Netflix has been selected as the exclusive streaming partner of the upcoming SCTV reunion special. And Rick Moranis, one of the original cast members, is the last to officially sign on to return.
The yet-to-be-named special will debut in 2019, and will premiere in all territories through Netflix. It will, however, first air in Canada through Bell’s CTV linear network.
Martin Scorsese has signed on to direct, and original cast members returning include Moranis, as well as comedy icons Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Andrea Martin, Martin Short, and Dave Thomas.
SCTV, which stands for Second City Television, was a Canadian sketch comedy series that ran for six seasons from 1976 through to 1984, and was created as an offshoot of Toronto’s Second City troupe. The series, which also starred the late John Candy and Harold Ramis, was designed to look like a broadcast day in a fictitious and underfunded TV station/network in a made-up town called Melonville. Episodes featured everything from news broadcasts to sitcoms, talk shows, game shows, and even a mock soap opera. It was one of the first shows on television to actually skewer the nature of television itself.
After the series ended its run, ABC aired a The Best of SCTV special, and sketches were repackaged into 30-minute episodes that aired on a variety of networks in the following years.
Through its run, SCTV earned 15 Emmy nominations and two wins in 1982 and 1983.
Moranis was the last cast member to sign on to the reunion special; big news, given that the actor went on a lengthy hiatus from the spotlight more than 20 years ago to raise his children following the death of his wife. Since then, he’s only done voice-over work for some animated films, and released a few comedy albums. But beyond his time with SCTV, Moranis is best known for a string of hit films in the ‘80s and ‘90s, including Ghostbusters, Little Shop of Horrors, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and its sequels, Parenthood, and The Flintstones.
On Sunday, May 13, the cast will gather in front of a live audience at Toronto’s Elgin Theatre for an event called An Afternoon With SCTV, where late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel will moderate a panel discussion, as the actors recount their experiences in making the iconic series.
Randy Lennox, President of Bell Media, calls SCTV a “Canadian television classic that catapulted the careers of some of the biggest names known in comedy.
“Bell is honoured to partner with Netflix as the official Canadian broadcaster of the comedy special,” he adds, “and looks forward to Scorsese’s genius homage to a show that has such enduring legacy.”
The SCTV reunion special is produced by long-time SCTV Producer Andrew Alexander of Second City Entertainment, Emma Tillinger Koskoff of Sikelia Productions, and is in partnership with John Brunton and Lindsay Cox of Insight Productions.