Their names were based on those two Canadian anchors - but Eugene Levy modeled Earl's persona on Buffalo, TV news anchor Irv Weinstein, while it is most likely Flaherty's model for Floyd Robertson as news anchor was the dean of Pittsburgh TV news, Bill Burns.
@@jamesstuart3346 - Certainly to Flaherty and Levy . . . I knew about those Canadian names, though. But their portrayals otherwise had nothing to do with their name sources.
Eugene Levy was the whole reason why I was watching SCTV in the early 1980s. It was way funnier than SNL and didn't need to be controversial to be that way. I can see where Eugene's son Daniel gets his funny bone from? He gets it from his father. :)
Had a "UHF" flashback during the baby seal hunt segment. =) Crazy Ernie: "If nobody comes down here and buys a car in the next hour, I'm gonna club this baby seal! That's right! I'm gonna club this seal to make a better deal! You know I'll do it, too, 'cause I'm crazy!" - John Cadenhead, "UHF" (1989)
I watched it as a kid in the 80's in a Fundamentalist Christian household. My parents had no issue with the show. The worst I saw was Edith Prickly in her bra! These days I actually find her kind of attractive.
@@foobarmaximus3506 Actually, I watched them on a regular basis as a child. I still enjoy them. Anything they did produce that would be considered risque, for instance, was cleverly disguised. Another brilliant masterstroke on the show's part. Your counterpoint is insipid. Devoid of even a whiff of independent thought. Just another plebeian attempting to gain some trace of self importance.
+egreenbery From Wikipedia: 'At least one sketch implicitly suggested that Robertson, in addition to co-anchoring the SCTV News, was also the station's news director (a common practice in the earlier years of television). After SCTV's resident foreigner, Pirini Scleroso (played by Andrea Martin), botched a taped field report, Camembert pointedly reminded Robertson that he was responsible for her being hired as a reporter in the first place.'
@@frstwhsprs - I can imagine Pittsburgh TV news anchor Bill Burns berating some colleagues like that in the newsroom, but not on the newscasts. Burns did have a bluntness on the air, though, that seemed to seep through Floyd in several SCTV News sketches. Floyd did get one detail wrong though. He claimed Earl looked "like Cosmo Topper." Only Topper wasn't the ghost - he was the one being haunted by ghosts.
In addition, Floyd's "Maybe Johnny should try saving elephants" riposte sounded like a streak in Bill Burns that occasionally got him into hot water with KDKA-TV management - like the time in 1988 when he and daughter Patti Burns read an article about a cat who'd survived in a jet's cargo for a month, on nothing but water - and then they joked that it was lucky the cat didn't end up in the home of a local talk show host who recommended sending all cats in this country to Africa to alleviate the famine problem there. It was that talk show host recommending this who should have been reprimanded for such callous, insensitive advice - but the NAACP singled out the Burns', charging they'd made "racist and inflammatory comments," and station management distanced themselves from such remarks. (Surprised animal-rights groups didn't pounce on that.) (No, this is not a trolling exercise; I am an historian who has a genuine interest in the five "W's," especially given Eugene Levy using Irv Weinstein as his model for Earl's persona.)
Sctv was a strange show cause they always acted like they were an actual network. Guy Caballero was the owner of it and pretended he was wheelchair bound but would get up and run if threatened. Sctv was a funny Bizarre show.
@@foobarmaximus3506 - One wonders if SCTV (the fictitious entity, as opposed to the TV sketch show) was modeled after the RKO General stations in the U.S. which were likewise run on the super cheap (I seem to remember reading that, in New York, WOR-TV [Channel 9] at one point used consumer minicams for when reporters filed stories from various locations).
+Glenn Marshall Yes, but mostly during the later seasons. In the early seasons, Floyd was practically a put-upon saint having to deal with Earl's stupidity.
@@michaelglickman1300 - Since you mention it, I have noticed that as originally conceived, Floyd and Earl represented the polar opposites of the guiding philosophies of the news business as it stood in the 1970's - Floyd as the old-school anchor in the Walter Cronkite-Chet Huntley mold, advising on the important national and international issues of the day (though his fixation on Togo was reminiscent of a local news director of the late 1970's who mandated that a portion of news items be about his ancestral country), whereas Earl was schooled (such as it was) on the more sensationalistic, razzle-dazzle, consultant-driven "Happy Talk" style of news presentation and journalistic choices. It also begs as to whether Floyd doubled as news director - but as such was not exactly Ralph Renick of WTVJ Channel 4 in Miami (among whose hires was Jane Chastain as a sports reporter), more dictated by who was at SCTV at the time (I mean, Johnny La Rue as here and, later, Pirini Scleroso as reporters?).
