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Saturday Night Live
I have enjoyed SNL since the early days. There have been some years where it was a little weak, but it is generally quite good. Many of the stars, from the original Not Quite Ready For Prime Time Players until today's cast, have gone on to huge careers in movies and television. Here's a list of some of those cast members:


Here's a list of SNL and cast member links:



SCTV - Second City Television
The fictional TV station of a troupe of our funniest Canadians:



Kids in the Hall
Another show from SNL producer Lorne Michaels. This show was as good as the early SNL. Nothing was sacred. The all-male cast played most female parts as well. Great theme music by Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet (a unique rockin' instrumental sound - look for their albums). Can be seen on CBC. Most of the talented cast are showing up in other things:



Mad TV
Another skit comedy show with a large and funny cast. Based on Mad Magazine. I love the animated Spy vs. Spy bits.

Northern Exposure
A small town in Alaska full of strange people and goings-on. The premise of the show is a duck out of water New York doctor having to work off the cost of his education way out in the boonies. But the real entertainment in this show is in the interaction of ALL the quirky characters, and it did have a pretty large cast. Who could forget Chris wanting to HURL a cow with a homemade catapult for art's sake until Ed tells him it had already been done in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. So he hurled a piano instead. They showed the flight and the oohing & ahhing of the assembled town in slo-mo, it was an incredible piece of footage. In another episode the catapult was used again. This time they hurled a DEAD BODY in his coffin into his boggy resting place. Truly bizarre.
Check out The Moose's Guide to Northern Exposure.

Due South
In this duck out of water story it is a woods savvy Mountie who has to adjust to the city of Chicago, or should I say they have to learn to adjust to him. He will taste strange things off the street to follow a trail as well as use his hearing, smell, or other senses maybe we didn't even know we had. He has an almost deaf, intelligent, and very stubborn WOLF who saved Benton's life in the tundra once and won't let him forget it. Benton also spends a lot of time talking to a ghost (?) of his father, played by Gordon Pinsent. Very high-quality sound and very cool, modern, haunting music. Too bad this one didn't last longer. Can now be seen on Showcase. Actually, it did come back with cast changes.

The New Red Green Show
If this show was to be taken seriously, it would be more of a strange duck messing in his own water show. As nothing is serious about this show we won't call it anything but what it is, a farcical ribbing of redneckness. Set at the fictional Possum Lodge, Red and his friends do the things men do: tinker with things until they blow up, try to catch fish with the latest gadget(and if that doesn't work, dynamite), and guzzle a lot of beer while solving the problems of the world from their lodge meeting(too bad, they can't remember how they did it). Red's parting words of wisdom: "... keep your stick on the ice".
Go see Red at The New Red Green Show.

The Muppet Show
With characters coming from Sesame Street and branching off into other shows (like Dinosaurs) and movies including the wonderful original The Muppet Movie (1979), this is a show for all ages. I still love it. From host Kermit the Frog through Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy, Pigs in Space, Gonzo, the Swedish chef, Professor Bunson Honeydew & Beaker, Rowlf, Dr. Teeth and Electric Mayhem featuring Animal, Statler & Waldorf, Scooter, and all the rest. It was a very unorganized variety show. They had a lot of entertainers on as guests. Some worked perfectly with the Muppets which couldn't have been easy. Among my favourites were; Marty Feldman, Steve Martin, Alice Cooper, Arlo Guthrie, and John Cleese. The most recent Muppet endeavor; didn't last long but had interesting guests as well including Sandra Bullock doing a funny takeoff on a Sesame Street bit. Many Muppet sites have petitions to resurrect Muppets Tonight!.



Soap
The wildly funny sendup of soap operas from Norman Lear. As the opening sequence tells us this is a story of two sisters and their messed up families. One sister has two sons, one hiding from the mob and one gay. The other has one daughter involved with a married senator, one who falls for a priest, and a teenage son who becomes involved with one of his teachers. The one daughter and her mother are both sleeping with their tennis instructor, who turns out to be the other sister's husband's son and then he is promptly killed. The husband's other son has a wooden dummy that he treats as a real person and this dummy says some really nasty things. "Confused, you will be..." A great cast included Richard Mulligan and Katherine Helmond. Robert Guillame shone as Benson the surly butler who spun off to his own show. When the door rang it was, "I suppose you want ME to get that". The butler Niles from The Nanny owes a lot to Benson and him to Rochester from The Jack Benny Show among others.

Third Rock From the Sun
Very funny show of aliens trying to pose as humans and never quite getting it.
Starring John Lithgow and Jane Curtin.

NewsRadio
More funny stuff from an ensemble cast in a radio station (sound familiar). Stars Dave Foley, Phil Hartman, and Stephen Root. After Phil Hartman's tragic murder the show has carried on with the addition of Phil's fellow SNL alumnus Jon Lovitz.

Strange Luck
The title says it all. The lead character, played by D.B. Sweeney, has all sorts of truly bizarre things happen to him. This strange luck can be good or bad. Very interesting show, unfortunately it only lasted 1 season.

Nowhere Man
An interesting show of a man who has had his identity stolen by unknown powerful people and his travels trying to regain it. Very much like The Fugitive. This one didn't last long either.
Go to My Name is Thomas Veil.

Dark Skies
A very interesting conspiracy theory show. Aliens are among us and trying to take us over. Certain government agencies know about them and are fighting back, but are also working very hard to keep it secret from us. Usually takes a famous event or person from history and ties it into each episode. In the show, the Roswell Incident and alien autopsy footage are real. The characters try to bring the truth out. The series starts in 1963 when they approach JFK with the truth and then he is ASSASSINATED by his own government agency (MAJESTIC) to keep it buried. To keep Oswald from spilling the beans, an alien-infested Jack Ruby takes him out. I think they are up to about 1965 as they sometimes skip a few months between episodes to use historical events. One of the characters in one episode was Jim Morrison. The show manages to tie all these things together quite nicely. I hope this one carries on.

Cartoons I Like - a work in progress
Disney.com Home Page
Looney Tunes Homepage
The Unofficial Hanna-Barbera / Flintstones Home Page

The Simpsons
You gotta love the way this cartoon town pokes fun at everything. The amount of links below might seem like a lot, but there are a lot of Simpsons sites out there and these are the ones I sorta liked.






Other TV Links


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