Kids in the Hall

In 1988 the Kids in the Hall taped a TV pilot, which aired on HBO in the United States and CBC in Canada that fall. More episodes of the program, which was produced by the CBC and Lorne Edwards's Broadway Video, began airing on both networks in the fall of 1989. It ran for five seasons.

After the last show aired in 1995, the Kids reunited for Brain Candy, a feature film. All members went on to work in TV and film in the United States and Canada, periodically reuniting for cross-Canada live tours.

In January 2009 the CBC began airing Death Comes to Town, a new Kids in the Hall project. Filmed in North Bay, Ont., and set in the fictional town of Shuckton, the eight-part murder mystery was McCulloch's idea, inspired by new material the Kids had created for a 2007 tour. All five members co-wrote the script and play multiple characters on the show.

In this interview with the CBC's Ralph Benmergui, members Bruce McCulloch and Scott Thompson disagree that TV exposure will mean people start recognizing them on the street.

On the spot and tongue in cheek, Dave Foley says a good label for The Kids in the Hall is "macabre mirthmakers."

In 1986 the troupe has been together for less than two years, but its Toronto show Graverobbers from Hipsville has proven so popular it's been held over. In this interview from CBC-TV's Midday, Foley and castmate Bruce McCulloch joke that there is one working brain shared among the group's five members.

After performing and writing with different groups in Toronto and Calgary, the members of Kids in the Hall coalesced as a quintet in 1984. The group -  composed of Bruce McCulloch and Mark McKinney from Calgary and Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald and Scott Thompson from Toronto - soon become a popular fixture during comedy nights at Toronto's Rivoli nightclub.

The group briefly went on hiatus in 1985 when scouts from the U.S. comedy TV show Saturday Night Live invited two of the troupe, McCulloch and McKinney, to join their staff as junior writers. But the pair returned in 1986 and the group reunited. McKinney would later become a cast member on SNL, in 1997.

Posted on Nov 4, 2011 6:00:00 AM