I'm curious - was Floyd somehow the news director as well as co-anchor at SCTV? I thought in some SCTV News sketches there were a few offhand hints that he was.
Could well be what in the news business is called a "Milano." One wonders why - was Floyd, in his early years as a journalist, a foreign correspondent assigned there? Did he once vacation there before it became more known for its earthquakes every other day? Was he buddies with the head of the Melonville branch of the Togo tourist board or the staff of the Togo Embassy HQ in Melonville? If this would have been the case, this passage of an article I read comes to mind: " . . . The phrase was invented by a long-time news executive named Dick Reingold when he was at WCBS-TV in New York. Apparently there was a news director at the station who took a memorable trip to Milan and was frequently demanding stories about his beloved northern Italian city, pronounced a la Italiano. In CBS lore, a Milano refers to, 'The distortion of news executives' editorial judgment based on their own personal experiences.' . . . " This is also why the question remains as to whether Floyd Robertson was SCTV's news director. No news anchor does a disproportionate amount of stories from this area unless they or whoever is above them directs it. But as SCTV was an uber-cheap operation, chances are the buck stopped with Floyd.
@@foobarmaximus3506 - Same thing with the naming of Floyd Robertson and Earl Camembert. That's also why Ms. Barrett's surname here was missing the extra 't'. Combination of comedy and legal.
It was very much frowned upon to use actual names in most situations, hence “Alex Trebel,” “Lola Heatherton” (combination of Lola Felana and Joey Heatherton, 1960’s-1970’s sex symbols for TV. Plus, they could not so much imitate the real people, but could sort of morph them into their own SCTV characters.
That wasn't him. It was their weatherman, Bob Clark (Dave Thomas). Earl was in drag impersonating their feminist reporter. Badly, I might add, and still wearing the loud suit and bow tie.
love this show and skit. Miss those years..... I was 12 lol
For non-Canadians, Floyd and Earl are based on real CBC news anchors Lloyd Robertson and Earl Cameron. And there really was a huge Seal Hunt kerfuffle
Their names were based on those two Canadian anchors - but Eugene Levy modeled Earl's persona on Buffalo, TV news anchor Irv Weinstein, while it is most likely Flaherty's model for Floyd Robertson as news anchor was the dean of Pittsburgh TV news, Bill Burns.
@@wmbrown6 I forgot. Everything revolves around 'Murica
@@jamesstuart3346 - Certainly to Flaherty and Levy . . . I knew about those Canadian names, though. But their portrayals otherwise had nothing to do with their name sources.
I'm not familiar with those names, so to me they seemed like parodies of the vocal mannerisms of Sam Donsldson and David Brinkley.
Lloyd Robertson was on CTV.
If these guys were real they would be the most trusted news source in 2022
You mean if they were around today... they were most definitely real back in the day and still are.
That poor seal never stood a chance with Johnny LaRue, Ha Ha!
CHEERS!
I love Earl blending in the background, he turns blue, hehhehe
RIP, Joe Flaherty. You'll be missed.
I love John's seal trimmed coat lol !!
Can you say, in terms of LaRue, "tone deaf"? And did not those at the protest notice, or even bother to?
5 stars....SCTV is still better than anything on TV....
Eugene Levy was the whole reason why I was watching SCTV in the early 1980s. It was way funnier than SNL and didn't need to be controversial to be that way.
I can see where Eugene's son Daniel gets his funny bone from? He gets it from his father. :)
Also his eyebrows.
Earl always cracks me up!
Had a "UHF" flashback during the baby seal hunt segment. =)
Crazy Ernie: "If nobody comes down here and buys a car in the next hour, I'm gonna club this baby seal! That's right! I'm gonna club this seal to make a better deal! You know I'll do it, too, 'cause I'm crazy!"
- John Cadenhead, "UHF" (1989)
"you look like Cosmo Topper". There's an obscure reference that almost nobody will get.
Love this bit. Very well done.
"You look like Cosmo Topper." LOL
Only thing, Floyd got one detail wrong: Cosmo Topper wasn't the ghost, he was the one haunted by ghosts.
Hey.. i heard that robertson.. ill get u for that ... line cracks me up to this day lol
"Change it!"
