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Eighteen years after production ended on the original episodes, the two-time Emmy-winner SCTV will be available for the first time on home video, in the form of a 5-disc from Shout! Factory.
For more information, head over to Second City.
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Since World War II, Chicago has entertained a lucrative albeit irregular environment for television production.
From Stud's Place (a Studs Terkel-moderated cultural affairs program based in a mock tavern) to Soul Train to Oprah and Springer, Chicago producers and personalities have cultivated international followings and generated billions of dollars in an industry otherwise dominated by conglomerates based on the coasts.
Now, as broadcasters and cable outlets transition to an FCC-imposed digital format, which divides broadcast signals and creates more programming outlets, there appear to be more opportunities for local producers and entertainment entrepreneurs to break into the small screen.
Enter Standup Comedy Television (SCTV), a Chicago-based digital cable network which hopes to debut in January 2005. The aim of SCTV is to provide a more "upscale" alternative to Comedy Central and the network will be targeted primarily to baby boomers.
While the founders and management team of SCTV do not hail from the broadcast or entertainment industries, they do know something about developing a media-based business within an industry in transition.
In 2001, Joseph and Avi Fox, founders and Co-CEOs of SCTV, sold online brokerage firm Web Street Financial to E-Trade Financial Corporation for more $40 million.
Like many Internet-based companies founded in the late nineties, Deerfield-based Web Street was able to raise venture capital and go public. Unlike many dot-coms, however, the firm also made money - taking in more than $30 million in revenue in its last year of operations.
"We were not at Internet speed, we were at brokerage speed," says Joseph Fox. "We were up against a heavy tide of naysayers who said we couldn't compete and that our business was just a fad. We ended up striking good partnerships and people realized we were a good investment."
After taking a couple years off to smell the roses, the Fox brothers, along with two senior managers from Web Street, formed Entertainment Capital Management Inc. (EMCI) which thereafter created SCTV.
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005: Standup Comedy Television
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