After SCTV was (as it turns out, temporarily) cancelled in 1979, a different set of producers hired several SCTV cast members along with Bob & Ray to work in a new sketch comedy pilot.
Whoah! Bob and Ray and SCTV? This sounds like a dream team match-up!
It is -- but the show's concept, such as it is, kind of lets the performers down. (The concept is "let's throw some sketches together, and hope that filming it in Cleveland works as a link.") Bob & Ray's material is also very obviously filmed totally separately from the rest of the show; they never interact with the SCTV cast.
As well, some of the sketch work is deadeningly slow, and none of it ever catches fire. For SCTV fans, a toned-down Edith Prickley -- NOT in leopard skin -- makes an appearance, as does Dave Thomas's Bob Hope; both are mildly amusing. In fact, everyone in the SCTV cast has at least a couple of worthwhile sequences, and it's always fun to see Bob and Ray at work. (They don't act as such, they simply do their radio schtick on camera in a radio studio.)
So, sure, if you're a fan of any of the cast, go and check this show out on YouTube. But be warned -- right from the tortuously inert (and eminently skippable) cold opening, which drags on for two full minutes, there's almost no momentum to any of the show. While there are a few bits here and there that work, unfortunately, nothing really gels as a whole. It's very easy to understand why this pilot was passed on, and why SCTV was resurrected .... SCTV was much funnier, faster and sharper.
Whoah! Bob and Ray and SCTV? This sounds like a dream team match-up!
It is -- but the show's concept, such as it is, kind of lets the performers down. (The concept is "let's throw some sketches together, and hope that filming it in Cleveland works as a link.") Bob & Ray's material is also very obviously filmed totally separately from the rest of the show; they never interact with the SCTV cast.
As well, some of the sketch work is deadeningly slow, and none of it ever catches fire. For SCTV fans, a toned-down Edith Prickley -- NOT in leopard skin -- makes an appearance, as does Dave Thomas's Bob Hope; both are mildly amusing. In fact, everyone in the SCTV cast has at least a couple of worthwhile sequences, and it's always fun to see Bob and Ray at work. (They don't act as such, they simply do their radio schtick on camera in a radio studio.)
So, sure, if you're a fan of any of the cast, go and check this show out on YouTube. But be warned -- right from the tortuously inert (and eminently skippable) cold opening, which drags on for two full minutes, there's almost no momentum to any of the show. While there are a few bits here and there that work, unfortunately, nothing really gels as a whole. It's very easy to understand why this pilot was passed on, and why SCTV was resurrected .... SCTV was much funnier, faster and sharper.
