Title: Netflix & Jimmy Kimmel Have Officially Revived SNL’s Greatest Rival

Published Oct 12, 2026, 1:30 PM EDT Misty Layne started as an actor and sketch comedy writer before deciding to concentrate mainly on writing. Utilizing both her love of television and film and her behind-the-scenes knowledge, she began a website reviewing films in 2013, with a focus on horror and indie media. Eventually, she began writing about all things television and film for other sites as well. Misty shares a home with five cats, a ton of books, and a fairly impressive vinyl collection. Saturday Night Live has made a name for itself by creating iconic characters, launching the careers of several comedy legends, and lasting for decades. While no other show can rival SNL's iconic sketch characters today, in its early days it had plenty of competition. Although the rival that usually comes to mind is MadTV, it was far from the only one. Netflix is reviving SNL’s greatest rival show of all time thanks to a Jimmy Kimmel-produced documentary that’s arriving at the end of October. The documentary includes interviews with players from the show, clips from sketches, and much more, and it may well join the ranks of Netflix's most-watched movies this year. Most importantly, the streaming giant has acquired the global streaming rights to all six seasons of the show that spawned this documentary, which eclipsed SNL throughout the early 1980s — Second City Television (SCTV). Netflix & Jimmy Kimmel Have Finally Brought SCTV To Streaming By Esamuel MovieStillsDB.com SCTV aired from 1976 to 1984, and was a Toronto-based sketch comedy show featuring several famous faces. It helped spawn the careers of comedy legends such as Martin Short, John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Harold Ramis, Catherine O’Hara, Rick Moranis, and Eugene Levy. The series originated from The Second City, one of the oldest improvisational theater troupes around (and where roughly half of SNL’s early cast members came from), which had locations in Chicago and Toronto at the time. In fact, Eugene Levy claimed in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter that SCTV started partially in response to SNL having so many Second City members. It took the format of a fictional TV network, with episodes presenting the network’s programming, which offered audiences a delightful variety of jokes. Though the show ran in syndication in a few U.S. markets, it wasn’t until 1981 that NBC picked it up in a 90-minute format. After two years at NBC, the show moved to Cinemax in the U.S. for its final season, where it switched to a 45-minute format. Now, the Kimmel-produced SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of documentary is heading to Netflix on October 30, along with the entire SCTV series, so new generations can discover one of the funniest sketch comedy shows ever (and one that absolutely eclipsed SNL in the early 1980s). As actor Kathryn Hahn has reportedly said in the new documentary, “Like I had seen SNL, but SCTV, it was like their cooler, older cousin that was out smoking cigarettes in the back.” SCTV Is The Greatest Rival SNL Has Ever Had Everett Collection SNL and SCTV might both be comedy sketch shows, but they were vastly different. While SNL is filmed live, SCTV was filmed and edited. SNL tends to go with topical humor, reacting to the latest headlines in its sketches, but SCTV offered carefully crafted, hilarious, and very offbeat concept comedy. Many older Saturday Night Live sketches are highly problematic or incredibly dated at this point, but almost all of SCTV still holds up today as a result of its format. The format was just one of the reasons SCTV was so much better than SNL when it was on TV. The series was also simply funnier. With sketches like “5 Neat Guys,” “The Battle of the PBS Stars,” and “English for Beginners,” the comedy stylings of SCTV were absurd but also subversive, not only parodying pop culture, but deconstructing it. Plus, because the show revolved around the idea that everything was programming on this fictional network station, audiences never knew what they'd get. It might be a horror host introducing the 3-D film Dr. Tongue’s House of Pancakes, a short sketch imagining Taxi Driver starring Woody Allen, or Bob and Doug McKenzie (arguably the most famous characters from the show) hosting Great White North. SNL is a funny show with a vast legacy. But SCTV offered something different and a little more exciting, and watching it made viewers feel like they were part of a cool secret club. All six seasons of the series are now streaming on Netflix worldwide. Release Date 1976 - 1981-00-00 Network CBC Television, Global TV, Super Channel Directors George Bloomfield