SCTV Review: Dining With LaRue (2-23) / The Flaming Turkey (2-24)

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RATINGS SYSTEM:
***** - Classic
**** - Great
*** - Good/Average
** - Meh
* - Awful

“Dining With LaRue” (season 2, episode 23, originally aired Feb. 17, 1979)

PROMO: TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN

  • Contestants try to win big prizes by stealing rubies from a pagan idol.

  • The only memorable things about this promo are Dave Thomas’s overexcitement, the poorly dubbed in “boola boola” from the “natives” and the scream John Candy lets out at the end.

**

RAISED BY GEESE

  • Nursery school teacher Natalie Ringneck (Andrea Martin) adjusts to life in human society.

  • A contender for “worst SCTV sketch ever”. Not only is the whole thing with Natalie “honking” annoying (and too much of a reminder of Jim Breuer’s Goat Boy character from SNL), the whole part with Natalie suddenly growing a beak before saving the children from the wild dogs is just…dumb.

  • The trivia game in Dave Thomas’s SCTV: Behind The Scenes lists this as the first sketch to have a location shoot, but there were several sketches in late season 1 that had elements filmed on location.

*

RONCO NO-SWEAT SAUNA AIR CONDITIONER (repeat from 2-18)

BIG GIANT RESTAURANT

  • The restaurant with giant servings at reasonable prices.

  • This feels like a sketch that would be more appropriate for a children’s show.

*

RELAXING WITH RAOUL

  • Raoul Wilson (Eugene Levy) leads a visualization exercise.

  • A return for probably the most depraved SCTV character ever. Eugene Levy seems to have turned up Raoul’s repulsiveness considerably; fortunately, this makes the sketch even funnier.

****

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF ANTIQUE AND RESTRICTED AUTOMATIC WEAPONS

  • Col. Bob Burns (Dave Thomas) promotes the conservation of endangered guns.

  • There’s a little bit of a satirical bite to this (the whole positioning of guns as part of the ecosystem, and I liked the line about tracking guns from legitimate owners to criminals to the police and back to criminals again), though it’s a bit too drawn out and repetitive.

  • The “Box 1978” address makes me wonder if this was taped earlier in the season but held back until now, as Women Say The Darndest Things and Graft Cheese both had “Box 1979” addresses.

**

BILLER HI-LITE (repeat from 2-13)

DINING WITH LARUE

  • Johnny LaRue (John Candy) deals with snooty staff while reviewing French restaurant Chez Chic.

  • The first Dining With LaRue since the first season, and the last installment of this sketch overall. Despite being a little drawn out (this sketch is about 9 minutes long) and not terribly original in its premise, there are still enough bits scattered throughout that work (the waiter bringing LaRue a bottle of Thunderbird, LaRue bothering a pair of women, the bit with the salad).

***

Final thoughts: A very mixed episode, weighed down by two of the weakest sketches the show has ever done, Raised By Geese and Big Giant Restaurant. The two repeat sketches (which were actually cut from the original US versions of the other shows) also make me wonder whether they had a shortage of material. Relaxing With Raoul is a bright spot, though, and Dining With LaRue isn’t bad, but there’s definitely a sense that they’re just trying to get through the last shows of the season.

MVP:

Rhodes version differences:

  • Removed: Big Giant Restaurant (moved to 2-25)

Blair version differences:

  • Removed: Ronco No-Sweat Sauna Air Conditioner repeat, Big Giant Restaurant, Biller Hi-Lite repeat

  • Added: Tap’s Friendly No-Name Supermarket (from 2-21), new syndication promo for The Flaming Turkey (Robert Corness v/o)

Additional screen captures from this episode are available here.

“The Flaming Turkey” (season 2, episode 24, originally aired Feb. 24, 1979)

THE TWO GOOFS GROCERY STORE

  • The Two Goofs (John Candy and Dave Thomas) are so goofy, they’re giving away food.

  • There’s really not a whole lot to this, but Candy and Thomas are natural choices to play the goofs.

** 1/2

PSA: MENTAL ILLNESS

  • Actor Don Strom (Eugene Levy) tells you the warning signs that you’re going completely schnutz.

  • A great performance from Eugene Levy, who has a knack for playing characters who aren’t quite right in the head. The blonde wig and dark eyebrows work particularly well here.

****

INSIGHTS WITH HUGH BETCHA

  • Hugh Betcha (Joe Flaherty) presents another docudrama about Socrates (Dave Thomas) and the idea of good and evil.

  • I got a few chuckles out of Socrates discussing evil being present from birth and discernable by looks, but this is otherwise a very pale retread of last year’s sketch with Harold Ramis, only with an element of “throwing things at the wall”.

**

PROMO: MEET THE PAWNBROKER

  • Johnny LaRue’s (John Candy) newest game show has contestants try to get home safely after pawning their valuables.

