When looking at Canada’s impact on pop culture, it is impossible to ignore Second City Television, more commonly referred to as SCTV.  The sketch comedy show, which premiered in 1976, was one of the first TV shows syndicated in the United States that was solely Canadian.  Because of this, and the fact that it was really, really good, the show was a huge inspiration to wanna-be comics everywhere, particularly Canadian ones, proving that relocation to the States was not necessary to have a successful, and funny, show.

While being technically a sketch comedy show, SCTV was more a parody of television in general, which the sketches not just being premises, but rather comprised mostly of ads for fake products and TV and movie parodies.  The cast of the show came from the stage of the renowned Second City comedy theater, which at the time had branches in Chicago and Toronto, and included soon-to-be comedy greats John Candy, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Catherine O’Hara, Rick Moranis, and Martin Short, as well as Harold Ramis, Joe Flaherty, and Dave Thomas.  SCTV first aired in the States after Saturday Night Live, meaning viewers would have to stay up until 2AM to watch it, and while it never got the following SNL did, it gained a large cult audience, and many of today’s comics site it as one of their main influences.

The SCTV sketch that was most popular in the United States was, ironically, a bit that was originally only shown on Canadian airwaves.  The Canadian Broadcast Company requested that two minutes of the show be dedicated to “Canadian content”.  Because there were fewer TV ads in Canada, there was only time for this patriotic content in Canada.  The result was The Great White North, a series of sketches that starred Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas, and parodied stereotypical Canadian life.  Bob and Doug McKenzie, the characters the sketches followed, became so popular that they were edited into the American episodes, where their popularity skyrocketed, resulting in a McKenzie Brothers album that topped the charts in Canada and reached #8 in the United States.  In 1981, Moranis and Thomas wrote, directed, and starred in Strange Brew, a full-length feature movie loosely based off of Hamlet that featured the brothers.

Despite its cult following, SCTV never garnered enough viewership to be truly successful.  The show switched time slots, nights, and even networks, was cancelled and brought back on the air twice, and eventually ended for good in 1984 after six seasons.  Fortunately, the show’s influence did not end with it, as it is still cited as one of the best sketch comedy shows of all time.