I miss John Candy,
Floyd (and Count Floyd) and Earl, my two favorite SCTV characters.
(Because of his inexplicable pervasiveness, Johnny LaRue would be #3.)
Dining with Larue when he visits the Vegetarian restaurant is gold 😂
I'm having a great time tonight watching these reruns
Classic SCTV sketch, hilarious.
This truly is comedy! You don't need filth to be funny.
How apropos a response from someone who uses an alias that relates to a perverted right -winger.
Your worship of The Donald meshed with fascism is typical of your uneducated ilk.
Michael: SCTV had some pretty off-color humor too.
I watched it as a kid in the 80's in a Fundamentalist Christian household. My parents had no issue with the show. The worst I saw was Edith Prickly in her bra! These days I actually find her kind of attractive.
@@foobarmaximus3506 Actually, I watched them on a regular basis as a child. I still enjoy them. Anything they did produce that would be considered risque, for instance, was cleverly disguised. Another brilliant masterstroke on the show's part. Your counterpoint is insipid. Devoid of even a whiff of independent thought. Just another plebeian attempting to gain some trace of self importance.
The first time Earl ever had good items and Floyd steals them. Comedy gold, as usual!
No, Floyd's other gig was Count Floyd, host of "Monster Chiller Horror Theatre" .
+egreenbery From Wikipedia: 'At least one sketch implicitly suggested that Robertson, in addition to co-anchoring the SCTV News, was also the station's news director (a common practice in the earlier years of television). After SCTV's resident foreigner, Pirini Scleroso (played by Andrea Martin), botched a taped field report, Camembert pointedly reminded Robertson that he was responsible for her being hired as a reporter in the first place.'
I can’t find the episode where Earl eats his dinner at the news desk. Would love to see it again.
What is your problem today!? what do you want a suit fetish?LOL
"You look ridiculous."
@@frstwhsprs - I can imagine Pittsburgh TV news anchor Bill Burns berating some colleagues like that in the newsroom, but not on the newscasts. Burns did have a bluntness on the air, though, that seemed to seep through Floyd in several SCTV News sketches.
Floyd did get one detail wrong though. He claimed Earl looked "like Cosmo Topper." Only Topper wasn't the ghost - he was the one being haunted by ghosts.
RIP Joe. We'll miss you.
In addition, Floyd's "Maybe Johnny should try saving elephants" riposte sounded like a streak in Bill Burns that occasionally got him into hot water with KDKA-TV management - like the time in 1988 when he and daughter Patti Burns read an article about a cat who'd survived in a jet's cargo for a month, on nothing but water - and then they joked that it was lucky the cat didn't end up in the home of a local talk show host who recommended sending all cats in this country to Africa to alleviate the famine problem there. It was that talk show host recommending this who should have been reprimanded for such callous, insensitive advice - but the NAACP singled out the Burns', charging they'd made "racist and inflammatory comments," and station management distanced themselves from such remarks. (Surprised animal-rights groups didn't pounce on that.)
(No, this is not a trolling exercise; I am an historian who has a genuine interest in the five "W's," especially given Eugene Levy using Irv Weinstein as his model for Earl's persona.)
3:28 "It was a good item. I took it." Hahahahaha.
I can’t find the episode with Earl eating his dinner. It was on UA-cam but now it’s mysteriously gone. < :-(
Sctv was a strange show cause they always acted like they were an actual network. Guy Caballero was the owner of it and pretended he was wheelchair bound but would get up and run if threatened. Sctv was a funny Bizarre show.
SCTV #1!!!!!! 🤣
Floyd is quite handsome.
"I'm in the middle of an item."
"Hey! Cut that out!"😀
Never knew Johnny LaRue was a TV reporter... & never knew Johnny was a conservationist until he (unintentionally) murdered that baby seal.
@@foobarmaximus3506 - One wonders if SCTV (the fictitious entity, as opposed to the TV sketch show) was modeled after the RKO General stations in the U.S. which were likewise run on the super cheap (I seem to remember reading that, in New York, WOR-TV [Channel 9] at one point used consumer minicams for when reporters filed stories from various locations).
This stuff is deadly funny
Floyd can be a jerk sometimes, he took both of Earl's stories
+Glenn Marshall Yes, but mostly during the later seasons. In the early seasons, Floyd was practically a put-upon saint having to deal with Earl's stupidity.
