"Strange Brew" (1983)

This is one that was shown one night in the summer of 1984. I had no knowledge of SCTV, never heard of Bob & Doug McKenzie, but I was in stitches over these two guys in winter clothing who were guzzling beers, scarfing donuts, and calling each other "hoser". Too funny!

These two guys try to scam a case of free beer from a local beer store, but somehow end up with jobs at the brewery, and outsmart (!) the evil Brewmeister Smith's plan to take over the world via a mind-control ingredient in the beer. Along the way, they guzzle down more beer and call each other "hoser". Beauty, eh?

I could never figure out the opening, though. They somehow have the budget to make a movie (and even an album, which is referenced to), but they're actually unemployed schmucks who live at home with their parents? Weird!

Seriously, though, this ended up being one of my favorites for years afterward. I was initially let down that there was never a sequel or follow-up, but how could this be topped or equaled? Even so, this was on cable a lot during the '80s, and was a fixture in the VCR. They connected well with Lynne Griffin, who played Pam Elsinore, and I thought she was a major cutie, as well as a great foil to the brothers' antics.

The scene where the guys drink the last few beers, and then pour the last one from the dog-dish into a glass has me in hysterics every time I see it. Mel Blanc was an unexpected but welcome voice in that scene, and also when he happily goes insane with laughter when he learns that the guys brought home a vanful of cases of Elsinore Beer.

Speaking of which, some people have always said that Bob and Doug didn't seem like brothers, but to me, they had it down to a "T". Having known plenty of kids who had brothers (or even just one), it was not uncommon for one of the kids--usually closer to my own age--to be the cool one, but his older brother would be the annoying know-it-all who thought he was the tough guy, but would piss and whine about being left out of the clubhouse, and would try to "narc" on us for that, or anything else he would lie about us to the parents, getting us in trouble in the process.