Wait a second, SCTV is now on Netflix?

There are very few sketch comedy shows out there that will make me burst out in belly laughs. Besides an occasional Saturday Night Live, there was also In Living Color and Fridays and Mad TV, all three of which I considered viable viewing alternatives to SNL. Maybe The Kids in the Hall, but that was more of an acquired taste.

Then there was SCTV. SCTV was a Toronto-based sketch comedy series that featured a team of then-unknown comedians who satirized television and pop culture in a quintessentially Canadian sort of way.

I first saw SCTV when they operated as a syndicated 30-minute broadcast – apparently one of our local television stations (I think it was Channel 13) pre-empted some network show and ran SCTV as a replacement for a time.

And by “then-unknown comedians,” holy crap look at the lineup back then.

Yeah. That was the first season lineup. That was the same cast who would later influence a TON of motion pictures and TV shows – everything from Ghostbusters to Schitt’s Creek.

Oh, and it gets better. This is the same troupe who created such sketches as the Battle of the PBS Stars, a spoof based on the old “Battle of the Network Stars” television series.

And then there was Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas as the Canadian public access hosts Bob & Doug McKenzie, whose popularity as SCTV personalities …

… eventually turned into a Top 40 hit featuring Geddy Lee of Rush.

And yes, this is where Martin Short debut is completely mental, I must say, character of Ed Grimley.

And don’t forget the “5 Neat Guys,” a hilarious goof on compilation mail-in record companies like K-Tel and Ronco.

But here’s the thing. SCTV lasted for six seasons and produced a ton of comedic talent. But because of heavy music licensing rights, this series never really reached streaming services or DVD boxed sets.

Until now.

Apparently thanks to some behind-the-scenes negotiations, all six seasons of SCTV – including the Showtime-exclusive episodes and the “SCTV 90” episodes that aired after Saturday Night Live for a year or two – are now available for streaming on Netflix.

Just seeing these comedy legends in their earliest appearances … this is cool.

Damn. Now I’m going to have to binge-watch these shows again. Ha.