HOUSE OF CARDS
Several Second City stars came up with their best ideas under one Toronto roof
In mid-1970s Toronto, a modest brick home on Avenue Rd. was the launching pad for what would become one of Canada’s best-loved comedy troupes,
Unnoticed by passersby and often unmarked by plaques, numerous Toronto addresses with big parts to play in cultural history sit mostly uncelebrated. In our series Local Legends, we tell you about them and put them on your mental map.
From the outside, the modest detached brick house nestled in the Eglinton-Lawrence neighbourhood of Toronto blends in quietly with the surrounding dwellings. But where 1063 Avenue Rd. is concerned, it’s more a case of what’s — or, rather, who’s — inside that counts.
From 1973 to 1978, that “who” included some of the most famous and beloved Canadian performers from the Second City theatre company (now a local institution) as well as its fondly remembered spinoff comedy hit, SCTV.
Before their induction into the world of improvised comedy, a number of SCTVcast members met during the production of Godspell at the Royal Alexandra Theatre. “It was during that time that Marty (Short) and Eugene (Levy) rented the house,” Dave Thomas says from his home in Los Angeles. “There were
Godspell parties there first with Gilda Radner and Victor Garber — who played Jesus in the production — Andrea Martin, Paul Shaffer and the rest of the cast. But we also wrote scripts there.”
One of Thomas’s earliest memories as a writer for SCTV was brainstorming ideas at the house to pitch to Sir John Gielgud and Sir Ralph Richardson, two of the show’s first guest stars.
In one of the funnier bits, “Harold (Ramis) came up with a commercial called ‘Stonehenge Estates,’ and the premise was someone had bought the stones from Stonehenge and transported them to Arizona where they were made into retirement condos,” Thomas explains.
The cast’s initial excitement about working with the British thespians quickly waned however, when all of their ideas were rejected.
Instead, Gielgud and Richardson proposed their own idea for a sketch, “but we couldn’t come up with anything funny for them that took place in a dressing room and used crossword puzzles,” Thomas admits. Ramis ended up writing most of the sketch by himself to bring Gielgud and Richardson’s vision to life.
Eventually, Short and Levy moved out of the house and John Candy and his then-girlfriend Rose moved in. A short while later, Thomas, Levy and Candy, along with Joe Flaherty, sat down in the kitchen for another brainstorming session. It was then that the idea for SCTV’s familiar show opening was conceived, featuring a slew of television sets cascading down from the balconies of a highrise and crashing onto the sidewalk below.
“I remember John coming up with that,” Thomas says. “It was outrageous and it was funny, and it ended up being something that was so popular — that was kind of typical of John’s ideas.”
So popular in fact, it caught the attention of the announcers at ABC’s Wide World of Sports, one of the highest-rated shows on network TV at the time.
Long before the days of viral videos
“It was outrageous and it was funny, and it ended up being something that was so popular — that was kind of typical of (John Candy’s) ideas.” DAVE THOMAS
and social-media shares, “they came across the show and got a clip of it, and aired it during their broadcast,” Thomas says.
“They said, ‘This is the most unique show opening that we’ve ever seen,’ which probably gave us some viewers that we didn’t already have.”
Over the years, the house has changed hands a few times and undergone renovations. So all that remains of that magical time when a group of budding Canadian stars — many of whom are reuniting on July 18 for a charity show at Toronto’s Second City theatre — were forging their way to fame are their own cherished memories.
In The Second City Unscripted, by journalist Mike Thomas (no relation), Dan Aykroyd says1063 Avenue Rd. “should have a plaque on it . . . all of us partied and sang there. It was just full of music and comedy. Everybody did a turn. Everybody tried to top each other and make each other laugh.”