Ryan Reynolds Is Missing John Candy Today. I Am, Too.

Seems like today, the topic is determined to be death. With the passing of Luke Perry, and Red Wings Hall of Famer Ted Lindsay trending, I don't want the anniversary of John Candy's passing to be overlooked.

What got me started was this tweet I saw Sunday night from actor Ryan Reynolds.

Candy was that classic "lovable big guy with the heart of gold." And, was he funny. I saw a tweet Sunday night that made me say "Amen". The writer said his film work was great, but don't forget what he did on SCTV.

If you are younger than 40, you may not remember SCTV. It was a recorded sketch comedy, similar to Saturday Night Live. It started in Canada, and migrated to local TV stations here, and then ran late on Friday nights on NBC. I would argue, it was better than SNL. The cast included future stars Eugene Levy, Rick Moranis, Martin Short, Catherine O'Hara, Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas, and Joe Flaherty.

There were so many classic bits making fun of local television of the day, not to mention so many other things.

And right in the middle of that was John Candy. His characters were scary movie actor Dr. Tongue, cheesy host Johnny LaRue, hunting and fishing and music fan Gil Fisher, the Fishin' Musician, Billy Sol Hurok, farm film critic, who like to "blow things up, right up", and many more.

Yes, his movies were great, too. He could mix comedy and pathos like no other, as in Planes, Trains and Automobiles. He was Ox, the big guy in with heart of gold, in Stripes. Uncle Buck, the coach in Cool Runnings. One often overlook role was his only romantic lead, lonely cop