This is a list of questions I sometimes get concerning SCTV. Rather than have to find my previous response whenever I'm asked one (by email, or whatever), I decided to put them all here. There's a much older FAQ that contains quite a bit of information that I won't repeat here (unless it mysteriously disappears someday).

Until 2004 it was hard to track down copies of the show. Many people had taped them when they were on TV (either when it originally aired, or one of the many occasions when it was shown in the past twenty-five years). Several people have assembled a full set of the show from second- and third-generation copies of the shows taped off of TV.

Now the show is slowly being released on DVD, starting June 7, 2004 with Cycle 1 of Season 4. Cycle 2 came out on October 19, Cycle 3 on March 1, 2005, and both Cycle 4 and Cycle 5 of Season 5 came out on September 13, 2005.

The DVD sets have a MSRP of $89.95USD but most places sell them for considerably less (I was able to get them for $72CAD at Best Buy in Canada, for example). The sets are available many places where DVDs are sold, and most online retailers.

The first three seasons of half-hour episodes and the sixth of 45-minute episodes have yet to come out on DVD. Only parts of Seasons 2 and 3 were released on The Best Of The Early Years set in 2006. There's no release date for Seasons 1 and 6 or the remainder of Seasons 2 and 3, but Shout! Factory has promised to release all of the episodes on DVD.

The only reason they put the fourth and fifth seasons out first was their production quality and popularity (due to being shown on both Canadian and American TV).

Not very likely. Considering each DVD set will be $89.95 at the most, and a half-decent DVD player can be purchased for less than that, it's probably easiest to get a DVD player.

As of right now (October, 2007), nowhere. The Comedy Network in Canada and NBC in the US were known to have shown it in the past decade or so, and TV Land starting showing it in March 2005 for about a year. It's no longer being shown there, but there is a petition for its return.

For years I had a collection of sounds in RealAudio format on this site. Most of these are from my own tapes of SCTV from 1998 or 1999. sctv.org also has a collection of sound clips.

Recently, I've added some video clips to the site. There's not very many of them so far, but there'll probably be more as hard-to-find material becomes available.

A nearly-complete list of every episode as it originally aired (along with syndication episode numbers) that answers this question much better than I can is found at The SCTV Guide.

This 1985 made-for-TV movie wasn't directly connected to SCTV but did star several cast members. It doesn't appear to be available on DVD or VHS. Occasionally it appears on TV, but aside from locating someone who has it (either on eBay, or elsewhere), there's no easy way to get a copy (I don't have one either). Here's the IMDb entry on it.

This TV movie, also made in 1985, starred John Candy and Eugene Levy as SCTV characters Yosh and Stan Shmenge. Again, it's not available on DVD or VHS, but it apparently appears occasionally on eBay. Here's the IMDb entry for it.

I have a whole site devoted to Bob and Doug McKenzie called The Hoser, and any questions you might have on them or their movie can be found at the FAQ there. But in short: it's been out on VHS since forever, and was released on DVD in 2002. Both still seem to be generally available.

I don't know any of the cast or crew, so in most cases I have no idea. The Internet Movie Database sometimes lists agencies or management for them, although in some cases you have to sign up for their pay service to get it. Some cast/crew members have posted to alt.tv.sctv, including Dave Thomas, Mike Short (Martin's brother, who wrote for the show and also played Mike The Bartender), Joe Flaherty, and most recently Rick Moranis. Their postings can be found at Google Groups.

Dave Thomas wrote a book titled "SCTV: Behind The Scenes" in 1996. It consists mostly of him narrating the events that happened while filming the first four seasons of SCTV, with occasional comments from other cast and crew members. He's included several hundred trivia questions (with answers at the end), some of which are pretty difficult. There's also a concise episode guide. Amazon.com lists the hardcover version at $40.00, while the paperback version is much cheaper and is still available in bookstores.

In 2007, longtime alt.tv.sctv poster Jeff Robbins came out with "Second City Television: A History and Episode Guide," which is conveniently also available from Amazon.com.

There's no other books devoted strictly to SCTV, but in 2000 Sheldon Patinkin wrote "The Second City: Backstage at the World's Greatest Comedy Theater," which includes two audio CDs with sketches from the stage show, including some with future/past SCTV cast members. This book can be found at Amazon.com.

There are several songs used for opening/closing theme songs on SCTV. The first season shows use Spike Jones' "Dance Of The Hours" as the theme song. Seasons 2, 3, and Cycle 1 of Season 4 use a piece of production music from the DeWolfe production music library titled "Freestyle" (this song was also used on the syndicated versions of Seasons 1-3). Cycles 2-5 and the Cinemax episodes use a song by Ira Newborn. The most memorable theme song for people under the age of 30 or so was surprisingly never used on the original run of the show! It was recorded by Russ Little and only used on the syndicated versions of the Season 4, 5, and 6 episodes.

Various versions of the theme song can be found on the Sounds page, and video clips of the Season 1 opening and the opening used for the first few episodes of Season 4 can be found on the Video page.

Most SCTV fans on the Internet congregate in the newsgroup alt.tv.sctv. Despite the appearance and disappearance of web forums devoted to SCTV, the group is still the most commonly used medium for fans. Those who don't have newsreaders or access to a news server can still read others' messages on Google Groups, and can post new messages by getting an account with Google.