SCTV Review: Pipeline (2-21) / Consumer Action Line (2-22)

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

“Pipeline” (season 2, episode 21, originally aired Feb. 3, 1979)

PASSPORT TO ADVENTURE

  • Bob (Dave Thomas) and Betty Wilson (Catherine O’Hara) lend their expertise in the field of entertaining guests.

  • The Wilsons return for a final time nearly a full season after their last appearance. Like with the other Passport To Adventure sketch, the most notable thing is the chemistry between Thomas and O’Hara, though there are some laughs from how the Wilsons are cheapskates, and I did like the part where the Wilsons claim to be non-smokers before immediately putting out their cigarettes.

** 1/2

PROMO: TAX ADVICE

  • Liberace (Dave Thomas) shows you how to make the most of your deductions.

  • The first appearance of Dave Thomas’s Liberace impression; this is a very short, to-the-point sketch, especially compared to his later appearances, but it works.

*** 1/2

SCTV NEWS BULLETIN

  • Floyd Robertson (Joe Flaherty) and Earl Camembert (Eugene Levy) interrupt programming for Mayor Tommy Shanks’ (John Candy) latest fireside chat.

  • Only the second appearance of Mayor Shanks; there are the usual laughs from his pointless remarks, and his feeding a candy bar to a stuffed giraffe is a delightful visual gag. Earl’s attempt to somehow link Shanks talking about the weather to the city budget went on a little too long, though.

***

TAP’S FRIENDLY NO-NAME SUPERMARKET

  • Joey (Catherine O’Hara) promotes this week’s bargains on no-name goods.

  • This makes a lot more sense when you know what’s being parodied, as this is a particularly arcane regional reference to commercials that aired on the Buffalo TV stations, which are widely available in Toronto. O’Hara’s spoofing Joey Heinz, spokeswoman for the now-defunct Super Duper chain of supermarkets, who would list higher prices before showing off how much a product on sale at the store actually costs. The store name also parodies Tops Friendly Market, as well as the Loblaws No Name line of products.

  • It’s a bit repetitive, but I like the detail of the “no name” products being incredibly vague food or drinks (“chock-full of no name vitamins”) or half-ply toilet tissue (over 30 years before Dwight Schrute made his own).

***

THE DOCTOR BRAINO HOUR

  • Doctor Braino (John Candy) gets a visit from Doctor Psychedelic (Joe Flaherty).

  • A sketch sometimes pointed to as an example of the sharp decline in quality at the end of the second season; it’s hard to disagree with that take, especially since the first minute or so consists mostly of John Candy repeating words with spacey audio and visual effects added. The sketch has its fans, and there are a few funny moments (the “red beauty jackets” going in Dr. Braino’s nose and the “stuff” in perfume bottle) but it’s never been one of my favourites.

  • I’d be interested in hearing the background of this sketch, though; was it a piss-take, a deconstruction of hacky stoner humor, or just the cast trying to fill time in the last few shows of the season with any idea that came to mind?

**

PIPELINE

  • A documentary follows a typical day in the life of plumber Vince DeBoccio (Eugene Levy).

  • A creative presentation for standard plumber jokes. It’s a little long for what it is, but Eugene Levy’s performance is solid and there are a few genuinely funny scenes throughout, particularly the moments where Vince unwinds. There’s also some fun with the voiceovers.

  • The bottle of No Name bleach from “Grease from LaRue Enterprises” shows up again under Andrea Martin’s character’s sink when Vince opens the cupboard.

***

Final thoughts: It’s not the complete disaster Jeff Robbins makes it out to be in Second City Television, but there’s a sense that the well is starting to run dry; most of tonight’s show feels like the cast is trying to make make a full show out of scraps of ideas, and compared to other episodes, there’s really nothing that rises to the show’s normal level of greatness.

MVP:

  • Eugene Levy

Rhodes version differences:

  • Removed: Promo: Tax Advice (moved to 2-25)

Blair version differences:

  • Removed: Tap’s Friendly No-Name Supermarket (moved to 2-23)

  • Added: Ronko Wiener Skinner (from 2-20)

Additional screen captures from this episode are available here.

“Consumer Action Line” (season 2, episode 22, originally aired Feb. 10, 1979)

PROMO: THE YOUNG WEASELS

  • Two men (Dave Thomas and Joe Flaherty) raised by weasels try to find their place in the world.

  • A silly idea, and there are few funny parts (the scene with the chicken eggs, Thomas and Flaherty’s weasel voices), but the narration felt a little superfluous, explaining the jokes a little too much.

