SCTV (1976-1984)
Performers: John Candy, Robin Duke, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Andrea
Martin, Rick Moranis, Catherine O’Hara, Harold Ramis, Tony Rosato, Martin
Short and Dave Thomas
“SCTV” was the television offshoot of “Second City The TV show” and was
presented as a fictional TV network set in the fictional town of Melonville that
broadcasted low budget programming, with its sketches presented as the TV
shows on the network. Unlike the other sketch shows on this list, SCTV did
not film in front of a live studio audience as a cost-saving measure and
instead used a laugh track. Some of the cast members on “SCTV” ended up
on SNL and others like Martin Short and John Candy became big comedic
stars in Hollywood.
Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969-1974)
Performers: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry
Jones and Michael Palin
United through working on other sketch series like “The Frost Report” and “At
Last the 1948 Show”, the group of six came together to make one of most
influential comedies of the 20th century. Dubbed “The Beatles of comedy”,
“Monty Python” learned from Spike Milligan and abandoned the notion of
having to have a punch line to end their sketch, opting to link all the sketches
together with Gilliam’s bizarre animations. The show is highly revered for its
juxtaposition of intelligence and downright silliness, its full-on surrealism and
messing with television conventions. The show also spun off into three
successful films.
Q (1969-1982)
Performer: Spike Milligan
“Monty Python” served as a big influence to sketch comedies that
came after it, but “Q” by Spike Milligan was the big influence for
“Monty Python”; the show premiering just a few months before
“Flying Circus”. The show ran for five seasons, each season is
numbered from 5 to 9, for example Q5, Q6. Whilst not as lauded
by critics as his previous works like “The Goon Show”, the show is
considered a huge landmark in British comedy, utilising a
freeform, stream-of-consciousness style of comedy that ignored
punch lines for the most part. .