Hacker CinemaThe Vacant Lot
TV series · 30 min episodes · 1 season
The Vacant Lot was a short-lived comedy sketch show which CBC Television ran for only six episodes starting in December 1993. The Vacant Lot was extended for another 13 episodes, but the CBC later changed their minds and the remaining 13 episodes, although scripted, were never taped. CBC sold the show to Comedy Central, which didn't air the episodes until July 1994. The Vacant Lot was shown for a 4 July marathon on that network. Nick McKinney, a member of The Vacant Lot, is the brother of The Kids in the Hall member and Saturday Night Live veteran Mark McKinney. The show's other cast members were Rob Gfrorer, Vito Viscomi and Paul Greenberg. The Vacant Lot's opening theme music was "Pretty Vacant" by The Sex Pistols.
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I was a fan of Kids in the Hall even during their whole pilot, which many might have missed. Look up "Brian's Bombshell" as an example.
My theory is that each member has some strengths they play to. Dave passes best as a young woman and is also fantastic as a glittery-eyed psychopath (Manservant Hecubus, Sarcastic Guy, etc). Mark is amazing at accents and really inhabiting a character (Dar-ryll). Scott, once he breaks out of his Buddy Cole, is wonderful as a beleaguered middle-aged woman, but he also makes for a fantastic Dumb Lunk (the Compensation skit) who can sell with physicality rather than lines, and a very good (no pun intended) straight man to seem ... average. Bruce can hit the depths of bizarre humor (the Sausages episode), can do an Everyman -- even if Canadian, and has the highest intensity ("Doors Fan"). Kevin has no sense of shame and can be relied upon to do anything that makes him seem foolish for a laugh ("Bass Player").
So far I have enjoyed the new episodes, including the ones that off-handedly referenced old skits like the "Dipping Areas." It is a bit meta so far, and somewhat melancholy as well, because it is rough seeing these guys get old. I am withholding judgment until I finish.
If you liked the original, you might find on YouTube all of the episodes of the short-lived Vacant Lot, with some similar humor and people you have seen in the periphery of shooting Kids in the Hall. At least one of their skits is a riff off of a Kids in the Hall skit ("Drunk Dad"), and I believe there were six or seven episodes.