Documentary · Review ·
SCTV: The Greatest Show You've Never Heard Of
A warm, quick reunion film that is at its best when the surviving cast watch their old sketches together, and thinner when it retells the show's history.
Critics split on whether 88 minutes is enough: devoted fans may find little new, while newcomers get an easy, funny way in to a classic Canadian comedy.
Dir. Jason Hehir · 2026 · 88 min · on Netflix
The setup
From 1976 to 1984, a Canadian sketch show pretended to be a tiny, struggling television station called Melonville. Second City Television, known as SCTV, grew out of Toronto's Second City troupe and took the parody of television itself as its engine. Jason Hehir, who made The Last Dance, turns to it here with a film that is part reunion, part oral history, part argument for the show's place next to Saturday Night Live.
The cast who are still with us sit down together, watch old sketches and talk over them. Comedians who grew up on the show, including Conan O'Brien, Bob Odenkirk and Fred Armisen, are there to say what it meant to them. Catherine O'Hara, who died earlier this year, appears in what reviewers describe as one of her final interviews.
What works
Critics agree on where the film is at its best: the reunion. Tim Grierson at The A.V. Club praises the clips and the fun, personal moments between the surviving cast members. Pat Mullen at POV Magazine calls it a thoroughly entertaining chronicle, and singles out how the show's makers stretched a tiny budget into part of the joke. The origin of Bob and Doug McKenzie, a pair of brothers invented to satisfy a broadcaster's demand for identifiably Canadian content, is a highlight in more than one account.
Elazar Abrahams at TV and City finds the heart of the film in watching the old collaborators laugh together, and says that laughter carries extra weight now.
The reunion scenes suggest a more exciting documentary hiding inside this one
Elazar Abrahams, TV and City
What doesn't
Here critics split, politely. Brian Orndorf finds that at roughly ninety minutes it is too short for nine years of television, so the history can feel rushed and incomplete. Grierson finds it sentimental and leaning hard on the comparison with SNL, and notes that the title is a wink, since devoted comedy fans know the show well. Mullen's complaint is perspective: most of the outside voices are American, and the film risks measuring Canadian success by American popularity.
Abrahams adds that it spends a lot of time on institutional history rather than on the performers and their process. Taken together, the reviews describe a film that is warm and well made but not especially surprising for anyone who has read about the show.
Who it's for
Answer three quick questions and see where the critics' notes point. This is a reading of the reviews, not a promise.
Where to watch
It is a Netflix documentary, released on 30 October 2026. Availability can vary by country, so check your own service. If you like this kind of thing, we have also written about Lorne, the documentary on the man behind SNL, and Norm: The Tale of Norm Macdonald.