Rick Moranis Joins 'SCTV' Reunion Documentary for Netflix

Rick Moranis Joins 'SCTV' Reunion Documentary for Netflix

Moranis will join Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Catherine O'Hara, Martin Short and Dave Thomas in the comedy special to be directed by Martin Scorsese.

Comedy legend Rick Moranis will appear in Netflix's upcoming SCTV reunion, An Afternoon With SCTV, after all.

Moranis, who along with Dave Thomas played SCTV and Saturday Night Live's beer-loving McKenzie brothers during the 1980s, was not named as part of the original castmembers set to participate. The live taping will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel on Sunday in Toronto.

But Netflix on Thursday confirmed Moranis will appear alongside Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Catherine O'Hara, Martin Short and Thomas in the comedy special, which is set to launch in 2019. Canada's CTV also boards the project.

Netflix will premiere the title globally in all territories except Canada, where CTV will debut the special. After that airing, the SCTV comedy special will exclusively stream in Canada on Netflix.

Randy Lennox, president of CTV parent Bell Media, said it made sense for the Canadian broadcaster to get behind Netflix's SCTV reunion special given that the Canadian TV classic helped its homegrown talent to launch Hollywood and international careers.

"We are honored to partner with Netflix as the official Canadian broadcaster of the comedy special and look forward to Scorcese's genius homage to a show that has such enduring legacy," Lennox said in a statement.

Sunday's reunion in Toronto will anchor the documentary about the cult TV series featuring members of Canada's Second City comedy troupe, with Andrew Alexander, Emma Tillinger Koskoff, John Brunton and Lindsay Cox producing.

Alexander, CEO and executive producer of The Second City theater, said the reunion special was two years in the making. "Randy Lennox has been a passionate supporter from day one, and it's thrilling that Netflix and Bell Media have come together to help us memorialize this historic moment in television history," he said in his own statement.

It's a rare collaboration. Bell Media operates a local subscription video-on-demand service, CraveTV, which competes directly against Netflix in the Canadian market with exclusive Canadian output deals with HBO, Showtime and Starz to entice local TV viewers.

Most of the original SCTV cast moved from the Canadian touchstone comedy to successful careers in Hollywood movies and TV shows, including Martin Short, who brought many of his SCTV characters to his star turn on Saturday Night Live.

SCTV premiered in 1976, a year after Saturday Night Live debuted stateside, as a satire of TV programming conveyed as a broadcast day from a low-budget TV station in the fictional town of Melonville, with backstage machinations included.

The latest SCTV reunion follows Moranis and Thomas last year reuniting for a Toronto benefit concert.