SCTV Review: Rock Concert (2-17) / Fantasy Island (2-18)

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

“Rock Concert” (season 2, episode 17, originally aired Jan. 6, 1979)

COOKING WITH PRICKLEY - PART I

  • Edith Prickley (Andrea Martin) shows how to liven up meal preparation with a Rhythm Ace.

  • A fun sketch; Edith Prickley’s jovial, larger-than-life persona works particularly well in this setting.

  • I wonder how they slipped “The Girl From Ipanema can be tossing your salad” past the censors.

  • The 1999 syndicated version cuts out Edith Prickley singing “Macho Man”, but keeps her stuffing the turkey. The editing is particularly bad here: there’s a bit of reversed footage to make it look like Edith’s going to and from the Rhythm Ace, followed by sped-up footage of her stuffing the turkey.

****

TEX AND EDNA BOIL’S ORGAN EMPORIUM

  • Tex (Dave Thomas) and Edna (Andrea Martin) are having a sale on the Rhythm Ace, as well as a sausage cookout in the parking lot.

  • Edith Prickley’s sister Edna Boil is a pretty funny character to begin with; she could give Phil (from Phil’s Nails) a run on his money in terms of awkward, low-budget advertising with her stiff line readings and mispronunciations (“virtuasoto”), but hers and Tex’s call-and-response “Right Tex?” “That’s right, Edna!” is also a memorable hook.

****

COOKING WITH PRICKLEY - PART II

  • Edith’s (Andrea Martin) turkey is ready.

  • I’m not going to give this one a rating, but Edith’s reaction to the beat at the end is pretty funny.

PROMO: MASTERPIECE THEATRE

  • A preview of the Burlington Central Library’s production of Hamlet.

  • The main joke of the librarian repeatedly shushing everyone feels pretty amateurish for SCTV’s standards. I did like the attempt at a silent swordfight and the librarian getting stabbed, but it’s not enough for the sketch to be worth it.

**

MIND GAMES

  • George (Dave Thomas) and Martha (Catherine O’Hara) play the board game of psychological warfare.

  • A good premise for a board game commercial, but it’s the Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf parody that makes the sketch for me.

  • Music: “Chameleon” by Herbie Hancock.

*** 1/2

SCTV NEWS

  • Earl Camembert (Eugene Levy) tries to deliver his items despite being rendered unintelligible by his impacted wisdom tooth.

  • Eugene Levy does a nice job with muffling Earl’s speech in this installment, but the fun is watching Floyd Robertson (Joe Flaherty) get a chance to have a little fun at Earl’s expense.

*** 1/2

PSA: STOP SMOKING

  • Lola Heatherton (Catherine O’Hara) quickly undermines her own anti-smoking message.

  • Despite a few funny lines (smoking being “after-sexy”), this is a fairly forgettable piece.

** 1/2

MASTERPIECE WIGS

  • Alistair Cook (Joe Flaherty) has the perfect wigs for any occasion.

  • It feels a little redundant to have this commercial in a show that already had a Masterpiece Theatre promo; unfortunately, this also isn’t particularly funny and the jokes seem a little forced.

  • The bald cap with the “hair transplants” is pretty terrible looking.

**

SCTV MAIL BAG WITH BOB CLARK

  • Bob Clark (Dave Thomas) has the answers to viewer’s letters.

  • Nothing particularly great, but this is interesting for Thomas playing a prototype version of Bill Needle. This version is a little bit meaner, berating the viewers who wrote letters (at one point speculating that one of them is “either ret*rded or not very bright”); Needle has a bit more of a satirical bent.

** 1/2

ROCK CONCERT

  • Big Jim (Joe Flaherty) and Billy Sol (John Candy) blow up the top stars of today as they perform their hits.

  • The spiritual predecessor to Big Jim and Billy Sol’s celebrity blow-up sketches during the NBC years; a chance for someone in the cast to show off their impression skills, as well as for Billy Sol and Big Jim (and the audience) to see them get “blow’d up real good”.

  • This was another sketch that was butchered in the 1999 package; they couldn’t clear “Short People”, “Gloria” or “Macho Man”, so those impressions are pretty much eliminated from the sketch. The editing in the Patti Smith segment is also particularly awkward as it just leaves her hyperventilating. The closing credits also ran at half speed to make up for the extra time that was cut.

****

Final thoughts: After a fairly solid streak of shows, this was the first one in a while that had some noticeably weak material; it’s especially noticeable in comparison to the strong pieces that bookend the show.

MVP:

  • Andrea Martin

Rhodes version differences:

  • Removed: PSA: Stop Smoking

Blair version differences:

  • Removed: SCTV Mail Bag with Bob Clark (moved to 2-22)

  • Added: Consumer Concern (from 2-14), new syndication promo for SCTV Disco (Robert Corness v/o)

1999 WIC version differences:

  • Edited: Cooking with Prickley - Part I (“Macho Man” removed), Rock Concert (“Short People”, “Gloria” and “Macho Man” removed)

Additional screen captures from this episode are available here.

