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"Altered" real actors' names on early SCTV shows

S

Stanislav

I may have brought this up once before, but in the early seasons of SCTV remember how, when they did a celebrity impersonation, they would subtly alter the spelling of the name? Like Tom Bosley became "Tom Boslee," or Orson Welles became "Orson Wells?" I've often wondered whether they did this just to be funny, or if they were genuinely concerned about some legal problems? (I know that, in the U.S., there would be no problem as celebrities are public figures considered to be fair game for parody, but as they were producing the shows in Canada, maybe their laws regarding parody are different?)
 
Stanislav said:
I may have brought this up once before, but in the early seasons of SCTV remember how, when they did a celebrity impersonation, they would subtly alter the spelling of the name? Like Tom Bosley became "Tom Boslee," or Orson Welles became "Orson Wells?" I've often wondered whether they did this just to be funny, or if they were genuinely concerned about some legal problems? (I know that, in the U.S., there would be no problem as celebrities are public figures considered to be fair game for parody, but as they were producing the shows in Canada, maybe their laws regarding parody are different?)
Click to expand...

I think part of it was legal. But sometimes some comedy shows used names as sources for parody in other ways; for example, one Benny Hill sketch had an impersonation of British talk-show hostess Joan Bakewell where her name was given as "Joanna Bakewell-Tart" - with a pun on the British snack food "bakewell tart" stuck in. Then there were other cases on Hill's show such as "Warren Beatroot" and "Faye Dunawaywith."
 
Some others were "John Charles Bailey", "Arlene Franklin", Alex Trebel", and "Harvey K-Tel" (although that was the name of an announcer on a cheesy commercial parody and not intended to be Harvey Keitel.)
 
Or, Connie Beaver (pronounce Bee vay)

Lola Falana, "I wanna bear your children!"

And Bobby (Hershel) Bittman and his little brother "skip"
 
Two more just came to mind from the earliest episodes: Jerry Mathers (The Beaver) became "Gerry Mathers," and Peter O'Toole became "Peter O'Tool."

There is a distinction to be made between these early names that seemed to just be slightly altered, and weren't in and of themselves "funny," vs. some of the later examples ("Joyce De-HalfWit" and the like) mentioned above. Actually, once SCTV was in full swing and in its prime, they did not hesitate to identify impersonated celebs by their real names. That is why I wonder if, early on, they somehow believed that they could potentially be sued over these parodies, which as I said is not the case unless Canadian libel/slander/defamation law differs from that in the U.S.
 
The SCTV News also lampooned two popular Canadian newscasters.

Earl Camembert (Eugene Levy) parodied Earl Cameron, the late CBC anchor.

Floyd Robertson (Joe Flaherty) was inspired by Lloyd Robertson, who has been CTV's anchor since 1974.
 
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