Bizarre was a weekly 1980s Canadian TV sketch comedy series. The first episode aired in 1980, and the final episode was broadcast in 1985. The show was hosted by John Byner, and produced by the CTV television network at the CFTO Glen-Warren Studios in suburban Toronto.
The series contained slapstick sketches, monologues, TV parodies, performaces by guest stand-up comics and, quite often, interactions between John and members of the studio audience or show producer Bob Einstein, who often came in to halt a sketch midway through. This is an early example of a type of show that knocked down that "fourth wall" between them and the home viewer. Perhaps Garry Shandling drew some inspiration from this.
Two versions of BIZARRE were produced: episodes that aired on the Showtime cable network in the United States contained nudity and coarse language. The versions that aired on CTV (and later in syndication) had the nudity removed and the language bleeped by an obnoxious horn-honking sound.
Although the "adult" version is most closely associated with Showtime, it did go out on a few independent TV stations during the 1980s, playing as late-night fare, although the "clean" version is the one that was more commonly found in syndication.
As for the sketches containing nudity: rather than the nudity being chopped out, the scenes still played out but were shot two different ways: a nude version (usually bare breasts) for Showtime and an alternate version for CTV/syndication where one of two devices were employed: the nude model was either shot "from the back" (so only her bare back was visible to the camera), or the scene was shot with the model wearing a bra rather than being topless.
The adult version hasn't been seen on TV since the Showtime airings and original syndication ceased in the late 1980s. The only version seen since that time was the clean one, despite the fact that Canadian TV has less stringent rules on indecency than US networks. It has been said that the likely reason the show continues to be broadcast to this day in Canada has to do with the country's "Canadian Content" rule, where Canadian TV stations are required to air so many hours of Canadian-produced product per week.
DVDs of the unedited version started appearing in late 2005 from a small, independent Canadian video label and are, thus, usually only available to buy from Canadian stores/resellers.
In retrospect, the show is very much a product of its time. Never viewed as "high art", the show now simply appears dated and less humorous than one might remember. Much of the risque humour on the show, which at the time was seen as shocking, could be easily gotten away with on most basic cable channels (even the major networks). Apart from the bare breasts, most people looking at it today would wonder what all the fuss was about.
Super Dave Osborne
A regular feature of the show was Super Dave Osborne, played by Bob Einstein, in which Super Dave would perform elaborate mock stunts meant to enthrall viewers; a reporter would assist in framing the sketch. Inevitably, the stunt would fail spectacularly, resulting in severe, hilarious injury to Super Dave. These sketches would usually finish with a view of the scene, in which Super Dave was buried, encased, launched etc., as appropriate for the sketch. Meanwhile, feigning agony, Super Dave would discuss sundry details: information about the next show; what he'd do to the reporter once he recovered from his injuries; or, why the stunt failed. After the humorous conversation between the reporter and Super Dave, it ends with a strange, humorous twist.
Each Super Dave skit is not recorded in order, it takes about few hours to do the editing to make scenes go in order.
The original contained coarse language and the spin-off has a more friendly style.