Line #12 YMMV/SCTV


1	* CrossesTheLineTwice: Johnny [=LaRue=] suddenly waking up and blurting out "You couldn't tell she was 11, I swear!" during ''Mr. Science with Johnny [=LaRue=]''.
2	* HarsherInHindsight: One sketch of "The Johnny [=LaRue=] Show" has Johnny doing "exercise" by opening and closing the fridge and jogging in place while sitting down, and at one point, he has a mild heart attack. This sketch is far less funny considering Creator/JohnCandy's real life fatal heart attack in 1994.
3	* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments:
4	** A mild one, but Bob and Doug exchanging Christmas presents with each other in "Christmas Staff Party". And later in the same episode, [[spoiler:Johnny [=LaRue=] receiving a crane shot from Santa Claus]]. In the same episode, the entire cast sings " White Christmas" together.
5	** In the next Christmas episode, the characters are genuinely worried about Johnny [=LaRue=], since he's gone missing.
6	** Anytime Floyd Robertson demonstrates anything that isn't utter contempt for Earl Camembert. In one news sketch, Earl suffers a coughing fit on the air and Floyd repeatedly tries to get him to drink some water while seeming concerned. It's not a big gesture, but it is an affectionate one, and it's really sweet considering how much these two usually bicker.
7	*** In a meta sense, a filmed live stage show in the 1990s featured Levy and Flaherty redoing the first ever news sketch, complete with rabid reindeer and "He's living with a girl he's not even married to!" bit. The crowd goes ''wild'' upon hearing the names Floyd Robertson and Earl Camembert, and after the sketch ends, the camera cuts to Levy and Flaherty making their way backstage excitedly talking about how they slayed it and congratulating each other. Consider that the two of them have been HeterosexualLifePartners since ''SCTV'' and it gets even cuter!
8	** Another meta example- the cast generally has nothing but nice things to say about each other (many of them worked on each others' shows after SCTV) and the crew, especially costume designer Juul Haalmeyer, makeup artist Bev Schechtman, and hair stylist Judy Cooper-Sealy (all of whom also worked on shows with them after SCTV).
9	** While the 1982 Emmy acceptance fiasco is mostly hilarious, the very end of Joe Flaherty's acceptance speech is the cutest thing ever.
10	-->'''Joe Flaherty''', thanking people for the award: ... And my daughter, Gudrun. Hello, Gudrun!
11	* HilariousInHindsight:
12	** In their TV-themed parody of ''Film/TheGodfather'' they mercilessly satirize cable TV via the cheesy Ugazzo Home Vision network. After ''SCTV'' was canceled by NBC it ended up moving to Cinemax and the Canadian pay-TV network Super Channel for its final season.
13	** Another point with Ugazzo Home Vision is that it's portrayed as having third-rate programming that no American could possibly be interested in. But the demo reel includes clips of a UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}} movie and a soccer match. Both of those have gained followings in America in recent years, making Ugazzo look like he might have actually been ahead of the curve.
14	** [=CCCP1=] broadcasts a game show called ''Uposcrabblenyk'', apparently based of the [[TabletopGame/{{Scrabble}} board game]]. That episode was one of the ones broadcast on NBC- which, three years later, would debut an ''actual'' ''Scrabble'' [[Series/{{Scrabble}} game show]].
15	** One segment of ''Great White North'' had the brothers talking about ''Franchise/StarWars'', and Bob lamented that he wouldn't be able to buy all his tickets for upcoming films at once. He specifically wonders aloud if "Star Wars 30" will cost $6 a ticket. While the price of tickets has long since gone past that price mark, he wasn't so far off with his prediction of the total number of films, considering that Creator/{{Disney}} made it clear that they are intent on releasing ''Star Wars'' films and spinoffs annually for the foreseeable future.
16	** Given the trouble that "Alex Trebel" had with Margaret Meehan during the "High Q" sketches, it was funny when an actual woman named Margaret Meehan appeared on ''{{Series/Jeopardy}}'' in 2004 (unlike her fictional namesake she was good enough to win two days in a row).
17	** The sketch tweaking ''Series/TheMidnightSpecial'' in season 3 (''The Film/MidnightExpress Special''), since the next season Creator/{{NBC}} canceled ''The Midnight Special'' and replaced it with ''SCTV''.
