10 facts you might not know about Strange Brew
Bob and Doug McKenzie’s big-screen breakout is 40 years old. Let’s celebrate with a few facts.
Raise a cold one for The Adventures of Bob & Doug McKenzie: Strange Brew.
First released in theatres in August 1983, the cult-classic comedy is celebrating its 40th anniversary.
For the uninitiated, Strange Brew is about as Canadian as it gets, with a plot revolving around beer, toques, and two iconic hosers played by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas. It’s also incredibly Torontonian, for a variety of reasons.
Petition to make the only movie poster anyone is allowed to frame or hang up on a wall the one for Strange Brew. pic.twitter.com/bxVogUsa8Q
— Michael Swaim (@SWAIM_CORP) July 4, 2018
To honour the best of the best from the Great White North, here are 10 facts you may not have known about the film.
#1
It started as a Second City sketch.
Moranis and Thomas debuted on Second City Television, a Canadian sketch comedy program that featured a bevy of who’s who talent from the 1970s Toronto comedy scene, including John Candy, Eugene Levy, Martin Short, Catherine O’Hara, Andrea Martin, and Joe Flaherty.
Second City’s improv theatre was based out of The Old Firehall (110 Lombard St.), while the show was first filmed at the Global Television Network’s studios (81 Barber Greene Rd.). It was later produced in Scarborough and Edmonton.
SCTV made the successful move to American networks in 1981, but CBC executives stipulated two extra minutes of the Canadian broadcast had to be “identifiable Canadian content.”
Moranis and Thomas scoffed at the “ridiculous” request given that it was already a Canadian-made show, so they came up with their beer-swigging, plaid-wearing, hockey-loving brothers with thick accents as a tongue-in-cheek response.
#2
Bob and Doug blew up on a third medium.
Bob and Doug McKenzie appeared in 41 SCTV sketches and hosted a season eight episode of Saturday Night Live, but found their biggest audience with the 1981 comedy album, The Great White North. It sold over one million copies, and featured “Take Off” — with Rush’s Geddy Lee on vocals — as well as the perennially played “Twelve Days of Christmas” parody.
#3
Strange Brew’s plot was inspired by Hamlet.
The success of their album — plus fellow SCTV star John Candy’s seamless crossover to films — earned Moranis and Thomas a green light for a Bob and Doug McKenzie movie. They hired writer Steve De Jarnatt to help pen the screenplay and got to work coming up with ideas, which was no small feat considering the characters were mostly improvised.
Eventually Thomas leaned on his former English literature studies and pitched a movie inspired by William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
De Jarnatt’s first draft was apparently too literal, so the trio reworked it to feature small references and plot points, such as the Elsinore name and family inheritance.
#4
Thomas and Moranis made their directorial debut.
On top of co-writing the script and starring in Strange Brew, Thomas and Moranis both directed the movie — with neither having directed a feature film before. They often split the crew into two units and shot in different locations, or would have one oversee production while the other focused on performances.
The cast included character actor Paul Dooley and Mel Blanc (playing the voice of Bob and Doug’s dad), as well as Oscar nominee and star of The Exorcist Max Von Sydow. The latter joined the film to play the villainous Brewmeister simply because his son was a fan of SCTV.
Torontonian actress Lynne Griffin, best known for the Canadian slasher classic Black Christmas, co-starred as Pam Elsinore.
Strange Brew stands as Moranis’s only directing credit to date, while Thomas directed John Travolta in The Experts (1989), Dan Aykroyd in White Coats (2004), and several episodes of television.
#5
You can visit Bob and Doug’s house.
While a good chunk of the interior shots were completed in Prince George, B.C., Strange Brew’s backdrop is almost overwhelmingly Torontonian. There are, of course, many glimpses of the CN Tower and several downtown streets — such as Dundas St. W. through Chinatown and Lake Shore Blvd. at Mimico Ave.
But the crown jewel is the McKenzies’ home at 82 Uno Drive in Etobicoke, which is still standing today. It had a brick exterior back in 1983, but has since undergone a major facelift.
Long-gone landmarks seen in the movie include the University Theatre (where the brothers’ home movie, Mutants of 2051 AD, gets screened) and the flashy façade of Honest Ed’s.
#6
One famous Strange Brew location never existed.
Most of the film is set around the Elsinore Brewery grounds, which includes both a factory and a castle. They’re both right next door to the fictional “Royal Canadian Institute for the Mentally Insane.”
Anyone trying to find this location will be disappointed to learn that it’s a special-effects amalgamation of three different Toronto locations. Casa Loma (1 Austin Terrace) ominously serves as Elsinore Castle, Hearn Generating Station (440 Unwin Ave.) as the brewery, and RC Harris Filtration Plant (2701 Queens St. E.) as the neighbouring “Royal Canadian Institute.”
#7
The studio claims to have set a jump stunt record.
A climactic chase scene with a big orange van leads the brothers to the Toronto Port Lands, where everything culminates with a big 175-ft. jump into Lake Ontario. It was performed by stunt driver Jérôme Tiberghien, who drove the vehicle off an eight-foot ramp.
An MGM Studios press release from the time claimed that the stunt was a world record, though that was never confirmed by official record keepers.
#8
The Beer Store may have taken its name from Strange Brew.
The Molson Brewery wanted to partner with Bob and Doug, but distanced themselves due to the “mouse in a bottle” gag in the movie. Brewers Retail stores also barred the filmmakers from using their name or likeness for similar reasons, so a $45,000 set inspired by the chain was constructed and simply called “The Beer Store” as a joke.
In 1985, two years after the film was released, Brewers Retail underwent a mass rebrand — as The Beer Store.
#9
Bob and Doug live on in cartoons and commercials.
Strange Brew was released on Aug. 26, 1983, and earned mixed to positive reviews from critics. It made well over its budget, taking in $8.5 million at the worldwide box office before finding more success on home video.
In the years since the film’s release, Bob and Doug have been alive and well in the marketing world, appearing in mid-1980s Pizza Hut and late-1990s Molson ads, and 2023 radio spots advocating against raising beer taxes.
In the animation world, the characters were featured in a 15-episode animated series in 2009, and their likeness was used for a pair of moose pals in Disney’s Brother Bear.
Bob and Doug also appeared on-stage in 2017 to raise money for Thomas’ nephew’s spinal cord surgery.
#10
A sequel was once set to shoot.
A sequel called Home Brew was planned in the late-1990s in which the brothers, now working as garbagemen, would team up with Dan Aykroyd to get into the microbrewing business.
Written by Thomas and Joe Flaherty’s brother, Paul, principal photography was set to begin on July 19, 1999, in Toronto. But the movie was scrapped when funding fell through.
There have long been talks about trying again to get a sequel done, but with Moranis in semi-retirement, the prospects of it happening aren’t very likely.
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