The Kids in the Hall (TV series)

The Kids in the Hall is a Canadian sketch comedy television series that aired for five seasons from 1988 to 1995, and a sixth revival season in 2022, starring the comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall. The troupe, consisting of comedians Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney, Bruce McCulloch, and Scott Thompson, appeared as almost all the characters throughout the series, both male and female, and wrote most of the sketches.
The series debuted as a one-hour pilot special which aired on HBO and CBC Television in 1988 and began airing as a regular weekly series on both services in 1989. The regular series premiered July 21, 1989, on HBO, and September 14 on CBC. In the United States, the first three seasons were on HBO before it moved to CBS in 1993, where it stayed for two more seasons airing late Friday nights. CBC aired the show for the whole duration of its run. A sixth, revival season of the show, which includes eight episodes, was released on Amazon Prime Video on May 13, 2022. It features the entire troupe as well as numerous guest stars, and was Amazon's first Canadian original series.
The theme song for the show is the instrumental "Having an Average Weekend" by the Canadian band Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet.
Despite their SNL connection, the show's sketches were more reminiscent of Monty Python's Flying Circus: often quirky or surreal, frequently utilizing drag, with very few celebrity impressions or pop culture parodies; the only recurring celebrity impression was of Queen Elizabeth II, played by Scott Thompson. A recurring character was Mr. Tyzik, played by McKinney, who pretended to crush people's heads from a distance with his fingers. McKinney also played Chicken Lady, a shrill-voiced sexually excitable human-chicken hybrid. Another prominent recurring character was Cabbage Head, played by McCulloch, who was a gruff-voiced cigar-smoking misogynist who frequently used the fact that he had cabbage in place of hair as a means to generate pity in the hopes of getting women into bed. Many of the sketches featured gay characters and themes; most of these sketches were written by and starred Thompson, who is gay himself.
The Kids frequently appeared as themselves rather than as characters, and some sketches dealt directly with the fact that they were a comedy troupe producing a TV show. For example, Kevin McDonald announces that if the next sketch (which he has written) is not successful, the others are considering kicking him out of the group. In another episode, Thompson declares that he is not gay anymore, which throws the other Kids into a panic, as they fear that the news will alienate the troupe's considerable gay fanbase. In yet another sketch (in which an employee, Foley, asks his boss, McDonald, for a raise) McDonald complains the setup is cliché and his character one-dimensional.
Monologues were a staple of the show. Thompson's Buddy Cole monologues are the best known, but the other Kids performed solo pieces as well. McCulloch in particular performed monologues that consisted of him, acting as himself, telling hyperbolic stories of the struggles and day-to-day experiences in his life and/or the lives of others. Prominent examples from the other Kids include Foley describing his positive attitude toward menstruation, McKinney in character as a high-pitched recluse who is describing with intense fascination his hideously infected and bruised toe, and in a gag reminiscent of Bob Newhart, a distraught McDonald calling a best friend's young son to tell him his father died, only to have the child end up consoling him, even going so far as quoting famous philosophers on the ultimate emptiness of life.
The show originated in Canada, and the content was at times edited slightly for U.S. broadcast tastes. Sketches mocking religion were sometimes cut down or removed, necessitating the addition of material from other episodes to round out the half-hour. Some US channels censored the occasional nudity as well, such as when Foley revealed to Thompson he had inexplicably grown breasts. Among the more controversial sketches was the final sketch of Season 1, "Dr. Seuss Bible", in which the troupe tells the story of Jesus Christ's crucifixion in the style of children's author Dr. Seuss.
Though the show occasionally featured guest actors (notably Neve Campbell and Nicole de Boer well before they became famous), the Kids played nearly all parts, both male and female, themselves. The only known special guests to have appeared on the show were comedian Rip Taylor and musician Chris Robinson in cameo roles. In contrast to Monty Python, where the members often donned drag to portray older women but usually utilized women such as Carol Cleveland and Connie Booth to play young and attractive female characters, all the Kids regularly played both old and young women; the frequent cross-dressing became one of the show's trademarks. Female impersonation had begun during their stage show, because they found themselves writing female characters but had no female member to play them. As Thompson explained, "The way we played women ... we weren't winking at the audience ... We were never, like, going, 'Oh, look at me! I'm a guy in a dress!' Never. We would always try to be real, and that, I think, freaked people out..."
