The way Moranis portrays Griffin's protruding derriere is hilarious. SCTV always had a way of making you feel like you were stoned while watching (even if you weren't). It was completely unpredictable, original, and brilliant.
@@ihavefallenandicantreachmy2113 Tonight on _Who Makes More of A Mess?_ ... it's a blow-up blow-out between J. J. Abrams and Elon Musk! Plus, how sullen can Brie Larson get before she implodes?
I loved this back when it was a 90 minute late night show on NBC. But few people I knew did at the time - probably because it was on Friday nights. I wonder if any of the references play as well now (2018)? That said, this is truly brilliant stuff. Classic television at its finest...
My best friend and I watched this when we could as teens. This was other worldly comedy that some kids just didn't get. I loved it. Rick's Merv Griffin is hilarious and John as Orson Wells......classic.
A lot of these early-1980s nerd jokes and Merv Griffin references might not land with the youth today, but Spielberg, Lucas, "Special Editions" and "Making Ofs" are still very much with us, and people haven't stopped talking about "2001". In some ways this still works because it was parodying the direction the entertainment industry was going, and it was a trajectory that lasted. For me the thing that really kicked it to God-tier was George Plimpton doing the Intellivision pitch, and that whole campaign just seems like a bizarre relic today... but video games have just gotten more and more central in modern entertainment, so even that is kind of prescient.
@@MattMcIrvin We were always an Atari family back in the early '80s, but I definitely remember the Plimpton/Intellevision adverts. Now I just realized how old I really am... Being born in '72 may as well refer to the late 1800s, rather than the late 1900s as it does in my case, given the vast disconnect between myself and the yutes of today.
Wow,I haven't heard the name Phyllis Newman in years. She was always a guest on talk shows when I was a kid and nobody seemed to know why. I asked my parents what she was famous for and they just stared at me blankly.
@@mehermusic2154 Because Merv the tycoon was such a quality, quotidian presence on television, and then Rick Moranis turned him justifiably into a caricature. Merv was so affronted when SCTV had him matching ooohs with Floyd the Barber that he made a call to his attorney. Merv had jazz great Jack Sheldon as his trumpet player, and Johnny Carson's brother as his director. You can't make up stuff like that.
@Voracious Reader Thirty years ago, Hugh Hefner said, "The rich stew of popular culture has turned into a thin gruel." It's gone downhill from there. No Beatles, no Arthur Miller, no Stanley Kubrick, no Miles Davis, no Vladimir Nabokov, no Saul Bellow, no Vladimir Horowitz, no Andy Warhol, no Lucien Freud, no James Brown. And when Keith dies, so will rock & roll. I'm waiting on a postmodern Stravinsky and Picasso.
Yes, this is completely insane. And yes, that's honest-to-goodness Douglas Rain, the original voice of HAL 9000, doing the part here, coming in at the 3 minute 17 second mark. SCTV was made in Toronto. Rain, an actor associated with the Stratford (Ontario) Festival, lived nearby.
Hey young folks, those were real video games that were shown towards the end, and were cutting edge at the time. That's what folks in the eighties had to play with if they were lucky.
You'd have to have seen Merv's show to get that "Orson Bean" joke. Orson Welles appeared as a guest and lamented how he was the only Orson he'd ever known until he heard of "that comedian," Orson Bean (who coincidentally was in Equalizer 2 recently). It really seemed to irk him...
Just as funny as when it first aired! And for those that don't remember the gist of this sketch was making fun of Spielberg's _Close Encounters_ 'Special Edition' which was lame & over-hyped.
'And for those that don't remember the gist of this sketch was making fun of Spielberg's Close Encounters 'Special Edition' which was lame & over-hyped.' By how much? All that they did was show the inside of the ship that Roy and company were going to go into-there's nothing wrong with that.
I love love love skit. And the fact that it mocked Phyllis Newman was the icing on the cake. I’d been waiting years to finally see the Phoney celebrity hack finally be made fun of.
HAL wasn't right for Barry Lyndon! That one got me... Merv, Moranis, SCTV, Close Encounters, Orson Welles, and Kubrick... these are some of my favorite things... and when Merv plays the piano at the space ship... then he became Dark Helmet
When this originally aired it was the first time I'd seen Hollywood's two hottest directors (Spielberg and Lucas) impersonated in a comedy show. Feels maybe a bit too long now, but it still has some hilarious touches- particularly Moranis' Merv impression.
