Kids in the Hall return — but not to the U.S.

One of the most popular comedy troupes among U.S. audiences in the past 30 years launches a new show tonight — only U.S. audiences won't be able to see it.

"Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town" premieres this evening on Canadian broadcaster CBC. Unlike the Kids' famed sketch show of the 1980s and '90s, "Death" is an eight-part miniseries that reunites (from left) Mark McKinney, Dave Foley, Scott Thompson, Bruce McCullough and Kevin McDonald on television for the first time since their 1995 series finale. The original "Kids" series came belatedly to U.S. televisions, so with good luck and good reviews (unlike the kind that followed 1996 feature film "Brain Candy"), maybe the same pattern will follow "Death."

You can read Toronto Star columnist Rob Star's review here, but even more interesting is John Semley's interview for Torontoist with Thompson, who was undergoing chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma during the writing of "Death." Cassandra Szklarski covers similarly interesting ground for the Canadian Press.