Bizarre

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Bizarre is a sketch comedy show that aired on Showtime and CTV from 1980-86. John Byner served as host; it was taped at the CFTO Glen-Warren studios.

Featuring sketches, spoofs of TV shows and appearances by guest stars like Howie Mandel, Steve Allen, Pat Morita (of Karate Kid fame), Murray "The unknown Comic" Langston and Redd Foxx. Bizarre is also the show that put Super Dave Osborne on the map. Super Dave's popularity as Bizarre's Breakout Character would lead to the Spin-Off series entitled The Super Dave Osborne Show.

And by the way, Mike Myers appeared on the show as Timmy Byner.

Tropes used in Bizarre include:
  • Better on DVD: Canadian fans had to wait until 2005 to get a uncensored DVD release called "The Best of Bizarre (Uncensored)"
  • Breakout Character: Super Dave
  • Bullying a Dragon: One of Super Dave's stunts included a Boxing match between himself and Mr. T. To goad him into fighting him Super Dave, reads off a list of insults. It seems to do nothing at first. However as soon as they near the fight tent, Mr. T. drags him into the tent, beats the crap out of him off screen and eats him.
  • Edited for Syndication: In a rare case of content being censored in its native country, the Canadian version of Bizarre was censored for CTV airing. (The showtime version contains nudity and coarse language)
    • The language was bleeped by a horn honking sound and scenes involving nudity were censored either via by the inclusion of reverse angle scenes originally filmed from behind nude actors (generally women baring their breasts) or scenes that were re-shot with the models wearing a bra. Eventually the CTV version made its way to American syndication, but a few markets received the Showtime versions as late night fare. The British version that aired on ITV at 11PM at night was the adult version with one difference: The more extreme language was bleeped the old fashioned way
  • Epic Fail: Super Dave Osborne's stunts failed spectacularly. In one of his most famous stunts, Super Dave attempted to avoid getting hurt by a pile driver by saying "Balloon Ball" over and over again but to no one's surprise the stunt fails and the end result left Super Dave as a head atop two shoes. The skit was so popular that for the following season, Showtime promos for Bizarre featured a cartoon logo of Super Dave's helmeted head and shoes.
  • Finger in the Mail: Parodied in a skit featuring a man and woman waiting anxiously for correspondence from their son's kidnapper. After revealing that they'd been sent a few pieces of him already (fingers and toes) they received a new box. When the wife asked what part of him was in it this time, the answer was, "His shit." In an alternate ending, it was instead his foot, to which the parents happily exclaimed, "Now we have enough to put him back together again!"
  • Hey, It's That Guy!:
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: John Byner voiced the titular characters of The Ant and the Aardvark and would go on to voice Gurgi in 1985's The Black Cauldron
  • Keep Circulating the Tapes: Though the show is on DVD in its uncensored Showtime version, the Best of Bizarre DVDs are not only missing episodes (which is no surprise so see missing episodes), but some sketches are missing due to music clearance issues and to top it all off, most episodes are missing their end credits which included plugs for the Royal York Hotel in Toronto and Tilden Rent-A-Car. Some episodes still have the original end credits because they are going on during live-action sketches.
  • Missing Episode: 10 volumes of The Best of Bizarre on DVD sets total 100 episodes so 41 episodes have not seen DVD release yet. Those who brought a defective volume 7 are missing half of the episodes on the DVD.
  • No Fourth Wall: Byner's interaction with members of the studio audience and/or Bob Einstein (who was the show's co-producer) demolished the forth wall. Einstein would also halt a sketch.
  • Regional Bonus: (overlap with Better on DVD) As mentioned above (see Edited for Syndication), the American showtime version included nudity and coarse language not found in the CTV version
  • Self-Deprecation: A staple joke of the show which included Richard Nixon telling host John Byner (who played Nixon in the sketch), not to "make the mistake I did", but instead to "burn the tapes", and an E.T. parody, where the E.T. character was the children's grandfather who couldn't even bear to be in the house while they were watching Bizarre.
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