Marvo301
08-22-2009, 11:42 PM
I recently read the book SCTV, Behind the Scenes by Dave Thomas. With all the politics and the money troubles that were going on behind the scenes it's amazing that this show was able to produce such a tremendous catalog of hilarious comedy. The majority of the comedy was derived from parodies of TV and celebrity impersonations but sometimes the inspiration came from a far different place. For example the version of the show that ran on the CBC in Canada had a running time 2 minutes longer than the syndicated version that ran in the U.S..The bigwigs at the CBC insisted that the 2 minutes be filled with uniquely Canadian content. In fustration Dave Thomas said "we should put on tuques and flannel shirts and drink beer and fry back bacon." And that's how the McKenzie brothers came into existence. Of course this show was already uniquely Canadian since most of the cast were Canadian. The cast had incredible creative freedom being able to write, produce, and star in their own material. Many cast members went on to success on the big screen, on SNL, and on other TV shows but they never again experienced the creative freedom that they had on SCTV. Sadly it was only in retrospect that they realized how good they had had it in their SCTV heyday.