Ensemble comedy's second coming

0 Comments | USA TODAY, June, 2004 | by Susan Wloszczyna

It was comedy on a shoestring, but the laughs were rarely cheap. A scrappy TV sketch show rooted in the improv-club tradition of Second City (as in Chicago) and produced in Canada -- which equals second-rate, as far as Hollywood power mongers are concerned.

For eight years, initially in syndication, then on NBC and finally on Cinemax, SCTV ran a distant No. 2 to Saturday Night Live , its Big Apple rival that began a year earlier in 1975. But SCTV , a parody of a low-rent TV station's programming and backstage intrigues, still comes first in the hearts of many insomniac couch spuds who fondly recall the ensemble heyday of Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Dave Thomas, Rick Moranis, Andrea Martin, Joe Flaherty and the late John Candy.

SCTV , which was nominated for 15...