18	** A meta example. The first couple of seasons were produced at the original Creator/GlobalTelevisionNetwork in Toronto (when it was limited to Ontario as a pan-regional superstation). After that, they moved to Edmonton, using the facilities of CITV (also a superstation, via satellite distribution). CITV wound up becoming a Global station in 2000 after Global;s parent [=CanWest=] purchased CITV's owner WIC (though CITV had nominally been an independent station, they'd been purchasing programming from Global since the late 80s). This also gave Global's then-sister company Fireworks Entertainment distribution rights, as WIC owned the rights thanks to buying CITV's parent Allarcom, who had struck the deal with the producers that moved the show to Edmonton to begin with.
19	* HoYay: Pick any Levy/Flaherty character duo. Sammy Maudlin and Bobby Bittman are probably the most easily read as a couple.
20	** Bobby plants a kiss directly on Sammy's lips in ''their very first appearance together'' not three minutes after kissing him on the cheek and giving him a big hug as a greeting. Sammy doesn't look like he's objecting in the slightest.
21	** The news team, on a regular basis. Earl's clueless attempts to get Floyd's attention and amuse him that just end up annoying him are very reminiscent of a little kid with a crush, and then there's the times Floyd [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther displays actual affection or at least concern for Earl]]...
22	* MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales: Canadians know that Bob and Doug are caricatures of themselves, but that's a point of national pride after a fashion in that Canadians are well known to enjoy poking fun at themselves (the fact it was written and portrayed by Canadians certainly helps).
23	* MisaimedFandom: What made Bob and Doug popular.
24	* {{Narm}}: Although intentional for this trope, the Zontar episode has alien ''cabbages'' invade the SCTV station.
25	* NightmareFuel: The "Doorway To Hell" story with Wilcox and his dummy.
26	** Wilcox's breakdown at the shrink's office is rather spine-chilling... or funny. Or both. You decide.
27	--->'''Wilcox:''' ''(voice raises in pitch by the second)'' That music... that music, stop the music, shrink, stop that music now, or I'LL CRUSH YOUR NECK WITH THESE POWERFUL WOODEN HANDS!
28	** The "Shock Theatre" segment where a father (Joe Flaherty) tries to tell his son a really scary story. The first one is about a girl (Catherine O Hara) who doesn't wash her face and gets too many pimples as a result. Sounds silly...until the ending. The girl's mother doesn't even recognize her, and out of fear, ''hacks her daughter to pieces with a meat cleaver.'' Ironically enough, this doesn't scare the kid. And then there's the ending where the son ''actually dies'' from being too frightened after his father tells another scary story.
29	* {{Padding}}: With the show's timeslot tripling from 30 to 90 minutes with the ChannelHop to Creator/{{NBC}}, they had to find lots of ways to pad things out. The addition of musical guests and the debut of longer sketches were one way to deal with this, but the show also resorted to rerunning old sketches and using some underdeveloped material simply because it filled out the show. This does make it feel more like a real TV station.
30	** Even the half hour shows suffered from this occasionally, with repeats of previously-aired sketches (usually fake commercials) becoming more and more noticeable towards the end of each season.
31	** Particularly egregious in later seasons was the liberal use of "promos" that advertised upcoming SCTV programming. Basically, clips would be shown from an upcoming sketch, with a reminder to 'stay tuned' for that piece of SCTV programming either later in the episode or 'coming soon'. The clips from the sketch were rarely funny out of context, and the promos obviously only existed to lengthen an episode's running time. Probably the worst case was in the final season, when (amongst many other promos), SCTV aired two promos for sketches that were ''never even seen on the show'': a ''Dialing For Dollars'' segment hosted by Earl Camembert, and a new kids show hosted by Sammy Maudlin. The full-length sketches themselves were obviously deemed not good enough to make the cut, but somehow the pointless unfunny-by-themselves ''promos'' for the sketches were still needed fill out the episode's running time.
32	** Joe Flaherty in particular was put in front of a camera to improvise some one-man sketches that -- while funny -- certainly were also used to cheaply pad out the running time. Count Floyd's classic "Blood Sucking Monkeys From West Mifflin, Pennsylvania" monologue was the result of one of these sessions (specifically from a marathon one-man improv session he did in season 3 to make up for having briefly quit the show for a few weeks). You can also see Flaherty hilariously padding things out in Guy Caballero's "1984" wrap up. (The U.S. syndicated version cuts it short, though.)