Well, right off of the bat: _Close Encounters Of The Third Kind: The Special Edition_ _2001: A Space Odyssey_ _Star Wars: A New Hope_ _The Merv Griffin Show_
![03 Merv Griffin, The Special Edition [077] [SCTV - Seasons 4 & 5]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/oHdFNPv_XDg/mqdefault.jpg)
![03 Merv Griffin, The Special Edition [077] [SCTV - Seasons 4 & 5]](/img/tr.png)
Rick Moranis...Very smart and under-rated funny man. He and Short were perfect additions to SCTV.
SCTV produced many great film stars including Moranis, Short, O'Hara, Candy, and the late Harold Ramis.
John Candy is Genius.
The way Moranis portrays Griffin's protruding derriere is hilarious. SCTV always had a way of making you feel like you were stoned while watching (even if you weren't). It was completely unpredictable, original, and brilliant.
This sketch went EVERYWHERE.
I'm still amazed that there was ever an era when you could get this degree of bizarre on television, even at 1:00 AM.
Yes, today, bland conformity is what sells. The audience is the censor!
@@RideAcrossTheRiver People cry way too much about censorship... it's just not true.
@@monsieurdel I said _the audience_ is the censor today.
If the Audience was looking for Work, you could make it into a TV Show: "Censor: For Hire", then, you could blow it up, good. REAL good.
@@ihavefallenandicantreachmy2113 Tonight on _Who Makes More of A Mess?_ ... it's a blow-up blow-out between J. J. Abrams and Elon Musk! Plus, how sullen can Brie Larson get before she implodes?
I love how HAL rips Kubrick when explaining why he hasn't worked since 2001. Hilarity. RIP, Douglas Rain.
"Orson Welles" crafting Devil's Mountain out of Stove Top Stuffing parodying Richard Dreyfuss. PRICELESS!!
"I have magic!"
Might be Douglas Rain, the original voice actor, doing the voice for HAL 9000. He is Canadian. That's the kind of cool touch SCTV was capable of.
It is Rain.
Wow. Ultimate creepy.
“So he tells me I got a Love Boat...”
Yep
If not Rain himself (as has been confirmed) , I was going to guess (close your eyes and listen) Canadian actor Colm Feore
HAL 9000 as a guest on Merv cracks me up every time.
I was hoping for a scenario where HAL would say "Merv... I'm afraid..."
I’m so lucky to have been able to watch this show weekly. Pure gold.
I just got a megaphone and first thing I said in it "we'll be right back"
Television has a way of impacting our senses.
I love the nod to the Plimpton Intellivision ads.
SCTV = Genius
As Bob Hope would say: "I loooooooove it." Dave Moranis was spot on with his "Merv." Silly, but never mean-spirited.
All the SCTV cast seemed to have genuine affection for those they parodied.
Rick Moranis... Dave Thomas is playing Spielberg
Holy CRAP it's creepy how much they got John Candy to look like Orson Welles.
Holy DEFECATION
I saw this bit when it first aired! Up to that time, It was the funniest thing I ever saw!
😂Awesomely nostalgic comedy!!!!‼️
I loved this back when it was a 90 minute late night show on NBC. But few people I knew did at the time - probably because it was on Friday nights. I wonder if any of the references play as well now (2018)? That said, this is truly brilliant stuff. Classic television at its finest...
My best friend and I watched this when we could as teens. This was other worldly comedy that some kids just didn't get. I loved it. Rick's Merv Griffin is hilarious and John as Orson Wells......classic.
A lot of these early-1980s nerd jokes and Merv Griffin references might not land with the youth today, but Spielberg, Lucas, "Special Editions" and "Making Ofs" are still very much with us, and people haven't stopped talking about "2001". In some ways this still works because it was parodying the direction the entertainment industry was going, and it was a trajectory that lasted.
For me the thing that really kicked it to God-tier was George Plimpton doing the Intellivision pitch, and that whole campaign just seems like a bizarre relic today... but video games have just gotten more and more central in modern entertainment, so even that is kind of prescient.
John Candy as Orson Welles asserting he would fall back on magic was fire.
@@MattMcIrvin We were always an Atari family back in the early '80s, but I definitely remember the Plimpton/Intellevision adverts. Now I just realized how old I really am... Being born in '72 may as well refer to the late 1800s, rather than the late 1900s as it does in my case, given the vast disconnect between myself and the yutes of today.