** 1/2

FIRESIDE CHAT

  • Mayor Tommy Shanks (John Candy) has some thoughts about the economy, sort of.

  • Another Mayor Shanks appearance only one episode after the last one; there are usually some laughs in his usual pointless remarks and feeding a stuffed animal, but this one just feels very boilerplate.

** 1/2

SIMPLE TOUCH WHITENER

  • Mrs. Mary Pheenan (Catherine O’Hara) reacts to the prospect of Simple Touch removing their whitener.

  • A parody of a real ad campaign for Final Touch fabric softener; good performance from O’Hara, even if the whole thing is a little underwhelming.

** 1/2

TEX AND EDNA BOIL’S ORGAN EMPORIUM

  • Tex (Dave Thomas) and Edna (Andrea Martin) are offering free budgies with every organ and bait to get the birds back in their cages.

  • The third Tex and Edna sketch in six episodes; it’s still somewhat funny (particularly the bad line readings and a nice callback to “virtuasoto”), though a step down from the other two.

  • I wonder if this was supposed to be the second commercial even though it aired third, since the previous commercial had them running out of budgies.

***

FAMILY CRISIS

  • Colonel Sanders (Dave Thomas), Bobby Bittman (Eugene Levy), and Lola Heatherton (Catherine O’Hara) give questionable advice to domestic violence victim Chrissy (Andrea Martin) on Johnny LaRue’s (John Candy) game show.

  • This is a particularly dark and nasty sketch; unlike Alpro, this also works fairly well. The humour comes from how wildly inappropriate the panel’s advice is, as well as LaRue’s general callousness toward the people he purports to help, a trait we’ve seen before in “Cooking With LaRue” and “LaRue Towers”.

  • This sketch originally made the 1980s Canadian syndicated version of the show, but by the mid-90s, this was removed and replaced with season 1’s “Wara! Wara! Wara!”. I don’t have a specific timeframe as to when the new version first appeared, but I would guess it may have been when Canadian cable channel Showcase began running the show nationwide in 1995. I can see why it would have been pulled, particularly with how bad Chrissy’s situation is depicted vs. the complete insensitivity of the celebrity panel.

*** 1/2

GRAFT CHEESE

  • Hands prepare a sandwich recipe from Graft Kitchens.

  • A pretty funny spoof of the Kraft Kitchens commercial, including some questionable food ideas (candy apple parmesan), and of course, the sandwich that starts off normal enough, but grows to include a lot of disgusting ingredients like uncooked duck fat, sliced beets, and smelts.

  • I always loved the line about the “bland and surprisingly popular” processed cheese slices.

*** 1/2

SCTV NEWS

  • Floyd Robertson (Joe Flaherty) has a follow-up on Earl Camembert’s (Eugene Levy) item about a medical breakthrough; foreign correspondent Pirini Scleroso (Andrea Martin) “interviews” a new mother (Catherine O’Hara); Earl’s Consumer Action Line segment doesn’t help a viewer.

  • The weakest SCTV News segment this season; the “breakthrough” about the virus that causes mental illness was somewhat funny, but this feels like they were trying to jam in a lot into a single news segment as a way to run out the clock. The Pirini Scleroso segment wasn’t one of her better appearances (though I did like the twist where she convinces herself that she “halle ballies”), and the Consumer Action Line segment ended up being as tedious as, well, being put on hold. It also says something that this ended up being tonight’s closing sketch.

  • I’ve always loved the jazzy instrumental tune that plays as the credits roll; it’s been used a few more times, most notably as the “Street Beef” theme in the first NBC cycle. I’m guessing it’s another piece of library music since Shazam can’t identify it.

  • Jim Fisher and Jim Staahl received another “additional sketches” credit.

**

Final thoughts: Another tired feeling show, but again, not without its moments. It’s weighed down by some forgettable appearances of recurring characters, as well as an uncharacteristically weak SCTV News, but Family Crisis is memorable for just how uncharacteristically dark it is, while Graft Cheese is a fun palate-cleanser.

MVP:

  • Andrea Martin

Rhodes version differences:

  • Removed: Tex and Edna Boil’s Organ Emporium

Blair version differences:

  • Removed: Family Crisis

  • Added: Sunrise Semester: Town Pride (from 2-10), Promo: Undercover Policewoman (from 2-15), SCTV Mail Bag with Bob Clark (from 2-17)

WIC version differences:

  • Removed: Family Crisis

  • Added: Wara! Wara! Wara! (from 1-2)

Additional screen captures from this episode are available here.