For those who never missed a Friday, and especially for those who only know "SCTV" by reputation, these nine episodes, presented chronologically on this five disc-set, are as great as we remember, and perhaps even better than you've heard. With the first nine episodes of "SCTV"'s expanded Network 90 incarnation under their belt (available, naturally, on volume 1), the peerless ensemble (John Candy, Joe Flahrety, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Rick Moranis, Catherine O'Hara, and Dave Thomas) really found its voice (or voices), and the show relied less on the so-called "golden classics" from the show's early days to boldly subvert sketch-comedy convention with brilliantly conceived and performed wraparounds that link the sketches. Looming large in "SCTV" legend are the program-length "Godfather" parody, in which Don Caballero launches an all-out network war; the devastatingly funny, "I'm Taking My Own Head, Screwing It On Right, and No Guy's Gonna Tell Me That It Ain't," arguably one of Martin and O'Hara's finest hours, and the sci-fi spoof "Zontar," in which glowing cabbages take control of the network.
Other moments for the pantheon: Meryl Streep blowing up real good on the "Farm Film Report"; Bob and Doug McKenzie demonstrating how to stuff a mouse inside a beer bottle; the cross-parody "Benny Hill Street Blues," and the late Wendy O Williams and the Plasmatics really cutting it up (with a chainsaw!) on Gil Fisher's "The Fishin' Musician. Some of the more topical bits are understandably dated, and that canned laughter reeks of network Zontars imposing their will, but this second, equally indispensable volume rescues "SCTV" from mere cult object of obsession. Original cast member Harold Ramis is right: In Thomas's encyclopedic history, "SCTV: Behind the Scenes", Ramis observes, "Everyone just got better and better. You would notice, if you had the time to sit and watch all the shows, the progression in excellence." "--Donald Liebenson"