A legendary comedy series will finally be streaming.
Second City Television, best known as SCTV, is coming to Prime Video Canada on Tuesday, March 3.
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This will be the first time that SCTV is streaming anywhere. According to Remind Magazine, Western International Communications Ltd. acquired the show’s distribution rights in the ‘90s. It was re-edited to combine sketches from across the show’s history into single installments, making SCTV difficult to follow in its original order. Additionally, music-rights issues forced distributors to re-dub or remove sketches, which didn’t help the many segments that were built around musical or contemporary songs.
The Canadian sketch comedy series, which was about a fictional television station, ran intermittently for six seasons between 1976 and 1984. It began on Global, where it ran until 1976 before moving to CBC in 1980 until 1983. It settled in its final home, Superchannel, until it ended in 1984. Stateside, SCTV aired on NBC from 1981 to 1983. It launched the careers of many beloved actors and comedians, such as Joe Flaherty, John Candy, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short, Rick Moranis, and many more.
As of now, it’s unknown if SCTV will be coming to Prime Video in the U.S. Of course, just because it’s on a streamer in one country doesn’t mean it will be on the same streamer in a different country. That being said, the fact that the show will be streaming is encouraging, and could be the beginning of it coming to other countries.
As far as the music rights issue goes, it’s hard to tell what will and won’t be included. Saturday Night Live has the same issue. While all 51 seasons are available, Seasons 6 through 39 are missing sketches from every single episode, as well as the musical performances, due to music rights. So it wouldn’t be surprising if episodes of SCTV are missing sketches. It’s also not unusual for distributors to change the music in certain scenes because of rights.
At the very least, SCTV streaming in full, regardless of what’s included, is better than nothing. Again, though, this is only for Prime Video in Canada. There’s a possibility it could come to the U.S. in the future, but for now, only the Canadians will be able to enjoy Second City Television once again.