SCTV Review: Mel's Rock Pile - MacArthur Park (3-23) / Dick Cavett (3-24)

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

“Mel’s Rock Pile - MacArthur Park” (season 3, episode 23, originally aired Feb. 20, 1981)

SUNRISE SEMESTER: GREEK TRAVEL

  • Alki Stereopolis (Joe Flaherty) teaches the most important Greek phrase that travelers can use.

  • While this largely is the same jokes used before (“Hey bebeh, what’s a heppening”), it is nice to see Alki again.

***

MESSAGE FROM PRICKLEY: MEL’S ROCK PILE

  • Edith Prickley (Andrea Martin) takes a break from massaging a depressed Walter Cronkite (Dave Thomas) to promote the return of Mel’s Rock Pile.

  • More fun than the usual Prickley promo, thanks to the presence of Walter Cronkite, in what seems like an appropriate follow-up to last week’s closing sketch; he laments the abuse he takes on Dialing For Dollars and gets fresh with Edith while she’s talking.

  • Edith mentions spotting Mel Slurrup selling pretzels at College and Yonge, a busy intersection in Toronto.

*** 1/2

PROMO: JACKIE STEWART’S WIDE WORLD OF HIGH VOICES

  • Jackie Stewart (Dave Thomas) previews the international high voice championship, with guests The Bee Gees, Queen Elizabeth II, and Neil Young (Rick Moranis).

  • A very silly promo, highlighted by Moranis playing a spaced-out Neil Young, who sings an hilarious alternate version of “Needle and The Damage Done”.

  • The 1999 WIC package butchers this sketch; the Bee Gees clip and most of Moranis singing was cut, jumping from Stewart announcing his very special guest from Canada to “Neil! Your guitar’s out of tune!”

*** 1/2

EXERCISE IS EASY

  • Lucky Ibsen (Robin Duke) demonstrates exercises meant to increase the size of your head so your body looks proportionate.

  • An underrated one-off character from Duke; I got a good laugh from her pronunciation of “PRO-portion” and her bicycle pump and plunger being “medically approved”.

  • The announcer at the end gives SCTV’s address as 5325 104 Street, Edmonton.

*** 1/2

KANADIAN KORNER (#30)

  • Bob (Rick Moranis) and Doug (Dave Thomas) admit that they stole a car (but lost the keys), and appeal for a new studio to take their show.

  • Continuing the plotline that began in the previous episode, this has all of the elements that make the sketches work (particularly Thomas taking what Moranis says and building on it), plus the added inspiration from things happening around them, including them needing to screen the mics with their jackets and the bus going by.

*** 1/2

MEL’S ROCK PILE: PART I

  • Rockin’ Mel Slirrup (Eugene Levy) presents the Rock Pile dance finals, and Richard Harris (Dave Thomas) performs a new version of “Macarthur Park”.

  • Even better than the season’s first Rock Pile sketch, mostly thanks to the classic sequence of Thomas as Richard Harris (which is always welcome) singing two lines of his song before an extended dance break.

  • The dance finals were also pretty funny, particularly Jerome “Smith” (Rick Moranis), who looks suspiciously like Mel, and his routine with his partner (Robin Duke), which follows an actually impressive routine from two other dancers, played by actor Ken Dresen and a woman IDed only as “Candace”.

  • The bit with Rosato as a 32-year-old who’s in high school to meet girls was a little ick, although he does sell the part well, and Levy’s reaction is funny.

**** 1/2

MEL’S ROCK PILE: PART II

  • Richard Harris eventually finishes “Macarthur Park”, then gets hit with a brick.

  • The sketch comes back from commercial with Richard Harris still dancing, but now sweating and asking for a towel.

  • I love the sight gag of the backup singer (Sara Giacomelli, wife of associate producer Marc Giacomelli) sitting on the stage reading as Harris gyrates; great payoff with her rushing to the microphone for her part after Harris signals to her.

  • Levy gets some good stuff in there, including talking over Harris singing, as well as his nonchalant “Hey, who threw that brick?"

  • Moranis, Duke and Rosato have some funny moments during the closing credits, including Moranis doing the Rockin’ Mel dance move.

*****

Final thoughts: The first half of the show is overshadowed by the greatness of the Mel’s Rock Pile sketch, but there are some interesting lesser-known sketches there. As for Mel’s Rock Pile, this edition is an all-timer, and the best installment over the series.

MVP:

  • Dave Thomas

Rhodes version differences:

  • Removed: Kanadian Korner 30

Allarcom version differences (show #73C):

  • Removed: Jackie Stewart’s Wide World of High Voices (moved to 3-14/64C)

  • Added: Nasex Nasal Deodorant (from 3-20)

Blair version differences (show #77A*):

  • Removed: Exercise Is Easy, Kanadian Korner 30

  • Added: SCTV News (from 3-9), new promo for The Sammy Maudlin Show: Bob Hope (Robert Corness v/o)

*the Blair episode synopsis sheet lists this as show 77A, but the promos for the following episode in the package indicate that this show was intended to run as 17A.