33	* TearJerker: Clay Collins' storyline in "[[SoapWithinAShow The Days of the Week]]" is surprisingly serious to the point of bringing a tear to your eye. The short version is that Clay has a terminal disease and wants to marry Sue Ellen within two weeks, only to learn that he has until Saturday to live.
34	** The very last SCTV News segment ever aired kind of qualifies. Earl's last day on the news coincides with the last day of a sound engineer for Count Floyd's show. Guess who Floyd decided to say goodbye to. (Bonus points for Earl's epic TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to Floyd being met with Floyd essentially telling Earl to go to hell and leaving for the remainder of the sound guy's party. Earl delivers one last defeated "And that's the news," removes his mic, and storms off set. That's the last we see of the news team.)
35	*** Arguably even worse when you realize that for all of the hell Floyd put him through, Earl still sat valiantly by Floyd's side for eight years. Earl and Floyd are introduced in the very first episode, and almost every episode since featured an appearance from one or both of them, and the last we see of them is them arguing and Floyd reminding Earl that yes, he still hates him, and Earl with his feelings clearly hurt. Again. Poor Earl.
36	** The entire "The Great White North Palace" wraparound. Long story short: [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Guy Caballero]] takes advantage of [[EnsembleDarkhorse Bob and Doug]]'s popularity. It backfires on him, the [=McKenzies=], and SCTV. [[spoiler: Bob and Doug lose their jobs at the end.]] [[note]]only for a short while. They get their show back, though in the next episode their show is cut back from two minutes to one minute, and then there are occasional episodes that don't include them at all, when they had been appearing once an episode since the previous season, before they are gone for good due to their actors leaving the show.[[/note]]
37	** The last full episode of ''The Sammy Maudlin Show'', wherein Sammy attempts to remake himself to be better in touch with the 1980s. He brings in four annoying gimmicky comedians, called the Zanies (including one who was meant to be a parody of Howie Mandel, played by Martin Short), attempts a dancing intro that requires dexterity and athleticism that leaves him needing to take oxygen hits for a while, and the show ends with Sammy's set literally crashing down around his ears as he gives a speech about how he never wants to see another Maudlin Zany again in his life and should never have tried to makeover his show. Arguably made worse by the lack of William B. Williams (who was fired) and Bobby Bittman (though probably only because Eugene Levy, who played Bittman, was appearing as Henry Kissinger), who were omnipresent on the Maudlin Show for years.
38	* TheWoobie: Lola Heatherton, particularly in the "Bouncin' Back To You" episode.
39	** There comes a point in the show in which ''every character'' becomes a woobie.
40	** JerkassWoobie: Johnny [=LaRue=] might be bossy and egotistical, but there were a handful of moments where it's hard not to feel sorry for him.
41	** Points to Moe Green, who may be a "sleazy weasel" but is still picked on mercilessly and is eventually kidnapped by Leutonians and [[PutOnABus never seen again]]. Ditto Earl Camembert, who isn't as sleazy as Moe but ''is'' in probably one of the most abusive professional relationships ever and [[StupidGood has his heart in the right place despite possessing an extraordinarily thick skull]].
42	* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Between the hairstyles (Eugene Levy's afro and Joe Flaherty's season one wings and swoopy bangs being particularly obvious examples), the fashion (Earl Camembert's suits and glasses), the cultural references (an entire episode-long wraparound plot spoofing the Cold War), and the ValuesDissonance (Lin Ye Tang, anyone?), this show could have only been made in the 1970s and early 80s. Eugene Levy and Joe Flaherty even reference this on a DVD commentary, while watching a sketch where Dave Thomas plays another, entirely different, offensive Asian caricature.
43	-->'''Joe Flaherty''': You think we could get away with this today?
44	--> '''Eugene Levy''': (completely deadpan) I doubt it, Joe.
45	* ValuesResonance: While it's for entirely selfish reasons, Johnny [=LaRue=] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66hLNY-D13A wanting to secure "the gay vote"]] in his city council campaign comes off as quite progressive and forward-thinking for the time.

Context YMMV / SCTV