SCTV Review: The Mating Game (3-21) / Gene Shalit's America (3-22)

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

“The Mating Game” (season 3, episode 21, originally aired Feb. 6, 1981)

PROMO: STARTING OUT WITH BILL NEEDLE

  • Bill Needle (Dave Thomas) offers career advice to young people starting out in the entertainment business.

  • This is the first time (aside from brief moments in the Hollywood Salutes Its Extras closing and New Years Eve sketches) where we see Bill Needle outside of Mailbag; this is a great use (and filling out) of the character, with him giving a harsh reality check to an actor (Tony Rosato) and a model (Robin Duke).

  • Robin Duke’s character says that she’s 26, Duke’s real age at the time.

  • The theme music is the same cue used for the “Speaking Of Talk with Lou Jaffe” sketch last season. There’s also a slight difference in the promo graphic text, which is a different font and not all in block letters; several other late-season sketches also have this alternate promo graphic style.

****

ESKIMO ARTS

  • Eskimo Art (Rick Moranis) and his warehouse full of artists pass the savings onto you.

  • Moranis does well, and this has some good jokes (particularly “open every day September until about the second week”).

  • The first piece of art is “Flock of Loons” by Norval Morriseau.

*** 1/2

MESSAGE FROM PRICKLEY: THE MATING GAME

  • Edith Prickley (Andrea Martin) promotes her new game show, premiering tonight.

  • Funnier than the usual Prickley promos, thanks to her suggesting that she takes home the other two bachelors for a ménage-a-trois.

  • Prickley’s wearing the white framed glasses she wore in the promo for Hollywood Salutes Its Extras in 3-14.

*** 1/2

TEASER: SCTV NEWS

  • A gigantic discovery at Mount Palomar Observatory and a Melonville man who almost spent the night in jail.

KANADIAN KORNER (#22)

  • Bob (Rick Moranis) shows Doug’s (Dave Thomas) new beer bottle; they discuss the lack of parking and poor service at donut shops.

  • A particularly strong installment, with some laughs from the beer in the baby bottle being sprayed, as well as Doug’s inability to comprehend that he has to go to the counter to order. Some fun building on each others’ statements as well.

  • No crawl this week.

****

PROMO: TAXI DRIVER

  • Sid Dithers (Eugene Levy) asks “was you talking to me?”

  • The last part of the season-long runner, dispensing with celebrity impressions in favour of one of the show’s recurring characters. The idea of the hard-of-hearing Sid Dithers doing the Travis Bickle role is solid, and Eugene Levy makes a meal of every pause.

****

SCTV NEWS

  • Floyd Robertson (Joe Flaherty) reports on an immortality drug while Earl Camembert (Eugene Levy) covers a parking fine. When Walter Cronkite (Dave Thomas) drops by, he takes over Earl’s spot but soon finds his chintzy local news items can’t compete with Floyd’s.

  • A nice format breaker, as well as a fun callback to the original “Big News/Little News” sketch from the first episode. Earl’s sucking up to Cronkite is hilarious, as well as how absurdly major Floyd’s items are, including possible proof of the existence of God.

  • Cronkite being so frustrated by Earl’s items that he resorts to making up a story about an exploding washing machine was also great, as well as Floyd telling him “You’re worse than Earl”.

  • Mayor Tommy Shanks gets a mention in one of Cronkite’s items.

**** 1/2

THE MATING GAME

  • Edith Prickley (Andrea Martin) hosts a game show where homely Louella Labango (Robin Duke) has to choose between bachelors Angus Crock (Dave Thomas), Marcello Sebastiano (Tony Rosato) and Rabbi Karlov (Rick Moranis)

  • A good use of Edith Prickley, boisterous as ever, as well as the season’s new recurring characters. Prickley carries this well, but it’s Angus Crock who gets the best lines here, as he makes no secret of how little he cares for the whole thing.

  • They reuse the “oregano, the ancient Italian art of pizza-folding” joke from the first Cooking With Marcello.

  • Rabbi Karlov is now the junior rabbi at Temple B’nai Hana.

  • Nice hideous makeup job on Robin Duke, whose character has a unibrow and bad teeth.

  • I love that Edith Prickley’s knitting is also leopard print.

  • Music: “Tandy” by Frank Chacksfield.

*** 1/2

Final thoughts: A strong episode, with Bill Needle’s best appearance so far, particularly good installments of Kanadian Korner and SCTV News, and a fun, if lengthy, game show parody.

MVP:

  • Dave Thomas

Rhodes version differences:

  • Removed: Kanadian Korner 22

Allarcom version differences (show #71C):

  • Removed: Eskimo Arts (moved to 3-20/70C), Taxi Driver promo (moved to 118C)

  • Added: Monster Chiller Horror Theatre promo (from 3-17)

Blair version differences (show #72A):

  • Removed: Eskimo Arts, Taxi Driver promo

  • Added: new promo for Maudlin’s Eleven (Robert Corness v/o)

Additional screen captures from this episode are available here.