I've always said that this was the best comedy show on TV. The only place I could hear all of my favorite songs, in bluegrass style.
It was the little things on SCTV. The boom mic dropping into frame at the end.
Rick Moranis always delivered as "Merv." LOL. Thanks for sharing.
I'm gonna make it a point of saying
Ohhh that's nice
We'll be right back
Absolutely brilliant comedy!!
Waiting for the Merv Griffith show, *oooooh Opie* - we'll be right back
rick mouranus doing merv griffin is hilarious ...under rated .....
His Dick Cavett ain't half bad either. Those two are almost impossible to imitate, but he pulls it off. Andrea Martin as Phyllis Newman (!!!) too.
Andrea is hilarious, as usual
Never underrated.
its moranis
Was the spelling error of Moranis intended for describing Merv's "Anus"?
"Me? I've got magic...hahaha- he has NOTHING."
The only thing Christopher Nolan's "Interstellar" was missing was Merv Griffin saying "We'll be right back."
Why would it, when Nolan never saw _SCTV_ in the UK?
Brilliant stuff.....my heroes, sctv
the piano bit is awesome
This is brilliant on so many levels. SNL? forget about it!
Still holds up.
SCTV was the best.....Love it. Far better than SNL
Wow,I haven't heard the name Phyllis Newman in years. She was always a guest on talk shows when I was a kid and nobody seemed to know why. I asked my parents what she was famous for and they just stared at me blankly.
I mean Phyllis Newman?!? C’mon! Lol
I recognize the name but now i have to google her
Rick Moranis is brilliant
Wildly creative humor reflecting a popular culture that was much richer than today's. Unbelievable.
Why unbelievable to you?
@@mehermusic2154 Because Merv the tycoon was such a quality, quotidian presence on television, and then Rick Moranis turned him justifiably into a caricature. Merv was so affronted when SCTV had him matching ooohs with Floyd the Barber that he made a call to his attorney. Merv had jazz great Jack Sheldon as his trumpet player, and Johnny Carson's brother as his director. You can't make up stuff like that.
@Voracious Reader Thirty years ago, Hugh Hefner said, "The rich stew of popular culture has turned into a thin gruel." It's gone downhill from there. No Beatles, no Arthur Miller, no Stanley Kubrick, no Miles Davis, no Vladimir Nabokov, no Saul Bellow, no Vladimir Horowitz, no Andy Warhol, no Lucien Freud, no James Brown. And when Keith dies, so will rock & roll. I'm waiting on a postmodern Stravinsky and Picasso.
@@ARIZJOE, if you feel that way about society, why are you still here? Also, why do contemporary eras have to be exactly like past ones?
We'll be right back! I love it
Yes, this is completely insane. And yes, that's honest-to-goodness Douglas Rain, the original voice of HAL 9000, doing the part here, coming in at the 3 minute 17 second mark. SCTV was made in Toronto. Rain, an actor associated with the Stratford (Ontario) Festival, lived nearby.
Its crazy how smart and creative this is. Moranis is hysterical when he does Merv.
Douglas Rain actually did the voice. LOL.
You have boxing on that thing?
Yes Merv
This is still hilarious as a retro skit, and I also laugh about the people going towards the spaceship. 😆😆😆👏👏👏😆😆😆
I heart HAL! This is perhaps Rain's greatest uncredited performance.
Orson Wells totally miffed at Merv when he blows his name kills me every time.
Genius
Love SCTV Miss these good old days when everything was innocent ❤
Cool early 1980's video game graphics.
still funnier than anything on TV now 5 stars!!!
Running premises tended to run out of steam quickly and become a shell of what was once good. Moranis had a way of keeping the Merv stuff fresh.
His best was The Merv Griffith Show... OMFG they nailed Mayberry!
So many great touches, right down to the parody of the Carson Productions logo at the end.
who's here in 2020?
No One
I am.
One more reason why SCTV will ALWAYS be 10 times funnier than SNL!!
Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, pleeeaze........
BooHooHahahahahahahaha!! Ooooooooo, this is fabulous!!
Ooooo Orson, l bet it's a trick
He didn't rat out his guest, though. That's classic talk show etiquette.
This is great!!!
