Editing Second City Television (section)

=== Seasons 4 and 5: 1981–83 ===
In May 1981, [[NBC]] picked up ''SCTV'' in a 90-minute format as a presumably inexpensive replacement for the canceled Friday music/variety show ''[[The Midnight Special (television)|The Midnight Special]]'', enabling the show to air nationwide in the United States. This occurred mainly because that network had practically no time to prepare and develop a new American-produced program in the light of ''Midnight Special'' producer [[Dick Ebersol]]'s emergency return to ''[[Saturday Night Live]],'' which he co-created with [[Lorne Michaels]] in 1975, in an effort to save it from cancellation, an effort that was successful. ''SCTV'' thus functioned as a solution to a serious scheduling bind for NBC, but, as things turned out, it was a temporary fix that only lasted two years.

Less than two months after season three ended, ''SCTV'' was back on the air for season four, airing first as ''SCTV Network 90'', then as simply ''SCTV Network,'' late Friday nights (early Saturday mornings), airing at 12:30&nbsp;a.m./11:30&nbsp;p.m. Central. For this iteration, Rosato and Duke dropped out (ending up as cast members of ''SNL'' during its rebuilding years following Jean Doumanian's stint as producer [see above]), and Candy and O'Hara returned. Because of the rush to generate material for the 90-minute format, several early season-four episodes consisted partially or entirely of sketches broadcast during seasons one to three. Ramis, Duke, and Rosato appeared in many of these sketches, uncredited and usually as extras or bit players (sketches in which they played a focal character were not featured in these repeats).

Season four (25 episodes) was broadcast irregularly from May 1981 to July 1982. Beginning in January 1982, production of the series returned to Toronto for the remainder of its run, ending the year-and-a-half stay in Edmonton.

Writer/performer Martin Short joined the cast at the end of season four, taping three episodes before O'Hara, Thomas, and Moranis left; one of those episodes was aired as the season-four finale in July 1982; the other two were held for the start of season five (14 episodes), which began in October 1982. For the remaining 12 episodes of season five, the cast of Candy, Flaherty, Levy, Martin, and Short was augmented by supporting players [[John Hemphill (actor)|John Hemphill]] and [[Mary Charlotte Wilcox]], neither of whom became an official cast member. Also, during season five, Ramis and O'Hara returned for one episode each as guest stars.

The last original ''SCTV'' episode for NBC was broadcast in March 1983, with reruns continuing through June. For both seasons four and five, the show continued to air on the CBC in Canada as only an hour in length, edited down from the 90-minute NBC broadcasts.

The 90-minute NBC episodes were released in a series of DVD sets in 2004 and 2005, and selected sketches are also available in 90-minute collections.