Avenue magazine of Edmonton campaigns to memorialize SCTV

Bob and Doug McKenzie, stars of Great White North

Avenue magazine of Edmonton is leading the charge to create a statue or monument of some kind to mark the fact that Edmonton, for all intents and purposes, was Melonville. That was the mythical home of SCTV, which was filmed there at the Global Studios. The magazine points out that Minneapolis has a statue of Mary Tyler Moore, Toronto has one of Al Waxman, the "King of Kensington" and even Rouleau, Saskatchewan keeps the name "Dog River" on its grain elevator to alert people that it was the model for Corner Gas. A petition is available online.

"Do you think that there should be an SCTV monument, street name or something else to commemorate Edmonton’s unique place in pop culture history?"  it says on its website. "How about a prominently placed sign welcoming people to Melonville? A bronzed Bob and Doug, sitting on a park bench in Churchill Square? A simple plaque? Or maybe a ceremony, festival or annual party?"

A fan in Edmonton, Trevor Stenson, has created a website and has tried to identify every Edmonton location where an SCTV skit was filmed. The show originated in Toronto in 1976 but began taping in Edmonton in 1979.