The recent rollout of 134 SCTV episodes on Netflix is many things: historic, hilarious, eye-opening. But one thing it is not is complete.
A considerable chunk of material created by the brilliant cast of writer-actors during the Canadian sketch series’ 1976-84 run is absent from the streaming service, which made the episodes available to U.S. viewers in September, following a Canadian launch on Amazon Prime Video in March.
Some scenes were snipped because music rights couldn’t be secured. But others fell victim to changing sensibilities, giving the streaming-era SCTV something of a “woke” edit. A common thread through much of the deleted footage is the depiction of other races and cultures by members of the show’s all-white cast.
The alterations for streaming were handled by Second City, the Chicago-based comedy institution that created the show and still owns it. A Second City spokeswoman said many of the edits were made at the suggestion of some of the original SCTV writer-performers. The main players in that cast included some of the era’s greatest comic minds: Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Rick Moranis, and Dave Thomas, as well as the late Harold Ramis, John Candy, Joe Flaherty, and Catherine O’Hara.
A look back at the sketches—most of which can still be found on YouTube—is also a reminder of how much the boundaries of acceptable comedy have shifted since the 1970s. Material that once aired on broadcast television, often with its targets and satirical intentions clear, can read very differently half a century later. Whether removing it amounts to responsible curation or needless sanitizing is likely to depend on the viewer.
Here are five SCTV creations excised from the Netflix episodes, apparently on cultural grounds:
Black Like Vic
Like many SCTV parodies, “Black Like Vic” mashed up two disparate pieces of pop culture: the 1961 nonfiction book (and later movie) Black Like Me and the noirish ’50s TV series Richard Diamond, Private Detective. Flaherty played the white, sax-tooting gumshoe, hired to probe a murder while disguised as a Black butler in the Deep South. “Go out and get me six cans of Kiwi shoe polish,” he commands his secretary.
Flaherty spends most of the parody in blackface, at times assuming an Amos ’n’ Andy-style voice. The bit presents his attempt at race-switching as idiotic, the act of a buffoon. But that was also true of white characters who donned blackface on Scrubs, 30 Rock, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and those episodes were also pulled from streaming.
Lin Ye Tang
On the fictional channel at the center of SCTV, Thomas’ Chinese character was one of the regulars, alongside figures like station president Guy Caballero (Flaherty) and needy TV personality Johnny LaRue (Candy).
Lin was so omnipresent as a host and occasional actor that excising him completely from the streaming episodes proved impossible, and he still turns up uttering a few lines here or lingering at the edge of a group shot there. But his presence is greatly diminished.
When he wrote his show memoir SCTV: Behind the Scenes in 1996, Thomas was already acknowledging that “I couldn’t do that kind of sketch” in the “politically correct climate” of the day. “But back then, especially in Canada with its British roots,” he asserted, “there existed a comic tradition established by Peter Sellers and other comedians of playing other nationalities, so it was okay.”
Gypsy Mythology
Using a term now widely considered a slur against Romani people, a humanities professor (Levy) offers a fanciful story of how their skin tone evolved. The theme continues throughout the episode, as stereotypical Romani characters brawl with people from the fictional country of Leutonia, and Martin plays a Romani woman offering advice on how to steal food from the Amish.
The scenes were part of a very early SCTV episode called “Ethnic Humor,” which begins with Ramis advising viewers that the station disapproves of the “deprecating racial and ethnic jokes” to come, as Candy and Thomas snicker behind him. The entire episode is absent from Netflix’s lineup.
‘We’re Gonna Be Alright, You Creep, Leaving Home and All, Eh?’
The centerpiece of the missing “Ethnic Humor” show is this lengthy scene, which the SCTV players had performed in their earlier lives as Second City Toronto stage actors. It’s a sendup of the “kitchen-sink” plays about dysfunctional families that were common in the ’70s.
What made it unfit for streaming? Flaherty’s hot-tempered Irish dad? Levy’s swishy gay son? The introduction by Lin Ye Tang, in his SCTV debut? Or perhaps the conclusion, in which the family’s home is invaded … by the “gypsies.”
Tim Ishimuni
Dave Thomas’ other Asian character came from Japan, a bucktoothed caricature not dissimilar to Mickey Rooney’s much-reviled Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Streaming viewers don’t see Ishimuni’s turns as a talk show host interviewing a Godzilla-like beast or as a correspondent showing off superior technology to Moranis’ video whiz Gerry Todd.
While these characters and bits didn’t make the cut, there’s still plenty of ethnic humor to be found in the streaming episodes. Fans can still see Levy’s heavy Yiddish accent as cross-eyed old-timer Sid Dithers, Martin in brownface as a singing Indira Gandhi, and Thomas’ Scottish brogue as the kilt-wearing Angus Crock.
And then there are the two most famous SCTV characters, Bob (Moranis) and Doug McKenzie (Thomas). Living, breathing Canadian stereotypes who wear parkas and toques, swill Molson, and cook back bacon, they were created as an improvised f-you to CBC execs demanding “Canadian content.”
On SCTV, the boys evolved from their shambling talk show to superstardom, to a failed variety special, and then back down to their humble beginnings—and Netflix is showing it all.
Because when the two goofy Canadian guys are being played by two goofy Canadian guys, who can complain, eh?
Get stories like this in your inbox: Sign up for LateNighter’s free daily newsletter.