The CBC aired the show through its entire run. Seasons 1–3 aired on HBO. In the fall of 1992, CBS picked up the show and aired it on late-night Fridays showing repeats, while HBO aired new episodes of season three. In 1993, CBS aired new episodes starting with season four. The final season aired on Fridays after Late Show with David Letterman. The series finale aired in November 1994. In January 1995, it was replaced with The Late Late Show.
In addition to the troupe's core members, other writers for the series included Diane Flacks, Norm Hiscock, Andy Jones, Garry Campbell, Paul Bellini and Brian Hartt.
Between 1988 and 1995 there were 102 episodes of The Kids in the Hall produced, plus 9 compilation episodes. Some episodes had two versions, an American version and a Canadian version, often with alternate sketches. In 1996, the group followed the series with a feature film, Brain Candy, and in 2010 they reunited to produce an eight episode narrative miniseries, Death Comes to Town.
A&E Home Video released the entire series as a Region 1 20-disc DVD box set titled The Kids in the Hall: Complete Series Megaset 1989–1994, on October 31, 2006. The HBO special pilot was released on DVD on August 14, 2007, through Medialink Entertainment, a VDI Entertainment Company, in a special "Headcrushing" edition. It had never been released on home video before. Medium Rare Entertainment released a Region 2 "best of" DVD on September 24, 2007. Rights to The Kids in the Hall are owned by Broadway Video. A tour-exclusive DVD, produced in cooperation with Crackle and released as a part of the "Live As We'll Ever Be!" tour (2008), features the 50-minute retrospective and Q&A held on January 26, 2008.
On February 13, 2018, Mill Creek Entertainment released The Kids in the Hall- The Complete Collection. The 12-disc set features all 102 episodes of the series, the reunion miniseries Death Comes to Town as well as bonus features.
The final episode of the original run featured resolutions for several recurring characters, including Armada, Buddy Cole, and the secretaries of AT & Love. As the closing credits play, the cast is shown being buried alive, below a headstone reading The Kids in the Hall TV Show 1989–1995 (though the pilot aired in 1988). At the episode's conclusion, guest character Paul Bellini, one of the show's writers, dances on their grave and speaks for the first time: "Thank God that's finally over!"
The series won the 1993 Rose d'Or, awarded in Montreux, Switzerland. It was nominated for the Gemini Award for Best Comedy Series every year from 1991 to 1995, winning twice in 1992 and 1993. The series was nominated in 1993, 1994 and 1995 for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series.
A number of comedy writers and performers have listed The Kids in the Hall among their influences, including Dan Guterman and the creators of the TV series South Park and Portlandia.
Martin Musgrave, a reviewer for the Chicago Sun-Times, said "The Kids in the Hall" is one of the most influential and underrated comedy programs of all time"
The Chicago-based sketch comedy trio Hey You Millionaires (2004-2011) was named after the first sketch aired on the show, in which a man (McCulloch) looks out the window to see three millionaires (Foley, McDonald and Thompson) rummaging through his garbage cans out his window (a spoof on Toronto's raccoon problem), and shouts "Hey, you millionaires! Get out of that garbage!", causing the three to run away.
In a 2000 interview, Thompson stated that the series, and the troupe, had influenced many comedians, but lamented that this had not translated into material success for the troupe, saying "We thought we were going to be Nirvana, but really, we were Sonic Youth."
A documentary film chronicling the history of the troupe, The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks, was released in 2022.
On March 5, 2020, Amazon Prime Video announced that it had greenlit an eight-episode season of The Kids in the Hall, with all five members returning along with Lorne Michaels as executive producer. It is the first Canadian series for Amazon Prime Video. It premiered on May 13, 2022. Kelly Makin and Aleysa Young serve as directors.
In addition to the core members of the troupe, the revival includes guest appearances by Paul Bellini, Pete Davidson, Catherine O'Hara, Kenan Thompson, Brandon Ash-Mohammed, Will Forte, Catherine Reitman, Samantha Bee, Fred Armisen, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Jay Baruchel, Eddie Izzard, Tracee Ellis Ross, Mark Hamill, Colin Mochrie, Kenneth Welsh and comedy group TallBoyz II Men.