  • Another sadistic Johnny LaRue game show, though nowhere as dark as “Family Crisis” was.

  • Andrea Martin’s physical bit as the assistant always makes me laugh.

*** 1/2

SCTV NEWS

  • Floyd Robertson (Joe Flaherty) reports on earthquakes in Togo and a car collision with a theatre, while Earl Camembert (Eugene Levy) has dinner on the air.

  • A nice rebound from the Consumer Action Line installment; Floyd’s items were funny, but of course Earl’s antics (and Floyd’s reaction) are the draw here.

  • I love Earl comparing his disinterest in African politics to his disinterest in cold peas, the following exchange where Floyd expresses the desire to figure out how Earl’s brain works, as well as his outburst after Floyd finally grabs the tray and drops it beside the news desk (“You have no table manners whatsoever!”)

*** 1/2

POLARDAK ESP-1 CAMERA

  • The camera that anticipates when and where a good picture will happen.

  • An OK idea, but the execution has too much of a “late season 2” feel to it, and the prop camera just looks ridiculous.

  • I wonder if that’s the same Polaroid that the make-up department used to take pictures of their finished jobs.

** 1/2

FIRING SQUAD

  • William F. Buckley (Joe Flaherty) discusses the value of learning Latin to outsmart guests like Meat Loaf (John Candy).

  • Flaherty’s William F. Buckley impression makes a welcome return; while the sketch plays a little too dry, the writing is pretty funny, especially when Buckley says he wouldn’t have been able to destroy Meat Loaf’s argument if he had taken shop.

***

SCTV BIG CULTURAL EVENT: THE FLAMING TURKEY

  • A ballet about a prince (Eugene Levy), his sidekick (Joe Flaherty), a peasant girl (Catherine O’Hara), her turkey (Andrea Martin), and the evil rent collector (Dave Thomas).

  • SCTV looks to the past for inspiration with a sketch similar to one performed for the Toronto cast’s 1975 Alterations While You Wait revue.

  • Candy’s introduction is pretty funny, particularly the titles of the different dances (I also liked “music by various”), but this is mostly an opportunity for the rest of the cast to engage in some purely physical comedy; Andrea Martin and Catherine O’Hara in particular get some particularly choice bits.

  • I’m not too crazy about the cartoonish sound effects, though.

*** 1/2

Final thoughts: Not bad for the last original show of the season, and what would have been the final new episode had Andrew Alexander not be able to find a new financial backer. There are still a few sub-par moments, but there’s enough material that keeps this one watchable throughout, and nothing as embarrassing as in the previous show.

MVP:

  • Andrea Martin.

Rhodes version differences:

  • Removed: Polardak ESP-1

Blair version differences:

  • Removed: Polardak ESP-1 (moved to 2-18)

  • Edited: PSA: Mental Illness (new intro bumper and Robert Corness v/o)

Additional screen captures from this episode are available here.

The 26 episode order ends with two “Best Of” episodes that weren’t included in the 1984 syndication packages; the Global run’s Best Of episodes are entirely comprised of reruns, while the Rhodes package had one episode comprised mostly of sketches not included in their versions of previous episodes, as well as another episode that combines sketches from the two Global Best Ofs. The summaries are below, but I don’t have copies of any of these compilations:

“Best Of, Part 1” (season 2, episode 25, originally aired Mar. 3, 1979)

PROMO: LOLA HEATHERTON IN CONCERT (from 2-1)

DONNA (fron 2-3)

PROMO: U.F.O. SHARKEY (from 2-13)

WHAT’S MY SHOESIZE (from 2-11)

PHIL’S NAILS (from 2-16)

BOB HOPE DESERT CLASSIC (from 2-2)

“Best of, Part 2” (season 2, episode 26, originally aired Mar. 10, 1979)

SPEAKING OF TALK WITH LOU JAFFE (from 2-7)

LONG DISTANCE (from 2-14)

FAMILY CRISIS (from 2-22)

TEX AND EDNA BOIL’S ORGAN EMPORIUM (from 2-17)

THE MILLIONAIRE (from 2-7)

ROCK CONCERT (from 2-17)

“Leftovers”

PHIL’S NAILS (from 2-16)

PROMO: TAX ADVICE (from 2-21)

PROMO: SORE LOSERS (from 2-10)

BIG GIANT RESTAURANT (from 2-23)

BROADS BEHIND BARS (from 1-11)

K-TEL MODULAR SHOE KIT (from 2-8)

THE MILLIONAIRE (from 2-7)

“US Best Of”

PROMO: U.F.O. SHARKEY (from 2-13)

WHAT’S MY SHOESIZE (from 2-11)

BOB HOPE DESERT CLASSIC (from 2-2)

TEX AND EDNA BOIL’S ORGAN EMPORIUM (from 2-17)

BOB HOPE DESERT CLASSIC - CONCLUSION (from 2-2)

ROCK CONCERT (from 2-17)