Later shows built a tight theme, sometimes acting as a metaparody — such as the Emmy-winning " Moral Majority " episode where advertisers and special interest groups forced significant changes to SCTV's programming ; " Zontar ", a parody of the Larry Buchanan film Zontar, The Thing from Venus which featured an alien race seeking to kidnap SCTV's on-air talent for " a nine-show cycle plus three best-ofs " ( which was the actual deal NBC worked out with SCTV that season ); and an ambitious parody of The Godfather featuring an all-out network war over pay television between SCTV, CBS, NBC, ABC, and PBS-the last featured mafia-style hits on the sets of The Today Show, Three's Company, and The NFL Today as well as an extended sequence with guest star John Marley as an off-beat Leonard Bernstein, spoofing his Godfather role of Hollywood mogul Jack Woltz.

SCTV parody shows included Natalie Wingneck, a Tarzan-style spoof in which Martin played a girl raised by geese after her family died in a plane crash.

Perhaps his best known role on SCTV was as the dimwitted Earl Camembert, a news anchor for the " SCTV News " and a parody of real-life Canadian newsman Earl Cameron.

In addition, he was impersonated on SCTV by Joe Flaherty as " Lowell Thompson " in a parody of his 1970s series Lowell Thomas Remembers.

Another parody of the tape appeared in a skit on the Canadian sketch comedy show SCTV, where Welles, played by John Candy, is hired by Liberace, played by Dave Thomas, for a Christmas storytelling.

He appeared on the television show SCTV in November 1981 in a parody of the Joan Crawford movie Humoresque called New York Rhapsody.

A highlight of weekday programming is the daily Call of the Land, a farm and agribusiness news program rumoured to be the basis of the SCTV parody, " Farm Film Blow-Up ".

The name " Circus Lupus " comes from an SCTV sketch about " Circus Lupus, the Circus of Wolves ," a mock TV commercial for an entirely wolf-filled traveling circus, with graphics of wolves on trapeze swings and other circus apparati.

SCTV writers responded by making the " crane shot " a ubiquitous symbol of production excess while also lampooning network executives who care nothing about artistic vision and everything for the bottom line.

Produced by Quincy Jones, the sketch comedy series was in the vein of Saturday Night Live and SCTV, and ran for 14 seasons.

In SCTV, this was the theme tune for Candy's recurring fictional character Johnny LaRue.

Among Candy's memorable characterizations for SCTV were unscrupulous street-beat TV personality Johnny LaRue, 3-D horror auteur Doctor Tongue, sycophantic and easily amused talk-show sidekick William B. Williams, and Melonville's corrupt Mayor Tommy Shanks.

The show was off the air for the 1979-80 season, but returned to production after producer Andrew Alexander and Allarcom-ITV Edmonton owner Charles Allard struck a deal to produce SCTV in ITV Studios in Edmonton, Alberta.

In 1981, SCTV was picked up as a 90-minute show by NBC as a mid-season replacement ( for The Midnight Special ).

Less than two months after Season 3 ended, SCTV was back on the air for Season 4, airing first as SCTV Network 90, then as SCTV Network, late Friday nights.

The last new SCTV episode for NBC was seen in March 1983.

Instead, for its final season, the show moved to pay-TV channels Superchannel in Canada and Cinemax in the United States, changing the name slightly to SCTV Channel.

Having a moderately low budget and limited resources, SCTV got a reputation for making the most out of what it had, reusing sets and particularly taking advantage of expert makeup and hairstyling.

The core premise of the show allowed for tremendous variety in presentation, but unlike Monty Python, which often would cut from one sketch to another without any resolution, the SCTV format required television style bridges.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 ( another program that also enjoyed a " cult " following like that of SCTV ) at times featured references to the show and its characters ; for example, during the film Space Mutiny, a character with an outrageous hairdo is said to resemble Martin Short's Ed Grimley and prompted numerous impersonations of said character.

Developed amongst The Second City improv comedy troupe, Grimley made his television debut on the sketch comedy show SCTV in 1982, leading to popular success for both Short and the persona.

Ramis was the original head writer of the television series SCTV ( in which he also performed ), and one of three screenwriters for the film National Lampoon's Animal House ( 1978 ).

He is best known for his comedy work, particularly on the TV programs SCTV and Saturday Night Live.

