Four on the Floor

Long before "22 Minutes", "Kids in the Hall" and "CODCO", the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation wet it's sketch-comedy feet with The Frantics' "Four on the Floor". Crudely made simplistic plotlines were made into genuinely laugh-a-second sketches with the incomparable talents of Peter, Rick, Paul and Dan. The Frantics first made the national scene on radio, and the move to television was more an experiment than anything. But for it's single season run, they sure put on a show. Highlights included Peter Wildman's songs ("Carsick" leaps immediately to mind) and Mr. Canoehead, who in one memorable sketch, foiled a pair of fur thieves by disguising himself as a giant beaver. And if that isn't classic Canadian comedy, I don't know what is. I miss these guys.

This is a classic old Canadian sketch comedy TV series. It is the troop The Frantics and came after SCTV and before Kids in the Hall. This show is not as good as either of those shows but then again few sketch comedy shows are. If you look at it for it's own value it is a very funny and under appreciated Canadian sketch comedy series. Much better than many others. Mr. Canoe Head etc are classics.

I have very fond memories of this show.

My brothers and I (between the ages of 10-6) would watch it on CBC and would quote all the lines for the next week. Those who remember it are few and far between but I still have the comedy album and it still gets played every now and then.

We could even catch it out at the lake. CBC is the only thing that came in clear out at Alberta Beach.

So every Thursday my brothers and girl cousin would all watch. She liked it too and then there were 4 kids running around singing "boot to the head". This show although short lived gives me good memories of skit comedy. Before Kids in the Hall.

I could go one further about the whole 4 on the Floor thing.

A personal friend of mine purchased the actual car that was used in the show. It's NOT a Caddy, it's a '59 Chrysler Saratoga 4 door with the roof cut off.

After repairing the gash in the fender that took place in the scene where the car crashes through the gate, and repainting it properly (in pink again of course), he drove it for a couple of years. He found a parts car and cut the roof off of it to mount to his when he needed to. The last cruise we took in it was the night that the oil pump in the engine failed.

After the car sitting in his parents backyard for several years, he offered to trade it to me for my motorcycle. Unfortunately at the time, I couldn't afford another project, so I declined. He ended up selling it to another friend of ours who is a body man, and he's doing a frame up restoration on it.

If he can afford to, the original 383 engine in it will be replaced with a 426 Hemi. If not, the original engine and push-button automatic transmission will be rebuilt and re-installed.

It's an awesome car to go cruising in, and turns a lot of heads.

We have all nicknamed the car "Sara".

They were absolutely fantastic! I've not seen comedy like them since! I've been searching for the DVDs but can't find any! And Apparently I have to keep writing at least 10 lines of text. So anyways, they only did one season that had 13 episodes that were hilarious. Each brought his own goofiness to the performances. Peter seemed to do a lot of the music (car-sick, heavy-metal shop), Dan had a great character called Mr. Interesting as well as Flying Father Chapatinsky (sp?), Rick was always dressed in a suit and did a great skit on sexual innuendos in a newspaper as well as was one of the heavy metal kids who thought they drove chicks MAD, and Paul was, oh I don't know, he was awesome too... is that enough now?