Where Can You Watch ‘SCTV’? The Answer is Complicated
What To Know
- SCTV launched the careers of many comedy legends and is widely regarded for its sharp satire and lasting influence on television and film.
- Despite renewed interest, SCTV remains difficult to find and watch.
Groundbreaking comedy series SCTV left a massive cultural dent on pop culture, reshaping the comedy landscape with its edgy humor and proving that razor-sharp satire didn’t need a New York address or the Saturday Night Live stage to change television.
The scrappy Canadian upstart became a launching pad for some of the most influential comic voices of the last half-century, blending dead-on media parody with character work. With its fearless send-ups of Hollywood, musicians, local TV, and celebrity culture, SCTV helped expand sketch comedy and paved the way for generations of performers who saw that smart, weird, and wildly specific could also be universal.
Greats such as John Candy, Catherine O’Hara, Rick Moranis, Eugene Levy, Martin Short, and Andrea Martin got their start on the influential show, creating characters and eventually a legacy that would shape comedy on television and film for decades.
Courtesy of Everett Collection
With the recent loss of Catherine O’Hara, longtime fans and new audiences looking for more of the late actress’s early work have been hunting down episodes of SCTV, only to discover they’re surprisingly hard to find.
Based on current streaming availability, finding the original SCTV to watch can be difficult, as it is largely unavailable on major, mainstream streaming services. Currently, the show is not listed as part of major subscription streaming libraries.
As of the writing of this post, SCTV is not on any broadcast network, nor is it available on-demand on a streaming service, and finding a DVD is a bit of a challenge, as most available collections are incomplete, with certain skits and episodes missing entirely.
David Street/ TV Guide / courtesy Everett Collection
Why is it difficult to watch SCTV?
After the series was canceled, the episodes entered syndication. A company called Western International Communications Ltd. acquired the distribution rights in the 1990s, including the Cinemax run of the show, titled SCTV Channel. According to SCTV Guide, the show was then re-edited, combining sketches from across the show’s history into single installments, a move that made the series far more difficult to follow in its original chronological order.
To further complicate matters, unresolved music-rights issues have forced distributors to re-dub or remove certain sketches altogether. That has meant the loss of many segments built around musical parodies or contemporary hits, which once made up a substantial part of the series.
There are no current box sets available for purchase, leaving fans to buy only older DVDs, most of which are incomplete or expensive.
Everett Collection
Where can you watch SCTV then?
There is an official YouTube channel featuring clips from the original series, and for those who want to own it, DVDs are still available for purchase, though copies can be pricey.
Are there any specials or documentaries on SCTV?
An Afternoon with SCTV was planned at one point. It was a comedy television special directed by Martin Scorsese that was going to reunite the cast of Second City Television. The special was filmed at the Elgin Theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on May 13, 2018. However, in May 2021, the late Joe Flaherty (“Count Floyd”) revealed on Facebook that the special had been shelved. After the announcement, NME reported that Netflix has since said the special had not been shelved, but delayed. So perhaps a special is in the near future. Hopefully.
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