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| Dvdivas
was founded by John Gabbard in 2000. It's purpose has been and
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“SCTV-Volume
4”
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Reviewed
by: |
Wayne A. Klein |
| Genre: |
Comedy |
| Video: |
1.85:1 Anamorphic
Widescreen |
| Audio: |
Dolby Digital
5.1 |
| Languages |
English |
| Subtitles |
English |
| Length |
780 minutes
|
| Rating |
NR |
| Release Date |
9/13/05 |
| Studio |
Shout! Factory
|
| Commentary:
|
Joe Flaherty
and Martin Short |
| Documentaries:
|
None |
| Featurettes:
|
"Producers of SCTV"
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| Filmography/Biography:
|
None |
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Interviews: |
Martin Short
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| Trailers/TV
Spots: |
None |
| Alternate/Deleted
Scenes: |
None |
| Music
Video: |
None |
| Other:
|
Three bonus
episodes including “Hinderland Who’s Who”, “Going Down the Road”,
home movies of the cast & crew |
| Cast
and Crew: |
John Candy, Martin Short, Joe Flaherty,
Andrea Martin, Eugene Levy, Robin Williams, John Cougar (Mellencamp),
Joe Walsh, Crystal Gayle, Catherine O’Hara
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| Written
By: |
John Candy,
Eugene Levy, Martin Short, Joe Flaherty, Andrea Martin, Dick
Blasucci |
| Produced
By: |
Bernard Sahlins
|
| Directed
By: |
John Blanchard,
Jim Drake |
| Music:
|
Russ Little
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| The
Review: |
About the same time that “Saturday
Night Live” was breaking through to a new audience of stoned
youth on TV, Canada’s “SCTV” did much the same for folks above
the U.S. border. When the show as introduced on NBC in the
late 70’s it provided the perfect companion piece to “SNL”
and proved to be every bit its equal with the talent of John
Candy, Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy, Martin Short, Harold
Ramis, Brian Doyle-Murray (as a writer), Andrea Martin, Rick
Moranis, Dave Thomas and Joe Flaherty. The fourth volume features
Martin Short who also appears on volume 3and the departure
of O’Hara, Moranis and Dave Thomas (althoug O’Hara shows up
for the “Christmas” episode). ---
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| Image
and Sound: |
These episodes were produced during
the early 80’s and were videotaped (although there were filmed
segments that were transferred to video as well). The episodes
look pretty good overall given the age and limitations of
analog videotape at the time. There’s some video noise that
mars the picture on occasion but overall a fine transfer of
a vintage show from Shout! Factory Home Video. The sound is
in mono and there’s not a lot that can be done to improve
it beyond how it’s presented here.Nothing like seeing John
“Cougar” Mellencamp lip synching to an early tune. ---
|
| The
Extras: |
Shout! Factory includes three extra
episodes on the fourth set for a total of 12 episodes at the
same price as the previous sets 9 episodes. Since each episode
runs about 90 minutes that’s an additional 240 minutes vs.
the previous set (OK, I’m counting the commercial time as
well. For those who are literal it would actually be something
along the lines of 210 minutes). We also get home movies shot
on the set of the show featuring the cast and crew clowning
around. We also get an interview with Martin Short discussing
his experience on the show as well as a featurette on the
producers of SCTV. ---
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| Commentary:
|
Joe Flaherty
and Martin Short return via the commentary track providing interesting
and amusing bits of trivia about the various episodes on this
set. They’re particularly good at busting each other’s chops
during the commentary on “The Sammy Maudlin Show”. --- |
| Final
Words: |
Although not quite as generous with
the extras this time, we get bonus episodes and an excerpt
from home movies shot on the set (which showed up as an Easter
egg on the last set). It seems that “SCTV” is finally getting
its due on home video. Yes, “The Kids in the Hall” are funny
but these Canadian TV pioneers took absurd TV to the next
level picking up where (the very different but equally funny)
Pythons left off. “SCTV” provides a perfect companion piece
to those vintage “SNL” bits. My only complaint is that there
should be more extras!
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