Short came to public notice when the troupe produced a show for television, Second City Television or SCTV, which ran for several years in Canada, then the United States.

At SCTV Short developed several characters before moving on to Saturday Night Live for the 1984 – 1985 season:

* 1983: Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program, SCTV Comedy Network ; award shared

The Canadian television comedy show SCTV featured a character named " Sue Bopper-Simpson ", a fictional daughter of the Big Bopper, played by Catherine O ' Hara.

Grimley became a SCTV fixture, appearing in the various shows, commercials, promos, and " behind-the-scenes " dramas that made up the fictional channel's programming.

Two years later, she joined then-unknowns John Candy, Dave Thomas, Eugene Levy, Catherine O ' Hara, Harold Ramis and Joe Flaherty on the Canadian sketch comedy television series, SCTV, which was set at fictional television station " Second City Television ", or SCTV, in Melonville.

The Shmenge Brothers were a fictional polka duo who, along with their band The Happy Wanderers, featured on the SCTV television comedy program in 1982-1983.

He once played a fictional “ evil ” twin to Conrad (“ Hank Bain ”) in an episode of SCTV.

In a typically surreal SCTV sketch, the play is presented by NASA and " Buzz Aldrin's Mercury III Players ," with space-suited astronauts as the actors, and proceedings narrated by Walter Cronkite as if they were a NASA moon mission.

The basic premise of the show is that " SCTV " is an independent television station in the city of Melonville.

There is much dispute as to who created the SCTV series.

Death Ray a character throws a watch out of a window, prompting Crow T. Robot to cry " SCTV is on the air!

The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley is a 1988 animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera starring Martin Short's Ed Grimley as well as other characters and actors from Second City's SCTV.

Despite the short run, the show is the only Saturday morning animated adaptation of both an SCTV character and a Saturday Night Live character.

On the 18 March 1983 episode of SCTV in the Mel's Rock Pile segment, Mel Slirrup ( Eugene Levy ) has a tribute to punk rock featuring a number by the band The Queenhaters — Martin Short ( lead singer ), Andrea Martin ( lead guitarist / back-up vocals ), Eugene Levy ( secondary guitarist ), Joe Flaherty ( bass ), and John Candy ( drummer )— performing " I Hate The Bloody Queen ", a sound-alike song that almost matches the original it is spoofing, with references to the Falklands War (" I'd like to drown the Queen / Off the coast of Argentine / Throw her off a battleship / With her Falkland war machine!

She is well known for her comedy work on SCTV, and her roles in the films After Hours, Beetlejuice, Home Alone, and The Nightmare Before Christmas, and also in the mockumentary films written and directed by Christopher Guest including Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, and For Your Consideration.

But it was her performances on SCTV that earned her fame in Canada, which is why she returned to the show, not only as an actress, but as a writer for both SCTV and SCTV Network 90, which earned her an Emmy Award for outstanding writing and two Emmy Award nominations.

In 2002, the entire cast of SCTV was given a group star, and although Levy is not mentioned on the actual star, he was still inducted as a part of the group.

Levy is an advocate for autism treatment, and was a close friend of fellow Canadian Second City / SCTV alumnus John Candy, who died of a heart attack in 1994.

Southern Cross Tasmania ( SCTV ) is an affiliate of the Seven Network and Tasmanian Digital Television is now the Ten affiliate.

Strange Brew ( also known as The Adventures of Bob & Doug McKenzie: Strange Brew ) is a 1983 Canadian comedy film starring the popular SCTV characters Bob and Doug McKenzie, potrayed by Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis, who also served as co-directors.

This includes an English language version for the UK, Iceland and Republic of Ireland, which is carried on BSkyB's own Sky Digital pay TV service and also on TalkTalk TV in the UK, Sky Digital, UPC, Magnet Networks, SCTV in the Republic of Ireland and Skjarin in Iceland.

He is best known for his work on the Canadian sketch comedy SCTV, from 1976 to 1984, and as Harold Weir on Freaks and Geeks.

The show starred Canadian comedian Dave Thomas, who is best known for an earlier sketch comedy series, SCTV.

( The same is true of SCTV character Floyd Robertson, played by Joe Flaherty, who otherwise has no connection with or resemblance to Canadian news anchor Lloyd Robertson.