“Gene Shalit’s America” (season 3, episode 22, originally aired Feb. 13, 1981)

SUNRISE SEMESTER: SOCIETAL BEHAVIOR

  • Norman Gorman (Joe Flaherty) tries to demonstrate how to behave properly in a long line.

  • Norman Gorman’s second Sunrise Semester is an improvement on the first, particularly due to his interactions with the “soccer player” (Peter Wugalter).

*** 1/2

AMERICAN EXPRESS

  • Henry Moore (Rick Moranis) uses the American Express card to get recognized.

  • A quick-hitter with a decent visual gag.

***

SCTV SPECIAL NEWS REPORT

  • Cassie Mackeral (Andrea Martin) is manipulated into a purchase during a visit to Chez Mona (Robin Duke).

  • Andrea Martin’s perky Cassie Mackeral character makes her first appearance since show 1-9 in a vehicle for Robin Duke’s Second City stage character Mona. Unfortunately, this sketch is pretty dull, and the staginess really feels out of place in SCTV’s 3rd season.

**

TEASER: SCTV NEWS

  • SCTV personality viciously mugged and an interview with a spokesman from W.A.S.A.S.L.

KANADIAN KORNER (#29)

  • Bob (Rick Moranis) and Doug (Dave Thomas), kicked out of the studio for tipping over a camera, do their show outside.

  • An interesting development for the characters, and the first of the final batch of sketches they taped that season. I laughed at Doug mentioning he swore at the station manager, and there’s a childlike quality to the two of them trying to position themselves higher than the other on the hill.

  • I wonder how warm it was outside when these segments where taped, especially since Moranis and Thomas had to wear the hats and coats.

  • You can see the microphone wires attached to Moranis and Thomas, especially when they start moving up the dirt hill.

*** 1/2

SCTV NEWS

  • Floyd Robertson (Joe Flaherty) reports on Bill Needle being assaulted. Earl Camembert (Eugene Levy) presents his interview with Debra “Spike” Milligan, spokesperson for Women Against Stereotyping Alternative Sexual Lifestyles (W.A.S.A.S.L.), who repeatedly beats him at arm wrestling. Floyd and a kid then challenge Earl.

  • The Bill Needle mugging serves as a good button for the character’s arc over the season.

  • Earl’s interview with Spike is a little slow-moving, but Duke does some good character work, and the culmination of the sketch with Earl being defeated by a young boy was funny.

***

COMMENT WITH DAVID BRINKLEY

  • David Brinkley (Rick Moranis) laments the lack of quality dope.

  • Another quality Comment sketch, this time depicting Brinkley as a pothead who compares the current supply to smoking cork, and wondering why there isn’t more research into the munchies.

****

GENE SHALIT’S AMERICA

  • Gene Shalit (Eugene Levy) reports on conspicuous overconsumption at Le Grand Cochon.

  • The debut of Levy’s Shalit impression. This may be broad, but it’s also laugh-out-loud funny, particularly the scenes with Orson Welles (Dave Thomas); Thomas’ impression isn’t as good as Candy’s but I always enjoy him bellowing for blue cheese dressing on his wheelbarrow of salad.

  • Nice to see Robin Duke’s Shelley Winters impression one more time.

  • I also appreciate how Shalit changes his tune over the course of the report, going from decrying the blatant example of wealth inequality to praising the restaurant as a symbol of abundance.

  • The ending with the four celebrities jumping on the giant cake and causing the restaurant to fall off the cliff was good.

****

DIALING FOR DOLLARS

  • Edith Prickley (Andrea Martin) and Rabbi Karlov (Rick Moranis) invite Walter Cronkite (Dave Thomas) out for a late-night snack because nobody’s watching.

  • An amusing sketch to end on, with Rabbi Karlov inadvertently getting a winner when he calls to make a reservation.

  • This is also notable for Walter telling Edith about how the late nights are wearing on him, which would pay off further in the next show.

***

Final thoughts: Not a bad episode, though it does at times feel like this was a collection of sketches they weren’t able to fit elsewhere. Aside from the subpar Cassie Mackeral sketch, there were some interesting turns with existing characters, as well as the very good Comment and Gene Shalit sketches.

MVP:

  • Dave Thomas

Rhodes version differences:

  • Removed: Kanadian Korner 29

Allarcom version differences (show #72C):

  • Removed: American Express (moved to 3-8/58C)

Blair version differences:

  • episode not included in package; American Express moved to 74A/134C, Gene Shalit’s America moved to 16A/86C.

Additional screen captures from this episode are available here.