I dated a Canadian, and she liked SCTV, but was not a huge fan— she knew all the actors and a lot of the characters and sketches, but hadn't seen a ton of the episodes.  And she'd never even heard of Goin' Down the Road (the movie they parodied in the CBC episode), although, having grown up in Toronto, she knew all…

And his Caddy!!!

This is literally where i learned both man's laughter and what happens when you assume, back in the 80s.

I just spent over an hour looking all this stuff up, and there's nothing earlier than that Best of… set you mentioned, other than the early stuff that was recycled for the first NBC shows.

Well, The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley (definitely a worthy show) was just this month made available through manufacture-on-demand (by Warners), so maybe the brilliant Shout! Factory (or whoever owns those rights) could do the same.  I would literally faint if the whole damn series became available…

John Candy/Martin Short
Andrea Martin
Eugene Levy/Joe Flaherty
Catherine O'Hara/Rick Moranis
Dave Thomas
Harold Ramis
John Hemphill (i liked him with that puppet)
Mary Charlotte Wilcox
Robin Duke
Tony Rosato (who i never found funny, not even once)

And… To go along with the greatest animal costume and best use of dummies, SCTV had the best comedy driving.  I remember Mrs. Falbo driving her hot rod, and Mr. Messenger driving his giant Cadilac, being particularly hilarious

Here's an excellent site that lists all the seasons and episodes, and signifies what seasons/episodes are on which dvd set…

If i'd read the *whole* article, and not just skipped to the episode synopses, i'd have seen that the Schmenge special was The Last Polka (i remember now!) and it aired on Cinemax.

I wish!

Yup.  I am dumb.

To go along with greatest animal costume, SCTV made the best use of completely obvious dummies of any artistic endeavor ever.

Looks like you need to start another band… Scum of the Earth from WKRP In Cincinnati.

It is a great book.

It is a great book.

It aired every other Friday night here in St. Louis.  It alternated with Late Night with David Letterman.  I would actually get really mad if i would turn on the tv to watch SCTV and Dave would be on.  It would be a few more months before i got into Late Night, but by the end of 1982 i was just as obsessed with that…

Yes, do.  The list above is great, but as others have stated, CCCP1 is also one of the great episodes.

Yeah, i was 13 or 14 when i fell in love with SCTV, but it was hilarious enough on it's own terms that the fact that i didn't get at least a third of the references didn't really matter.  I hadn't seen Ben Hur or an Ingmar Bergman film yet, but i loved those sketches. I either sought out what the references meant, or…

I especially loved when Divine played Peter Pan, and singing "I'm Flying" in a super-deep voice.

… Mmm… Mmm… Good!