and a seniors home closing.

  • A very strong installment, with Earl’s “happy endings” being completely insensitive (particularly about how fighting for basic survival now gives the elderly a goal in life).

  • This has the first mention of Melonville mayor Tommy Shanks, who appears on screen a few episodes later, as well as the first instance of Floyd snapping and physically attacking Earl.

  • I wonder who the woman is in the photo that accompanied Floyd’s news item about the prenatal educational recorders (second screencap above). I’m guessing it’s someone who worked backstage.

**** 1/2

MODULAR SHOE KIT FROM K-TEL

  • Never be caught with the wrong shoes for the occasion again with the kit that contains 10 different fashions for one pair of shoes.

  • This feels like a spiritual successor to season 1’s Spray-On Socks; it’s not quite as successful as the other sketch (the prop work makes it drag a little), but still enjoyable.

  • The fair haired extra with the mustache is Peter Wildman, later of comedy troupe The Frantics.

***

CHINESE FAIRY TALES WITH LIN YE TANG

  • In response to viewer mail, Lin Ye Tang (Dave Thomas) tells a story with a happy ending, but makes up darker details as to what came before.

  • I’ve said before that I enjoy the character despite the problematic yellowface aspect, largely because he’s so irascible; this is probably my favourite use of him so far, with him thinking stories with happy endings are stupid and boring.

  • The finger puppets also make me laugh, particularly the evil magician putting a curse on the prince by saying “I curse you!”

*** 1/2

SCTV TRIPLE FEATURE MOVIE - PART I

  • The midnight-to-dawn presentation cuts between Drums of the Congo Swamp Rats, Desert Rat Drums, and Drum Rats in Outer Space.

  • I appreciate what they’re trying to do here, but even with the clever details (look at the font for the “Triple Feature Movie” title card, then the individual movie titles), it doesn’t quite translate to the screen.

  • Joe Flaherty is doing Robert Mitchum and John Candy is doing John Wayne, but are Dave Thomas and Catherine O’Hara impersonating specific actors as well?

** 1/2

PIT STOP DEODORANT

  • Professional racing driver Jan Wilson (Andrea Martin) uses the deodorant for women that do the job of men; sometimes two men.

  • Andrea Martin’s performance as the decidedly unfeminine driver makes this one enjoyable.

***

SCTV TRIPLE FEATURE MOVIE - PART II

  • The happy endings to all three of tonight’s movies.

  • Pretty much what you’d expect; I probably would have rated it a little higher if it didn’t have the announcer explicitly stating these would be happy endings beforehand.

**

Final thoughts: A mixed bag of a show, which felt like they had the ideas but didn’t quite know what to do with them. The Mirthmakers never really gets going, while the attempt at a conceptual theme, despite tonight’s stronger moments, tried too hard with the movie sketch and suffers for it.

MVP:

  • Eugene Levy

Rhodes version differences:

  • Removed: Modular Shoe Kit from K-Tel (moved to 2-25)

  • Added: Falcons and Oysters (from 2-7)

Blair version differences:

  • Removed: Pit Stop Deodorant (moved to 2-11)

  • Added: new syndication promo for High Q (Robert Corness v/o)

Additional screencaps from this show are available here.