Last time I saw this I blamed the weed. I was wrong. The bit was totally weird. Love the imagination of the SCTV writers.
So funny...so well done!
I love the embellishments on the piano!
SCTV, their impressions were the best. The whole cast was talented.
Bravo!!!
This is over 35 year old and it's still funnier than anything on Saturday Night Dead.
Masterpiece
Hey young folks, those were real video games that were shown towards the end, and were cutting edge at the time. That's what folks in the eighties had to play with if they were lucky.
Jesus Christ this is beautiful. Oooooohhhhh.
You'd have to have seen Merv's show to get that "Orson Bean" joke. Orson Welles appeared as a guest and lamented how he was the only Orson he'd ever known until he heard of "that comedian," Orson Bean (who coincidentally was in Equalizer 2 recently). It really seemed to irk him...
Thanks for that! Both Orsons were "at home" with Merv.
Welles was just pissed that Bean beat him out for the role of Bilbo Baggins.
Brilliant
SCTV was always great but Rick Moranis had an incredible knack for getting the TV elements right. He took the show to another level.
Brilliant!
Never saw that one before!!
Just as funny as when it first aired! And for those that don't remember the gist of this sketch was making fun of Spielberg's _Close Encounters_ 'Special Edition' which was lame & over-hyped.
'And for those that don't remember the gist of this sketch was making fun of Spielberg's Close Encounters 'Special Edition' which was lame & over-hyped.'
By how much? All that they did was show the inside of the ship that Roy and company were going to go into-there's nothing wrong with that.
Brilliant.
I love love love skit. And the fact that it mocked Phyllis Newman was the icing on the cake. I’d been waiting years to finally see the Phoney celebrity hack finally be made fun of.
mouranis is brilliant as merv griffin.....
"We'll be right back."
Wonder of wonders Merv
HAL wasn't right for Barry Lyndon! That one got me... Merv, Moranis, SCTV, Close Encounters, Orson Welles, and Kubrick... these are some of my favorite things... and when Merv plays the piano at the space ship... then he became Dark Helmet
And you too,
Mrs. Miller!
When this originally aired it was the first time I'd seen Hollywood's two hottest directors (Spielberg and Lucas) impersonated in a comedy show. Feels maybe a bit too long now, but it still has some hilarious touches- particularly Moranis' Merv impression.
the Intellivision joke was great
Take the wings off, you've got a _biiiig_ car.
Jesus....! Phyllis Newman! That's really obscure to many people. Ha!
Hillarious
i think i just had an acid flashback
Hal sounds a bit like Marvin the Paranoid Android!
_Ooooooooooooooooooooooo._
I like the look on Merv's face...😯
That's nice
We’ll be right back.😊
Fly shuttle, it's fast
Tang....
Ha ha - this is mental!
How many movies were satirized and/or mentioned? I’m lazy. Someone do it for me.
Well, right off of the bat:
_Close Encounters Of The Third Kind: The Special Edition_
_2001: A Space Odyssey_
_Star Wars: A New Hope_
_The Merv Griffin Show_
I had the Intellivision skiing game.
HAL sounds like Phil Hartman.
Eugene Levy as George Lucas. Epic!
SCTV was so ahead of it's time, they foreseen "The Special Edition Movie". years before Steven Spielberg & George Lucas abused it.
Check out the special edition of Close Encounters
Spielberg had just done it with Close Encounters--that was what they were specifically referring to.
6:30 a small tidbit of Henry Mancini's rendition of the Star Trek theme
oooo orson you think hal can hear us huh......
joe f as plimpton and intellivision ...the best ...kills anything on now!!!!
@@miked4377, no, it doesn't.
7:43 Well, let's be honest, Merv Griffin would've made just as good a Holiday Special as Vilanch
The teacup's on it's way.
The drink that Freddie drinks?!
Freddie Laker, founder of Laker Airlines.
Merv had to book Phyllis Newman because Sandler and Young cancelled at the last minute.
Could anyone answer what Merv is supposed to be doing at 5:53? Is it coughing?
Yep coughing at Orson's cigar smoke overwhelming him in the small space they were in.
If this ain't gonzo, I don't know what is. I think Dave Thomas is doing Dave.
George Lucas as Darth Vader is a genius move.💯🤩
H wasn't being Darth Vader, he was being the 'Force' that was able to stop the whole thing going foward.