Netflix’s new documentary revisits the comedic genius of SCTV, but it’s the enduring friendships between its legendary cast members that provide the film’s real heart and soul.
The expression “lightning in a bottle” is often used to describe something so extraordinary, so unlikely and so difficult to replicate that it almost feels like a miracle. It’s also a pretty accurate way to describe SCTV, the legendary Canadian sketch comedy series that ran intermittently from 1976 to 1984 and featured a veritable who’s who of future comedy heavyweights.
Now the legendary sketch comedy show is getting the documentary treatment with SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of. Directed by Jason Hehir, who helmed the massively successful Michael Jordan docuseries The Last Dance that had us all in a chokehold during COVID, and executive produced by SCTV superfan Jimmy Kimmel, the documentary features interviews with cast members Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Andrea Martin, Martin Short, Dave Thomas and the elusive Rick Moranis, who tell the show’s origin story. Meanwhile, celebrity fans like Conan O’Brien, Tom Hanks, Bob Odenkirk, Bill Hader, Fred Armisen and Kathryn Hahn weigh in on the show’s impact on them and on comedy in general.
The idea of an SCTV documentary first started percolating in 2018 when filmmaker Martin Scorsese assembled the cast — minus John Candy, who died in 1994, and Harold Ramis, who died in 2014 — for a much-buzzed-about reunion during the Toronto International Film Festival, moderated by Kimmel. When, years later, a documentary failed to materialize, Kimmel took matters into his own hands. Netflix eventually became the natural home for the project, but Kimmel decided the footage from that 2018 reunion felt too dated to use. Instead, he assembled the cast once more — this time without Joe Flaherty, who died in 2024 — for individual talking-head interviews and a July 2025 group gathering where the surviving cast members watched old clips of the show, laughed and reminisced together.
“It was like a field of fabulous apple trees that no one had picked,” says Martin Short of the ragtag cast of virtual unknowns who would all go on to become very well known. “There was this insanely rich world of great people that just hadn’t been tapped yet.” SCTV first hit the airwaves in 1976 as a scrappier, more DIY and definitely more Canadian version of Saturday Night Live, which had premiered one year earlier. “I had seen SNL and SCTV was their cooler, older cousin,” Kathryn Hahn tells the doc. Much of the original cast were unknown to the masses but were already familiar with one another after appearing together in a 1972 stage production of Godspell in Toronto. When The Second City, the legendary sketch comedy company out of Chicago, headed north to set up shop in Toronto, many Godspell alumni ended up there. “Everyone wanted it,” says Martin Short. That creative community eventually gave rise to Second City Television, better known as SCTV. To say the early show was unpolished is an understatement. “It was cheap looking,” admits O’Hara. “The sets were just so cheap and horrible, that was part of the charm of this cheesy little television station was that it was cheap and looked like public access television,” Dave Thomas tells the doc. To be fair, SCTVwasn’t exactly flush with cash. “We were working with a budget of seven thousand dollars an episode,” reveals Levy. “This is not per person, the entire budget of the show was seven thousand dollars.”
What SCTV lacked in financing, it more than made up for in talent. Eventually, thanks to characters like Johnny LaRue, the Schmenge Brothers, Margaret Meehan, Lola Heatherton, Edith Prickley, Ed Grimley and, of course, the Mackenzie Brothers, the show developed a devoted following. “When I was doing Bosom Buddies with Peter Scolari,” recalls Tom Hanks, “we would record SCTV… and parse out every single moment and character… studying like it was a comedic laboratory and trying to figure out how many beakers of certain chemicals they use in order to create this genius.” Each cast member had their own devoted fans. “I really did want to become like Rick Moranis,” says Fred Armisen. “I loved them all but there was something about Rick Moranis that I was like, he disappears into characters.” “Catherine O’Hara is a hero of mine,” adds Bill Hader, “just the way she embodies her characters and she’s a really incredibly good actor.”
“The genius of SCTV,” says Martin Short, “was the criteria for what was funny and for what deserved to be on TV was in the hands of the cast. It was a level of eccentric freedom that I’d never seen on television.” For Levy, it was the comedic diversity. “We all had different senses of comedy but we found a way to make the show work with seven different sensibilities.”
While SCTV never reached the heights of Saturday Night Live, it certainly developed a cult following. The sheer number of celebrity fans featured in the documentary is a testament to that. So the film’s subtitle, “The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of,” is both tongue-in-cheek and a nod to younger Netflix viewers who may not have grown up with the likes of Edith Prickley, Lola Heatherton or the Mackenzie Brothers. Being unfamiliar with SCTV is one thing, but knowing it and not being a fan? Well, that’s a dealbreaker for Conan O’Brien. “If someone says to me, ‘yeah, I watched SCTV and it wasn’t for me, I don’t get it’ I kinda don’t want to know them,” he tells the doc. “Life’s too short.”
The behind-the-scenes stories and classic clips from SCTV make for a highly entertaining and nostalgic 90 minutes, while juicy tidbits about how Lorne Michaels deeply hurt John Candy after a failed SNL audition, or how Dave Thomas rubbed the cast the wrong way once the Mackenzie Brothers took off, will satisfy those thirsty for a little tea. But the real joy of the documentary comes from witnessing the surviving gang back together again in 2025. It’s obvious that the group shares a special, unbreakable bond. These aren’t just former co-workers; they’re lifelong friends, and their chemistry is palpable. Executive producer Jimmy Kimmel recently confirmed as much, telling The Toronto Star, “It’s beautiful to watch. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing it every time Marty has a Christmas party or dinner. There are at least two of them there, every single time.” He continued, “People move their careers, take different paths, they have families, they live in different parts of the world. But this group, they genuinely love each other.” The footage of the cast together feels like a warm hug, offering a glimpse into their extraordinary friendship and ultimately providing the documentary with its real heart and soul.
Despite her decades of success, Andrea Martin tells us, “Our lasting friendship, that’s what I’m the most proud of.” Knowing Catherine O’Hara passed away just six months after their on-camera reunion makes seeing her sitting on a couch beside Martin, drinking wine and laughing with the group, so bittersweet that it’s sure to have fans watching with tears of both laughter and sadness running down their cheeks.
Lightning in a bottle, indeed.
SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of is now streaming on Netflix.
