Here’s another brilliant SCTV sketch from their early 80s network show, featuring a production of ‘Death of A Salesman’ starring Ricardo Montalban, Margaret Hamilton, George Carlin and DeForrest Kelly, with a special appearance by John Belushi. Rick Moranis’s wonderfully cruel spoof of Carlin in this period reminds us that Carlin had three distinct stages in his career–first as a clean-cut young jokester, second as a hippie-dippy observationalist and finally the Carlin that I suspect we all love most, the acidic, brilliantly articulate poilitical/cultural riff artist. This is the middle Carlin and comes at a period when the comic had reached a low-point, no longer appealing to the younger or older set and suddenly seeming awfully 60s/early 70s-ish. Candy as Belushi performs some quite impressive cartwheels and the whole thing remains as hallucinatory and strange as all SCTV routines were, airing as they did in the wee hours (midnight to two I believe?), when everything seems equal parts absurd, funny and just plain off. As a teenager I used to stay up with a friend watching the show while taping it as well, in order to review the skits all week. VHS. What a concept…