The older series are actually funnier than the slicker later series

OK. This ought to fire up some people. But I think having seen them all together again that the admittedly cruder early series of SCTV were sometimes alot more funny than the later (NBC) series even though they obviously had perfected their hair, makeup, sets, production values in general to a much higher degree by then.

It just seems like sometimes they were more concerned with making the sketches LOOK good than actually writing funny things for the characters to say. This isn't to say that there weren't very funny sketchs in the later series either. I thought the Godfather episode, the Christmas episode (especially Candy's drunken monologue on "Street Beef") and CCCP-1 episode are all hilarious.

Now in the case of the late great John Candy though he could save any scene just by being himself. He might have a turkey of a script to read but he could just say something completely off the cuff and screwball and make the others look at him like "What the *beep* and it would save the scene.

Also the earlier series weren't saddled with having to fit in those musical groups which was always the worst part of the show for me. I suppose if you liked the act then it was entertaining and I knew they had enough trouble writing 90-minutes of material each week so being able to eat up 12 minutes or more of time with a couple of musical numbers probably was appreciated by the writers.

I still like what they were able to do on such a shoestring budget though in the original series. It's funny in it's own simplicity.