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SCTV brings the Maritimes to Yonge Street

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[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=vCcbUDBqVzo[/youtube]

In the comment section of the recent Toronto as Baltimore post reader “Michael” reminded us that the film Goin’ Down the Road was shot all around Toronto in 1970 and included extensive footage of Yonge Street at the height of its legendary mix of smutty and middle-class establishments. Some quick YouTube searches didn’t produce any clips from the film, but did reveal a full SCTV parody of it (part 1 is above — part 2 below) where John Candy and Joe Flaherty make their way from Atlantic Canada to Toronto. It begins with a disclaimer cautioning “THIS MOVIE CONTAINS SCENES OF EXCESSIVE VIOLENCE, NUDITY AND EXPLICIT FOOTAGE OF YONGE STREET IN TORONTO.” Toronto songs, a mildly offensive selection of Canadian accents and lots of Yonge Street in the early 1980s makes for a fun ten minutes. You can also catch a glimpse of an old PCC streetcar near the end of part 2.
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=fMaO6z1AVtc[/youtube]

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5 comments

  1. I love this sketch! Growing up in the American south and watching SCTV reruns in the ’80s, this parody was all I knew of Toronto and its famous “Yonge Street” for about two decades. Still haven’t seen the film that inspired it.

  2. I from Dartmouth Nova Scotia and I don’t find this offensive at all. In fact, I think it’s right wigged, baye.

  3. For the record I was kidding about the offense. I’m related to a whole lot of Nova Scotians who talk like that. I can’t always understand it, but they do.

  4. Once, I actually had to translate for a Newfie at the hospital I work at. He was quite drunk (I work at a hospital) and the nurses had no idea what he was saying. Lord tunderin’ jesus.

  5. Going down the road is perhaps the most depressing film ever made. I saw it at the Halifax film festival a few years ago as part of a retrospective.

    Still, there are some really wonderful scenes of Toronto from the island, and the story is really a pretty vivid account of a familiar maritime tale.

    But if you do come across it, it isn’t a joyous tale of fiddlers and Maritime migration. It’s about poverty, unemployment, and sharing a one bedroom between three people.