SCTV Review: SCTV 30th Anniversary Show (2-11) / The Occult (2-12)

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

“SCTV 30th Anniversary Show” (season 2, episode 11; originally aired Nov. 25, 1978)

SCTV 30th ANNIVERSARY SHOW - PART I

  • Floyd Robertson (Joe Flaherty) and Earl Camembert (Eugene Levy) discuss SCTV’s journalism during the Red Scare; unfortunately for Earl, the clip is of his father Merle (Levy) naming names to the House Un-American Activities Committee.

  • The clip is supposed to be a kinescope, though the production values aren’t quite sophisticated enough to emulate one; aesthetic issues aside, seeing Earl’s father willing to turn in his own mother to save his hide is pretty funny, as is Floyd reveling in another chance to make the younger Camembert squirm.

  • I also appreciate that they actually had John Candy playing Joe McCarthy here, especially since SCTV didn’t really tend to have political impressions very often.

****

PALMOVAL (repeat from 2-5)

SCTV 30th ANNIVERSARY SHOW - PART II

  • Lin Ye Tang (Dave Thomas) and Johnny LaRue (John Candy) present three westerns cancelled by the FCC for excessive violence: Yellowbelly, The Old Texas Rangers, and Liverboat.

  • The intro with Lin Ye Tang and Johnny LaRue has some moments, particularly Tang’s over-the-top cowboys slang and LaRue once again denying that he’s gay (completely unprompted), but the westerns themselves are all hilarious and stand up even without the introduction.

  • Yellowbelly’s my favourite of the three; not a second is wasted, and it actually pulls off the joke of the title character shooting both a child and a woman in the back. The Old Texas Rangers also manages to straddle the funny/wrong line, and Liverboat has a good twist, as well as Eugene Levy dramatically yelling “LIVER’S my life!”

  • The 1999 WIC syndication package edits Yellowbelly to remove the theme song (to the tune of “The Ballad of Davy Crockett”); they just leave in the humming at the end.

****

DELAY (repeat from 2-2)

SCTV 30th ANNIVERSARY SHOW - PART III

  • Dr. Cheryl Kinsey (Andrea Martin) and Lola Heatherton (Catherine O’Hara) introduce the classic panel show What’s My Shoe Size?

  • Nice contrast between the repressed Dr. Kinsey (who’s more in character than she was in The Mirthmakers) and the more sexually expressive Lola in the beginning.

  • What’s My Shoe Size is an all-timer; there’s just so much packed into it. Joe Flaherty steals it as Kirk Dugglis [sic], but I also really love Catherine O’Hara as Dorothy Kilpatrick. The scratchy voice she uses also reminds me a little of the voice Maya Rudolph would use when playing old ladies on SNL.

  • The end credits actually have some pretty funny business between the characters, particularly Floyd Robertson chugging down a bottle he swiped from Johnny LaRue.

**** 1/2

Final thoughts: A very good show, though I have to wonder how much further they could have taken the concept if this was done during the NBC years, especially with the increase in production values at ITV or Magder. What we got was still quite enjoyable, though; the parodies themselves were fantastic, and the wraparound provides some further worldbuilding for the station.

MVP:

  • (tie) John Candy/Catherine O’Hara

Rhodes version differences:

  • Removed: Palmoval repeat

Blair version differences:

  • Removed: Palmoval repeat, Delay repeat.

  • Added: Pit Stop Deodorant (from 2-8), Harlett Romances (from 2-5)

  • Edited: Closing (original audio plays over new credits).

1999 WIC version differences:

  • Edited: Palmoval repeat, Yellowbelly.

Additional screencaps from this episode are available here.

“The Occult” (season 2, episode 12; originally aired Dec. 2, 1978)

MR. SCIENCE WITH JOHNNY LARUE

  • Johnny LaRue’s (John Candy) new helper Damien has diabolical control over his experiments.

