Editing Second City Television (section)

=== Special guests and musical guests ===
Sir John Gielgud and Sir Ralph Richardson were the show's first guest stars.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/stage/2017/07/15/local-legends-the-toronto-house-where-sctv-ideas-were-hatched.html|title=The Toronto house where SCTV ideas were hatched|first=Jane|last=Welowsky|date=15 July 2017|newspaper=Toronto Star}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://video.supernerdland.com/watch.php?vid=040f43fa4|title=SCTV – S01E04 – Crosswords SCTV (sketch by Harold Ramis with Sir John Gielgud and Sir Ralph Richardson)|website=video.supernerdland.com}}</ref>

The show's NBC years brought with them a network edict to include musical guests (in part because of their use on ''Saturday Night Live'', which NBC executives considered the model for ''SCTV'', despite their being very different shows). At first, the ''SCTV'' cast, writers, and producers resisted special guests, on the theory that famous people wouldn't just "drop into" the Melonville studios, but they soon discovered that by working these guests into different shows-within-shows they could keep the premise going while also giving guest stars something more to do than show up and sing a song.

As a result, [[Dr. John]] became a featured player in the movie "Polynesiantown", [[John Mellencamp]] (at the time, known as John Cougar) was Mister Hyde to [[Ed Grimley]]'s Doctor Jekyll in "The Nutty Lab Assistant", [[Natalie Cole]] was transformed into a zombie by a glowing cabbage in "Zontar", and [[the Boomtown Rats]] were both blown up on "Farm Film Celebrity Blow Up" and starred in the ''[[To Sir, with Love]]'' parody "Teacher's Pet". [[James Ingram]] appeared on ''3-D House of Beef'', and violinist [[Eugene Fodor (violinist)|Eugene Fodor]] in ''New York Rhapsody''. [[Hall & Oates]] appeared on a "Sammy Maudlin Show" segment promoting a new film called ''Chariots of Eggs'', a parody of both ''[[Chariots of Fire]]'' and ''[[Personal Best (film)|Personal Best]]'', and showed scenes from the faux movie as clips. Canadian singer-songwriter [[Ian Thomas (Canadian musician)|Ian Thomas]] (the real-life brother of cast member Dave Thomas) was the "topic" on a ''Great White North'' sketch. [[Carl Perkins]], [[Jimmy Buffett]], [[Joe Walsh]], [[The Tubes]], and [[Plasmatics]] also appeared on the "Fishin' Musician", hosted by Gil Fisher (Candy).

This, along with ''SCTV'''s [[cult following|cult]] status, led to the show's celebrity fans clamouring to appear. [[Tony Bennett]] credited his appearance on [[Bob and Doug McKenzie]]'s variety-show debacle "The Great White North Palace" for triggering a significant career comeback. [[Carol Burnett]] did an ad for the show in which an alarm clock goes off next to her bed, she rises up suddenly and advises those who couldn't stay up late enough (the NBC version aired from 12:30 to 2 a.m.) to go to bed, get some sleep, then wake up to watch the show. Burnett later briefly appeared in a climactic courtroom episode of "The Days of the Week".

Former Chicago Second City player, ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' cast member, and film actor [[Bill Murray]] also guest-starred on a "Days of the Week" installment as a photography buff scrambling to make it to the wedding of singer-songwriter Clay Collins ([[Rick Moranis]]) and town slut Sue-Ellen Allison ([[Catherine O'Hara]]) in time to take pictures of the event. In the same episode, he played two other roles: Johnny LaRue's biggest fan, who is subsequently hired to be LaRue's bodyguard (and who pushes his homemade LaRue T-shirts whenever possible), and [[Joe DiMaggio]] in a commercial for DiMaggio's restaurant, where he offered a free meal to anyone who could strike him out. (The strikeout challenges then took place in the middle of the dining room, with many patrons injured by speeding baseballs.)

[[Robin Williams]] guest-starred in a sketch called ''[[The Bowery Boys|Bowery Boys]] [[The Boys in the Band (1970 film)|in the Band]]'' in which his [[Leo Gorcey]]-like character tries to hide a gay lifestyle from his [[Huntz Hall]]-inspired pal (played by Short). Williams also mimicked actor [[John Houseman]] eloquently reading the Melonville telephone book.

In a rare acting role, singer [[Crystal Gayle]] guest-starred in a January 1983 episode in the sketch "[[A Star Is Born (1976 film)|A Star is Born]]", a spoof of the 1976 film version of the movie, playing an up-and-coming singer trying to make it big under the tutelage of her boyfriend and mentor [[Kris Kristofferson]] (played by Flaherty).

Canadian actors, including [[Jayne Eastwood]], Dara Forward, Monica Parker, and [[Peter Wildman]], appeared on the show occasionally as guests. Catherine O'Hara's sister, singer-songwriter [[Mary Margaret O'Hara]], also appeared in a bit part in the episode "Broads Behind Bars". [[William B. Davis]], still a decade away from his signature role as [[The X-Files]]' "[[Smoking Man]]", also has a bit role in one 1983 episode.