SCTV - “Staff Christmas Party”
Maureen Wallace (Catherine O'Hara), SCTV's Director of Public Relations greets the partygoers as they arrive. |
Aired December 18, 1981
It's Christmas Eve in Melonville. The entire staff of the SCTV network has gathered at the studio for a Christmas party. It's hosted by station owner, Guy Caballero (Joe Flaherty).
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LaRue is forced to go out in the streets of Melonville with one
microphone and one camera. It’s a cold,
snowy night outside. No one is out on
the streets and all the businesses are closed.
LaRue gets into a fight with his camera man and he’s reduced to sitting in the snow by himself talking into the boom-mic, looking into the camera.
LaRue starts to ramble incoherently, until he gets a Christmas visit from the ultimate Streetbeef guest: Santa Claus! Santa has a very special present for LaRue.
Great White North:
The McKenzie Brothers, Doug (Dave Thomas) and Bob (Rick Moranis) host the Great White North talk show. They advise viewers on how to get out of drinking eggnog during the holiday season. Doug also performs a special "Christmas" version of the Great White North theme song.
The Sammy Maudlin Show:
LaRue gets into a fight with his camera man and he’s reduced to sitting in the snow by himself talking into the boom-mic, looking into the camera.
LaRue starts to ramble incoherently, until he gets a Christmas visit from the ultimate Streetbeef guest: Santa Claus! Santa has a very special present for LaRue.
Great White North:
The McKenzie Brothers, Doug (Dave Thomas) and Bob (Rick Moranis) host the Great White North talk show. They advise viewers on how to get out of drinking eggnog during the holiday season. Doug also performs a special "Christmas" version of the Great White North theme song.
The Sammy Maudlin Show:
Sammy Maudlin (Flaherty) welcomes playwright Neil Simon (Dave Thomas) and Simon’s wife, actress Marsha
Mason (Andrea Martin) to his chat show. They’re promoting
their new movie Neil Simon’s Nutcracker Suite, which will air on SCTV on Christmas Eve. Maudlin and his sidekick William B. Willams (Candy)
spend most of the time making jokes about the movie’s title. They also keep calling Marsha Mason “Pamela Mason”, which makes her very angry.
Later, we, the viewers, get to see Simon's movie.
Later, we, the viewers, get to see Simon's movie.
Judd Hirsch (Levy) stars as Neil Madison, a Neil Simon-esque
playwright, Marsha Mason (still played by Martin) plays his wife Jennifer. They check into a New York hotel on Christmas
Eve, where Neil intends to write a play that will feature Jennifer as the
star.
He’s written several movies with her in
mind, but never a play (this closely mirrors what Neil Simon had done for
Marsha Mason in real life). The hotel is overbooked, they have only one suite available: The Nutcracker Suite.
When they get to the room, Neil sits down at this typewriter and starts writing a new play.
Neil & Jennifer encounter Richard Dreyfuss (Moranis) in the Nutcracker Suite. |
Neil tries to calm Jennifer. |
Neil takes a "reflective pause" while writing a new play for Jennifer. |
Neil is helped by the arrival of the Nutcracker Prince, played by Alan Alda (Flaherty). The Mouse King is winning the fight, until Neil tricks the mouse into leaving (Cheez Whiz in the hallway!).
The Nutcracker Prince boxes with the Mouse King. |
Once there, Neil meets the Sugarplum Fairy and the Snowflake King, played by Maggie Smith and Michael Caine (actually Catherine O'Hara and Thomas), respectively. They will give him the inspiration to finish his play and give it to Jennifer for Christmas.
Dusty Towne's Sexy Holiday Special:
Next up, it's time for singer/comedian Dusty Towne's first-ever tv special. Dusty's guests are comic-actor Divine (Candy) and Solid Gold dancer Marcie Odette (Martin).
The Sugarplum Fairy (O'Hara) complains to Neil about being typecast...as a Sugarplum Fairy. |
Dusty Towne's Sexy Holiday Special:
Next up, it's time for singer/comedian Dusty Towne's first-ever tv special. Dusty's guests are comic-actor Divine (Candy) and Solid Gold dancer Marcie Odette (Martin).
Dusty Towne (O'Hara) opens with a Christmas song and an opening monologue filled with sexual innuendo.
Odette follows with an "interpretive dance" built around "Deck The Halls." Then Dusty performs a medley of Christmas songs with new, lyrics, most of which consist of sexual puns.
Divine
shows up next. After a brief exchange of banter, they play a music
video that features Divine performing Elvis' "Santa Bring My Baby Back
To Me".
We cut back to the staff party, where Lola Heatherton (O'Hara) leads the staff in singing "White Christmas" in front of a chroma-keyed Bing Crosby.
Lola Heatherton performs a "duet" with Bing Crosby. |
J.A. Morris says:
I'll admit that it's hard to be objective here. I remember catching some of this episode when it first aired in 1981 (on the first day of Christmas Vacation!).
Dave Thomas as Liberace |
Orson Welles (Candy) blows up on the set of Liberace's special. |
Liberace backs up Ethel Merman (Martin) on "Silent Night" |
The Nutcracker Prince arrives in the Nutcracker Suite. |
Edna Boil (Martin), sings at the Staff Christmas Party, backed by her husband Tex (Thomas) on organ. |
Edith Prickley (Martin) and Lola Heatherton get sentimental & weepy talking about the movie Holiday Inn. |
Season's Greetings from Sammy Maudlin! |
J.A. Morris' rating:
4 candy canes
5 comments:
To me, SCTV can never be dated. I pity the younger people who'd find themselves turned off by Jane Russell's Cross-Your Heart Bra jokes; I'm lucky enough to have been around when that was all very familiar, and it hasn't lost its freshness. The Sammy Maudlin segments are so hilarious, from a cigarette-wielding Sammy bounding out in front of a tinsel curtain to belt out the first line of "Here Comes Santa Claus", and then collapse in the most horrific smoker's cough ever heard. And when he's recovered, we hear his *heartfelt* statement that SOMEDAY he's going to give up cigarettes.
Thanks for taking the time to read and comment, Dr. Mabuse.
I suspect that the SCTV segments are still funny even if younger folks don't get all of the nuances of the references. (At least, I HOPE that is the case!)
Is it me for a moment, or does Andrea Martin as Marcie Odette look like Roger Daltrey (The Who)?
Never thought of that, mrtnllisra! The comparison is apt! LOL! :-)
actually, Marcie Odette (Andrea Martin looking more like a glammed-up Roger Daltrey) is dancing to "Frosty the Snowman", not " Deck the Halls"!
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