  • Johnny LaRue screaming “You couldn’t tell she was 11!” as he wakes from his dream is such a dark line, even for a sleazebag like him.

  • There really isn’t much to this aside from the whole Omen angle, but there is the usual humour coming from how woefully inappropriate a kids show host LaRue is, and it makes sense for him to be on the butt-end of Damien’s powers.

  • I get a bit of a laugh from Damien’s “evil” voice (just the child actor talking in a raspy voice).

***

CAREER HOME STUDY (repeat of 2-6)

SCTV NEWS

  • Floyd Robertson (Joe Flaherty) reports that the station is haunted, while Earl Camembert (Eugene Levy) hears voices.

  • A bit below the usual SCTV news quality, though not without its moments, particularly Floyd taking advantage of the situation to scare Earl with an item about a couple’s haunted house, though the ending seems too close to the end of season 1’s “Shock Theatre”, and not quite as funny.

***

FIRESIDE CHAT WITH MAYOR TOMMY SHANKS

  • Mayor Tommy Shanks (John Candy) opines on the weather and firewood.

  • The first on-screen appearance of Melonville’s mellow but unbalanced Mayor Shanks, and also the beginning of the running gag where he “feeds” a stuffed animal at the close of his remarks. There’s not very much to these sketches, but John Candy puts them over with his affable charm, and this is a good first outing for the character,

*** 1/2

4TH DEGREE

  • Chuck Clark (Joe Flaherty) ruthlessly interrogates Governor Jerry Brown (Dave Thomas) about his presidential aspirations.

  • A nice showcase for Flaherty (who gets to indulge his hardass side, seen earlier when Floyd Robertson wrote his own copy during “Writer’s Strike”) which peaks with him slapping around the Governor (another rare political impression) and yelling “ARE YA OR AREN’T YA?”.

****

MONSTER CHILLER HORROR THEATRE: WHISPERS OF THE WOLF

  • Count Floyd (Joe Flaherty) responds to viewer complaints that the movies he runs aren’t scary, and promises that tonight’s film will be. The movie turns out to be an Ingmar Burgman drama about depressed sisters.

  • One of the best Monster Chiller Horror Theatre segments, both in terms of the film and wraparound segments, and a sign of the show’s growing ambitions. Instead of trying to salvage an unfunny movie parody like in “Madame Blitzman”, here, they get comic mileage from going all out while parodying something that’s not intrinsically funny (the films of Ingmar Bergman).

  • I love the combination of the mock Swedish dialogue and the subtitles, which is an essential component of the humour here. I also wonder whether this is a deliberate homage to the 1968 short film De Duva, another Bergman parody.

  • Count Floyd’s post-hype is one of my favourites (“You think it’s not scary to be depressed?”)

  • For some unknown reason, the original US version had a different font for the movie’s subtitles.

*****

WORDS TO LIVE BY: MULCIBER ARIMASPIANS

  • Reverend Arimaspians (Dave Thomas), high priest of the local order of witches and warlocks, reminds viewers to take time for evil deeds.

  • The most successful of the occult sketches tonight, largely thanks to Dave Thomas’s sneering performance and the return of Big Jim and Billy Sol. This also worked better than just having a regular character dealing with supernatural antagonism.

  • Mulciber Arimaspians is one of my favourite character names of all time.

*** 1/2

Final thoughts: A bit uneven, though the presence of “Whispers Of The Wolf” makes this one worth checking out. The occult runner isn’t bad, but it feels half-hearted, as if they wanted to do another theme show but were having difficulty coming up with ideas.

MVP:

  • Joe Flaherty

Rhodes version differences:

  • Removed: Career Home Study repeat

  • Misc: different font for Whispers Of The Wolf subtitles

Blair version differences:

  • Removed: Career Home Study repeat

  • Added: new syndication promo for Sid Dithers: Private Eye (Robert Corness v/o)

Additional screencaps from this episode are available here.