Canadian sketch comedy show SCTV will be making a comeback in the form of a Netflix special that will explore the show’s legacy.

Netflix announced on Thursday that Oscar-winning director, producer and screenwriter Martin Scorsese will direct the untitled comedy special that will reunite former SCTV co-stars Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short and Dave Thomas. The comedy legends will appear in front of a live audience at Toronto’s Elgin Theatre on May 13 for a chat moderated by Jimmy Kimmel as part of the filming.

The special will be produced by longtime SCTV producer Andrew Alexander, Emma Tillinger Koskoff of Sikelia Productions and Lindsay Cox of Insight Productions.

“It’s going to be unpredictable,” said Alexander during a phone interview with the Star. The show is still in its early stages but Alexander said fans should expect it to stay “true to what SCTV was.”

The producer said talks about a reunion started three years ago after cast members wanted do something together. However, Alexander said it only gained momentum last year after they met with Scorsese.

“He was a huge fan. He’s been in love (with the show) for many many years.”

Alexander said fans who want to be part of the live audience will be able to buy tickets starting on Monday, April 23.

Filming in Toronto and Edmonton, SCTV aired for six seasons between 1976 and 1984 and was picked up by NBC in the U.S. starting in 1981, earning positive comparisons to Saturday Night Live at the time and winning two Emmy Awards. It featured actors and comedians such as the late John Candy and Harold Ramis, and made famous characters such as Short’s naive, excitable Ed Grimley and the quintessential Canadian hosers, Bob and Doug McKenzie (Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas).

Its influence has won praise from the likes of Judd Apatow, Bill Hader, Kimmel and Conan O’Brien, who once said of the show, “What was so compelling about SCTV, which you can’t create anymore, is that these guys invented something that was perfect out of whole cloth. I know it had a profound effect on me, and I’m sure a lot of people in my generation. It would be hard to do that again.”

With files from Bryann Aguilar

Read more about: