Funny Business

By Laura Thompson

Through the window of the Second City boardroom, Wayne Gretzky looks on.

The wooden cutout, meant to resemble the hockey great, rotates on the adjacent rooftop of the restaurant named after him. Inside the room, the walls are covered with pictures of Second City alumni, or Second Citizens as they are often called.

Andrew Alexander, CEO of The Second City, sits at the head of the table. He's wearing a black unbuttoned blazer over a grey polo shirt, jeans and black dress shoes. He looks intentionally casual,
and it suits him. His salt and pepper hair and black-rimmed glasses add a serious charm to his looks.
He appears cool and reserved, and is the kind of
man people listen to. While he may not have you in stitches, he's an authority on the funny business.

"A good TV producer today is somebody that's a writer," he says.
"Someone who's helped create the show."

But as the producer of SCTV , which made comedic icons out of John Candy and Eugene Levy, Alexander confesses putting his artistic signature on the show was never really his style.

"SCTV broke convention in so many ways. What made it unique is that the cast were really the creative producers."

SCTV was born out of The Second City's theatrical brand of sketch comedy. It was the brainchild of Alexander, his business partner Len Stuart, and Bernie Sahlins, an original owner of The Second City. The show debuted on Global TV in 1976. The cast consisted of several comedy greats, including John Candy, Dave Thomas and later Rick Moranis and Martin Short. The show was set in Melonville, a fictional small town, and it featured the daily programming of a low-budget television station, SCTV .

As a TV novice, Alexander was reluctant to make the move from the stage to the small screen. He said the turning point came when Saturday Night Live debuted in 1975.

"That really put our style of comedy in the forefront. You had so many Second City people involved; Gilda (Radner), Danny Aykroyd, John Belushi, eventually Bill Murray. So it became a bit of a turning point. It was more of a defensive move. We had to do something to keep the cast together."

SCTV ran on Global for two seasons before moving production to ITV in Edmonton. In 1981, the show found a new home on an American network, NBC, and was syndicated on CBC in Canada. SCTV continued to film in Toronto despite the network change, but Alexander says the American exposure did not solve the show's problems.

"As a producer, the whole time we were always struggling to keep the show afloat financially. That was always the biggest challenge, finding ways to keep the show alive and keep the cast together. There were times when you'd get very discouraged about it."

After two years on NBC, SCTV moved to Cinemax Cable for one final season. The cast wrapped up production in 1984 but left with a legacy of 185 episodes of Emmy award-winning television.

For a guy who was never formally trained in business, Alexander's entrepreneurial spirit was critical to keeping SCTV filming season after season. According to Entertainment Weekly , SCTV will be remembered as one of the "100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time." For Alexander, a successful producer is only as good as his next idea.

"If you have a great idea and you're persistent, you find a way. It's like anything in life; you just have to stick with it. There are always opportunities. What's changed a little bit today is the opportunity to own something, like a show or a film. It's much harder to do because the big companies just want to own everything. But that changes with success. If you're successful, you get to change the rules a bit."

 

 

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