A toast to SCTV

Chicago is known and highly regarded for its influence in improvisational comedy. The Second City troupe, which began in Chicago, has a famous branch in Toronto (which I visited last year when my Academy's expo was in that city). The legendary Second City Television Network began in Canada.

Thinking of my many favorite classic SCTV sketches led me today to John Candy's Orson Welles impersonation:




I didn't see Citizen Kane or Touch of Evil until I was in college, so Orson Welles, to most people my age, was the bearded guy in the booze commercials. Like this one:




Here's Mr. Welles in an outtake from those commercials that actually could be an SCTV sketch. It's somewhat sad but still wickedly funny to see one of the greatest film directors of all time imperiously bombed out of his mind. He probably put back a couple of bottles while he terrorized everyone on the set: