Edmonton TV station Global turned 50 this month. That news may not mean much to anyone outside of Global Edmonton’s reach – and considering the sad state of local TV, it might not mean that much in Edmonton either – but without Global Edmonton the classic sketch comedy series SCTV wouldn’t exist.
CITV, later shortened to the cooler-sounding ITV, debuted in Edmonton on Sept. 1, 1974. As an 18-year-old Edmontonian, I was thrilled. More of that sweet, sweet American TV tripe! But there was also locally produced TV, and a lot of it. Edmonton jazz great Tommy Banks hosted a nightly Tommy Banks Show, and ITV also produced a series of highly successful In Concert specials, featuring the likes of Aretha Franklin, Tony Bennett, Tom Jones, Henry Mancini and many more. Slightly less ambitious was a high school quiz show called Hi-Q (basically Reach for the Top), and a disco-themed dance show called, I swear, Disco Daze.
I suspect that none of the above programs can be found (I would pay good money to see Disco Daze), but one program that came out of CITV became a true TV classic.
After two seasons, SCTV and its legendary cast (Dave Thomas, Eugene Levy, John Candy, Andrea Martin, Joe Flaherty, Catherine O’Hara, Harold Ramis) found themselves homeless. Due to the show’s rising production costs, Global Toronto opted to drop the show, with the final episode of new material airing in February 1979. But executive producer Andrew Alexander didn’t give up.
“SCTV would have gone in the dumpster if Andrew hadn’t found someone else to share the tab,” writes Dave Thomas in his book, SCTV Behind the Scenes. That man was Dr. Charles Allard, the millionaire surgeon and owner of CITV Edmonton. Allard became a half-owner of the show, but there was a catch – they had to move the show to distant, cold Edmonton. But it was worth it.
“That season in Edmonton saved us,” Thomas quotes Joe Flaherty. “We would never have gone on network; we never would have done those hour-and-a-half shows which got so good…”
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Moving from The Centre of the Universe, as Toronto sees itself, to Edmonton must have been like moving to Neptune. Or Pluto, whichever is colder. But it worked. The crew, with nothing better to do, bonded and did nothing but work.
Thomas writes that they all loved Edmonton, but “in many ways, Edmonton was like the North Pole. There was nothing to do in Edmonton except work.
“In the winter, it got dark at three o’clock in the afternoon,” he wrote. As a lifelong Edmontonian, I can tell you that is incorrect. Four o’clock, maybe, but not three. He writes that Edmonton has a “lackluster feel” and had “only a couple of tall buildings”. Again, an exaggeration. Edmonton had a half-million people at the time, and plenty of tall buildings. Or tall-ish, anyway.
Another bonus of being in Edmonton, he claims, was that when the show was on NBC, nobody from the network came to interfere because it was too cold. OK, that I can believe.
Despite the absence of John Candy in that first season (who was doing a different show in the U.S.) and the only occasional appearances of Levy and O’Hara, the show was a hit, in no small part to the addition of the great Rick Moranis. As an Edmontonian, I was excited to see my city on syndicated TV. It was even more exciting when, in season 4, the show became a 90-minute series on NBC. Hey, that’s MY town on American TV!
I loved spotting streets and buildings I knew on SCTV. In the classic sketch Play it Again, Bob, that’s Rick Moranis (as Woody Allen) and Dave Thomas (as Bob Hope) walking next to the main branch of the Edmonton Public Library downtown. In another classic bit, CCCP-1 Russian Television, I knew exactly where to find the classic Ukrainian church seen in the Russian series Hey, Giorgy! (For the record, it’s St. Josaphat’s Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral on 97th Street and 108 Avenue,) Both Tom Monroe: On a New Wavelength, and Divine on Ice were taped at Hawrelak Park. The Neil Simon parody Nutcracker Suite used the elegant Hotel Macdonald as a stand in for New York. The hilarious Pepi Longsocks was taped at Fort Edmonton Park, one of Canada’s largest historical parks. Edmonton’s contribution wasn’t just from locations. The beloved characters Stan and Yosh Schmege were inspired by a polka music show Candy saw on Edmonton community TV, featuring famous Edmonton accordionist Gaby Haas.
And had it not been for Dr. Allard’s deep pockets, there would have been no Bob and Doug Mackenzie, who made their debut in Edmonton. Their contribution is so significant that there is a statue of Bob and Doug in downtown Edmonton.
After two seasons in Edmonton, the show returned to Toronto. It was still great, and I still loved it. But like a dumped boyfriend, it hurt just a little.
