Petition launched for SCTV monument in Edmonton

A monument to Bob and Doug McKenzie, Edith Prickley or Count Floyd could be built in Edmonton if the people behind a new online petition get their way.

"We, the undersigned, are aware of the historical cultural significance SCTV had to the City of Edmonton," reads the petition to Edmonton City Council launched recently by Avenue Edmonton Magazine.

"In the early '80s, Edmonton was the base for one of the most influential comedy series on television.

"We would like to see it recognized in the form of a monument to be erected somewhere in the city limits. We feel it would give Edmonton a unique attraction and signify the city's acknowledgment of its pop-culture status."

Avenue Edmonton editor Steve Sandor said the petition was set up to complement his magazine's January cover story about SCTV's history in Edmonton.

SCTV was first filmed in Toronto, but production moved to Edmonton in 1980, before moving back east in 1982.

The show was shot in the studios of Edmonton television station ITV, now the home of Global Edmonton, and outdoor scenes were filmed in locations around the city.

"It came to us that it shouldn't be this new, it shouldn't be something that a generation of people go, "Really, that was done here?'" Sandor said. "SCTV was a staple on television in the early 80s and it was filmed in Edmonton."

The vast range of characters, and the comic talent behind them, could make it difficult to come up with a theme for the monument.

Joe Flaherty, Dave Thomas, Rick Moranis, Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Martin Short and the late John Candy were the best-known cast members of the now-iconic show, which featured memorable characters like Floyd Robertson, Earl Camembert, Johnny LaRue, Lola Heatherton and Ed Grimley.

Sandor likes one suggestion by Denton Froese who wrote, "I'd like to see a wall, with dozens of TVs flying out of its windows. Perhaps a picture of a cast member on each of the screens!"

Sandor says Avenue will keep the petition open for about a month, in hopes of attracting lots of signatures.

"We want to get into the four digits, the serious four digits, in terms of numbers," he said.