Animated: Bob & Doug

Anyone who knows me, knows that I grew up on SCTV and remain somewhat obsessed with it to a fault. So it's no surprise that I was excited to hear that Global TV is airing an animated "Bob and Doug" pilot tomorrow based on the two men that made "eh" famous and noticable to all you hilarious Americans who have pointed it to me over the past two decades. Getting off topic, I also love the discussion where you tell me one American dollar can buy a car in Canada. You guys kill me, you really do...

To be honest, I was really a bit reserved, this is 25 years after Strange Brew killed "Hosermania" ( it should be co-packed with "Brain Candy") and well, I worried it was going to be another failed attempt to recapture past glory like "Blues Brothers 2000" or "Coneheads" (Man, I'm sticking it to Dan Ackroyd today) but I'm more encouraged by this preview I found at Quick Stop.

While the show is cheapie flash animation, it also seems to have a bit of a weird edge to it that I'm happy to see. One of my big complaints about "Chilly Beach" was that it was terribly bland and yet proclaiming itself proudly Canadian, so we need a little Bob and Doug to change set things straight.

Here's hoping!

Watch Bob and Doug on Global TV Tomorrow...

Update: I don't know why the embed feature doesn't work on this but here is a link to the page.

Secondly, I saw the show and did enjoy it, it's pretty fast paced and has a large cast of quirky characters surround the boys so the series isn't just relying on 25 year old catch phrases. I don't think last night's episode was a great premier show as it didn't really introduce the characters all that well.

Doug has always been my favourite brother, mostly because Dave Thomas plays as such a weird, borderline abusive guy. The scene where he had to go through "Janitor Hazing" was a real highlight.

If I had to compare it to something, I'd say the Critic, it's got a lot of wit and seems to love movie parodying and I think it will have the same life span. I liked it better than "Shut Up, Sit Down" which also premiered last night. That surprised me considering the amount of talent behind that series.

Canadian: Learning the Ropes

How could I have forgotten mentioning "Learning the Ropes" earlier? Oh because it's completely forgettable that's why. Another Canadian attempt to crack into American TV "Ropes" stars Lyle Alzado as a single dad who works as a principle and masquerades as a Wrestler by night, hoping never to be discovered.

As I recall, that's the plot of every episode, zany as they come, eh? If you haven't already watched the (unbelievably long) opening for yourself, it's not some MadTV sketch, it's a real show.

Even the title sounds like something "Troy McClure" would star in. Anyway, if you were into Wrestling, you'd get to see celebs like Ric Flair or the Road Warriors. If you somehow missed the sweet siren song of "Sports Entertainment" you got weak plots and canned laughter, so it's win/lose!

Canadian Sitcoms : The 80's

The 1980's saw CBC with one of it's bigger successes in 1981 with "Hangin' In" which revolved around a Toronto drop in center. It was slice of life comedy that didn't get too whacky or insulting, it's Monday night lead into "Newhart" was prime and the series lasted 6 years.

I had an arial around that time, so I watched the series pretty regularly but for the life of me I can't remember much about it other than I didn't mind it.



Which is not the case with Snow Job, which I had a clever alternative name for (try and guess). Snow Job wasn't funny, at all. Set in a Quebec ski lodge, the show tried hard to be both funny and Canadian, they didn't do either.

It limped along two years and had Tony Rosato (fresh from Saturday Night Live and SCTV) as a guest star. Laughless!

CTV followed up with Check It Out, which was from the same UK TV Producer that made the original versions of "Three's Company" and "Too Close for Comfort", both gigantic hits. Instead of using homegrown talent, they landed veteran comic Don Adams for the part (Apparently Adams was paid a fortune).

Set in a grocery store in "Anytown USA", Check it Out followed the misadventures of grocery store manager Howard Bannister (Adams) and his crew of misfits, all the stereotypes were there, the gay cashier, the slutty cashier, the weasely assistant and of course, the idiot stockboy.

Check it Out was too whacky for it's own good but there were far worse things on US television at the time, so it's probably one of CTV's best (mind you, it's standing next to "The Trouble with Tracey") I had friends who would attend tapings of this back in the day as it was filmed about 15 minutes from our houses.

It ran for three years and later I went to college with the sister of Simon Reynolds, who played Murray the stockboy. he's actually gone on to have a terrific acting career.

The decade closed with Misquito Lake, CBC's kick at the can. I'm not sure what went wrong with this series, it wasn't a lack of talent. Mike McDonald is one of Canada's premiere comedians and Dan Redican was hot off his long stint with the Frantics.

The show was set in Cottage Country and revolved around McDonald and his family, Redican played his neighbour whose wife "Arlene" (whom we never saw) would use a whistle when she wanted Redican's attention. Misquito Lake obviously didn't let McDonald and Redican into the writing room because it was poor at best.

Canadian Sitcoms : The 70's

Seeing as I'm Canadian, I would like to exploit the one weakness we seem to have when compared to Americans, we can't seem to make a decent sitcom to save our lives. Despite the fact that Canada exports a ton of comedians to the US and we're obviously adept at sketch comedy, sitcoms have never been our forte.

The earliest attempt I remember was the Trouble with Tracy, mostly because CTV wouldn't let you forget and played the show for years on the Saturday morning ghetto. To call it banal is an understatement, in the age of Norman Lear, the producers of "Trouble with Tracy" were simply updating scripts from a 1930's radio series called "Good Aces"

Many believe that the series was simply produced to appease Canadian Content laws and therefor, quality control was at a minimum. Whatever the case, we were force-fed this dung for the entirety of the 1970's and then YTV picked it up in the late 80s. Judge for yourself, if you dare......

Perhaps Canada's greatest success in the 70's at achieving the sitcom was King of Kensington, set in the multicultural neighborhood of Toronto, it had a "we're trying our best to feel like All in the Family" thing going on and well, it wasn't terrible.

I like watching King of Kensington now because of all the Toronto based guest stars, from Mike Meyers to John Candy to Guy Big from Hilarious House of Frightenstein. You'll occasionally see faces from Canadian commercials and such, kind of fun.

Coming Soon: Part 2 The 80's (ecccchhhhhhhh!)