Conan O'Brien sure loves Canada. He fantasizes about his ghost haunting Toronto because of how much we enjoy comedy — and now he's continued to celebrate Canadian comedy by discussing his love of SCTV, the beloved sketch show that ran on and off from 1976 to 1984.
"SCTV was a huge influence on me," O'Brien told guest Rashida Jones during last week's episode of the podcast Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend (on July 8). "[It was] this show made in Toronto. Catherine O'Hara and John Candy and Marty Short and Eugene Levy and Joe Flaherty — the list goes on and on and on, these amazing performers. And they did such a smart sketch show that, in so many ways, had all these levels that SNL could never have. SNL was great, but then there was this show that could get to all these different levels."
He went on to discuss hosting an SCTV reunion in 1999. "They did a reunion, and I'm a huge SCTV fanatic, so they asked me to do it," he recalled. "There's this giant crowd there that's exploding with laughter. They're all looking at each other and they said, 'We've never seen people laugh at this.' It was a show that didn't have a studio audience. They made it, they constructed it, and then they put it on TV. There were all these people that revered it, but I don't think they [SCTV cast members] knew that."
It was enough to make O'Brien misty-eyed. "I don't tear up easy, but I was very emotional that they were having what they should have had at the beginning," he explained.
Watch the clip below, as Jones explains how the show Parks and Recreation has had a similar posthumous renaissance to SCTV.