Looking back at SCTV's Edmonton years, when the sketch show was taped in Alberta's capital
A new Netflix documentary revives Edmonton's role in the show that made John Candy, Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara famous.
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From July 1980 until Dec. 16, 1981, SCTV was taped in Edmonton, at the ITV studios now home to the Global building. Production returned to Toronto in 1982.
The show had been taped in Toronto from 1978 to 1979 before it was moved west; Dr. Charles Allard made the move. The studio sat below ground, and the sun set around two in the afternoon. "There was sort of a bunker mentality," Second City president Andrew Alexander says in the new Netflix documentary SCTV: The Great Show You've Never Heard Of. "The focus, 24-7, was on the show because there was nothing to do," Levy says.
Bob and Doug McKenzie were created during the Edmonton season, and a bronze of the Canuckleheads stands downtown in the Ice District. Candy and Levy's Shmenge Brothers came from a polka show the cast found on an Edmonton TV channel.
The documentary traces the show that launched John Candy, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Dave Thomas, Andrea Martin, Rick Moranis and Martin Short. Its offbeat satire was highly influential, according to praise from Tom Hanks, Bill Hader and Bob Odenkirk in the film.
Candy, as Johnny LaRue, stumbles across a deserted, frozen Stratheran street in a Christmas episode, and Metro Cinema, Fort Edmonton Park and Hawrelak Park appear in the background of other scenes.
