Just a lil' appreciation post for Dave Thomas' website, which has a nice collection of various commercials, articles and photos related to the McKenzie Brothers, plus lots of other great stuff.
His link to the CBC mini-doc is broken but I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be this one.
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Bonus pics I'd somehow never seen before (!) from the 2017 Jake Thomas Benefit and which just made my day 100% better:
Bonus bonus: Speaking of that 2017 benefit, I also found a short rare video that an audience member recorded of the on-stage finale with Rick, Dave and Geddy Lee. ❤️
Jude Lizowski is from the tv show 6teen. He is a laid-back stater who spends a large amount of time in a mall with his friends. He is Jewish and speaks in a surfer accent from the 1970s.
Player is from Carmen Sandiego, a tv show. He is a teenage hacker from Niagara Falls who helps Carmen in her capers against V.I.L.E.
Bob and Doug Mackenize originate from SCTV, a sketch comedy show. They are two dim-witted beer-swilling brothers who speak in thick Canadian accents, frequently employing the interjection Eh? And calling each other hosers.
I came across this fan made documentary from 2021 on SCTV (Second City TV) that I wanted to pass along because it truly is a labor of love. Most of my childhood was the late 70s into the 1980s and one of the cultural products of my childhood was SCTV (along with Tom Baker as Doctor Who, Dr. Demento on the radio & television programs like Night Flight). What’s been crafted here is a history of SCTV told by the people who created it, in their own words, cobbled together from various sources. It’s surprisingly coherent and engaging and if you’re a fan of SCTV, it comes highly recommended.
Admittedly, this might only appeal to a limited number of you reading these words. SCTV? WTF is SCTV? First, SCTV was my first introduction to anything Canadian (the second being ‘You Can't Do That on Television‘ which basically copied the format of SCTV). Second, SCTV was also my introduction to a host of comedians when they were still young and relatively up and coming. The original cast of SCTV was John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Catherine O'Hara, Harold Ramis, and Dave Thomas. You might know some of those names now. Later cast included folk like Robin Duke (who was also on Saturday Night Live), Rick Moranis, & Martin Short. (Quick note: one of the sketches SCTV slapped together to fill up time was ‘Bob and Doug McKenzie’, characters who would become audience favorites and were given a spin-off movie in 1983 called ‘Strange Brew’.)
Since I have you here, here’s a few additional items of interest that I recently absorbed into my brain through my ears and eyes:
1). Two different pieces from Defunctland, a youtube channel new to me, A) discussing and uncovering who created the Disney Channel’s four note theme that proved to be surprisingly engaging and unexpectedly poignant. B) This led me to watch another piece related to Disney from Defunctland on The Halyx, the “short-lived science fiction themed rock band developed by Disneyland Records that performed at Tomorrowland in Disneyland in 1981 at the Space Stage.” The band only got one season to exist and perform before the show was cancelled. I knew nothing about Halyx and didn’t think I would want to watch a long form piece on some passing cultural detritus from Disney (not being all that fond of Disney) Turns out, I did, in fact, want to watch a long form piece on some passing cultural detritus from Disney.
2) Another thing I didn’t think I would spend time consuming was from hbomberguy’s investigation into the “Roblox Oof“ sound. I have never spent a second playing Roblox and I have no idea why one would craft an almost two hour investigation into something so inconsequential. With that said, I watched the entire thing so I guess I have extra life to squander too. In retrospect, this Roblox piece has some relation to the above Defunctland episode on the 4 note Disney theme, namely artistic credit and artistic legacies. Having kept my attention and getting me to commit to a subject I had zero interest helps explain hbomberguy’s popularity. (I just saw that Brewis promoted the Defunctland Disney piece in twitter. Well.)
I don’t know people, this is just some of the random shit I’ve been digesting. Thanksgiving’s tomorrow. Distract yourself with some creativity and get yourselves through the holiday gauntlet.
So you’re that Doug that people keep buggin’ me about, sayin’ I look like? You got a blog now too, huh? Should be interesting.
Well, welcome to you and your brother. Have fun, I guess.
- Bill Needle
Thank you eh it’s nice to see other people like from the station and sorry like about your show and stuff we were stuck with a small spot on the station but we’re good and stuff so if you need a spot I can ask the hoser of a brother to like fill up our spot for you and stuff - dm (me :) )