SCTV

[zoomboogity]

Two with Rick Moranis to get this one started:

The Gerry Todd Show with Michael McDonald



Mel Torme sings the station sign-off

[harvey k-tel]

Playthings for ghetto kids!

[sloopjohnc]

I loved SCTV. When I was in my 20s, my friend and I had a cassette with SCTV highlights on it and we'd watch it at least once a week.

I'll be back with some favorites.

[Snarfyguy]

The Sammy Maudlin Show with William B. Williams, Bobby Bittman and Lola Heatherton so perfectly skewered the variety shows of the 70s with their incessant, fatuous, oily, mutually complimentary, tearful pronouncements.

"Let me just tell you something, in all seriousness ladies and gentlemen, this man right here -- there is no finer *sob*, etc."

That stuff is just too funny!

[zoomboogity]

Younger brother Skip Bittman's attempt to follow in the family tradition didn't work out so hot, did it?

Remember how popular comic impersonators were in the '60s? I remember reading something where one of them (Rich Little, maybe?) said that the reason no one did Bob Hope impressions is because his mannerisms were too opaque to latch onto, or whatever. Then Dave Thomas comes along and does him perfectly! I saw him on some late-night talk show once, doing "Bob Hope Through The Decades" - first the younger, quicker '40s Hope, then the smarmy '60s version, then the doddering '80s version, all in ten seconds or less.

A couple other faves: Woody Allen (Rick Moranis) is trying to get Bob Hope to star in his new movie, so he's trying to hang on the golf course with him:

B: So... who were you talking about getting for leading lady?

W: Well, there's an actress I've used in several of my films, Diane Keaton, and I --

B: Diane Keaton? That stringbean? Why don't you try to get Anita Ekberg, at least she's got..." (holds his hands up in front of him to signify large breasts)

W: (imitating hand motion) You want someone who does this with her hands? You want an actress with arthritis?

Then there was SCTV Theatre with Death Of A Salesman, starring Ricardo Montalban (Eugene Levy) as Willie Loman,
Jean Stapleton (?) as the wife, and George Carlin (Moranis) and DeForest Kelley (Thomas) as the sons. Anyone can come up with absurd ideas, but they'd always go that extra mile to actually pull them off.

[Velvis]

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[Velvis]

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[Sneelock]

what gets me thinking back on it now is how absurdly talented that bunch of people were.
it's just nuts how much talent that group of people had!

[Velvis]

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[sloopjohnc]

Younger brother Skip Bittman's attempt to follow in the family tradition didn't work out so hot, did it?

Remember how popular comic impersonators were in the '60s? I remember reading something where one of them (Rich Little, maybe?) said that the reason no one did Bob Hope impressions is because his mannerisms were too opaque to latch onto, or whatever. Then Dave Thomas comes along and does him perfectly! I saw him on some late-night talk show once, doing "Bob Hope Through The Decades" - first the younger, quicker '40s Hope, then the smarmy '60s version, then the doddering '80s version, all in ten seconds or less.

A couple other faves: Woody Allen (Rick Moranis) is trying to get Bob Hope to star in his new movie, so he's trying to hang on the golf course with him:

B: So... who were you talking about getting for leading lady?

W: Well, there's an actress I've used in several of my films, Diane Keaton, and I --

B: Diane Keaton? That stringbean? Why don't you try to get Anita Ekberg, at least she's got..." (holds his hands up in front of him to signify large breasts)

W: (imitating hand motion) You want someone who does this with her hands? You want an actress with arthritis?

One of their classics.

[Velvis]

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[Snarfyguy]

Playthings for ghetto kids!

Yeah, those sendups of indie TV commercials were great - who can forget Tex and Edna Boil's Organ Emporium? But you really did have to be there, I think. I'm not aware of local, late night indie ads like that anymore, so the spoof probably doesn't make sense to younger viewers.

Also, the spoofs weren't really mean, but were kind of touching.

[Charlie O.]

One of my favorite TV shows ever. Like, top 5, easy.

I wish "Al Peck's Used Cars" was on YouTube in watchable quality - one of their funniest commercials, I think.

But we do have this:

[youtube]96I1GiHmNG4&feature=related[/youtube]

[zoomboogity]

And now, some beautiful vuudeo by Tom Munro, from his album On A New Wavelength:



"Ja.......... PUH-neeeeeez!"

[zoomboogity]

Tom Munro is SO dreamy!

[EDIT: This was the "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" clip, but it's been yanked from youtube.]

[Sneelock]

that Mel Torme bit in the first post just kills me.
my wife asks me to tell her why I think Monty Python is funny and it's hard. saying why I think SCTV is funny strikes me as being pretty easy.
these people were growing up and rotting their brains out on the same T.V. shows that I was rotting my brain out on. it's really as simple as that. If you haven't grown up with Mel Torme singing on variety shows or with station sign offs then I can see you staring blankly. I did see those things so it just kills me.

something else I'd like to drive home is how brilliant I think these people are. you look at that clip with Catherine O'Hara and she's in the moment like some damned method actor. Her and many others seemed to really get under their characters skin to a degree that I think is pretty unusual for sketch comedy.

[zoomboogity]

"...AND THE HOOOOOOME OF THEEEEE most beautiful girl in the world..." In the Torme clip, you can even hear him do a jazzy little key change on "...gave proof through the night..." ("...and when she's walking, our flag was still theeeeere...")

A friend of mine saw him perform at the Hollywood Bowl years ago, and at one point Mel gave a heartfelt speech to the effect of, "Ladies and gentlemen, I've been performing most of my life, I've performed in concert halls all over the world... but THIS... is the GREATEST. AUDIENCE. I have EVER performed for. IN. MY. ENTIRE. LIFE." 18,000 people break into applause, not one of them believes a word of it, and no one cares either, because tonight, fuck it, we ARE the greatest audience Mel Torme has ever seen!

One more from Gerry Todd: with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

[Charlie O.]

my wife asks me to tell her why I think Monty Python is funny and it's hard. saying why I think SCTV is funny strikes me as being pretty easy.
these people were growing up and rotting their brains out on the same T.V. shows that I was rotting my brain out on. it's really as simple as that. If you haven't grown up with Mel Torme singing on variety shows or with station sign offs then I can see you staring blankly. I did see those things so it just kills me.

Exactly. I don't know how well people outside of N. America, or people under the age of 35 can relate to this stuff. It is very much of its time and place. But it captures that time and place uncannily well.


On The Waterfront Again with funnyman Bobby Bittman and Lola Heatherton:

[sloopjohnc]

Thanks for the Tom Munroe clips, Zoom. I loved those.

I'm surprised no one's posted any Dr. Tongue's 3- D House of Stewardesses.

"Rip and tear, Bruno. Rip and tear."

[sloopjohnc]

And speaking of Dr. Tongue. Here's Count Floyd educating us on filmmaking techniques