“Fantasy Island” (season 2, episode 18, originally aired Jan. 13, 1979)

FANTASY ISLAND - PART I

  • Mr. Rourke (Eugene Levy) and Pattoo (John Candy) meet their guests: two rockers from the band Black Plasma (Joe Flaherty and Dave Thomas), homely concert violinist Maria Schuman (Andrea Martin), and clumsy socialite Lee Vanderville (Catherine O’Hara).

  • Right away we’re off to a very good start with the joke about the first plane crashing (“So much for their fan-tasies”), Rourke’s general contempt for the guests, and a horny Pattoo rubbing himself with excitement over “chicks”.

  • I like how this also breaks the reality to reference Ricardo Montalban’s Cordoba commercials (complete with “Concerto de Aranjuez” in the background) and Rourke commenting that it was too early in the show for pathos.

  • A very memorable part with Pattoo humping the violin.

**** 1/2

FANTASY ISLAND - PART II

  • The rockers’ fantasy of being comedians has them assuming the roles of Bob Hope (Dave Thomas) and Bing Crosby (Joe Flaherty) as brassiere salesmen looking for an assassin in the king’s harem.

  • Probably the least substantial of the three Fantasy Island segments, but only in comparison to the other two. This does include the debut of Flaherty’s Bing Crosby impression, though, as well as the return of Thomas’s Bob Hope; unlike the other Hope sketches, this is a more reverent homage, with the team presented as the prime example of classic comedy.

  • The bad dubbing for the assassin’s voice (“I’m takin’ you to see the graaaann’ vizier!”) has always made me laugh; I remember reading somewhere that the original actor’s line readings were so bad, they just had Flaherty rerecord them. I think that’s also the same guy who was in U.F.O. Sharkey earlier in the season (“You’re sweatin’ on my jeans”).

  • One of the extras in the harem is actress Mimi Kuzyk, who would appear as a regular on Hill Street Blues for one season as Patsy Mayo.

****

RONCO NO SWEAT SAUNA AIR CONDITIONER

  • Get relief from the unbearable heat of your sauna.

  • This can’t help but pale in comparison to everything else in tonight’s show, but on its own merits it’s pretty funny (I like the detail of Catherine O’Hara being seen swigging from a bottle as Levy opens the door).

*** 1/2

FANTASY ISLAND - PART III

  • Maria (Andrea Martin) becomes a woman of danger and intrigue: Elsa from Casablanca. Hiding out, Hope (Dave Thomas) and Crosby (Joe Flaherty) join her and Rick (John Candy) at his Cafe, and Lee (Catherine O’Hara) recaptures the glamour of the past by playing Ginger Rogers to Fred Astaire (Claude Tessier). When the police raid the place, Hope and Crosby accidentally summon Glinda (Catherine O’Hara), who brings them back to Kansas (and their band).

  • The pianist at Rick’s cafe is jazz musician (and husband of show hairstylist Judi Cooper-Sealy) Joe Sealy. Fun little joke with him picking up maracas as Ilsa starts singing a version of “I Go To Rio”, as well as Rick admonishing him never to play “that cheap Casablanca song”.

  • Some more fun with abusing dummies here. “I hate you, you cheap little device for exposition!”.

  • If you listen closely to the walla (background conversation), it’s obvious that the cast is doing it, and just a short snippet reused multiple times, not to mention the more obviously dubbed voices of the extras.

  • Nice fourth-wall break with Bob Hope mentioning “our producer Jack Rhodes”.

  • The Fred and Ginger dance number to “Let Yourself Go” doesn’t really have that much comedically, though it does tie up the Lee storyline, and O’Hara does get to do some rapid 30s patter and a pratfall.

  • O’Hara does get another role here, as Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, complete with her doing another high-pitched chittering noise (as the Munchkins) and the immortal line “And have you learned your lesson? That fantasies suck?”. Her look and voice as the band member is also quite hilarious.

  • The ending with the cast (as Black Plasma) miming playing “Disco Lucy” by the Wilton Place Street Band (and badly at that) is so ridiculous and silly, but it’s the perfect way for this to go out.

*****

Final thoughts: A show fully deserving its reputation as a classic, and one of the best in the whole series. The Fantasy Island parody (written by Joe Flaherty and Dave Thomas) is the most ambitious thing the show had done creatively up to that point, and sets things in motion for the more ambitious pieces they would do afterward.

MVP:

  • (tie) Joe Flaherty/Eugene Levy/Dave Thomas

Rhodes version differences:

  • Removed: Ronco No Sweat Sauna Air Conditioner (appears in 2-23)

Blair version differences:

  • Removed: Ronco No Sweat Sauna Air Conditioner (moved to 1-4)

  • Added: Polardak ESP-1 (from 2-24), new syndication promo for Lee Iacocca’s Rock Concert (Robert Corness v/o)

  • Edited: ending of Fantasy Island - Part III

Additional screen captures from this episode are available here.