SCTV: Behind the Scenes [Paperback]

If you're like me you only watch "Saturday Night Live" if you're bored our of your gourd or some of your friends are in the featured band. I hate to say it, but the show is simply not funny anymore. And even during the frenetic heyday of SNL, there was a similar show based in Chicago, self-consciously called "Second City TV" that many media afficianados feel was vastly superior to SNL (and in fact, many SNL cast and production staff came to Gotham by way of SCTV, only to be eaten alive).

This is a fun book about an important period of American televisied humor and the people that made it worth watching. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

SCTV was created by self-admitted "children of television", steeped in North American pop culture. Its original cast members, some of whom were alumni of McMaster University, did some of their purest work at the beginning of their careers. Never as anchored in current affairs as Saturday Night Live or as slyly witty and visually innovative as Monty Python's Flying Circus, SCTV parodied the very medium it used in impressions (Thomas as Bob Hope, Martin as Liza Minnelli, Short as Brock Linehan, O'Hara as Kate Hepburn, Candy as Johnny LaRue, etc.) and in multi-layered sketches that combined two different premises (Anton Chekhov melded with Star Wars, or Fantasy Island fused with Casablanca and the Hope-Crosby pictures).

SCTV: Behind the Scenes, by Dave Thomas (with Robert Crane and Susan Carney), shows how this sort of success was not achieved in an instant. Problems with the first director, the first producer, changes of locale from Toronto to Edmonton to Los Angeles, and chauvinism among cast and crew made for some trying times. Thomas's book is a collage of reminiscences (with cross-cutting commentaries by various participants), but its demotic, oral style stamps it as a book for all those diehard fans who don't like to read except in snippets. Thomas has collected two hundred photographs (many in grainy colour), along with trivia quizzes, and a listing of every skit ever performed in the history of SCTV. Because of reticence on certain matters-such as cast members' embattled egos-the book has very limited value as a documentary report. Its one incontestable value-apart from its appeal as grist to the trivia mill-is the implicit story of how artistry can be diluted by commercial success, as when the intellectually stunted McKenzie Brothers became a media phenomenon, much to the chagrin of some cast members and the embarrassment of Dave Thomas himself. Keith Garebian(Books in Canada) -- Books in Canada --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The ultimate book for the millions of fans of SCTV, the most innovative and consistently funny late-night comedy program on television, SCTV: Behind the Scenes features interviews with virtually every member of The Second City troupe--including John Candy, John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd, Dave Thomas, and Rick Moranis. 120 photos, 60 in color.