Earl was at times, but he would try different things, like when he ate dinner while doing the news, heheheh
@@michaelglickman1300 - Since you mention it, I have noticed that as originally conceived, Floyd and Earl represented the polar opposites of the guiding philosophies of the news business as it stood in the 1970's - Floyd as the old-school anchor in the Walter Cronkite-Chet Huntley mold, advising on the important national and international issues of the day (though his fixation on Togo was reminiscent of a local news director of the late 1970's who mandated that a portion of news items be about his ancestral country), whereas Earl was schooled (such as it was) on the more sensationalistic, razzle-dazzle, consultant-driven "Happy Talk" style of news presentation and journalistic choices. It also begs as to whether Floyd doubled as news director - but as such was not exactly Ralph Renick of WTVJ Channel 4 in Miami (among whose hires was Jane Chastain as a sports reporter), more dictated by who was at SCTV at the time (I mean, Johnny La Rue as here and, later, Pirini Scleroso as reporters?).
@@wmbrown6 That was probably a result of network boss Guy Caballero, obviously because he felt the latter two worked cheap.
lol
I'm curious - was Floyd somehow the news director as well as co-anchor at SCTV? I thought in some SCTV News sketches there were a few offhand hints that he was.
I seem to recall in the videos I've seen that he made references being the *news editor,* if not outright director.
He was also moonlighting as "Count Floyd," and vigorously always denied it.
Is that the same seal from the Labrador Slugger commercial?
Compared to CNN Earl and Floyd look like true pros
Guess how many times Togo was mentioned over the years, and win a cookie.
Is that Cookie, for here or "TOGO"?
@@ihavefallenandicantreachmy2113 Shut up Earl !!
@SCTV:
When did this air?
I looked it up and there really is a country called Togo.
Floyd seems to have a lot of stories about Togo.
Could well be what in the news business is called a "Milano." One wonders why - was Floyd, in his early years as a journalist, a foreign correspondent assigned there? Did he once vacation there before it became more known for its earthquakes every other day? Was he buddies with the head of the Melonville branch of the Togo tourist board or the staff of the Togo Embassy HQ in Melonville? If this would have been the case, this passage of an article I read comes to mind:
" . . . The phrase was invented by a long-time news executive named Dick Reingold when he was at WCBS-TV in New York. Apparently there was a news director at the station who took a memorable trip to Milan and was frequently demanding stories about his beloved northern Italian city, pronounced a la Italiano. In CBS lore, a Milano refers to, 'The distortion of news executives' editorial judgment based on their own personal experiences.' . . . "
This is also why the question remains as to whether Floyd Robertson was SCTV's news director. No news anchor does a disproportionate amount of stories from this area unless they or whoever is above them directs it. But as SCTV was an uber-cheap operation, chances are the buck stopped with Floyd.
RIP Joe. The best!
I ate an entire seal in honour of this episode.
too good
Maybe Johnny should try saving elephants?
Never wear white, red, or stripes on tv
Hilarious can't wear blue we are using chromakey today.
That's Rona, not Roda.
@@foobarmaximus3506 - Same thing with the naming of Floyd Robertson and Earl Camembert. That's also why Ms. Barrett's surname here was missing the extra 't'. Combination of comedy and legal.
It was very much frowned upon to use actual names in most situations, hence “Alex Trebel,” “Lola Heatherton” (combination of Lola Felana and Joey Heatherton, 1960’s-1970’s sex symbols for TV. Plus, they could not so much imitate the real people, but could sort of morph them into their own SCTV characters.
Jeez the sets are so cheap on this show!
I'm sure many an employee of WOR-TV in New York in the 1970's could relate to that aspect (cheap sets, that is) . . .
At least the "SkyPiggy" or "Bet" ("Bus/Jet", because, you can "Bet" you will not arrive, at your destination, alive.) is real.
RIP Floyd! aka Joe Flaherty
Earl's best performance as the ultimate ass was when he wore blackface. He didn't spare the paint.
That wasn't him. It was their weatherman, Bob Clark (Dave Thomas). Earl was in drag impersonating their feminist reporter. Badly, I might add, and still wearing the loud suit and bow tie.
sadly, the seal hunting still continues.
Johnny larue is an original SJW!
How the frak do you figure that?
@@foobarmaximus3506 - And it would have showed in LaRue wearing a seal skin coat to this protest. If that doesn't count as tone deaf . . .
Seals, "JAWS" and Whales. Oh, my.