SCTV - Disc 1 - One on the Town & Polynesiantown
While it never reached the ratings heights or pop culture cachet ofSaturday Night Live,SCTVdid garner critical buzz and a devoted cult following. As with the Python boys, the ensemble members, and the characters they created to populate the fictional Melonville TV network, are revered in hipper comedy circles. In this respect,SCTVis Letterman toSNL's Leno. This single disc consists of two episodes from theessential five-disc setof the series'Network 90incarnation, which brightened NBC's Friday late-night lineup in 1981. Included are such series benchmarks as "The Great White North" segments, featuring Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas as the stereotypically Canadian, parka-wearing, beer-swilling McKenzie brothers; "Play It Again, Bob," starring Moranis as Woody Allen and Thomas as Bob Hope; the ill-fated made-for-SCTV "Polynesiantown" starring John Candy's Johnny LaRue; "The Sammy Maudlin Show," starring Joe Flahrety as the most sincerely insincere talk show host, with O'Hara as Lola "I want to bear your children" Heatherton; and "Indira," with Andrea Martin in her signatureEvitaspoof.--Donald Liebenson