Additional screen captures from this episode are available here.

“Dick Cavett” (season 3, episode 24, originally aired Feb. 27, 1981)

COOKING WITH MARCELLO

  • A hung-over Marcello (Tony Rosato) tries to cook chicken cacciatore, but can’t bring himself to cut the bird’s head off.

  • A little too similar to the lobster cacciatore sketch that ran in episode 3-9, including an uncooperative main ingredient and a forced slapstick portion; I did find I liked this one a little better because there were better individual moments, including Marcello’s condition, and him trying to asphyxiate the chicken with plastic.

  • The opening with him waking up screaming “I couldn’t tell she was 14!” was another iffy bit to begin with, but also was just a repeat of a gag used with John Candy’s Johnny LaRue character.

** 1/2

KANADIAN KORNER (#32)

  • Bob (Rick Moranis) and Doug (Dave Thomas) pretend to be each other while hiding from the police; “Bob” gives tips on where the cops usually hide.

  • The boys’ poor attempt at going incognito was funny, as well as Doug dropping the act toward the end.

  • Thomas seems to be out of character when he says “I can’t get across this” at the end.

***

PROMO: FISH ‘N CHIPS

  • Abe Vigoda and Erik Estrada team up for a new show.

  • Not worth rating, but amusing enough.

LOGOS GALORE

  • Let Logos Galore design your business’ branding.

  • Another really short bit, but a lot’s packed into it, particularly Moranis’ whole look and pronunciation of “loh-goh”. The closing with the company’s own logo was a great punchline.

*** 1/2

MONSTER CHILLER HORROR THEATRE: INTRO

  • Count Floyd (Joe Flaherty) doesn’t have the name of tonight’s movie, but assures the viewers it’s scary.

  • This is pretty much just a set-up to a payoff that will happen after the commercial break, but Flaherty does still make it work.

***

THE DICK CAVETT SHOW

  • Dick Cavett (Rick Moranis) explores the idea of the total filmmaker by interviewing Bobby Bittman (Eugene Levy) about his new movie Funny Stuff.

  • Funny opening gag with the show’s underwriter being “a chubb from The Grant Corporation”.

  • A very solid use of both Bobby Bittman and Moranis’ Cavett impression, which quickly establishes that this is going to have a completely different dynamic than what we usually get with Bobby’s appearances, with a lot more tension between the comedian and the unflappable talk show host. It also builds nicely on what Levy has been doing with his character over the last three seasons.

  • I love how ridiculous the movie plot is, as well as how both Andrea Martin and Levy look at the camera when she delivers the titular line.

  • Good ending with Cavett not bothering to sugarcoat his opinion of the outtakes and Bittman walking off.

**** 1/2

MONSTER CHILLER HORROR THEATRE: EXTRO

  • Count Floyd (Joe Flaherty) tries to convince the viewers that Dick Cavett is scary.

  • I actually admire this more for its execution than the actual content of the sketch (which needs the previous two segments to work), even though it is always funny seeing Count Floyd trying to ad-lib some post-hype.

  • The first shot of Flaherty with the cigarette in his mouth reminds me of a precursor to the Krusty The Clown “What the hell was that?” response to Worker and Parasite.

  • I wonder what the background was behind this whole sequence with the Flaherty segments bookending the Cavett sketch; was Cavett completed long before, and they decided to have Flaherty improvise these bits (possibly during the post-Italy trip session) to add him to a show he doesn’t otherwise appear on?

  • The Norma and Wally voice-over gag over the closing doesn’t really add anything.

***

Final thoughts: Like in the previous show, the first half is overshadowed by a particularly strong second half. Unlike last week, though, the material in the first half is considerably weaker than the featured sketch of the night; not awful, but it feels more like they were just looking for a place to stick some shorter sketches or fill out the run time of a late-season show. As well, Robin Duke is notably absent from this show. The Dick Cavett sketch is great, though, and stands up without the extra Monster Chiller Horror Theatre material.

MVP:

  • Eugene Levy

Rhodes version differences:

  • Removed: Kanadian Korner 32

Allarcom version differences (show #74C):

  • Removed: Logos Galore (moved to 3-18/68C)

  • Added: The Love Boat promo (from 3-25)

Blair version differences (show #62A):

  • Removed: Kanadian Korner 32

  • Edited: Monster Chiller Horror Theatre extro

  • Added: new promo for Hollywood Salutes Its Extras (Robert Corness v/o)

Additional screen captures from this episode are available here.