The Kids in the Hall
The Kids in the Hall are a Canadian sketch comedy troupe formed in 1984, consisting of comedians Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson. Their eponymous television show ran from 1989 to 1995 on CBC in Canada, and CBS, HBO, and Comedy Central in the United States. The Kids made one film, "Brain Candy", which was released in 1996. They reformed for various tours and comedy festivals in 2000. They later reunited for an eight-part miniseries, "", in January 2010. An eight-episode revival season will broadcast starting in May 2022  on Amazon Prime. Their name came from 1950s TV comedian Sid Caesar, who, if a joke did not go over, or played worse than expected, would attribute it to "the kids in the hall", referring to a group of young writers hanging around the studio. Early history. Bruce McCulloch and Mark McKinney were working together doing Theatresports in Calgary, performing in a group named "The Audience". Norm Hiscock, Garry Campbell, and Frank Van Keeken were co-members and later became writers on the show. At the same time, Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald were performing around Toronto (along with Luciano  Casimiri) as The Kids in the Hall (KitH). In 1984, the two pairs met in Toronto, and began performing regularly as KitH, with a rotating band of members, including Paul Bellini for a short time. When Scott Thompson was invited to join in January 1985, the group had its final form. The same year, McCulloch and Foley appeared in the "Anne of Green Gables" series, as Diana Barry's husband and a former classmate of Anne's from the fictional Queen's College, respectively. Not long afterwards, the Kids broke up for a short time when scouts for "Saturday Night  Live" invited McKinney and McCulloch to New York to become writers for that show, Foley made a poorly received movie debut with "High Stakes" and Thompson and McDonald worked with the Second City touring group. They were reunited in 1986. After "SNL"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Lorne Michaels saw them perform as a troupe, plans began for a TV show. In 1987 Michaels sent them to New York to what was essentially a "Comedy Boot Camp", and in 1988 their pilot special aired on CBC Television and in the United States on HBO before debuting as a series in 1989. Television show . The series "The Kids in the Hall" 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. It was announced in March 2020 that the series would  return with an eight-episode season on Amazon Prime. The series will feature all five members, bringing back some of the show's classic characters and skits, and will again be executive produced by Lorne Michaels. The revived series is billed as "the first Canadian Amazon Original series". The revival is set to broadcast on May 13, 2022. Section::::"Brain Candy". After the show ended its run, the troupe came together to produce a movie, "Brain Candy", featuring a few characters from the show and many new ones. Although not a commercial success, the movie developed a cult following with their  devoted fans. Tours. 2000 North American Tour. In 2000, the troupe reformed for a successful North American tour, reprising many sketches from the show. The sketch line-up for the 2000 show was: At some shows: The tour was chronicled in a documentary, "Kids in the Hall: Same Guys, New Dresses", which followed the next year. This was then followed by the "Tour of Duty" and a DVD based on those performances, released in 2002. Section::::"Just for Laughs" ("Juste Pour Rire") Comedy Festival. In July 2007, the Kids reunited to perform at the 25th Annual "Just for Laughs" ("Juste Pour  Rire") Comedy Festival in Montreal. The Just For Laughs show premiered around 90 minutes of new material. While certain characters made reappearances (Buddy Cole, Mr. Tyzik and McKinney and McCulloch's "smooth-talking" salesmen) the rest of the show revolved around entirely new material. Typically good-humored, the group poked numerous jokes at their own recent weight gain and the state of their post-Kids acting careers. Among the sketches: The group also performed on January 26–27, 2008 at the SF Sketchfest. On January 26 there was a retrospective and Q&A with the group. 2008 North American Tour. On April  4, 2008, The Kids in the Hall embarked on their first major national tour in six years. The tour ran through early June 2008 and included more than 30 cities in the US and Canada. The tour features some material from the 2007 "Just for Laughs" performance along with new material. The 2008 tour closely mirrored the "Just for Laughs" performance, excluding the rat catchers, subway fan and Nicole Ritchie sketches. In their stead, Mark McKinney performed the monologue titled "The Modern Hero" from Season 1 of the show, and the entire cast performed the sketch "This Is How I  Danced in Tenth Grade." Other appearances. The cast members have reunited, in whole or in part, in numerous film and television works. Kevin McDonald guest starred alongside Dave Foley in a 1997 episode of Foley's sitcom "NewsRadio." Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald performed with The Barenaked Ladies on their "Ships and Dip V" cruise, along with other bands and comics, on February 1–6, 2009. Each member of the Kids in the Hall provided voices in "Fibber", the 14th episode of "", in which Kevin McDonald plays the regular role of Pleakley. In 2006, three of the members (Kevin McDonald, Bruce  McCulloch, Mark McKinney) appeared in the Christmas comedy "Unaccompanied Minors" as The Guards in the Hall. The group appeared on the front cover of "Naked Eye"s summer 2008 edition. The Kids performed at the 2008 Comedy Festival in Las Vegas on November 22. On August 6, 2010, all five Kids made an appearance on "The Soup" on E!, to promote their miniseries "Death Comes to Town". Four of the members appeared on-screen in drag as girls who had grown up as beauty pageant contestants (parodying "Toddlers & Tiaras"); Mark McKinney's voice was heard off-screen as their mother. Foley  was a voice actor on the 2011–2013 animated series "Dan Vs.", which aired on The Hub. McDonald was a guest voice actor in one episode, "Dan Vs. Technology", in which he played technology guru Barry Ditmer, a parody of Steve Jobs. In 2014, the cast reunited on Foley's sitcom "Spun Out", appearing as Dave's high school goth friends who had made a suicide pact. That year Thompson also did a weeklong stint as Buddy Cole (a producer Colbert doesn't know is gay) on "The Colbert Report", acting as the program's correspondent to the 2014 Winter Olympics  who covered LGBT rights protests surrounding the 2014 Winter Olympics. In the same year, the troupe performed a live reading of the screenplay for "Brain Candy" at the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival. In December 2014, McDonald, McKinney, and Thompson appeared in an episode of the TVO's children's television series "Odd Squad". The episode was entitled "Crime at Shapely Manor." McDonald as Lord Rectangle, McKinney as General Pentagon, and Thompson as Professor Square. Kevin McDonald, Dave Foley and Scott Thompson appeared on season 4 episode 139 of the Chris Hardwick game show "@midnight" which aired August 2, 2017. Section::::"Death  Comes to Town". In July 2008 Telefilm Canada announced that there would be a new The Kids in the Hall television series titled "". The Kids' Kevin McDonald stated that it would be an eight-part miniseries airing first on CBC in Canada and then on US television. Principal photography took place from August 2009, in Ontario. Several characters from the original The Kids in the Hall series made an appearance, including the OPP Officers and Chicken Lady. The first episode of the new series aired in Canada on CBC Television on January 13, 2010, while in the United States the  first episode aired on IFC on August 20, 2010. Awards and honours. The group's 1988–1995 TV series won a number of awards, including the 1993 Rose d'Or and the Gemini Award for Best Comedy Series in 1992 and 1993. It was nominated for various other awards, including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series in 1993, 1994 and 1995. In 2008, the group received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame. The group won the Canadian Screen Awards Icon Award in 2019.